WILLIAM AND MAHY.

99

which their turbulence and perverseness had made necessary.It is not strange that a plan which at once gratified national ■animosity, and held out the hope of pecuniary relief, shouldhave been welcomed with eager delight. A bill was brought inwhich bore but too muchresemblance to some of the laws passedby the Jacobite legislators of Dublin. By this bill it was pro-vided that the property of every person who had been in rebel-lion against the King and Queen since the day on which theywere proclaimed should be confiscated, and that the proceedsshould be applied to the support of the war. An exception wasmade in favour of such Protestants as had merely submitted tosuperior force: but to Papists no indulgence w r as shown. Theroyal prerogative of clemency was limited. The King mightindeed, if such w'ere his pleasure, spare the lives of his van-quished enemies; but he was not to be permitted to save anypart of their estates from the general doom. He was not to haveit in his power to grant a capitulation which should secure toIrish Roman Catholics the enjoyment of their hereditary lands.Nay, he was not to be allowed to keep faith with persons whomhe had already received to mercy, who had kissed his hand, andhad heard from his lips the promise of protection. An attemptv r as made to insert a proviso in favour of Lord Dover. Dover,who, with all his faults, v'as not without some English feelings,had, by defending the interests of his native country at Dublin,made himself odious to both the Irish and the French. Afterthe battle of the Boyne his situation w r as deplorable. NeitheratLimericknor at Saint Germains could he hope to be v'elcomed.In his despair, he threw himself at William’s feet, promised tolive peaceably, and was graciously assured that he had nothingto fear. Though the royal word seemed to be pledged to thisunfortunate man, the Commons resolved, by a hundred andnineteen votes to a hundred and twelve, that his property shouldnot be exempted from the general confiscation.

CHAP.

XVI.

1630 .

7 *