Treaty of Limerick

On the 12th of December, some foolish man, whose name has not come down to us, moved that no person employed in any civil office, the speaker, judges, and ambassadors accepted, should receive more than 500 pounds a year, and this motion was not only carried, but carried without one dissentient voice.

those who were most interested in opposing it doubtless saw that opposition would at the moment only irritate the majority and reserve themselves for a more favorable time the more favorable time soon came no man of common sense could when his blood had cooled remember without shame that he had voted for a resolution which made no distinction between censorious and laborious public servants between clerks employed in copying letters and ministers on whose wisdom and integrity the fate of the nation might depend the salary of the doorkeeper of the excise office had been by a scandalous job raised to five hundred a year it ought to have been reduced to fifty on the other hand the services of a secretary of state who was well qualified for his post would have been cheap at five thousand if the resolution of the commons had been carried into effect both the salary which ought not to have exceeded fifty pounds and the salary which might without impropriety have amounted to five thousand would have been fixed at five hundred such absurdity must have shocked even the roughest and plainest fox-hunter in the house a reaction took place and when after an interval of a few weeks it was proposed to insert in a bill of supply a clause in conformity with the resolution of the twelfth of december the noes were loud the speaker was of opinion that they had had it the ayes did not venture to dispute his opinion the senseless plan which had been approved without a division was rejected without a division the subject was not again mentioned thus a grievance so scandalous that none of those who profited by it dared to defend it was perpetuated merely by the imbecility and intemperance of those who attacked it early in the session the treaty of limerick became the subject of a grave and earnest discussion the commons in the exercise of that supreme power which the english legislature possessed over all the dependencies of england sent up to the lords a bill providing that no person should sit in the irish parliament should hold an irish office civil military or ecclesiastical or should practise law or medicine in ireland till he had taken the oaths of allegiance and supremacy and had subscribed the declaration against transubstantiation the lords were not more inclined than the commons to favour the irish no peer was disposed to entrust roman catholics with political power nay it seems that no peer objected to the principle of the absurd and cruel rule which excluded roman catholics from the liberal professions but it was thought that this rule though unobjectionable in principle would if adopted without some exceptions be a breach of a positive compact their lordships called for the treaty of limerick ordered it to be read at the table and proceeded to consider whether the law framed by the lower house was consistent with the engagements into which the government had entered one discrepancy was noticed it was stipulated by the second civil article that every person actually residing in any fortress occupied by an irish garrison should be permitted on taking the oath of allegiance to resume any calling which he had exercised before the revolution it would beyond all doubt have been a violation of this covenant to require that a lawyer or a physician who had been within the walls of limerick during the siege should take the oath of supremacy and subscribe the declaration against transubstantiation before he could receive fees holt was consulted and was directed to prepare clauses in conformity with the terms of the capitulation the bill as amended by holt was sent back to the commons they at first rejected the amendment and demanded a conference the conference was granted rochester in the painted chamber delivered to the managers of the lower house a copy of the treaty of limerick and earnestly represented the importance of preserving the public faith in violet this appeal was one which no honest man though inflamed by national and religious animosity could resist the commons reconsidered the subject and after hearing the treaty read agreed with some slight modifications to what the lords had proposed the bill became a law it attracted at the time little notice but was after the lapse of several generations the subject of a very acrimonious controversy many of us can well remember how strongly the public mind was stirred in the days of george the third and george the fourth by the question whether roman catholics should be permitted to sit in parliament it may be doubted whether any dispute has produced stranger perversions of history the whole past was falsified for the sake of the present all the great events of three centuries long appeared to us distorted and discolored by a mist sprung from our own theories and our own passions some friends of religious liberty not content with the advantage which they possessed in the fair conflict of reason with reason weakened their case by maintaining that the law which excluded irish roman catholics from parliament was inconsistent with the civil treaty of limerick the first article of that treaty it was said guaranteed to the irish roman catholic such privileges in the exercise of his religion as he had enjoyed at the time of charles the second in the time of charles the second no test excluded roman catholics from the irish parliament such a test could not therefore it was argued be imposed without a breach of public faith in the year eighteen twenty eight especially this argument was put forward in the house of commons as if it had been the main strength of a cause which stood in need of no such support The champions of Protestant ascendancy were well pleased to see the debate diverted from a political question about which they were in the wrong to a historical question about which they were in the right.

They had no difficulty in proving that the first article, as understood by all contracting parties, meant only that the Roman Catholic worship should be tolerated as in times past.

that article was drawn up by ginkell and just before he drew it up he had declared that he would rather try the chances of arms than consent that irish papists should be capable of holding civil and military offices of exercising liberal professions and of becoming members of municipal corporations how is it possible to believe that he would of his own accord have promised that the house of lords and the house of commons should be open to men to whom he would not open a guild of skinners or a guild of cordwainers how again is it possible to believe that the english peers would while professing the most punctilious respect for public faith while lecturing the commons on the duty of observing public faith while taking counsel with the most learned and upright jurists of the age as to the best mode of maintaining public faith have committed a flagrant violation of public faith and that not a single lord would have been so honest or so factitious as to protest against an act of monstrous perfidy aggravated by hypocrisy or if we could believe this how can we believe that no voice would have been raised in any part of the world against such wickedness that the court of st germain and the court of versailles would have remained profoundly silent that no irish exile no english malcontent would have uttered a murmur that not a word of invective or sarcasm on so inviting a subject would have been found in the whole compass of jacobite literature and that it would have been reserved for politicians of the nineteenth century to discover that a treaty made in the seventeenth century had a few weeks after it had been signed been outrageously violated in the sight of all europe on the same day on which the commons read for the first time the bill which subjected ireland to the absolute dominion of the protestant minority they took into consideration another matter of high importance throughout the country but especially in the capital in the seaports and in the manufacturing towns the minds of men were greatly excited on the subject of trade with the east indies a fierce paper war had during some time been raging and several grave questions both constitutional and commercial had been raised which the legislature only could decide It had often been repeated, and ought never to be forgotten, that our polity differs widely from those politics which have, during the last eighty years, been methodically constructed, digested into articles, and ratified by constituent assemblies.

The constableship of the castle was only abolished in 1842.

The treaty stone on which the famous treaty was signed in 1691 is at the western end of the bridge.

It was set upon its present pedestal in 1865.

Limerick is famed for the fineness of its laces, and at one time its gloves were the most costly in the market.

Thus a grievance so scandalous that none of those who profited by it dared to defend it was perpetuated merely by the imbecility and intemperance of those who attacked it.

Early in the session, the Treaty of Limerick became the subject of a grave and earnest discussion.

The commons, in the exercise of that supreme power which the English legislature possessed over all the dependencies of England, sent up to the lords a bill providing that no person should sit in the Irish parliament, should hold an Irish office, civil, military, or ecclesiastical, or should practice law or medicine in Ireland, till he had taken the oaths of allegiance and supremacy and had subscribed the declaration against transubstantiation.

The lords were not more inclined than the commons to favor the Irish.

Nay, it seems that no peer objected to the principle of the absurd and cruel rule which excluded Roman Catholics from the liberal professions.

But it was thought that this rule, though unobjectionable in principle, would, if adopted without some exceptions, be a breach of a positive compact.

Their lordships called for the Treaty of Limerick, ordered it to be read at the table, and proceeded to consider whether the law framed by the lower house was consistent with the engagements into which the government had entered.

One discrepancy was noticed.

it appeared that more than a million of irish acres or about seventeen hundred thousand english acres an area equal to that of middlesex hertfordshire bedfordshire cambridgeshire and huntingdonshire together had been forfeited during the late troubles but of the value of this large territory very different estimates were formed the commissioners acknowledged that they could obtain no certain information in the absence of such information they conjectured the annual rent to be about two hundred thousand pounds and the fee simple to be worth thirteen years purchase that is to say about two millions six hundred thousand pounds they seem not to have been aware that much of the land had been let very low on perpetual leases and that much was burdened with mortgages a contemporary writer who was evidently well acquainted with ireland asserted that the authors of the report had valued the forfeited property in carlow at six times the real market price and that the two million six hundred thousand pounds of which they talked would be found to shrink to about half a million which as the exchanges then stood between dublin and london would have dwindled to about four hundred thousand pounds by the time that it reached the english exchequer it was subsequently proved, beyond all dispute, that this estimate was very much nearer the truth than that which had been formed by Trenchard and Trenchard's colleagues.

Of the seventeen hundred thousand acres which had been forfeited, above a fourth part of it had been restored to the ancient proprieties in conformity with the civil articles of the Treaty of Limerick.

about one seventh of the remaining three fourths had been given back to unhappy families which though they could not plead the letter of the treaty had been thought fit objects of clemency the rest had been bestowed partly on persons whose seances merited all and more than all that they obtained but chiefly on the king's personal friends romney had obtained a considerable share of the royal bounty but of all the grants the largest was to woodstock the eldest son of portland the next was to albemarle an admirer of william cannot relate without pain that he divided between these two foreigners an extent of country larger than hertfordshire this fact simply reported would have sufficed to excite a strong feeling of indignation in a house of commons less irritable and querulous than that which then sat at westminster But Trenchard and his confederates were not content with simply reporting the fact.

They employed all their skill to inflame the passions of the majority.

The Irish horse, which had hitherto kept open communications with the country on that side, fell back to Six Mile Bridge.

On the 24th, a truce of three days was agreed upon, and on the 3rd of October the memorable Treaty of Limerick was signed by the Williamite and Jacobite commissioners.

The civil articles of Limerick will be mentioned farther on.

The military articles, twenty-nine in number, provided that all persons willing to expatriate themselves, as well as officers and soldiers, as referees and volunteers, should have free liberty to do so, to any place beyond seas, except England and Scotland, that they might depart in whole bodies, companies, or parties, that if plundered by the way, William's government should make good their loss, that fifty ships of two hundred tons each should be provided for their transportation, besides two men of war for the principal officers, that the garrison of Limerick might march out with all their arms, guns, and baggage, colors flying, drums beating, and matches lighting, It was also agreed that those who so wished might enter into the service of William, retaining their rank and pay.

The chief consolation of the vanquished in that struggle was, that they had wrung, even from their adversaries, the reputation of being one of the most warlike of nations, that they buried the synagogue with honor.

CHAPTER

X. REIGN OF KING WILLIAM From the date of the Treaty of Limerick, William was acknowledged by all but the extreme Jacobites, at least de facto King of Ireland.

The prevailing party in Ulster had long recognized him, and the only expression of the national will then possible accepted his title, in the treaty signed at limerick on the third of october sixteen ninety one for three years ireland had resisted his power for twelve years longer she was to bear the yoke of his government though the history of william's twelve years reign in ireland is a history of proscription the king himself is answerable only as a consenting party to such proscription he was neither by temper nor policy a persecutor his allies were spain austria and rome He had thousands of Catholics in his own army, and he gave his confidence as freely to brave and capable men of one creed as of another.