Judges and magistrates.
At the time of Clarendon’s recall one judge out of three in each Common Law Court was a Roman Catholic; under Tyrconnel the proportion was reversed. In the Exchequer, which became much the most important, Rice was made Chief Baron, and was supported by Sir Henry Lynch, who pursued the same policy. Baron Worth was a Protestant, but not much trusted by his own co-religionists, and in any case always in a minority. Probably he tried to be impartial. The same policy was adopted in the case of local magistrates, whose personal fitness was not always considered. Porter had no objection to Roman Catholics, but he had some regard for his own reputation. He received lists of candidates from the judges and rejected only those for whom no person of position would vouch. Among these was Primate Maguire’s brother. ‘He is a poor country fellow,’ he told General MacCarthy, ‘lives upon six pounds a year, which he rents of Sir Michael Cole, and has nothing else in the world. After all this, if you think fit for the King’s service to have such a man come upon the Bench, he shall be a justice of peace.’ ‘No, in good faith,’ answered MacCarthy, ‘I do not think it fit.’ Even the degree of independence which Porter showed was not to be expected from Fitton.[167]
Sheriffs.
The appointment of sheriffs was of the highest importance. They were not only the chief officers for enforcing the laws of property between man and man, but they might exercise great influence in the case of a general election. Clarendon had to nominate them immediately after his arrival, and before he had time to make a wide personal acquaintance. He got the best information he could, and thought he had made a happy selection, but the list was sent back to him with criticisms which, according to Tyrconnel, were made by Sheridan and Sir Robert Hamilton. He answered them all in detail and with much confidence. Sir William Evans was objected to as Sheriff of Kilkenny because he was Cromwell’s baker’s son. The answer was that his father had been a baker in England before the war, that he had made a fortune near Kilkenny, married Captain Coote’s daughter, been made a baronet, ‘and since a justice of peace, which office he has discharged very honestly.’ But Tyrconnel was not satisfied, though he owned that the Lord Lieutenant had done his best. ‘By God, my Lord,’ said he, ‘you must not wonder if the Catholics do think you a little partial after your making such a set of sheriffs, who are four parts out of five rogues; but, by God, I justified you to the King,’ and so forth. Long before the year was out Clarendon had orders not to name any sheriffs for 1687, instead of which Tyrconnel handed him a list drawn up by himself and Nugent, and purporting to make no religious distinction. Clarendon remonstrated, telling the King that the judges were the proper persons to suggest names, and that many of those now proposed were obviously and scandalously unfit for positions of trust. When the appointments were at last made, Tyrconnel was Deputy, and every county was committed to the charge of a Roman Catholic except Donegal, where one Hamilton was pricked by mistake for another. It is easy to believe that many of these sheriffs were unfit men. Protestants were also turned out of all the minor offices connected with the law.[168]
Rice and Nugent in London, 1688.
The corporations, the judicial bench, the army, and the shrievalty having been remodelled to his liking, Tyrconnel wished to hold a parliament. Rice and Nugent were sent over early in 1688, and their presence tended to increase the general unrest in London. Their coach, when they appeared in the streets, was escorted by a mob carrying sticks with potatoes at the ends, and calling upon all men to make room for the Irish ambassadors. They brought with them heads of a Bill for repealing the Act of Settlement, and were authorised to offer 40,000l. to Sunderland, who loved money even more than he loved power. In the negotiations that took place, Rice showed his great ability and Nugent his conspicuous want of sense. Sheridan was in London part of the time trying to rebut the charge of corruption brought against him by Tyrconnel. He told Sunderland that the Lord Deputy had been bragging about the money he had offered the minister, and about the Queen’s necklace. The result was that the bribe was now refused with becoming indignation. To the King himself Sheridan said that Tyrconnel hated him for objecting to turn out Protestant officers ‘for being such only,’ and for differing with him in opinion about the Act of Settlement. Nugent and Rice did not stay long in London, and they failed in their immediate object. Bellasyse and Powis opposed them, the former with many severe expressions about Tyrconnel’s rash folly. A year was still to elapse before the land legislation of Charles II. was repealed by an Irish Parliament.[169]
The Declaration of Indulgence.
The Declaration of Indulgence was republished in Dublin one week after its appearance in London. For the relief of the Roman Catholics it was hardly necessary, since the Statute of Elizabeth and the oaths depending on it had been virtually suspended even under Clarendon; but the prospect of general toleration was pleasing to the Ulster Presbyterians. Three or four loyal addresses were presented from Nonconformists in Dublin and Belfast and in Munster, but on the whole their attitude was cautious, for they could not forget what James had done quite lately in Scotland. Halifax’s famous letter to a Dissenter does not appear to have been reprinted in Ireland, but no doubt it circulated there, and its argument is conclusive to all who reject Filmer’s theory and the doctrine of passive obedience. If a King can sweep away the statute law at pleasure, he is absolute, and Parliaments and courts of justice are superfluous. In the end the Irish Presbyterians had to say Yes to Halifax’s short question, ‘whether you will join with those who must in the end run the same fate with you?’ The Episcopalians were, of course, not pleased, for all that the King would promise was less than what the law already gave them. There was an address from the Irish Quakers, which may probably have been due to Penn. In the meantime very few Protestants were left in the army, while they were placed in a minority on the bench and in civic administration. Those who could leave Ireland did so, and cashiered officers helped to fill the gaps in the Prince of Orange’s forces, made by those who obeyed the King’s order of recall. In less than a year after the Declaration of Indulgence the King forbade all foreign enlistment, and his proclamation was republished in Dublin, with stringent directions to magistrates and port authorities to stop all who endeavoured without licence ‘to transport or to enter and list themselves in the service of any foreign prince or state.’[170]
Tyrconnel and the army.
In about five months after his arrival as Deputy Tyrconnel had granted over one hundred commissions in the army, and the names show that few, if any, were Protestants. Among them were Anthony Hamilton and his brother John, both of whom became generals. Before he had been three months in the country he found that the private soldiers, especially in the infantry, were in great misery and more likely to cause disorder than to be useful in keeping the peace. The most he could do was to give each soldier of the line threepence-halfpenny a day, with a promise, which was not kept, of another halfpenny at the end of the year. Out of this the man had to feed himself. He was to receive fresh clothing free every eighteen months, the solitary coat to be turned without charge at the end of ten. It was found that some officers had been in the habit of enrolling recruits, keeping them for awhile, and then turning them away without pay, thus making a handsome profit in each case. In July 1687 he assembled a force in camp at the Curragh with a free market for victuallers, the soldiers having strict orders to pay ready money and ‘in all things to behave themselves as becomes good and peaceful subjects.’ When the camp broke up Sheridan advised Tyrconnel to send the regiments of Mountjoy and Forbes, the only two Scotch Protestant colonels, to Munster, and Catholic regiments to Ulster, where the Presbyterians had been assembling in great numbers. Mountjoy dissuaded him from this course, with important results both to himself and to the country.[171]