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upon the

As the native relicks of the Irish people were thus 1657. expatriated in their own island, divided from the pro- Increased tected inhabitants, and secluded from the active and severities passive powers of seduction or turbulence, it should Irish. seem as if the commissioners of that unfortunate country wanted objects to exercise their ferocity upon. Yet, by proclamation, they re-published, and required the severest observance of the act of Elizabeth, by which every catholic priest was to be hanged, drawn, and quartered: to which they afterwards superadded the rigor of making the private exercise of the catholic religion a capital offence, and the non-discovery of a priest confiscation of property and death. They set the price of five pounds on the head of a priest and a wolf, and the production of the head equally entitled the beheader to the reward*. These extraordinary cruelties could only be practised upon the unfortunate catholics in Connaught. The rest of the inhabitants of Ireland were protestants of some denomination, or new proprietors, neither Irish nor catholict.

trim's estate, consisting of 10,761 acres, was allotted to Sir John Clotworthy, afterwards Lord Massarene, and some few, whose adventures and pay did not in all exceed 7,000l. 2 Ca. Orm. 27:

* Presuming the features of each to be equally distinguishable, this was but illustrating the old maxim of English law, that an outlaw caput gerit lupinum.

+ Morrison, a protestant author by no means favorable to the catholics, who was an eye-witness of these scenes, says, "Neither "the Israelites were more cruelly persecuted by Pharoah, nor the "innocent infants by Herod, nor the christians by Nero, or any "other pagan tyrants, than were the Roman catholics of Ireland, "at that fatal juncture, by these savage commissioners."

1658.

Adminis

tration of Henry Cromwell.

Henry, the second son of Oliver Cromwell, fortunately for this exhausted country, possessed the government of it nearly four years, partly during the life of his father, and partly during that of his brother Richard. His humane disposition preserved Ireland from the further severity of the protector's council. His behaviour was attractive, and his conduct so pure, that when he was recalled from his government, in 1659, he could not command money sufficient to defray the expenses of his journey to England. Broghill and Coote had for several years presided over Munster; they hated and vied with each other in their ostensible zeal for the regicide party: each looked through different views to the readiest means of providing for a change in politics, which, from the death of Oliver Cromwell, on the third of September, 1658, grew daily more probable. Both of them contrived to be appointed commissioners of the government under the army, in the year 1660, when the Interregnum ceased, and Charles II. was restored to the crowns of England, Scotland, and Ireland.

Broghill, according to his own biographist and panegyrist, Morfice, proposed, in the council under Richard Cromwell, to purge the army by expelling all, who should refuse to swear to support the esta blishment of Protector and Parliament; and, within a very few months before the restoration of Charles, he wrote to Secretary Thurloe, to refute and disclaim the representations made in England, that he was endeavouring to set up for himself, by making Ireland a back-door to let Charles Stuart into England, and thereby at one 'blow to cut up by the roots the precious rights, they had been sa Jong contending for.

CHAPTER VIII.

The Reign of Charles 11.

1660.

restored.

THE different circumstances, which in different parts of the British empire, led to the immediate restoration of King Charles II. although nearly simul- Charles II taneous, were more fortuitous than systematic. It is evident, that the Irish could have had little concern and less influence in bringing it to bear, than any other part of the King's subjects. The whole Irish nation, properly so called, was at this time confined in Connaught and Clare, secluded from the interests of the other parts of the British dominions, and debarred by sanguinary and rigorously executed laws from any communication with their fellow-subjects. The popu

lation, which occupied the three other provinces of Ireland, must have constituted so motley, discordant, and interested a group, as is scarcely to be described. Ingenuity cannot devise a character, from the highest to the lowest, which could set up any other pretension than that of having opposed the regal authority, of having assumed the native property by invasion, intrusion, or adventure, or of having acquired an indefinite right to a distributive share of the kingdom from military service under the parliament, commonwealth, regicides, and protectorate. It is morally impossible, that even a remote tincture of patriotism,

1660. loyalty, or attachment to Ireland, could have inspired the conduct of an individual, then resident in any part of the island, out of Connaught and Clare, in any effort to effectuate the restoration.

Richard dissol es

ment.

The contentions between the parliament and the the Parlia army drove Richard Cromwell to dissolve the parliament, which, in fact, put an end to his protectorate, which had lasted only seven months and twenty days. His character was the very reverse of that of his father. After the protector had, at the instigation of Broghill, dissolved the council of officers, with a degree of resolution that was not expected from him, the lords Howard, Broghill, and others, plainly apprized Richard, that the heads of these officers continued to hold secret meetings, which not only put his power but his person in danger; that Fleetwood and his party were to be crushed only by a bold stroke, and that, if he would properly empower them, all his enemies should be forced to obedience, or be cut off. The protector startled at the proposition, and answered in consternation. He thanked them for their friendship, but*" that he "neither had done nor would do any person any harm, "and that rather than a drop of blood should be spilt "on his account, he would lay down that greatness, "which was a burthen to him." Henceforward, Broghill, sensible of the decline of the power of the Cromwells, to whom he had rendered such signal services, and from whom he had received such personal obligations, threw himself with vehemence into

Budgel's Mem. of the Boyle Family, p. 76.

the tide, which he saw on the turn. From that time 1660. he was as prominently forward in promoting, as he had lately been in opposing, the return of the Stuarts. Though personally inimical to Sir Charles Coote, who had heretofore never agreed with him but in savage zeal to oppress the native Irish, and support the interests of Cromwell, he engaged him to second his efforts for the restoration of Charles, as the most promising means of advancing and securing their own interests.

claimed

Ireland,

Even the population of the three provinces, consti- Charles pro tuted as it then was of an heterogeneous mixture, throughout being wearied of so many alterations and changes, and despising the weakness of the distracted government, began to incline to a restoration of the old order of things. This popular disposition favored the views of Broghill and Coote; they artfully manoeuvred the advantage that presented itself, and so modelled the armed forces under their respective commands in Munster and Ulster, as to send an assurance of effectual co-operation with Monck, who was then in Scotland*. Coote seized upon the castle at Dublin,

*That self-interest actuated all the actions of these time-serving adventurers, Broghill and Coote, is evident from their conduct to their sovereign, to each other, and to the country. No sooner had Broghill communicated his intentions to Coote, than Coote took the advantage of him by sending over Sir Arthur Forbes to the King at Bruxelles, with special instructions to depreciate Broghill, and to assume the whole merit of having first put the plan for his Majesty's restoration into motion in Ireland; and to magnify the difficulties he had surmounted, in bringing the re

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