36

HISTORY OP ENGLAND.

CHAP.

xxv.

noo.

who was evidently well acquainted with Ireland, assertedthat the authors of the report had valued the forfeitedproperty in Carlow at six times the real market price,and that the two million six hundred thousand pounds,of which they talked, would be found to shrink to abouthalf a million, which, as the exchanges then stood be-tween Dublin and London, would have dwindled to fourhundred thousand pounds by the time that it reached theEnglish Exchequer. It was subsequently proved, be-yond all dispute, that this estimate was very much nearerthe truth than that which had been formed by Trenchardand Trenehard’s colleagues.

Of the seventeen hundred thousand acres which hadbeen forfeited, above a fourth part had been restored tothe ancient proprietors in conformity with the civil articlesof the treaty of Limerick. About one seventh of the re-maining three fourths had been given back to unhappyfamilies, which, though they could not plead the letter ofthe treaty, had been thought fit obj ects of clemency. Therest had been bestowed, partly on persons whose servicesmerited all and more than all that they obtained, butchiefly on the King’s personal friends. Komney hadobtained a considerable share of the royal bounty. But ofall the grants the largest was to Woodstock, the eldest sonof Portland; the next was to Albemarle. An admirer ofWilliam cannot relate without pain that he divided be-tween these two foreigners an extent of country larger thanHertfordshire.