ublicans; the former were to resume their
rank, the latter to retain their plunder, Ireland was disregarded. The
mockery of the Court of Claims restored less than one-third of the
Irish lands. While in 1641 the Roman Catholics possessed two-thirds of
Ireland, in 1680 they had but one-fifth[12]. Besides, the new
possessors were of an opposite creed, and fortified themselves by Penal
Laws. Under such circumstances the aim of most men would be much the
same, namely, to take the first opportunity of regaining their
property, their national independence, and religious freedom. With
reference to their legislation on the two latter points, doubts may be
entertained how much should be complained of; and even those who
condemn that on the first, should remember that "the re-adjustment of
all private rights, after so entire a destruction of their landmarks,
could only be effected by the coarse process of general rules[13]."

Let us now run over a few dates, till we come to the event which gave
the Irish this opportunity. On the 6th of February, 1685, Charles the
Second died in the secret profession of the Roman Catholic faith, and
his brother, James Stuart, Duke of York, succeeded him.

James the Second came to his throne with much of what usually wins
popular favour. He united in his person the blood of the Tudor,
Plantagenet, and Saxon kings of England, while his Scottish descent
came through every king of Scotland, and found its spring in the Irish
Dalriad chief, who, embarking from Ulster, overran Albany. In addition,
James had morals better than those of his rank and time, as much
intellect as most kings, and the reputation acquired from his naval
administration, graced as it was by sea-fights in which no ship was
earlier in action than James's, and by at least one great victory--that
over Opdam--fought near Yarmouth, on the 3rd June, 1665.

Yet the difference of his creed from that of his English subjects blew
these popular recollections to shivers. He tried to enforce, first,
toleration; and, secondly, perfect religious equality, and intended,
as many thought, the destruction of that equality, by substituting a
Roman Catholic for a Protestant supremacy; and the means he used for
this purpose were such as the English Parliament had pronounced
unconstitutional. He impeached the corporate charters by _quo
warranto_, brought to trial before judges whom he influenced, as all
his predecessors had done. He invaded the customs o