It is not likely that any reports of debates in this Parliament ever existed. The documents concerning it are scanty, for the Parliament of England lost no time in declaring all its proceedings void, and the Parliament of Ireland in 1695 further ordered all records to be destroyed, imposing heavy penalties upon officials for not surrendering those in their keeping. But we have some evidence that the proceedings were disorderly, as was to be expected in an assembly of inexperienced men violently excited by the prospect of regaining the power and property they had lost. Mr. Justice Daly was a Roman Catholic, and strongly Nationalist, but Clarendon had no objection to him except that he thought no native Irishman should be a judge. He was a man of high character, who had made a fortune at the bar and had invested it in land of which the title was derived from the Act of Settlement. His interest was therefore opposed to the repeal of that measure, and he fought hard on the same side as Bishop Dopping. Disgusted by the turbulence of the majority, he declared in private conversation that this was no Parliament, but a Masaniello’s assembly, and that men whose property was taken by the King could not be expected to fight for him. The members were squabbling for estates instead of preparing to resist the Prince of Orange, dividing the bear’s skin before they had killed the bear—‘All the honour we do to His Majesty is by reflecting on his father and brother as wicked and unjust princes, charging them with enacting those laws that were contrary to the laws of God and man.’ This incautious speech was reported to the House of Commons, and articles of impeachment were quickly agreed to. Daly refused to withdraw his words, saying he would rather emigrate to Jamaica. But his friends persuaded him to promise some sort of apology. Edmund Nugent of Carlanstown, who represented Mullingar, was sent to tell the judge that he would be pardoned on submission. Perhaps he thought the proposed apology insufficient; at any rate he announced that there would be a full one, and also that Londonderry was taken. The members cheered loudly and threw up their hats, with shouts of ‘No submission—we pardon him’; but the truth was soon known, and Nugent was threatened with being brought to the bar for playing this trick. The scramble for the property of absentees had begun even before the meeting of Parliament, and it was clearly necessary to make some attempt at order. In March, military officers, acting, or professing to act, by Tyrconnel’s authority, seized the goods of absentees all over the country, but not in Dublin, where the quays were crowded like a fair. Nearly everything of value was sent to England. In May, when Parliament was sitting, the Commissioners of Revenue continued the work of the soldiers by royal warrant. By that time much of the goods already taken had been sold, and the officers concerned, being at the siege of Derry, could not be brought to account. On the last day of the session an Act was passed at the instance of the Commissioners, vesting in the King all the personalty, including arrears of rent, left by absentees mentioned in the Act of Attainder, or who aided and abetted the Prince of Orange. In August, when Parliament had risen, the Commissioners extended their operations to Dublin, but they were instructed not to strip houses or injure trade. The business was so mismanaged, and there was so much dishonesty, that His Majesty had little profit from the widespread ruin. Six months after the passing of the Act Avaux reported that the King had not received, and he believed never would receive, more than one thousand crowns out of confiscated property worth two millions.[219]
French efforts to capture trade.
French wines.
Irish wool.
Avaux did not believe James had much chance of gaining England and Scotland, though the sanguine English Jacobites kept him constantly informed as to the general discontent and as to William’s personal unpopularity. But in any case the ambassador was sure that the complete reduction of Ireland was a necessary preliminary. In the meantime he sought to advance French interests. One plan was to naturalise all Louis’s subjects in Ireland, and a Bill for this purpose passed the House of Commons, but James insisted that the privilege, such as it was, should be extended to all foreign visitors. He was asked sarcastically by members of the Lower House whether Kirke and Schomberg were included, but he had his way. Avaux also sought special terms for French wines, instead of which an Act was passed giving the King general power to regulate the duties on foreign commodities, and he ordered the Revenue Commissioners to remit tonnage and other dues in the case of French importers. By far the most important of Irish commodities was wool, the exportation of which to foreign parts from England or Ireland was felony by an English Act of Charles II. Avaux now proposed to make the export of wool to France free, and at the same time entirely to prohibit its being sent to England. By this means English manufacturers would be deprived of their raw material for the benefit of their French competitors. A Bill for the double purpose found favour with the House of Commons, but the King again interposed, and the ambassador had to be contented with a promise that all French ships should be allowed to take cargoes of wool. The Irish Parliament had declared itself independent, but the English Act remained in force, and the sailors of a St. Malo vessel refused to load the forbidden goods, with the chance of being taken at sea and hanged in England. The Englishman in James was always asserting himself, while he knew that his only effective supporter was the French King. Avaux saw that great profits might be made if these difficulties could be got over, and he offered to share them with Louvois, who administered a dignified rebuke. He would have nothing to say to such traffic, and ‘the King, our master,’ would take it very ill.[220]
End of the Parliament.
The Irish Parliament was prorogued on July 18, and it did not meet again. Londonderry was relieved twelve days later, and Schomberg landed in less than a month. Many of the members had already dispersed to look after the forfeited lands, the repeal of the Act of Settlement and the measures against absentees having exhausted their interest in parliamentary matters. One of the last Acts passed secured 15,000l. a year to Tyrconnel. At least one chief reason for assembling a Parliament was to get money for the war, and 20,000l. a month was voted, but it was hard to collect, and proved quite inadequate. Supporters of James who were not mainly interested in the land question thought the Parliament had done much more harm than good, many officers and the best of the country people being engaged at home and leaving the war to take care of itself. It was evident to every clear-sighted person that arms must decide, not only whether James or William should rule Ireland, but whether the King of England should be King in Ireland also. The pretension of the smaller country to act independently of the greater had been defined by the late legislation, and was evidently incompatible with the facts, nor did James venture to separate the two islands by repealing the law of Poynings. The penal laws that followed are accounted for, though not excused, by the conduct of the native Irish Parliament during its short tenure of power. The treatment of the French Protestants by James’s patron had also done much to embitter the feelings of the victors.[221]
Clever men saw at the time, and everyone can see now, that James’s Irish adventure was hopeless. He thought of Ireland only as a stepping-stone to England, and his French supporters thought only of diverting William’s attention from the Continent, and thus strengthening the position of their own King. The Irish very naturally thought first of regaining their lands, and hoped, with the aid of French power, to hold the country in spite of England. The English colony would have been destroyed if James had been victorious, and the Protestant landowners, who received no mercy from an Irish Parliament, were not likely to show much when their turn came.
FOOTNOTES:
[204] Sheridan MS. The character in Macariæ Excidium, p. 83, is much to the same effect; O’Kelly and Sheridan both accusing Tyrconnel of favouring the Anglo-Irish and depressing the native Celts. In his memoir, printed at the end of Avaux’s Negotiations, Hugh Balldearg O’Donnell says Tyrconnel was particularly hostile to the Ulster Irish. Light to the Blind, attributed to a Plunket, always praises him. ‘Infiniment vain et fort rusé,’ says Berwick. ‘Talbot s’était dès long-tems porté pour patron des Irlandais opprimés. Ce zèle pour sa nation était fort louable; mais il n’était pas tout-à-fait désinteressé. De tous ceux que son crédit avait fait rétablir dans une partie de leurs biens il avait écorné quelque petite chose; mais comme chacun y trouvait son compte, personne n’y trouvait à redire,’ Mem. de Grammont, chap. ix. Clarendon’s Life, Cont., pp. 929 sqq. Burnet, i. 176, 227, and the Supplement, 255.