body of its defenders. The Episcopal clergy in many districts were threatened with starvation;1 and often actually endured fearful privations. Their places of worship were wrested from them by the popish clergy; and the authority of James did not avail to procure their restoration. As the necessities of the Government increased, old cannon, bells, and pewter were melted down to be converted into coin; and all classes, to their own ruin, were compelled to receive this worthless currency. The Protestants in Dublin were watched with extreme jealousy. Attendance on their worship was virtually forbidden; as an order was issued, in the name of the chief magistrate of the city, proclaiming that not more than five of them should meet together, even in churches, on pain of death. So intent was the senseless monarch on making Ireland a Roman Catholic Kingdom, that, immediately before his last struggle for the crown, he was employed in establishing a Benedictine nunnery in the metropolis, and in supplying the diocese of Meath with popish incumbents.*

But the battle of the Boyne at once changed the aspect of ecclesiastical affairs. With the defeat of James, the hopes of Roman Catholic ascendency passed away; and Protestantism forthwith assumed the position it had previously occupied.

1 King states that, when many episcopal clergymen had nothing left to live on, their Protestant neighbours aided them to the utmost of their power, "and made no distinction of sects-many Dissenters of all sorts, except Quakers, contributing liberally to this good end, which,” says he, "ought to be remembered to their honour."-State of the Protestants, p. 260.

Just stamps

'Three-penny-worth of metal would make ten pounds sterling. before the battle of the Boyne, the copper and brass money failing and inscriptions were put upon pieces of pewter which were intended to be sent abroad. . . . and a proclamation was ready for that purpose: but King William came sooner to Dublin than was expected, and thereupon that project was dropped."-NICHOLSON's Irish Historical Library, p. 172.

3 Leland, iii. 544-5.

Ibid. iii. 545.

6 July 1st (old style), 1690.

CHAPTER VI.

FROM THE BATTLE OF THE BOYNE TO THE DEATH OF WILLIAM III. A.D. 1690 TO A.D. 1702.

THE eighteen months immediately preceding the battle of the Boyne were spent in deep anxiety by the Protestants of Ireland. The hardships they experienced were aggravated by division among themselves; for a large number of the episcopal clergy had so long preached the doctrine of passive obedience that they could not see their way to disown the government of James. Until his fortunes became desperate, they continued to pray for his success;1 and even to protest against the conduct of those who resisted his authority. Hopkins, Bishop of Derry, endeavoured to dissuade the apprentice boys of that city from closing the gates against his troops Dopping, Bishop of Meath, in the excess of his zeal for his service, was desirous to accompany him to the battle. of the Boyne :2 and, long after William and Mary were acknowledged as King and Queen of England, several of the Irish Protestant prelates sat in the Parliament convened in Dublin by the dethroned sovereign.3 Two members of their

1 Reid's Hist. of Presb. Church in Ireland, ii. 409.

2 Leslie's Answer to King, pp. 103, 109. The same prelate was one of the lords spiritual who, on the 10th of May, 1689, joined in an address to James expressing abhorrence of "the unnatural usurpation of the Prince of Orange, and the treason of those who joined with him in England and Ireland," and professing "to King James, with tongue and heart, that they will ever assert his rights to his crown, with their lives and fortunes, against the said usurper and his adherents."Ibid. p. 103.

At this time several sees were vacant, and a large portion of the bishops had left the country; but Dopping of Meath, Otway of Ossory, Digby of Limerick, and Wetenhall of Cork and Ross, were in attendance. Mant, i. 699, 706.

hierarchy persisted to the last in following the example of the non-jurors in England, and refused to take the oaths to the new Government.1

But though at this critical period so many of the established clergy pursued a very equivocal course,2 most of them were ready, in the hour of victory, to claim the rewards of the conquerors. Nowhere was this spirit exhibited more offensively than in Derry. Upwards of three-fourths of the defenders of that city were Scoto-Irish Presbyterians; and their co-religionist, Colonel Adam Murray,3 was unquestionably the hero of the siege; but the Rev. George Walker, an episcopal clergyman who had contrived to worm himself into the appointment of Assistant Governor, and who had more than once betrayed a disposition to capitulate, published a pamphlet immediately after the place obtained relief, in which he appropriated almost exclusively to himself the credit of its successful resistance. Walker-who was a most plausible character-for a time enjoyed immense popularity. He was promoted to the see of Derry; and the English Universities joined with the English monarch in loading him with honours. But, as he became better known, his reputation declined: and, when he was killed at the battle of the Boyne, King William is said to have heard of the disaster without any emotion."

1 These were Sheridan, Bishop of Kilmore and Ardagh, and Otway, Bishop of Ossory, Mant, ii. preface. Sheridan was deprived, and died in poverty in 1716. Mant, ii. 28. Otway, who died in March, 1693, contrived to hold his see till his death.

2 One of the most distinguished of the non-juring clergy was Charles Leslie, Chancellor of Connor-second son of Dr. J. Leslie, Bishop of Clogher. He was deprived of his preferment for refusing to take the oath of allegiance to William and Mary. He made several vain attempts to convert the Pretender to Protestantism. He died at Glasslough in March, 1722. See before, pp. 163, note (1).

3 See Reid, ii. 374, and Professor Witherow's Derry and Enniskillen, pp. 265, 266. Belfast, 1873.

* See his "True Account of the Siege of Londonderry." Mackenzie's Narrative strips Walker of his false plumage. Lord Macaulay has given a very incorrect account of this affair. See Professor Witherow's Derry and Enniskillen, pp. 267-280.

6 Walker was never consecrated bishop. His predecessor Hopkins, whose death had been anticipated, survived until the 22nd of June, 1690-about a week before the battle of the Boyne.

6" William," says Macaulay, "thought him a busybody who had been properly

The successor of Walker in the Bishopric of Derry was a man of far higher professional attainments; but not less arrogant and exclusive. William King was born in the town of Antrim in 1650. His father was a Scotchman, who had settled there some time before; and, when John Howe lived at Antrim Castle as chaplain in the family of Lord Massareene, it is not improbable that young King often heard the celebrated Puritan preach in the parish church. He was by birth a Presbyterian; but, as he grew up, he entered Trinity College as a sizar, and conformed to the Establishment. Like others who have sold their principles for promotion, he subsequently evinced a singular antipathy to the Church he had deserted. At College he distinguished himself by his superior talent; and, soon after his ordination, obtained various preferments. In January, 1689, he became Dean of St. Patrick's, Dublin. He had hitherto been a staunch supporter of the doctrine of non-resistance, and when the inhabitants of Derry shut their gates against King James, he denounced their conduct as rebellion. But the repeal of the Acts of Settlement and Explanation, and the virtual disestablishment of the Episcopal Church by the Irish Parliament, opened his eyes, and led him to espouse the cause of King William. He was now thrown into prison, where he is said to have employed his time in composing a work which eventually attracted much attention, and which appeared shortly afterwards, bearing the title of The State of the Protestants of Ireland under the late King James's

punished for running into danger without any call of duty, and expressed that feeling with characteristic bluntness on the field of battle. Sir,' said an attendant, 'the Bishop of Derry has been killed by a shot at the ford.' 'What took him there?' growled the King."-Hist. of England, iv. 271.

1 Howe came to Antrim in May, 1671, and resided there till 1676. The Rev. Thomas Gowan, who was then Presbyterian minister of Antrim, was permitted for a time to conduct worship in the parish church. Reid, ii. 336, note.

2 King has been often represented as by birth an Episcopalian. The Rev. John McBride of Belfast, who was his contemporary, and who was evidently well acquainted with his early career, speaks of him in 1697 as a person who had deserted the Presbyterians. See McBride's Animadversions, in reply to Pullen, p. 30. The name of McBride is not on the title-page of this pamphlet, but the authorship is well known. See Reid's Hist. of Presb. Church in Ireland, ii. 461, note.

3 Reid, pp. 424-5.

Government. When promoted to the bishopric of Derry, he speedily signalized himself by an attack on the Presbyterians. They were very numerous in his diocese; and he was grievously provoked by their aversion to the established worship. They had recently rendered important service to the Protestant cause by their noble defence of the maiden city; and, as their system had just subverted prelacy in Scotland, King was perhaps haunted by the apprehension that it might achieve a similar triumph in the north of Ireland. Such an occurrence would have placed a bishop and a pervert in rather an awkward predicament. William had publicly acknowledged his obligations to the Irish Presbyterians; for, to a man, they had hailed his arrival in England with delight, and had lost no time in assuring him of their assistance; and even before the battle of the Boyne he had restored and doubled the grant of the Regium Donum withdrawn from them by James. In 1691 the English Parliament repealed the Act requiring them to take the Oath of Supremacy;3 and thus made them admissible to all offices, civil and military. A considerable number of French Presbyterian refugees had settled in Ireland after the revocation of the Edict of Nantes, in 1685; and in 1692 they and other foreign Protestants were authorized by Act of Parliament to celebrate their worship according to the "several rites used in their own countries."4 Elated by these and other tokens of encouragement, the Presbyterians of Ulster assumed a tone and bearing which startled their old oppressors; they celebrated their ordinances with the utmost publicity; and met openly in presbyteries and synods. Numerous immigrants from Scotland, attracted by the cheapness of farms, now added greatly to the strength of the Presbyterian population in Ulster. In September, 1691, a Synod of thirty

1 See D'Alton's Archbishops of Dublin, pp. 302-3. See before, p. 163, note (1). 2 As to the apprehensions entertained on this subject see Mant, ii. 4. 3 Reid, ii. 421.

Fourth of William and Mary, chap. ii. Irish Statutes. French Protestant congregations were about this time established in Dublin, Carlow, Cork, Waterford, Portarlington, Lisburn and elsewhere. See Bishop Mant and his Dioceses,

pp. 50, 51.

6 According to one account "eighty thousand small Scotch adventurers came