126

PLOT OF PRESTON AND ASHTON.

[1691 as to assure the prisoner a much fairer trial than under the ancient system, by affording him every facility for his defence. We may have incidentally to notice the publication of the most virulent libels against the person and principles of William. But we shall also have to record that, at the very time when these attacks were most frequent and most inflammatory, the laws against printing and publishing were relaxed instead of being made more stringent-the censorship of the press was abandoned. We may probably attribute to this moderation of the king, the circumstance that, although his reign was one of continual danger to his person; that although he was surrounded by treacherous servants and cold friends; that although a systematic attack upon the principles that raised him to power was constantly going forward, his power strengthened as it grew, out of the very absence of any attempt to prop it by unconstitutional devices. There might have been something in the character of the English people which led them to respect the equanimity which had no morbid dread of the conspirator or the libeller; which was never diverted from its own course of duty by fear or by revenge. But certainly there must have been something very remarkable in the character of William-very different from the ordinary character of those who are termed usurpers-to direct him toward the noble policy of making himself secure by equal justice instead of irregular despotism, and of living down calumny instead of weakly attempting to forbid its utterance. We have been led to these remarks by the fact, that when William returned from the Continent in April, he had to occupy some portion of his short visit to England by learning the extent of the conspiracy of which Preston was the chief agent, and of determining as to the fate of some of those accused as conspirators. We cannot enter minutely into the details of the discoveries which had been made by his ministers in the king's absence. Preston had confessed, when his own fate appeared to depend upon his confession, that he was guilty himself, and that Clarendon, Turner the bishop of Ely, and William Penn, were implicated with him. When William returned to England, Preston was brought before him at the Council; and he then said, "that Mr. Penn had told him the duke of Ormond, the earls of Devonshire, Dorset, Macclesfield, lord Brandon," and others, were well affected to the plot. He also implicated lord Dartmouth. The accusation against these eminent persons was probably without foundation. Whether or not, William. stopped the hearsay testimony of Preston. The biographer of James shows the value of this wise discretion: "It is probable the prince of Orange thought it not prudent to attack so great a body of the nobility at once; that what he knew was sufficient either to be aware of them, or by forgiveness and a seeming clemency gain them to his interest. Which method succeeded so well, that whatever sentiments those lords which Mr. Penn had named might have had at that time, they proved in effect most bitter enemies to his Majesty's [king James's] cause ever afterwards." And this is deliberately written by the habitual maligner of king William.

Since the successes of Marlborough in the autumn of 1690, there had been no marked change in the positions of the two contending parties in Ireland. To follow up his successes was not a trust assigned to the victor

"Life of James II" p. 443.

+ Ibid.

1691.)

MARLBOROUGH IN FLANDERS-IRELAND.

127

at Cork and Kinsale. Marlborough was chosen by William to accompany him in his Continental campaign. He was entrusted to collect all the English troops, and to wait near Brussels till the king should arrive to take the command. William had much diplomatic work on his hands—to encourage the wavering, to assist the weak, and to bribe the hungry. Victor Amadeus was in despair at the devastation of his country by the French armies: Schomberg was sent by William to raise the duke out of his despondency. The petty princes of the Germanic empire, striving, for the most part, for some personal dignity or profit, had each to be propitiated and kept in good humour. In the interval between the king's arrival at the Hague and his taking the command of the army, Marlborough was sorely tempted to make good some of the professions which he had secretly conveyed to the sovereign whom he had betrayed in 1688. It is recorded that Marlborough had, in London, told colonel Sackville, an agent of the court of St. Germains, "that he was ready to redeem his apostacy with the hazard of his utter ruin ;" and "proffered to bring over the English troops that were in Flanders if the king [James] required it." It is further stated that he wrote to the same effect to James himself, in January and May, 1691. "Nevertheless," says the compiler of James's life, "the king found no effects of these mighty promises; for his majesty insisting upon his offer of bringing over the English troops in Flanders, as the greatest service he could do him, he excused himself under pretence that there was some mistake in the message." Marlborough asked, however, for two lines under the hand of James, "to testify that he would extend his pardon to him."* James, it is stated, complied with this request. Whether the crafty Churchill really believed, as he assured James, that "in case the French were successful in Flanders, or any ill accident should happen to the prince of Orange, his restoration would be very easy," it is pretty clear that he, like many others, saw nothing higher in politics than their own safety and their own profit. William had no suspicion of the man employed by him in a most important command. The opportunity was probably wanting for a decisive act of treachery in this campaign, in which nothing great on either side was accomplished or even attempted.

But, if 1691 were a year of inaction in Flanders, it was a year of great events in Ireland. In the spring, Tyrconnel had arrived from France to assume his position as the viceroy of James; and he was followed by a French general, Saint Ruth, as commander-in-chief of the Irish army. He took the command at Limerick, and made great exertions to bring the disorganized troops into a state of efficiency. On the English side, an experienced Dutch officer, Ginkell, was appointed to the command-in-chief. His first operation was to lay siege to Athlone. On the thirtieth of June, a day memorable with the English army, the grenadiers again put green boughs in their hats, and were led to the assault under the command of Mackay. The town was taken by a bold attack; and Saint Ruth, who was encamped near, marched away on the road to Galway. He took up a strong position at Aghrim, resolved to risk a general engagement. On the 12th of July, at five in the evening, the two armies joined battle. The Irish fought with the

128

LIMERICK SURRENDERS TO GINKELL.

[1691.

most desperate resolution. The English and Dutch attacked and fell back, again and again. The issue was at one time very doubtful. But at the very crisis of the engagement, the French general was killed by a cannon-ball, and his death was concealed. The other general, Sarsfield, was inactive with the reserve, waiting for orders. The Irish were overpowered, and were soon disorganized. The victory of the English was complete, and they did not use it with moderation. There were few prisoners; and four thousand Irish lay dead on the actual battle-field. It is supposed that seven thousand altogether fell in the horrible carnage which accompanied the total rout of Aghrim. Ginkell followed up his victory by obtaining the capitulation of Galway; its garrison, with the French general, D'Usson, being permitted to retire to Limerick. Here was the last stand made against the triumphant army of king William. That army was now well supplied with artillery and the munitions of war. The same ground was occupied as in the previous year; but it was not in the same wet condition. Ginkell, by a bold manœuvre, crossed the Shannon on a bridge of boats, and scattered the Irish horse that were encamped near the city. He then succeeded in carrying a detached fort, which commanded the bridge called Thomond's; and a fearful slaughter of the garrison accompanied this success. The bombardment was terribly effective. The garrison might hold out till the whole town was in ashes; but even then, unless the besiegers were compelled to retire on the approach of the wet season, hunger would effect what cannon-balls and bombs had left incomplete. The fall of the city became inevitable. In 1690 a French fleet commanded the approaches from the sea. Now, an English fleet rode in the Shannon. Hostilities were suspended for some days during the progress of negotiations. On the 1st of October, two treaties were signed-one military, the other civil. The civil treaty was signed by the Lords Justices, who had repaired to the camp. The first article of this civil treaty was in the following words: "It is agreed that the Roman Catholics of this kingdom shall enjoy such privileges in the exercise of their religion, as are consistent with the laws of Ireland, or as they did enjoy in the reign of king Charles the Second. And their majesties, as soon as their affairs will permit them to summon a Parliament in this kingdom, will endeavour to procure the said Roman Catholics such further security in this particular, as may preserve them from any disturbance on account of their said religion." An entire amnesty was promised to all who should take the oath of allegiance. Limerick bears the name of "the City of the Violated Treaty." Years of unjust and vindictive penal laws, which are now happily swept away, have manifested that this reproach is not unfounded. The Parliament of Ire.and became wholly Protestant, and laws were passed which not only denied the Roman Catholics "privilege, in the exercise of their religion," but deprivey them of the most sacred civil rights-the rights of family. The war in Ireland was at an end-but not its woes. It was offered to the thousands of Irish troops at Limerick, to make their election for entering the army of king William, or to become the soldiers of king Louis in France. The greater number decided for France. It had been promised by the Irish general that those who embarked for another country should be allowed to take their wives and families with them. The promise could only be partly realised. "When the ablest men," says the writer of "Macaria

1691.]

99.66

Excidium," were once got on shipboard, the women and babes were left on the shore, exposed to hunger and cold, without any manner of provision, and without any shelter in that rigorous season but the canopy of heaven; and in such a miserable condition that it moved pity in some of their enemies." Ireland thus passed under the rule of the English colonizers. Happy would it have been, if years had not been suffered to elapse before it was felt that penal laws were the worst of all modes for securing religious conformity; happy, if another series of years had not been wasted in attempts to maintain the Union of two nations without an equal participation of civil rights. The present generation has honestly laboured to repair the injustice of the past; and the time may thus arrive when even the name of the third William shall be pronounced without party hatreds.

Scotland-Affairs of Religion-Plots-The Highland Clans dispersed-State of the Highlands in 1691-Breadalbane-Proclamation of the Government-The Master of Stair-Tardy submission of MacIan-Order as to rebels not submitted-Order for MacIan of Glencoe, and his tribe-Letters of the Master of Stair-Highland troops arrive in Glencoe-The Massacre of the MacDonalds-Inquiry into the Massacre in 1695-Resolutions of the Scottish Parliament-Master of Stair dismissed-The other persons implicated-Breadalbane-Misconceptions connected with the Massacre-Character of William unjustly

assailed.

THE politics of Scotland in the first two years after the Revolution were more complicated than those of England. The ascendancy of the Presbyterians had been established; but the Episcopalians were still a formidable body. In 1689, although episcopacy had been abolished, the church-government had not been defined. There was no supreme directing power in affairs of religion. In 1690, the Parliament of Scotland established the synodical authority; made the signature to the Confession of Faith the test of orthodoxy; and Patronage was abolished, under certain small compensations to the patrons. The dissensions connected with these arrangements gave courage to those who looked to discord as the means for restoring the Stuart king. A knot of turbulent and discontented men, known as The Club,