may have felt the bitterness of his taunts or been stung by the pas sionate vehemence of his reproaches.

James was disappointed when he found the money coming slowly in, on the issuing of his proclamation. But, never at a loss, he immediately issued another proclamation for the depreciation of the currency, and ordering his brass coinage to pass for a hundred times more than it was worth. He erected a bank, and became a money coiner; he established a bank-restriction act, like a financier of more recent times, and like him egregiously failed. The bank soon broke, and thousands were involved in the ruin that followed.

Another instance of James's arbitrary policy was displayed in his dealings with the college of Dublin. He ordered the fellows to admit a Roman catholic to the office of senior fellow, and they refused. James immediately sent against the refractory collegians a body of soldiers, who expelled them all forthwith, and converted the college into a barrack!

It is but fair to state that the administration of justice at this period was admirable. The judges who occupied the bench, with very few exceptions, were men of the highest moral and intellectual qualifications; and whose conduct would have reflected honour upon the judicature of any age or country.

CHAPTER XXIV.

William sends an army into Ireland under Schomberg-The character of the forceCarrickfergus taken-Schomberg encamps at Dundalk- Is reduced to great distress-William resolves to invade Ireland in person-Warlike preparationsCapture of Charlemont-William lands in Ireland and takes the command of the army-James joins his Irish forces-The rival Monarchs meet at the Boyne Preparations on both sides-The battle of the Boyne-Retreat of the Irish army --James's flight to France.

WILLIAM OF ORANGE now turned his attention towards Ireland, which he found it necessary to subdue, before he could consider himself firmly fixed on the British throne. He was much harassed, however, by the distractions which still prevailed throughout the kingdom, and could not yet give his own personal superintendence to the affairs of Ireland. Numerous parties in England were now plotting against his authority. Those who had put him in power, were now seeking to cast him off; and James's friends were zealously at work in various parts of the empire. William saw that it was necessary to strike a blow at the rising power of his rival, else he might be driven from the throne as his predecessor was before him. He resolved to send an army into Ireland; and, entrusting it to the command of Schomberg, one of the most skilful of his generals, it set sail and landed at Carrickfergus, on the 13th of August.

The forces under Schomberg amounted to about 16,000 men, consisting of Germans, French, Danes, Dutch, English, Scotch, and indeed almost every nation in Europe. They were a collection of the kind of soldiers called "Mercenaries," who, during the Thirty Years' War in Germany, were ready to sell themselves into the service of any master, without regard to either country, or party, or cause. They were a body of men familiar with every kind of abomination and vice; and, before the end of the war, their unnatural excesses and crimes had roused against them a degree of hatred among the Irish, which had not been exceeded even in the days of Cromwell's cruelest barbarities.

Schomberg landed his army without opposition, the Irish forces in the neighbourhood retiring to the garrisons of Lisburne and Carrickfergus. He then laid siege to the latter place, which was vigorously defended by the governor, Macarty More; but he was at last compelled to surrender, when the garrison marched out with the honours of war. The Ulster Scots, however, were with difficulty prevented from murdering them; but Schomberg interfered, and they reached the nearest garrison in comparative safety. The army now directed its march westwards, and was joined on its way by the wild Enniskilleners, and the forces of General Kirk. The enemy burned down several towns in their route, among others, Newry and Carlingford. Schomberg threatened to give no quarter, should this destructive practice be continued, and it was given up. His army next reached Dundalk, about a mile north of which they pitched their camp.

The weather was now cold and tempestuous; the ground on which the encampment was formed, was wet and low lying; added to which the army ran short of provisions, and the men began to sicken and die in considerable numbers. At this juncture, the Irish army approached, commanded by Marshal Rosen. Schomberg, under present circumstances, could not risk a battle; but proceeded to entrench himself more securely in his field-quarters. James shortly after came up with the rest of the army, and endeavoured to tempt the old general into action by drawing up his force, and ostentatiously parading it in front of the camp. But the wily old fox was not to be so entrapped, and James had no s'omach for fighting: accordingly he drew off his army to Ardee, Rosen indignantly exclaiming, "If your majesty had ten kingdoms, you would lose them all."

Schomberg's army was now reduced to great straits. The men died by hundreds, and those that survived were completely broken down by disease and privation. The number of sick, dying, and dead, was so great, that scarcely sufficient men could be spared to bury the corpses, which lay putrefying on the ground. The Enniskilleners were now the only effective portion of the army, and they accomplished some brilliant successes over detached bodies of the Irish troops. On the other hand, General Sarsfield, the Irish

Q

commander of the light troops, obtained several distinguished advantages over the protestants, the more important of which were the capture of the towns of Sligo and Jamestown. Schomberg's army was now reduced by the pestilence to a shadow. A few more regiments arrived from England and Scotland, when the general resolved to remove to a more healthy situation, in order that the' new troops might not catch the infection. The shifting of the army was one of the most melancholy sights. Numbers of the sick men died on being removed; all along the route the corpses were cast out of the waggons, the rough motion of which proved fatal to hundreds; and such was the fearful mortality, that it is said the rearguard of the army literally marched through a lane formed of the dead bodies of their comrades. Schomberg at length disposed of the miserable remains of his army in those of the northern towns which acknowledged the authority of William; and thus ended a futile and disgraceful campaign, the only memorable circumstances of which were the deplorable suffering of the men and the sheepish incapacity of their officers.

The clamours which arose in England, on the arrival of the intelligence from Ireland as to the real position of Schomberg's army,the charges of incapacity which were made against those who had been appointed to the command of the expedition,-induced William at length to take decided steps for the speedy settlement of the war. He resolved to call a new parliament, to commit the reins of government to his popular wife, Queen Mary, and to undertake the management of the war in Ireland in person. Schomberg's forces were encouraged by this intelligence, and made several attacks upon the Irish forces during the winter, which were attended with varying success. Stores of arms, ammunition, and provisions, meanwhile arrived from England, and a reinforcement of Danish troops, to the number of 7,000, landed at Belfast, under the command of the Prince of Wirtemberg. Nor was King James's government less assiduous in their efforts to prepare for the ensuing campaign. Fortifications were repaired, recruits raised, troops drilled, and all the necessary preparations made for a severe and decisive encounter. A great mistake, however, was committed by James, in exchanging five thousand of his most veteran Irish troops, under the command of Macarty More, one of his bravest generals, for five thousand French troops, under the command of the Duke of Lausun. These afterwards proved a hinderance rather than a help. They were refractory and disobedient, and would aknowledge no authority but that of their French commander, who looked rather to the interests of his French master than to the establishment of the liberties of Ireland.

The capture of Charlemont by Schomberg's troops, about this time, was felt by James as a severe loss. This fort was one of the strongest in the north of Ireland; it occupied the summit of a hill which commanded a very important pass, and overlooked the

Blackwater. It was surrounded by a morass, and approachable only by two narrow causeways. The place was now held for James by a brave but eccentric old Irish officer, Teague O'Regan. On Schomberg summoning him to surrender, O'Regan's gruff answer was. "Schomberg is an old rogue, and shall not have this castle." Schomberg, however, closely invested the castle; and while sat down before it, an Irish officer, named Mac Mahon, at the head of 500 men, gallantly fought his way through the besiegers with a small supply of provisions, and reached the walls of the fort. O'Regan accepted the provisions, of which he was very short, but he refused to admit the men, of whom he had quite sufficient for the defence of the place. He therefore bade Mac Mahon and his men fight their way back again. But old Schomberg, who was alive to the movement, resolutely opposed their return, and twice were they driven back to the walls of the castle with great loss. Still old Teague would not admit them: he swore that "if they could not make their way out they should have no lodging or entertainment within." Accordingly, the unlucky detachment were compelled to take up their quarters on the counter-scarp, between the fortress and the enemy, where they were reduced to great privations. At last the brave old governor was starved into submission; he surrendered on the most favourable terms, marching out with all the honours of war.

At length William arrived in Ireland; landing at Belfast, on the 14th of June, 1690. Several strong bodies of troops had preceded him, a mixture of English, Dutch, and Brandenburghers. After joining their forces to the army of Schomberg, William found himself at the head of a body of 36,000 men. Though composed of the most heterogeneous materials, it was complete as regarded equipment, discipline, and spirit. Most of the men were veterans who had served under the greatest generals of the continent. Many of them were stimulated by the feelings of the bigot persecuted into fury. The French Huguenots of William's army had been driven out of France by the relentless persecution under Louis XIV.; and it is said that on being opposed, as they were on several occasions, to the French catholics in the Irish service, they rushed upon them like furies, their leaders whetting their rage by the cry of "Messieurs, Voilà vos persecuteurs!" The Enniskilleners, and many of the Scotch troops, were also instigated by the same bitterly hostile feeling towards " popery. As for the majority of the men, however, composing William's army, their main objects in following him, were pay, plunder, and license. A set of greater monsters in human form were perhaps never let loose upon an unhappy country, than these mercenaries of William's army. They had acquired a taste for every species of vice in their continental campaigns. The abominations of Sodom and Gomorrah were revived among these embruted bands, the refuse of the continental cities. Such was the scourge now visited upon Ireland; such was the agency by which the cause

of British protestantism was now to be maintained! But monarchs do not look to means, but ends. So that their policy be successful, it matters not through what disgusting and abominable instruments it is accomplished.

William had scarcely landed, ere he set about commencing the campaign with vigour. He assembled and reviewed his army at Loughbrickland; personally inspecting the condition and discipline of each troop and company-though the day was tempestuous and stormy on which they took the field. William then issued his orders that the army should immediately march southwards, to bring the enemy to an engagement, and put as speedy a termination as possible to the war. Some of his more cautious officers expostulated; but his remark was "I came not to Ireland to let the grass grow beneath my feet.' Before he set out, William performed an act highly acceptable to the northern presbyterians, who had been among the most zealous of his friends, and shared in all the distresses of the wars. He issued his warrant, granting them an annual pension of £1,200, to be paid by the collector of customs in the port of Belfast; which pension was afterwards transferred to the civil list, and made payable from the exchequer.*

William was on his march southward, ere James so much as

This grant was the origin of the Regium Donum, or Royal Gift, which continues to be paid to dissenting ministers in Ireland to the present day. The sum was at first granted, by letters patent passed under the great seal of Ireland, to seven ministers, during pleasure, to be by them applied to the use of the dissenting ministers of the north of Ireland. On the death of William, the trustees of the bounty petitioned Queen Anne to renew the grant, which she did, under the following limitations :-"Upon trust nevertheless that the money which shall be received thereupon shall be distributed to and amongst the said presbyterian ministers, or such of them, and in such proportions, as shall be appointed from time to time, in lists to be approved of and signed by our lieutenant deputy, or other chief governor or governors, of our said kingdom of Ireland for the time being."-Various augmentations of the above annual grant were made in succeeding reigns, the English government deeming it necessary thus to bribe the northern presbyterians, in order to maintain the English ascendancy in Ireland. In the reign of George I. £800 per annum were granted to the ministers of the Synod of Ulster and those of the Southern Association, in acknowledgment of their services in the Hanoverian succession. In 1786, a farther grant of 100 per annum was made to the ministers of the Synod of Ulster, to be distributed according to the pleasure of the government: and in 1792, a further grant of £5,000 per annum was made, to be divided among the ministers of the Synod, the Seceders, the Presbytery of Antrim, the Southern Association, and the French Church, Dublin. About the beginning of the present century, the distribution of the Regium Donum became the subject of reconsideration with the English government. In consequence of some of the dissenting ministers having been mixed up with the unfortunate proceedings of the United Irishmen in 1698, Lord Castlereagh and his coadjutors determined, in order that the administrators of the grant should have a check upon the clergy, that cach minister should receive the bounty as for himself, while the gift should be granted according to the congregation. Thus certain ministers, if judged necessary, might be deprived of their pension by the decree of the secretary of state; the Regium Donum, however, still continuing to be drawn, and its benefits appropriated to a widow's fund. The congregations were arranged in three classes; and according to the number of families belonging to them and the stipend of each, were the allowances of the ministers-some being £50, others £75, and the highest £100 per annum. Thus the Regium Donum has gone on gradually increasing with the increase of Presbyterian congregations. Thus, in 1833, nearly L24,000 of the public money were voted for the support of Presbyterian ministers in Ireland; and in 1842, the vote had reached to no less than L35,156 4s. 2d., besides a grant of L1,950, for the Belfast Institution -the Presbyterian College, Belfast. The great increase in the Regium Donum of late years is the result of a "new scale of prices" made by the Melbourne government. The do um has been equalized; the ministers of those congregations lowest in the scale being raised to the middle sum, and those standing the highest being reduced to the same price.