session, after
twenty-five years of possession solemnly guaranteed by statute, after
innumerable leases and releases, mortgages and devises, it was too late
to search for flaws in titles. Nevertheless something might have been
done to heal the lacerated feelings and to raise the fallen fortunes of
the Irish gentry. The colonists were in a thriving condition. They had
greatly improved their property by building, planting, and fencing. The
rents had almost doubled within a few years; trade was brisk; and the
revenue, amounting to about three hundred thousand pounds a year, more
than defrayed all the charges of the local government, and afforded a
surplus which was remitted to England. There was no doubt that the
next Parliament which should meet at Dublin, though representing almost
exclusively the English interest, would, in return for the King's
promise to maintain that interest in all its legal rights, willingly
grant to him a very considerable sum for the purpose of indemnifying, at
least in part, such native families as had been wrongfully despoiled.
It was thus that in our own time the French government put an end to the
disputes engendered by the most extensive confiscation that ever took
place in Europe. And thus, if James had been guided by the advice of
his most loyal Protestant counsellors, he would have at least greatly
mitigated one of the chief evils which afflicted Ireland. [162]

Having done this, he should have laboured to reconcile the hostile races
to each other by impartially protecting the rights and restraining the
excesses of both. He should have punished with equal severity the native
who indulged in the license of barbarism, and the colonist who abused
the strength of civilisation. As far as the legitimate authority of
the crown extended,--and in Ireland it extended far,--no man who
was qualified for office by integrity and ability should have been
considered as disqualified by extraction or by creed for any public
trust. It is probable that a Roman Catholic King, with an ample revenue
absolutely at his disposal, would, without much difficulty, have secured
the cooperation of the Roman Catholic prelates and priests in the great
work of reconciliation. Much, however, must still have been left to the
healing influence of time. The native race would still have had to learn
from the colonists industry and forethought, the arts of life, and the
language of England. There could not be equality between me