the preservation of Ireland,
[242] The Commons appointed a committee to enquire into the cause of the
delays and miscarriages which had been all but fatal to the Englishry of
Ulster. The officers to whose treachery or cowardice the public ascribed
the calamities of Londonderry were put under arrest. Lundy was sent to
the Tower, Cunningham to the Gate House. The agitation of the public
mind was in some degree calmed by the announcement that, before the
end of the summer, an army powerful enough to reestablish the English
ascendency in Ireland would be sent across Saint George's Channel, and
that Schomberg would be the General. In the meantime an expedition
which was thought to be sufficient for the relief of Londonderry
was despatched from Liverpool under the command of Kirke. The dogged
obstinacy with which this man had, in spite of royal solicitations,
adhered to his religion, and the part which he had taken in the
Revolution, had perhaps entitled him to an amnesty for past crimes. But
it is difficult to understand why the Government should have selected
for a post of the highest importance an officer who was generally and
justly hated, who had never shown eminent talents for war, and who, both
in Africa and in England, had notoriously tolerated among his soldiers
a licentiousness, not only shocking to humanity, but also incompatible
with discipline.

On the sixteenth of May, Kirke's troops embarked: on the twenty-second
they sailed: but contrary winds made the passage slow, and forced the
armament to stop long at the Isle of Man. Meanwhile the Protestants of
Ulster were defending themselves with stubborn courage against a great
superiority of force. The Enniskilleners had never ceased to wage a
vigorous partisan war against the native population. Early in May they
marched to encounter a large body of troops from Connaught, who had
made an inroad into Donegal. The Irish were speedily routed, and fled to
Sligo with the loss of a hundred and twenty men killed and sixty taken.
Two small pieces of artillery and several horses fell into the hands of
the conquerors. Elated by this success, the Enniskilleners soon invaded
the county of Cavan, drove before them fifteen hundred of James's
troops, took and destroyed the castle of Ballincarrig, reputed the
strongest in that part of the kingdom, and carried off the pikes and
muskets of the garrison. The next incursion was into Meath. Three
thousand oxen and two thousand sheep were