ence.

it had been recently encouraged by a large body of the clergy.1 It had been suggested and recommended by the fact that, in periods of rebellion, military aid had been repeatedly received by the insurgents from France, Spain, and Italy. When the Nuncio Rinuccini proposed to make the Pope Protector of the kingdom, he gave a hint well understood by his partizans: and the extinction of royal authority in Great Britain by the execution of Charles I. seemed to them an excellent opportunity of asserting the national independBut the Marquis of Ormonde-whose commission as Lord Lieutenant had been renewed by the young prince immediately after the death of his father-stood in the way of their designs. He had great influence with the AngloIrish Roman Catholic nobility and gentry; and, so long as he remained in the country, it was not to be expected that they could be seduced from their allegiance. The bishops accordingly determined to remove this impediment. At a Synod held in August, 1650, at Jamestown, in the County of Leitrim, they agreed to request him to withdraw from the kingdom, and to leave the royal authority in the hands of some one in whom the people had confidence.2 The Marquis was no little perplexed by this strange message; but, at the same time, unwilling to come to an open rupture with men who wielded immense influence over the mass of the community, he invited them to a conference, that he might, if possible, bring about some accommodation. When they declined to meet him, he could not suppress his irritation; and declared that he would remain in the kingdom until driven from it by absolute necessity. The bishops now threw off the mask, and published "a Declaration against the continuance of His Majesty's authority in the Marquis of Ormonde for [on account of] the misgovernment of the subjects, the ill

1 Carte, ii. 126; O'Conor's Hist. Address, ii. 377.

2 Borlase, p. 259; Leland, iii. 372; Haverty, p. 589. They proposed that he should repair to the young King, who was then on the Continent-hypocritically expressing a hope that the kingdom, "by his Excellency's presence with His Majesty," would "hold out until relieved with supplies from His Majesty."-Borlase, p. 259. They knew well that the young prince (Charles II.) was then perfectly helpless.

In 1677, the Duke of Ormonde-who had long been out of favour with his sovereign-was re-appointed Lord Lieutenant. At this period the Duke was by far the most influential statesman connected with Ireland; for he was greatly respected, as well by the Roman Catholic as by the Protestant nobility. But, though not indisposed to treat the adherents of Popery with indulgence, he was cordially hated by the great body of the priests. They knew that he was the patron of Peter Walsh; and they believed that, in the days of the Catholic Confederation, he had blighted their hopes of political ascendency. He had not long entered on his Irish administration when the neighbouring island was thrown into a state of excitement by the alarms of popish conspiracies; and several wicked adventurers-among whom Titus Oates has acquired an infamous notoriety-took advantage of this morbid con

reckoning, that in 1652, at the end of the Civil War, the population amounted to 850,000, divided into 700,000 Romanists, and 150,000 Protestants of all denomitions. III. If we take the census first published by Mr. Hardinge (see before, p. 127, note (2)), and found among the papers of Sir Wm. Petty, as an account of the males in 1659, and assuming it to represent the one-half of the population, it follows that in all there were then in the country 827,968 Irish, and only 172,214 English and Scotch. IV. Between 1659 and 1672 we have no reason to believe that there was any considerable increase among the Protestant non-conformists, as many of them in disgust left the country and removed to America. Neither have we any reason to believe that the Irish declined in numbers, as their circumstances were in every way improved after the Restoration. But if the Irish and the English and Scotch existed in the numbers indicated in 1659, it would seem, from Sir Wm. Petty's reckoning, that, during the next thirteen years, the Romish population diminished, whilst the Protestants increased 75 per cent. V. We know that about this time in most of the towns of Leinster, Munster and Connaught, there were three Romanists to one Protestant, whilst in rural districts, as Sir Wm. Petty himself acknowledges, the Romanists were as twenty to one Protestant. (Tracts, P. 376. See also Moran's Mem., p. lxv.) As to the population of Kilkenny in 1659, see before, p. 121, note (1). VI. About this very time well-informed Romanists, such as Talbot, R.C. Archbishop of Dublin, reckoned that their coreligionists were to the Protestants as six to one. See a remarkable paper drawn up by him in 1671 in King's State of the Protestants in Ireland, p. 291. ed. London, 1692. VII. In the paper just mentioned-a document evidently drawn up with great care-Talbot reckons the population at that time as 1,200,000. According to another estimate it amounted to 1,320,000. Irish Academy, vol. xxiv. Antiq., part iv., p. 327. that the estimate of Petty cannot be sustained. err were we to say that in 1672 there were in Protestants, and not less than 950,000 Romanists.

See Hardinge, Trans. of Royal We may infer, for these reasons, We would not perhaps greatly Ireland not more than 250,000

dition of the public mind to concoct tales which produced a prodigious sensation. There were, no doubt, Jesuits at this time prepared to sanction any piece of villany likely to advance the interests of their Church; and the cruel treatment now experienced by the Protestants of France may be traced directly to their intrigues; but the stories of Oates and his coadjutors appear to have been a tissue of fabrications. They obtained, however, ready credence; and led to fresh inflictions of pains and penalties on Romanists. It was to be expected that, at such a juncture, the state of Ireland would awaken the anxiety of a Protestant Government; and that the laws against recusants would be enforced with increased severity. The professors of the obnoxious creed were disarmed; and, as the Romish clergy were supposed to sympathize with the tories, or banditti who infested several districts of the country, a proclamation was issued directing that any popish priest, in any place where murder or robbery was committed by these freebooters, should be lodged in prison and transported, unless within fourteen days the guilty persons were killed or taken, or such discovery made that they could be brought to justice.1

The concoctors of the Popish Plot affirmed that it extended to Ireland, that men of high consideration in this country were involved in it, and that persons had been hired to assassinate the Lord Lieutenant. But, with all his vigilance, and with the best means of procuring information, Ormonde could discover no trace whatever of the existence of any such dark design. The evidence against the accused possessed transparent marks of falsehood: for some, who were arraigned as chief conspirators, were incapacitated by extreme age or infirmity from engaging in the schemes imputed to them; and it was obvious that the depositions had been framed in total ignorance of their actual condition. Peter Talbot, the Romish Archbishop of Dublin, who was represented as organizing insurrection, now suffered from disease; and was in such a state of pain and languor as to be unfit to undertake

1 Leland, iii. 475.

2 Ibid. iii. 477, 479.

any ordinary duty.1 Lord Mountgarret-denounced as a dangerous conspirator-was eighty years of age, bedridden, and in a state of dotage. Oliver Plunket, Roman Catholic Archbishop of Armagh, was an ecclesiastic of blameless morals and pacific temper; but, according to the testimony produced against him, he was a most desperate revolutionist. As a short account of the career of this prelate will illustrate the history of the times, it may be here given.

Plunket, who was of highly respectable parentage, was born at Loughcrew in Meath in 1629. At an early age he resolved to become a priest; and in his sixteenth year was sent to Rome to receive a professional education. The political convulsions of the times long prevented his return to his native country; but he had meanwhile attained literary eminence, so that he found employment in the Italian capital as a professor of Theology. When appointed to the archbishopric of Armagh in 1669, he was in the prime of life; and the fact of his advancement to the Primatial see of Ireland, at so critical a period, attests the confidence reposed in him by the Sovereign Pontiff. When he reached London, on his way back to his native land to take possession of his new dignity, he was convinced that the zeal for the maintenance of Protestantism which animated the English people was not promoted by the highest personage in the realm. The Queen admitted him to an audience; her almoner, the Rev. Father Howard, drove him about in his carriage to see the curiosities of the city; he was secretly lodged for ten days in the royal palace; and subsequently the King led him to expect an allowance of £200 a year out of his own purse.3 When he arrived in Dublin, he found that his Church had little to fear from the officials of the Viceregal Court. Four of the principal personages connected with it were Romanists, though making an outward profession of the Reformed faith.4 The new Primate was received with the utmost kindness by

1 He was, notwithstanding, imprisoned; and he died in confinement towards the close of 1680. Renehan's Collections, p. 226.

2 Leland, iii. 474.

3 Moran's Memoirs, pp. 43, 189. This pension was not long paid. Ibid. p. 102. ▲ Ibid. p. 45.

his Irish kinsmen. "Sir Nicholas Plunket," says he, "at once invited me to his house, and gave me his carriage. The Earl of Fingall, who is my cousin, invited me to his country seat. The Baron of Louth will give me board and lodging in my own diocese as long as I please. . . . . There are also three other knights, who are married to three of my cousins, and who vie with each other in seeing which of them shall receive me into his house."1

Plunket signalized himself as a laborious and exemplary prelate. He reports that, within four years after his arrival in Ireland, he administered the rite of Confirmation to nearly fifty thousand persons.2 He established schools for the education of the Romanists of his province, and the tuition they supplied attracted a considerable number of Protestant youths; but, though these seminaries were conducted by Jesuits, even the Viceroy for a time seemed disposed to give them encouragement.3 Plunket endeavoured to correct the intemperate habits of his clergy; and as he was himself abstemious, his exertions seem to have led to a decided improvement. But, as might have been expected, he was a zealous ultramontane; for he had been promoted to the Primacy by the Pope, and he had spent five-and-twenty years in Rome. He was a determined enemy of Peter Walsh; and he could not tolerate the spirit of independence displayed by the whole party of the Remonstrants. Some of the priests ventured to affirm that the clergy and people should have a voice in ecclesiastical appointments; and they could easily show that such was the ancient order of the Church of Ireland; but Oliver Plunket denounced the claim as an attempt to abridge the papal prerogative. As he was a strict disciplinarian, he soon came into collision with some of the monks and clergy within the bounds of his jurisdiction; and he gave deadly

1 Moran's Memoirs, p. 45.

2 Ibid. p. 63. The exact number is 48,655. Ibid.

3 Moran, pp. 99, 101, 102.

4 Moran, p. 78. In one of his letters Plunket makes the significant remark, "Give me an Irish priest without this vice [drunkenness], and he is assuredly a saint." Ibid.

5 Moran, pp. 131, 254.