James opened the proceedings with a speech in which he thanked the Irish nation for their loyalty, and declared for liberty of conscience. His former attempts to establish it had, he said, unfortunately failed, but he was nevertheless determined that where he had power there should be ‘no other test or distinction but that of loyalty.’ He was anxious to relieve sufferers by the Act of Settlement ‘as far forth as may be consistent with reason, justice, and the public good of my people.’ Nagle, the great assailant of the Settlement, was at once chosen Speaker of the Commons, Fitton the Chancellor and Chief Justice Nugent being summoned to the House of Lords by writ as Barons of Gosworth and Riverston.[209]
Influence of Avaux.
The Land Settlement attacked.
Proposed confiscation.
In his opening speech James handsomely acknowledged his debt to the Most Christian King, without whose help he could never have reached Ireland, and he gave Avaux a copy for transmission to France. He often resented the Ambassador’s arrogance, who, on his part, took no pains to hide his contempt for His Britannic Majesty’s incapacity. But everyone knew that the Frenchman was in power, and that his counsels were all but commands. Many members of the House of Commons wished to thank Louis XIV. directly for the services mentioned in the royal speech, but Nagle said this should be left to the King himself. The great work of the session was the repeal of the Acts of Settlement and Explanation. James saw that such a revolution would destroy his chances in England; but he was in the hands of the Irish, who would not hear of any compromise. Not only members of Parliament, but the soldiers in the street, said that if he would not restore them to their own, they would not fight to restore him to his. The Commons insisted on total repeal, but there was opposition on one point. Since the Parliament of 1661 much property had changed hands for value, and it was now proposed to confiscate the land and all the improvements. Compensation to Protestant purchasers was scarcely thought of, but there were many Roman Catholics in the same position, and among them two or three judges. The lawyers might have been willing to make allowances, but the ignorant majority of the Commons would listen to nothing. Those who bought forfeited lands, they said, bought stolen goods, and had no rights at all. Within a few days of the opening of Parliament, and while the Repeal Bill was as yet not quite ready, an address to the King was presented by Lord Granard on behalf of the purchasers. It was written by Chief Justice Keating, who showed that the credit of the country and the royal revenues would be destroyed if property legally acquired were to be confiscated without regard to two solemn Acts of Parliament or to the promises of two Kings. The Protestants had already been deprived of their movable goods by the Rapparees, ‘that is, the armed multitude,’ and would be completely and finally ruined if they lost their lands also. ‘The thriving Catholics who were purchasers (as most of the province of Connaught are) are likewise to be turned out of their estates and possessions, and their own and the improvements of those who hold under them utterly lost.... What is to become of the frequent declarations made by the Earl of Clarendon, and the Earl (now Duke) of Tyrconnel, of Your Majesty’s fixed resolutions never to lay aside the Acts of Settlement and Explanation? Why did the judges in their several circuits declare in all places where they sat, unto the countries there assembled, that Your Majesty was resolved to preserve the Acts of Settlement and Explanation, and that they were appointed by the then Chief Governor here to declare the same unto them; from whence they took confidence to proceed in their purchases and improvements, and (with submission be it spoken), if this Bill pass, are deluded.’[210]
Parliamentary independence.
Violence of the Commons.
A Bill for recognition of the King’s title received the royal assent on the fourth day of the session. No difficulty was made about declaring the Irish Parliament independent, nor about annulling all patents conferring office during life or good behaviour, but the Commons would do nothing further until the Act of Settlement had been repealed; and many of the old proprietors seized upon land without waiting for the legal sanction. A Bill introduced into the Lords by Chief Justice Nugent provided that half of the land disposed of by the Acts of Settlement and Explanation should be restored to the old proprietors, but the Commons would have none of it, and insisted on total repeal. A Bill for the desired purpose brought in by Sir Ulick Bourke, member for Galway county, was received with loud huzzas, and read a first and second time on the same day. One member moved that anyone who opposed the repeal was an enemy to King and country; another that the horrid and barbarous law should be burned by the common hangman. But James saw clearly enough that to annul the legislation of his father and brother would be fatal to his chances in England. After consulting Avaux, who saw how Ireland, which he hoped to make a dependency of France, would be impoverished, the King conferred privately with some members of both Houses, and found that he could struggle no longer, but it was agreed that purchasers under the Settlement should have reprisals out of forfeited land. Bishop Dopping made a gallant but vain effort to stem the tide. The King, he said, would have no regular revenue, for the Protestants were already stripped by the Rapparees of all but the bare walls. It was now proposed to take them also, and improving Catholics would be in no better case. ‘The old proprietor comes poor and hungry into his estate, and can pay nothing until his tenants raise it; and the present possessor loses the benefit of his purchases and improvements, and who then is able to supply the necessities of His Majesty? Besides this, in many parts of the kingdom the land is hardly able to pay the King’s quit-rent by reason of the universal depredations that reign everywhere; and can it be imagined but that things will grow far worse when the ablest Catholic merchants, and the most wealthy purchasers of that communion are ruined and undone?’[211]
The Act of Settlement repealed.
In the House of Lords many attempts were made to soften the measure of repeal, but they were as constantly resisted by the Commons, and no other business could be done until the royal assent was given about the middle of June. The Bishop of Meath, with three of his brethren, and four temporal peers, recorded their dissent, James telling them that they must not use the word protest, which had grown up in rebellious times. They were not allowed to set out their reasons. The Acts of Settlement and Explanation, and every transaction growing out of them, were ‘absolutely repealed, annulled, and made void to all intents, constructions, and purposes whatever, as if the same had never been made or passed,’ and the land restored to the representatives of those who possessed it on October 22, 1641, the day before the rebellion broke out. Real property belonging to anyone who had been in rebellion since August 1, 1688, or in communication with those who had, was forfeited without trial and vested in the King. The property of the London companies in Ulster was confiscated. There were some provisos for the relief of a few highly favoured persons, and the King was empowered to grant reprisals in specially meritorious cases. Land formerly belonging to any monastery, and used for public purposes, was vested in His Majesty, to be disposed of to ‘such pious and charitable uses’ as he should think fit. Reprisals to purchasers for valuable consideration might be made out of the forfeitures. All outlawries of the ancient proprietors were reversed. A few Protestants whose titles were older than 1641 might have escaped the operation of the Act, and it was resolved to draw the net still closer.[212]