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HISTORY OF ENGLAND.

chap. Aldermen had never even seen the places over which they were~~ i e s9 ~ appointed to bear rule. At the same time the Sheriffs, to whombelonged the execution of writs and the nomination of juries,were selected in almost every instance from the caste which hadtill very recently been excluded from all public trust. It wasaffirmed that some of these important functionaries had beenburned in the hand for theft. Others had been servants to Pro-testants; and the Protestants added, with bitter scorn, that itwas fortunate for the country when this was the case; for thata menial who had cleaned the plate and rubbed down the horseof an English gentleman might pass for a civilised being, w’hencompared with many of the native aristocracy whose lives hadbeen spent in coshering or marauding. To such Sheriffs nocolonist, even if he had been so strangely fortunate as to obtaina judgment, dared to intrust an execution.*

The miii- Thus the civil power had, in the space of a few months, beenpower in transferred from the Saxon to the Celtic population. Theof theiio- transfer of the military power had been not less complete. ThetiioiiS" arm y> which, under the command of Ormond, had been thechief safeguard of the English ascendency, had ceased to exist.Whole regiments had been dissolved and reconstructed. Sixthousand Protestant veterans, deprived of their bread, werebrooding in retirement over their wrongs, or had crossed thesea and joined the standard of AVilliam. Their place wassupplied by men wdio had long suffered oppression, and who,finding themselves suddenly transformed from slaves intomasters, w y ere impatient to pay back, with accumulated usury,the heavy debt of injuries and insults. The new soldiers, it wassaid, never passed an Englishman without cursing him andcalling him by some foul name. They were the terror of every* King, ii. 5. 1., iii. 3. 5.; A Short View of the Methods made useof in Ireland for the Subversion and Destruction of the Protestant Re-ligion and Interests, by a Clergyman lately escaped from thence, licensedOct. 17. 1689.