WILLIAM THE THIRD.

47

purchase, of property which had been strictly respectedby the King and by his grantees. No immunity wasgranted even to men who had fought on the English side,even to men who had lined the walls of Londonderry andrushed on the Irish guns at Newton Butler.

In some cases the Commons showed indulgence: buttheir indulgence was not less unjustifiable, nor of less per-nicious example, than their severity. The ancient rule,a rule which is still strictly maintained, and which cannotbe relaxed without danger of boundless profusion andshameless jobbery, is that whatever the Parliament grantsshall be granted to the Sovereign, and that no publicbounty shall bo bestowed on any private person exceptby the Sovereign.

The Lower House now, contemptuously disregardingboth principles and precedents, took on itself to carveestates out of the forfeitures for persons whom it was in-clined to favour. To the Duke of Ormond especially, whoranked among the Tories and was distinguished by hisdislike of the foreigners, marked partiality was shown.Some of his friends, indeed, hoped that they should beable to insert in the bill a clause bestowing on him all theconfiscated estates in the county of Tipperary. But theyfound that it would be prudent in them to content them-selves with conferring on him a boon smaller in amount,but equally objectionable in principle. He had owed verylarge debts to persons who had forfeited to the Crown allthat belonged to them. Those debts were therefore now

CHAP.

XXA.

17011.