78 THE CORONATION OATH AND CORONATION-WAR. [1689. and gone, all these debates will be in the air, and a greater scruple remain." One greater scruple was that which harassed the mind of George III. Happily the question is set at rest by the common sense of our own times. The Coronation of king William and queen Mary took place on the 11th of April, according to the ancient ceremonials. The archbishop of Canterbury was absent. The bishop of London supplied his place. Burnet, now bishop of Salisbury, preached, "with great applause," says Evelyn. The Members of the Lower House had especial places of honour; they were feasted in the Exchequer-chamber, and had each a gold coronation medal. The honest citizens rang their bells and made their bonfires. The Jacobites circulated their doggrel against "the dainty fine king;" and the Dutch guards who kept the ground were abused as foreign mercenaries. The House of Commons, two days after the Coronation, went up with a congratulatory address to the king and queen. But, eleven days later, the House presented an address of far greater import-declaring that they would support the crown in a war against the French king. The seconder of the address maintained "that it is of absolute necessity to declare war against the most Christian Turk, who ravages all Christendom, and makes war more barbarously than the Turks themselves." To Louis was attributed, in the address, "the present invasion of the kingdom of Ireland, and supporting your majesty's rebellious subjects there." William, in his answer, said, "I look upon the war to be so much already declared by France against England, that it is not so properly an act of choice, as an inevitable necessity, in our defence." The spirit of the king leapt up at this hearty support of the Commons in the great contest for which he had been long preparing. He is reported to have exclaimed to one of his intimates-" This is the first day of my reign!" * "Parliamentary History," vol. v. col. 210. Willian R. King James lands at Kinsale-Schemes of Tyrconnel-Condition of the Protestants in IrelandJames enters Dublin-Siege of Londonderry-The Siege raised--The Revolution in Scotland-The Highlanders-Dundee Battle of Killiecrankie-Death of Dundee. "WONDERFUL uncertainty where king James was, whether in France or Ireland," writes Evelyn on the 29th of March. James had landed at the port of Kinsale on the 12th of March. There was no uncertainty when, on the 22d, the House of Commons had voted a Supply for six months "towards the reducing of Ireland," and a member of the government had said, "the French king has carried king James into Ireland." What then passed in Parliament was very imperfectly known to the public. The debates, in the state in which thay have come down to us, were merely the brief notes of members for their private use. Even the Votes were unpublished. There was a great debate on a motion for printing the Votes, on the 9th of March. From this debate it appeared that members were in the habit of communicating the results of their proceedings to the constituencies. "It will only save the gentlemen the trouble of writing to their corporations," said Sir Thomas Lee. "You are told," says Sir Henry Capel, "of the Roll of the 9th of Henry 80 JAMES IN IRELAND-TYRCONNEL. [1689. IV. that nothing is to be taken notice of in Parliament but what you communicate to the king. At that time there were no coffee-houses and no printing. If you could keep your votes out of coffee-houses, and suppress the licentiousness of printing," you might oppose printing your votes, "otherwise you make secrets here of what all the world knows." There were men who had the sagacity to see that concealment only produced the propagation of falsehood. "I would not have L'Estrange and Nevil Payne," says Mr. Arnold, "write false news beyond sea. I desire the truth to be known, and am for printing the votes." * The House decided against the printing. The majority thought that the Clerks of the House, who were suspected of sending the Votes to coffee-houses, should be prevented from thus committing "a great crime;" and that it was for the honour of the House not to print them. We can thus understand Mr. Evelyn's uncertainty in a world of contradictory rumours. In the midst of the popular ignorance of facts there was one consolation. They could freely abuse their rulers. "The new king being much blamed for neglecting Ireland, now like to be ruined by the lord Tyrconnel and his Popish party, too strong for the Protestants," writes Evelyn, in the hour of his uncertainty. The new king was betrayed, as he was doomed to be on many future occasions. The prince of Orange, under the advice of Irish noblemen and gentlemen, had during the interregnum opened a negotiation with Tyrconnel. Richard Hamilton, the brother of that wit of the court of Charles II., who wrote the most profligate Memoirs in the purest French, had come from Ireland to fight for king James against the prince of Orange, but was chosen to return to Ireland to arrange with Tyrconnel to preserve Ireland for king William. The son of sir William Temple gave a pledge that Hamilton would be faithful. Hamilton went to Tyrconnel and plotted with him how the Protestants could be best crushed, and James seated in Ireland as its Papist king. The too sensitive young Temple, when he found that his friend had abused his confidence, drowned himself. "He was so deeply oppressed with grief that he plunged himself out of a boat into the Thames, laden with weights to sink him." The schemes of Tyrconnel succeeded. He persuaded lord Mountjoy to set out on a mission to James at St. Germain's, to represent to him "the moral impossibility of holding out against the power of England." He sent with him another envoy, chief baron Rice, "to give a quite different account to the king." Mountjoy was put into the Bastille. Tyrconnel had a clear course for his operations. "Accordingly this lord's back was no sooner turned but he began by degrees to pull off the mask. He caused all the Protestants in Dublin to surrender their arms; he began to augment the standing forces; and with as much prudence as dexterity soon put the kingdom in a tolerable state of defence." Such is the explanation of the alleged neglect, not given by a partizan of king William, but by the compiler of the Life of James II. from his own Memoirs.‡ James had quitted France with this remarkable wish of the great * L'Estrange was the Censor of the press under Charles II. and editor of the "Public Intelligencer." Nevil Payne was an agent of James in Scotland, who was in correspondence with the English Jacobites. Alexander Cunningham-"History of Great Britain," vol. i. p. 126. 1689.] CONDITION OF THE PROTESTANTS IN IRELAND. 81 monarch at their parting-"the best thing I can desire for you is never to see you back again." The munificent favours of Louis-his generous as well as politic honours to a fallen brother-the adulation of courtiers, who looked upon a king, however powerless, as a demi-god-these were to be exchanged for a doubtful struggle for a divided kingdom. Yet if James could maintain a position in Ireland, he might recover England. "If king James would quit his priests," said Danby, "he might still retrieve his affairs."* His prospects in Ireland were far from desperate; they were in many particulars encouraging. The Protestants who, from the time of the plantation of Ulster in the time of James I., had been gradually changing a wild and profitless country into a flourishing seat of trade and manufactures, had recovered the effects of the massacre of 1641. Cromwell had replaced them in security by the terror of his strong arm. They were again the dominant power; the native Irish were again a subjected race. James II. out of no sense of equal justice to save the aboriginal people from the tyranny of the smaller number, had determined to depress the colonisers and subject them to the less regulated tyranny of that hatred of their race and their religion which animated the Celtic population. In two years Ireland, under the rule of Tyrconnel, was a kingdom in which the civil and military strength was almost wholly in the hands of Papists. The Protestant militia had been disarmed early in the reign of James. Tyrconnel's soldiers seized upon all arms in the possession of Protestant householders, who were alone qualified by law to carry weapons. James entered Ireland when all those likely to oppose him were thought to be naked and defenceless. Before the Revolution was completed in England, the inhabitants of * Reresby's "Memoirs," p. 325. VOL. ". G 82 JAMES ENTERS DUBLIN. [1689. Enniskillen and Londonderry had received such warnings from the attitude of the Irish government, and the temper of the native population around them, that they prepared to defend themselves against the same sort of attack which Londonderry had successfully resisted in 1641. Enniskillen repelled the attempt to quarter Popish soldiers in their little town. Londonderry secured its gates against the entrance of a similar force. Mountjoy, who was afterwards betrayed into the mission to James, was well received at Londonderry, and left a Protestant garrison for their protection, under one of his officers, lieutenant-colonel Lundy. Before William and Mary had received the crown, the whole Catholic population around the Protestants was preparing for rapine and revenge. The sovereigns of the Revolution were, however, proclaimed by the staunch citizens of Londonderry and the small colony of Enniskillen; and they abided the issue without shrinking. The men of Londonderry relied upon Lundy, as governor, who had sent his adhesion to England, and had received from William and Mary a formal appointment to his command. Upon Hamilton, Tyrconnel had bestowed the reward of his treachery, by placing him at the head of a body of troops to bring the Protestants of Ulster to submission. These troops desolated the country; and the wretched inhabitants fled before them to Enniskillen and to Londonderry. The city, which had been founded by Englishmen upon the site of the old ruined city of Derry granted by James I. to the Corporation of London, had become the chief refuge for many thousands, in addition to its usual inhabitants. Amongst those who had fled hither for succour, was the rector of a neighbouring parish, George Walker, whose name will always live in honoured remembrance. The king of the Roman Catholics entered Dublin on the 24th of March. Devoted soldiers lined the streets; the houses were hung with tapestry; his horse trod upon flowers and green leaves. He was met at the castle gate by the procession of the host, and he fell on his knees in adoration. Despatches received from Hamilton, now a lieutenant-general, showed that there was work to do, beyond that of pageants and congratulations. The king himself at length determined to go amongst the troops to encourage them, taking with him the French officers that had accompanied him to Ireland.* His march into Ulster commenced on the 13th of April. He travelled through a wasted country from which the inhabitants had fled, taking with them their moveable goods. The position of James and his followers was disagreeable enough. It was determined to return to Dublin; and so they went back to Charlemont. But, says the Memoir, "the king received by an express a letter from the duke of Berwick, in the name of all the General officers, as their opinion, that in case his majesty would return to the army, and but show himself before Derry, it would infallibly surrender."+ James again changed his mind; and setting out towards the obstinate city the next morning, overtook the French general Rosen within two miles of the place where his mere presence was to compel submission. The trumpeter sent by the king with a summons, found the inhabitants "in very great disorder, having turned out their Governor Lundy, upon suspicion." The cause of this unexpected reception was the presence of one Walker, a Minister." He was opposed to * "Life of James II." vol. ii. p. 330; Own Memoirs. + Ibid. p. 332. Ibid. p. 333. |