JAMES THE SECOND.

39i

The work of putting the colonists down under the feet of the cdap.natives went rapidly on. In a short time almost every Privy J6S r.Councillor, Judge, Sheriff, Mayor, Alderman, and Justiceof the Peace was a Celt and a Roman Catholic. It seemedthat things would soon be ripe for a general election, and thati House of Commons bent on abrogating the Act of Settle-ment would easily be assembled.* Those who had latelybeen the lords of the island now cried out, in the bitternessof their souls, that they had become a prey and a laughing-stock to their own serfs and menials; that houses were burntand cattle stolen with impunity; that the new soldiers roamedtliecountry, pillaging, insulting, ravishing, maiming, tossingoneProtestant in a blanket, tying up another by the hair andscourging him; that to appeal to the law was vain; that IrishJudges, Sheriffs, juries, and witnesses were all in a league tosave Irish criminals; and that, even without an Act of Parlia-ment, the whole soil would soon change hands; for that, inevery action of ejectment tried under the administration ofTyrconnel, judgment had been given for the native againstthe Englishman. **

While Clarendon was at Dublin the Privy Seal had been inthe hands of Commissioners. ‘His friends hoped that it would,on his return to London, be again delivered to him. But theKing and the Jesuitical cabal had determined that the disgraceof the Hydes should be complete. Lord Arundell of Wardour,a Roman Catholic, received the Privy Seal. Bellasyse, aRoman Catholic, was made First Lord of the Treasury; andDover, another Roman Catholic, had a seat at the board.

The appointment of a ruined gambler to such a trust wouldalone have sufficed to disgust the public. The dissoluteEtherege, who then resided at Ratisbon as English envoy,

* Sheridan MS.j Oldmixon’s Memoirs of Ireland; King’s' Slate ofthe Protestants of Ireland, particularly chapter iii.; Apology for theProtestants ol Ireland, 1BS9.

** Secret Consults of the Komish Parly in Ireland, 1690.