His conduct, however, very ill agreed with this declaration; nor can it be excused on any other supposition but that of his being governed, in some cases against his own inclination, by the count D’Avaux and the Irish catholics, on whom his whole dependence was placed. As both houses were chiefly filled with members of that persuasion, we ought not to wonder at their bringing in a bill for repealing the act of settlement, by which the protestants of the kingdom had been secured in the possession of their estates. These were by this law divested of their lands, which reverted to the heirs of those catholics to whom they belonged before the rebellion. This iniquitous bill was framed in such a manner, that no regard was paid to such protestant owners as had purchased estates for valuable considerations; no allowance was made for improvements, nor any provision for protestant widows; the possessor, and tenants were not even allowed to remove their stock and corn. When the bill was sent up to the lords, Dr. Dopping, bishop of Meath, opposed it with equal courage and ability, and an address in behalf of the purchasers under the act of settlement was presented to the king by the earl of Granard; but notwithstanding these remonstrances, it received the royal assent, and the protestants of Ireland were mostly ruined.
THEY PASS AN ACT OF ATTAINDER.
Yet in order to complete their destruction, an act of attainder was passed against all protestants, whether male or female, whether of high or low degree, who were absent from the kingdom, as well as against all those who retired into any part of the three kingdoms, which did not own the authority of king James, or corresponded with rebels, or were any ways aiding, abetting, or assisting them, from the first day of August in the preceding year. The number of protestants attainted by name in this act amounted to about three thousand, including two archbishops, one duke, seventeen earls, seven countesses, as many bishops, eighteen barons, three-and-thirty baronets, one-and-fifty knights, eighty-three clergymen, who were declared traitors, and adjudged to suffer the pains of death and forfeiture. The individuals subjected to this dreadful proscription, were even cut off from all hope of pardon and all benefit of appeal; for by a clause in the act, the king’s pardon was deemed null unless enrolled before the first day of December. A subsequent law was enacted, declaring Ireland independent of the English parliament. This assembly passed another act, granting twenty thousand pounds per annum out of the forfeited estates to Tyrconnel, in acknowledgment of his signal services: they imposed a tax of twenty thousand pounds per month for the service of the king: the royal assent was given to an act for liberty of conscience; they enacted that the tithes payable by papists should be delivered to priests of that communion: the maintenance of the protestant clergy in cities and corporations was taken away; and all dissenters were exempted from ecclesiastical jurisdictions. So that the established church was deprived of all power and prerogative, notwithstanding the express promise of James, who had declared, immediately after his landing, that he would maintain the clergy in their rights and privileges.
JAMES COINS BASE MONEY.
Nor was the king less arbitrary in the executive part of his government, if we suppose that he countenanced the grievous acts of oppression that were daily committed upon the protestant subjects of Ireland; but the tyranny of his proceedings may be justly imputed to the temper of his ministry, consisting of men abandoned to all sense of justice and humanity, who acted from the dictates of rapacity and revenge, inflamed with all the acrimony of religious rancour. Soldiers were permitted to live upon free quarter; the people were robbed and plundered; licenses and protections were abused in order to extort money from the trading part of the nation. The king’s old stores were ransacked; the shops of tradesmen and the kitchens of burghers were pillaged, to supply the mint with a quantity of brass, which was converted into current coin for his majesty’s occasions; an arbitrary value was set upon it, and all persons were required and commanded to take it in payment under the severest penalties, though the proportion between its intrinsic worth and currency was nearly as one to three hundred. A vast sum of this counterfeit coin was issued in the course of one year, and forced upon the protestants in payment of merchandize, provision, and necessaries for the king’s service. James, not content with the supply granted by parliament, imposed, by his own authority, a tax of twenty thousand pounds per month on chattels, as the former was laid upon lands. This seems to have been a temporary expedient during the adjournment of the two houses, as the term of the assessment was limited to three months; it was however levied by virtue of a commission under the seals, and seems to have been a stretch of prerogative the less excusable, as he might have obtained the money in a parliamentary way. Understanding that the protestants had laid out all their brass money in purchasing great quantities of hides, tallow, wool, and corn, he assumed the despotic power of fixing the prices of these commodities, and then bought them for his own use. One may see his ministers were bent upon the utter destruction of those unhappy people.
PROTESTANT CHURCHES SEIZED BY THE CATHOLICS.
All vacancies in public schools were supplied with popish teachers. The pension allowed from the exchequer to the university of Dublin was cut off; the vice-provost, fellows, and scholars, were expelled: their furniture, plate, and public library were seized without the least shadow or pretence, and in direct violation of a promise the king had made to preserve their privileges and immunities. His officers converted the college into a garrison, the chapel into a magazine, and the apartments into prisons; a popish priest was appointed provost; one Maccarty, of the same persuasion, was made library-keeper, and the whole foundation was changed into a catholic seminary. When bishoprics and benefices in the gift of the crown became vacant, the king ordered the profits to be lodged in the exchequer, and suffered the cures to be totally neglected. The revenues were chiefly employed in the maintenance of Romish bishops and priests, who grew so insolent under this indulgence, that in several places they forcibly seized the protestant churches. When complaint was made of this outrage, the king promised to do justice to the injured, and in some places actually ordered the churches to be restored; but the popish clergy refused to comply with this order, alleging, that in spirituals they owed obedience to no earthly power but the holy see, and James found himself unable to protect his protestant subjects against a powerful body which he durst not disoblige. Some ships appearing in the bay of Dublin, a proclamation was issued forbidding the protestants to assemble in any place of worship, or elsewhere, on pain of death. By a second, they were commanded to bring in their arms on pain of being treated as rebels and traitors. Luttrel, governor of Dublin, published an ordinance by beat of drum, requiring the farmers to bring in their corn for his majesty’s horses within a certain day, otherwise he would order them to be hanged before their own doors. Brigadier Sarsfield commanded all protestants of a certain district to retire to the distance of ten miles from their habitations on pain of death; and in order to keep up the credit of the brass money, the same penalty was denounced, in a proclamation, against any person who should give more than one pound eighteen shillings for a guinea.