It was

One Act James induced them to

pass which would have been A Tolera most honourable to him and to tion Act them, if there were not abun- passed. dant proofs that it was meant to be a dead letter. It was an Act purporting to grant entire liberty of conscience to all Christian sects. On this occasion a proclamation was put forth announcing in boastful language to the English people that their rightful King had now signally refuted those slanderers who had accused him of affecting zeal for religious liberty merely in order to serve a turn. If he were at heart inclined to persecution, would he not have persecuted the Irish Protestants? He did not want power. He did not want provocation. Yet at Dublin, where the members of his Church were the majority, as at Westminster, where they were a minority, he had firmly adhered to the principles laid down in his much maligned Declaration of Indulgence.* Unfortunately for him, the same wind which carried his fair professions to England carried thither also evidence that his professions were insincere. A single law, worthy of Turgot or of Franklin, seemed ludicrously out of place in the midst of a crowd of laws which would have disgraced Gardiner or Alva.

interference was successful.* seldom however that the House was disposed to listen to reason. The debates were all rant and tumult. Judge Daly, a Roman Catholic, but an honest and able man, could not refrain from lamenting the indecency and folly with which the members of his Church carried on the work of legislation. Those gentlemen, he said, were not a Parliament: they were a mere rabble: they resembled nothing so much as the mob of fishermen and market gardeners, who, at Naples, yelled and threw up their caps in honour of Massaniello. It was painful to hear member after member talking wild nonsense about his own losses, and clamouring for an estate, when the lives of all and the independence of their common country were in peril. These words were spoken in private; but some talebearer repeated them to the Commons. A violent storm broke forth. Daly was ordered to attend at the bar; and there was little doubt that he would be severely dealt with. But, just when he was at the door, one of the members rushed in, shouting, "Good news: Londonderry is taken." The whole House rose. All the hats were flung into the air. Three loud huzzas were raised. Every heart was softened by the happy tidings. Nobody would hear A necessary preliminary to the vast of punishment at such a moment. The work of spoliation and slaugh- Acts order for Daly's attendance was dis-ter on which the legislators of passed for charged amidst cries of "No submis- Dublin were bent, was an Act cation of. sion: no submission: we pardon him." annulling the authority which the pro In a few hours it was known that Lon- the English Parliament, both Protestdonderry held out as obstinately as ever. as the supreme legislature and This transaction, in itself unimportant, as the supreme Court of Appeal, had deserves to be recorded, as showing hitherto exercised over Ireland. This how destitute that House of Commons Act was rapidly passed; and then folwas of the qualities which ought to be lowed, in quick succession, confiscations found in the great council of a king- and proscriptions on a gigantic scale. dom. And this assembly, without ex- The personal estates of absentees above perience, without gravity, and without the age of seventeen years were transtemper, was now to legislate on questions ferred to the King. When lay property which would have tasked to the utmost the capacity of the greatest statesmen.†

the confis

perty of

ants.

Life of James, ii. 361, 362, 363. In the Life it is said that the proclamation was put forth without the privity of James, but that he subsequently approved of it. See Welwood's Answer to the Declaration, 1689.

Light to the Blind; An Act declaring that the Parliament of England cannot bind Ireland against Writs of Error and Appeals, printed in London, 1690.

was thus invaded, it was not likely that triotism and piety. For his enemies the endowments, which had been, in were the enemies of his nation; and contravention of every sound principle, the same tyranny which had robbed lavished on the Church of the minority, him of his patrimony had robbed his would be spared. To reduce those en- Church of vast wealth bestowed on her dowments, without prejudice to existing by the devotion of an earlier age. How interests, would have been a reform was power likely to be used by an worthy of a good prince and of a good uneducated and inexperienced man, parliament. But no such reform would agitated by strong desires and resentsatisfy the vindictive bigots who sate ments which he mistook for sacred at the King's Inns. By one sweeping duties? And, when two or three hunAct, the greater part of the tithe was dred such men were brought together transferred from the Protestant to the in one assembly, what was to be exRoman Catholic clergy; and the existing pected but that the passions which incumbents were left, without one far- each had long nursed in silence would 'thing of compensation, to die of hunger.* be at once matured into fearful vigour A Bill repealing the Act of Settlement by the influence of sympathy? and transferring many thousands of square miles from Saxon to Celtic landlords was brought in and carried by acclamation.†

Between James and his parliament there was little in common, except hatred of the Protestant religion. He was an Englishman. Superstition had Of legislation such as this it is im- not utterly extinguished all national possible to speak too severely: but for feeling in his mind; and he could not the legislators there are excuses which but be displeased by the malevolence it is the duty of the historian to notice. with which his Celtic supporters reThey acted unmercifully, unjustly, un-garded the race from which he sprang. wisely. But it would be absurd to The range of his intellectual vision was expect mercy, justice, or wisdom from small. Yet it was impossible that, a class of men first abased by many having reigned in England, and lookyears of oppression, and then maddened ing constantly forward to the day when by the joy of a sudden deliverance, and he should reign in England once more, armed with irresistible power. The he should not take a wider view of representatives of the Irish nation politics than was taken by men who were, with few exceptions, rude and had no objects out of Ireland. The ignorant. They had lived in a state few Irish Protestants who still adhered of constant irritation. With aristo- to him, and the British nobles, both cratical sentiments they had been in a Protestant and Roman Catholic, who servile position. With the highest had followed him into exile, implored pride of blood, they had been exposed him to restrain the violence of the to daily affronts, such as might well rapacious and vindictive senate which have roused the choler of the humblest he had convoked. They with pecuplebeian. In sight of the fields and liar earnestness implored him not to castles which they regarded as their consent to the repeal of the Act of own, they had been glad to be invited Settlement. On what security, they by a peasant to partake of his whey asked, could any man invest his money and his potatoes. Those violent emo- or give a portion to his children, if he tions of hatred and cupidity which the could not rely on positive laws and on situation of the native gentleman could the uninterrupted possession of many scarcely fail to call forth appeared to years? The military adventurers among him under the specious guise of pa- whom Cromwell portioned out the soil doers. But how large a part of their might perhaps be regarded as wrongestates had passed, by fair purchase, into other hands! How much money had proprietors borrowed on mortgage, on statute merchant, on statute staple!

* An Act concerning Appropriate Tythes and other Duties payable to Ecclesiastical Dignitaries. London, 1690.

An Act for repealing the Acts of Settlement and Explanation, and all Grants, Patents, and Certificates pursuant to them or any of them. London, 1690.

after in a manner which must bring on him reproaches insupportable to a noble mind? His situation was doubtless

How many capitalists had, trusting to legislative acts and to royal promises, come over from England, and bought land in Ulster and Leinster, without embarrassing. Yet in this case, as in the least misgiving as to the title! other cases, it would be found that What a sum had those capitalists the path of justice was the path of expended, during a quarter of a cen- wisdom.* tury, in building, draining, enclosing, Though James had, in his speech at planting! The terms of the compro- the opening of the session, declared mise which Charles the Second had against the Act of Settlement, he felt sanctioned might not be in all respects that these arguments were unanswerjust. But was one injustice to be re-able. He held several conferences with dressed by committing another injustice the leading members of the House of more monstrous still? And what effect Commons, and earnestly recommended was likely to be produced in England moderation. But his exhortations irriby the cry of thousands of innocent tated the passions which he wished to English families whom an English allay. Many of the native gentry held King had doomed to ruin? The com- high and violent language. It was plaints of such a body of sufferers impudent, they said, to talk about the might delay, might prevent, the Resto- rights of purchasers. How could right ration to which all loyal subjects were spring out of wrong? People who eagerly looking forward; and, even if chose to buy property acquired by His Majesty should, in spite of those injustice must take the consequences complaints, be happily restored, he of their folly and cupidity. It was would to the end of his life feel the clear that the Lower House was altopernicious effects of the injustice which gether impracticable. James had, four evil advisers were now urging him to years before, refused to make the commit. He would find that, in try-smallest concession to the most obseing to quiet one set of malecontents, he quious parliament that has ever sat in had created another. As surely as he England; and it might have been yielded to the clamour raised at Dublin expected that the obstinacy, which he for a repeal of the Act of Settlement, had never wanted when it was a vice, he would, from the day on which he would not have failed him now when returned to Westminster, be assailed it would have been a virtue. During by as loud and pertinacious a clamour a short time he seemed determined to for a repeal of that repeal. He could act justly. He even talked of dissolvnot but be aware that no English Par-ing the parliament. The chiefs of the liament, however loyal, would permit old Celtic families, on the other hand, such laws as were now passing through said publicly that, if he did not give the Irish Parliament to stand. Had them back their inheritance, they he made up his mind to take the part would not fight for his. His very of Ireland against the universal sense soldiers railed on him in the streets of of England? If so, to what could he Dublin. At length he determined to look forward but another banishment go down himself to the House of Peers, and another deposition? Or would not in his robes and crown, but in the he, when he had recovered the greater garb in which he had been used to kingdom, revoke the boons by which, attend debates at Westminster, and in his distress, he had purchased the personally to solicit the Lords to put help of the smaller? It might seem some check on the violence of the an insult to him even to suggest that Commons. But just as he was getting he could harbour the thought of such into his coach for this purpose he was unprincely, of such unmanly, perfidy. stopped by Avaux. Avaux was as Yet what other course would be left to him? And was it not better for him to refuse unreasonable concessions now than to retract those concessions here

* See the paper delivered to James by Chief of Meath. Justice Keating, and the speech of the Bishop Both are in King's Appendix. Life of James, ii. 357-361.

66

zealous as any Irishman for the bills difficulty that Avaux and Tyrconnel, which the Commons were urging for- whose influence in the Lower House ward. It was enough for him that far exceeded the King's, could restrain those bills seemed likely to make the the zeal of the majority.* enmity between England and Ireland It is remarkable that, while the irreconcileable. His remonstrances in- King was losing the confi- Issue of duced James to abstain from openly dence and good will of the base opposing the repeal of the Act of Set-Irish Commons by faintly de- money. tlement. Still the unfortunate Prince fending against them, in one quarter, continued to cherish some faint hope the institution of property, he was that the law for which the Commons himself, in another quarter, attacking were so zealous would be rejected, or that institution with a violence, if posat least modified, by the Peers. Lord sible, more reckless than theirs. He Granard, one of the few Protestant soon found that no money came into noblemen who sate in that parliament, his Exchequer. The cause was suffexerted himself strenuously on the ciently obvious. Trade was at an end. side of public faith and sound policy. Floating capital had been withdrawn The King sent him a message of in great masses from the island. Of thanks. "We Protestants," said Gra- the fixed capital much had been denard to Powis who brought the mes-stroyed, and the rest was lying idle. sage, "are few in number. We can Thousands of those Protestants who do little. His Majesty should try were the most industrious and intellihis influence with the Roman Catho- gent part of the population had emilics." His Majesty," answered Powis, grated to England. Thousands had with an oath, "dares not say what taken refuge in the places which still he thinks." A few days later James held out for William and Mary. Of met Granard riding towards the the Roman Catholic peasantry who parliament house. "Where are you were in the vigour of life the majority going, my Lord?" said the King, had enlisted in the army or had joined "To enter my protest, Sir," answered gangs of plunderers. The poverty of Granard, against the repeal of the the treasury was the necessary effect Act of Settlement." "You are right," of the poverty of the country: public said the King: "but I am fallen prosperity could be restored only by into the hands of people who will the restoration of private prosperity; ram that and much more down my and private prosperity could be rethroat."* stored only by years of peace and James yielded to the will of the security. James was absurd enough Commons: but the unfavourable im-to imagine that there was a more pression which his short and feeble speedy and efficacious remedy. He resistance had made upon them was could, he conceived, at once extricate not to be removed by his submission. They regarded him with profound distrust: they considered him as at heart an Englishman; and not a day passed without some indication of this feeling. They were in no haste to grant him a supply. One party among them planned an address urging him to dismiss Melfort as an enemy of their nation. Another party drew up a bill for deposing all the Protestant Bishops, even the four who were then actually sitting in Parliament. It was not without

May 26 * Leslie's Answer to King; Avaux, June 5. 1689; Life of James, ii. 358.

himself from his financial difficulties by the simple process of calling a farthing a shilling. The right of coining was undoubtedly a flower of the prerogative; and, in his view, the right of coining included the right of debasing the coin. Pots, pans, knockers of doors, pieces of ordnance which had long been past use, were carried to the mint. In a short time lumps of base metal, nominally worth near a million sterling, intrinsically worth about a

May 28.

June 30.

The Avaux, June 7. 1689, and July 10. author of Light to the Blind strongly condemns the indulgence shown to the Protestant Bishops who adhered to James,

A list was framed containing between

tainder.

sixtieth part of that sum, were in the terms of all the contracts in the circulation. A royal edict declared kingdom, assumed a power which bethese pieces to be legal tender in all longed only to the whole legislature. cases whatever. A mortgage for a Yet the Commons did not remonstrate. thousand pounds was cleared off by a There was no power, however unconbag of counters made out of old kettles. stitutional, which they were not willing The creditors who complained to the to concede to him, as long as he used Court of Chancery were told by Fitton it to crush and plunder the English to take their money and be gone. But population. On the other hand, they of all classes the tradesmen of Dublin, respected no prerogative, however anwho were generally Protestants, were cient, however legitimate, however the greatest losers. At first, of course, salutary, if they apprehended that he they raised their demands: but the might use it to protect the race which magistrates of the city took on them- they abhorred. They were not satisselves to meet this heretical machina- fied till they had extorted his reluctant tion by putting forth a tariff regulating consent to a portentous law, a law withprices. Any man who belonged to the out a parallel in the history of civilised caste now dominant might walk into a countries, the great Act of Attainder. shop, lay on the counter a bit of brass worth threepence, and carry off goods two and three thousand names. The great to the value of half a guinea. Legal At the top was half the peerage Act of At redress was out of the question. Indeed of Ireland. Then came baronets, the sufferers thought themselves happy knights, clergymen, squires, merchants, if, by the sacrifice of their stock in yeomen, artisans, women, children. No trade, they could redeem their limbs investigation was made. Any member and their lives. There was not a who wished to rid himself of a creditor, baker's shop in the city round which a rival, a private enemy, gave in the twenty or thirty soldiers were not con- name to the clerk at the table, and it stantly prowling. Some persons who was generally inserted without discusrefused the base money were arrested sion. The only debate of which any by troopers and carried before the account has come down to us related to Provost Marshal, who cursed them, the Earl of Strafford. He had friends swore at them, locked them up in in the House who ventured to offer dark cells, and, by threatening to hang something in his favour. But a few them at their own doors, soon over- words from Simon Luttrell settled the came their resistance. Of all the question. "I have," he said, "heard plagues of that time none made a the King say some hard things of that deeper or a more lasting impression lord." This was thought sufficient, and on the minds of the Protestants of the name of Strafford stands fifth in Dublin than the plague of the brass the long table of the proscribed.* money. * To the recollection of the Days were fixed before which those confusion and misery which had been whose names were on the list were reproduced by James's coin must be inquired to surrender themselves to such part ascribed the strenuous opposition | justice as was then administered to Engwhich, thirty five years later, large lish Protestants in Dublin. If a proscribclasses, firmly attached to the House ed person was in Ireland, he must surof Hanover, offered to the government render himself by the tenth of August. of George the First in the affair of Wood's patent.

There can be no question that James, in thus altering, by his own authority, * King, iii. 11. ; Brief Memoirs by Haynes, Assay Master of the Mint, among the Lansdowne MSS. at the British Museum, No. 801. I have seen several specimens of this coin. The execution is surprisingly good, all circumstances considered.

If he had left Ireland since the fifth of November 1688, he must surrender himself by the first of September. If he had left Ireland before the fifth of November 1688, he must surrender himself by the first of October. If he failed to appear by the appointed day,

* King, iii. 12.