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But wicked as was this regulation, and destitute as were the framers of it, of even the slightest semblance of justice, it formed but a minor part of the atrocity of the procedure. Severe as was this ordeal, great numbers passed it, and had some remnant of their estates restored. Had the court proceeded in the examination of the cases, thousands more would have had the same good fortune. But this would have disappointed the views of those harpies who "hungered and thirsted" after the estates of the devoted Irish. To prevent this result, the session of the court was limited to six monthsand by artful management, the decision of the cases was procrastinated as far as possible; so that when the adjournment took place, in August, 1642, there were several thousand claimants, whose cases were absolutely unheard, and who were for ever barred from all chance of redress! Their estates remained in the hands of the regicides beyond the power of redemption. Thus did this base and perfidious monarch requite the eminent services rendered him by meritorious subjects of whom he was wholly unworthy.

The number of persons thus precluded from even a chance of justice, is variously reported. A memorial presented to the government by the sufferers, remonstrating against the extreme hardship of the limitation, and praying for an extension of the time of the session of the court, states the number at 8000.987 Sir Heneage Finch, attorney-general, who was ordered to reply to it, and who undertook it with a tissue of miserable sophistry, reduces them to 5000,968 which is very probably far too few-as it was his province to diminish the grievance as far as possible. Leland says they were "more than 3000:"* on

very hard rule it seems to be. I remember it was long debated at this board, before that rule was put into the law. But the reason which prevailed for the inserting of it was this. That the rebellion was almost twenty years before the passing of the act; and the Irish having murdered all the English or driven them away!!! it was not possible to find a witness against some persons in a whole barony. And it being certain no man could live quietly among the Irish, who did not comply with them, the very enjoying an estate in those quarters was left in the act as a mark of delinquency!!!""960

"It was declared in the new bill, that the Protestants were, in the first place, and especially, to be settled, and that any ambiguity was to be interpreted in the sense most favourable to their interests. It was also provided, that no Papist, who, by the qualifications of the former act, had not been adjudged innocent, should at any future time be reputed innocent, or entitled to claim any lands or settlements. Thus, every remaining hope of those numerous claimants whose causes had not been heard, was entirely cut off. They complained of perjury and subornation in the causes that had been tried before the commissioners of claims; though such wicked practices were probably not confined to one party. But their great and striking griev ance was, that more than three thousand persons were condemned. without the justice granted to the vilest criminals, that of a fair and!

967 Carte, II. App. 75.

963 Ibid.

969 Ibid.

what authority he reduces the number is not known. But it is improbable, it was less than the 5000 admitted by Finch. A medium between that number and the 8000 stated by the remonstrants, would probably be near the truth. But even allowing Leland's calculation to be correct, who can think of the case without horror! Three thousand persons robbed of their estates merely because they were " Irish Papists," and thus reduced to beggary, and debarred of all opportunity to assert their claims, and prove their innocence!!

With all these resources for plundering the Catholics, their rapacious enemies were not satisfied. They had recourse to barefaced bribery and corruption. Lord Orrery and lord Mountrath, raised a sum of from 20 to 30,000l. sterling, to be distributed in London, among those who could advance" the English interest."* Some part of this sum very probably found its way into the pockets of Charles II. whose "itching palm," at a subsequent period, did not disdain to receive a bribe from Louis XIV. The following extract from a letter of Lord Orrery, to the marquess of Ormonde renders it not only highly probable, but almost certain, that the latter was deeply impli cated in this nefarious transaction.

"I did forthwith give him notice thereof, and at the same time chid him soundly, for his unadvisedness in distributing such large sums of money without your grace's express orders, or at least permission and knowledge; which, if allowed by your grace, must bring the names of some persons of honour upon the stage, or, if disallowed, must fall heavily upon his purse."970

Sir James Shaen, the agent appointed to distribute the bribes, in a letter to lord Orrery, magnifies his dexterity in the distribution of the money.

"Only this is I do assure your lordship for truth, that I was so wary as to pay the money by other hands than my own, and in such

equal trial. Of this number, though many, and probably the greater part, would have been declared nocent, yet several cases were undoubtedly pitiable; and now, twenty only were to be restored by especial favour."971

*London was from this time the scene of disputes upon this affair ; and thither agents were sent by the Irish to plead their cause; which they did under great disadvantages. The earls of Orrery and Mountrath took care to raise privately among the adventurers and soldiers between 20 and 30,000l. to be disposed of properly, without any account, by way of recompense to such as should be serviceable to the English interest. The Irish had no such sums to command, few friends about the court, and no means of procuring any. The English nation had heard nothing of the rebellion, but what gave them horror, and possessed them with the worst opinion of the whole Irish nation. Those of the council before whom they were to plead their cause, knew little of the conduct of particular persons who deserved favour, but were ready to involve every body in the general guilt of the massacre, as well as the rebellion.25972

970 Orrery, I. 179.

971 Leland, IV. 146.

972 Carte, II. 232.

a way, that it cannot reflect upon any person, because I did give it as a present."973

But all these stratagems and tricks, all this fraud and cunning, were not deemed sufficient. While the negociation was pending in London, a proclamation was issued in Dublin, ordering the Irish who had been transported into Connaught, to return there and not to cross the Shannon, under pain of imprisonment, and such further proceedings against them as the lords justices might think proper. The object of this was to prevent them from making any arrangements to promote the success of their applications. Their letters were opened, and every means that chicane could devise, was adopted to prevent their escape from the toils with which they were surrounded.t

The duke of Ormonde, though on the whole an enemy of the Irish Roman Catholics, highly disapproved of the injustice of condemning them unheard, and debarring them of even a chance of redress. He proposed the appointment of a board, to be composed of the lord lieutenant and six of the privy council, who should be empowered to nominate such of the Irish with whose loyalty they were fully acquainted, who should partake of the same advantages as those who had passed the fiery ordeal of the commissioners. To this proposi

"Whereas by proclamation dated the 10th day of December, 1661, it was for the reasons in the said proclamation expressed, declared, and published, that all persons who had been transplanted, and had departed from the province of Connaught, or county of Clare, since they were transplanted (except such as are particularly mentioned to be excepted in the said proclamation) should, by or before the last day of December last past, return back again to the same places to which they were respectively transplanted, and not to depart from thence, without special license in that behalf from the then lords justices, or other his majesty's chief governor or governors of this kingdom for the time being; and that if after the said last day of December, any of the said persons (except before excepted) should be found without license, as aforesaid, in any part of this kingdom, other than in the said province of Connaught, or county of Clare, that then, and in such case, any one or more of his majesty's justices of the peace of the county, where such person or persons shall be found, as aforesaid, were, by the said proclamation, authorised and required to cause all and every such person or persons, to be apprehended and committed to the shire goal, there to remain until further express directions in that behalf from the said late lords justices, or other his majesty's chief governor or governors of this kingdom for the time being."

"The severe laws and ordinances lately made against the Irish Roman Catholics in that kingdom were hereupon put in execution; they were not allowed to go from one province to another to transact their business; abundance of them were imprisoned; all their letters to and from Dublin intercepted; and the gentry forbid to meet, and thereby deprived of the means of agreeing upon agents to take care of their interest, and of an opportunity to represent their grievances."974

973. Orrery, I. 177.

974 Carte, II. 206,

tion no objection could be honestly made. But fair and honourable as it was, it was wickedly rejected.*

Another trick employed to defraud the Irish was, to reserve large portions of lands not adjudged to any person, as reprisals for their friends, lest the lands allotted to them should prove inadequate to discharge their demands. Thus they rapaciously seized immense bodies of the best lands in Ireland.†

The whole amount of lands regarded as forfeited, by the Down survey, was about 7,800,000 acres,t principally to the exclusion of the real proprietors. The great mass of the lands fell to the share of the various descriptions of harpies, who were let loose to devour the unfortunate island.

Had not the ruling powers been wholly destitute of all regard for justice, they might have satisfied the different classes of claimants, without consigning so many thousands of the Irish to penury. Had they scrutinized with rigour the claims of the adventurers, the officers, soldiers, and others, and, pruning off all that were exorbitant, reduced them within proper limits, and rated the lands at fair prices, there would have been an ample fund, wherewith to content the suffering Irish.

It is difficult for the reader to form an idea of the profligate mode in which the estates of the Irish nobility and gentry, were squandered away on the court minions and parasites-how wantonly and prodigally the property plundered from one set of subjects was lavished on another. The proofs are scattered over a large surface, and dif

"To apply some remedy to the striking grievance of a number of Irish claimants abandoned to ruin, merely for want of the common justice of being heard, he [the marquess of Ormonde] had proposed that the lord lieutenant and six of the privy council of Ireland, should be empowered to nominate such other persons as innocents, of whose constant loyalty they had sufficient knowledge, and who should be thus entitled to the same advantages with those who were pronounced innocent by the court of claims. But this proposal was rejected by the English council!"9975

+"They had granted out all the lands appointed for reprisals to their own friends, under the notion of cautionary reprisals, or reprisals de bene esse. No practice could be more unwarrantable and irregular; for there was not a word about cautionary reprisals in the declaration; and yet under this palpable fraud, manifestly designed to obstruct justice, the whole stock of reprisable land became vested in half a dozen persons. Thus the earl of Mountrath, and the lords Massareene and Kingston had got into their hands most of the lands in the counties of Dublin, Louth, and Kildare, and the barony of Barrymore."976

"Upon the final execution of the acts of settlement and explanation, it appears by the Down survey, that 7,800,000 acres of land were set out by the court of claims, principally, if not wholly, in exclusion of the old Irish proprietors."977

97% Leland, IV. 142.

976 Carte, II. 230.

$77 Newenham, 172.

ficult at this distance of time and place to be gleaned up. They are only to be found by rigorous search and investigation. Sir John Clotworthy, whose servant, O'Conally, was the agent employed to develope the sham plot of 1641, had, with some others, a demand on the government for 7000l. sterling, for which he received the princely estate of lord Antrim, of 107,611 acres, with all its improvements!!* That is, at fifteen pence per acre!

However incredible it may appear, it is nevertheless true, that the whole house of commons, with the speaker at their head, were profligate enough to wait on the marquess of Ormonde, lord lieutenant of Ireland, praying that all the examinations and depositions taken at any time respecting the rebellion, all the records of the courts, and all books, rolls, and writings remaining in any office, should be received as proofs of the nocency of the parties implicated, and be a bar to their claims. This would include all the fabulous tales, of which I have given so many fair specimens in Chapter XXIX.

With what abhorrence must every honest mind regard that piratical body, who were so lost to all sense of decency and common honesty as to pray that those examinations and depositions on which above one thousand indictments were found in two days;—that of dean Maxwell, who swore to the ghosts screaming for revenge, and to the murder of thousands on hearsay;-that of captain Stratford, who swore to the murder of hundreds, not one of which he pretended to have seen-and so many others, equally destitute of credibility; that these, I say, should be received as evidence to bar honest men of their estates ?t

I have made very few, scarcely any quotations from Roman Catholic writers and none but what were corroborated by protestant

*"Lord Antrim's estate consisting of 107,611 acres, was allotted to [sir John Clotworthy, afterwards lord Massareene, and a few other adventurers and soldiers, in consideration of their adventures and pay, which did not in all exceed the sum of 7000l. Such excellent bargains had these people for their money. "978

"Any body that considers the methods used in the time of sir W. Parsons to get indictments found upon slight or no grounds, and without adhering to the usual methods of law, or the violence of the commissioners of claims in Oliver's time, or who has ever read the examinations and depositions here referred to, which were generally given upon hearsay and contradicting one another, would think it very hard upon the Irish to have all those without distinction or examination, admitted as evidence, especially when by an act of state after the restoration, they had been hindered from reversing their outlawries, and procuring redress in a legal way. Of the same nature was their next request, "that all the proclamations and acts of state, published by the lords justices before the cessation, and declaring any person a rebel, and all orders of the house of commons since Oct. 23, 1641, for expelling ⚫ any member on account of his adherence to the rebels, might be taken for good evidence."979

978 Carte, II. 279.

979 Idem, 263.

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