■WILLIAM AND MAEY.

129

CHAPTER XH.

William had assumed, together with the title of King of C ” A , P -England, the title of King of Ireland. Eor all our jurists then 16 sa.regarded Ireland as a mere colony,' more important indeed thanMassachusetts, Virginia, or Jamaica, but, like Massachusetts, at uieVirginia, and Jamaica, dependent on the mother country, and the nevo-bound to pay allegiance to the Sovereign whom the mother u 1country had called to the throne.*

In fact, however, the Revolution found Ireland emancipated The civilfrom the dominion of the English colony. As early as the year the hands1686, James had determined to make that island a place of arms nomanwhich might overawe Great Britain, and a place of refuge Calh0llc3 -w r here, if any disaster happened in Great Britain, the membersof his Church might find refuge. With this view he hadexerted all his power for the purpose of inverting the relationbetween the conquerors and the aboriginal population. Theexecution of his design he had intrusted, in spite of the remon-strances of his English counsellors, to the Lord Deputy Tyr-connel. In the autumn of 1688, the process was complete. Thehighest offices in the state, in the army, and in the Courts ofJustice, were, with scarcely an exception, filled by Papists.

A pettifogger named Alexander Fitton, who had been detectedin forgery, who had been fined for misconduct by the House ofLords at Westminster, who had been many years in prison, andwho was equally deficient in legal knowledge and in the natural

* The general opinion of the English on this subject is clearly ex-pressed in a little tract entitled “Aphorisms relating to the Kingdom ofIreland,” ■which appeared during the vacancy of the throne.

Macaulay, History . 1V» 9