Stuart dynasty

292 THE STUART DYNASTY.
It has been frequently averred that James II. before
the Revolution desired in a similar way to deal with
" The Act of Settlement " of Irish landed property,
which had been passed when his brother Charles
came to the throne, and which secured fixity of
tenure to many Cromwellians whose fathers had
been placed on the soil by the Protector. Beyond
the ipse dixit of Barillon, the French ambassador,*
who had probably conveyed information received
through Sunderland, there is no direct evidence
upon this subject.
There can, however, be no doubt that the King
of England did, previous to the Revolution, use
Tyrconnel as an instrument to advance the Roman
Catholic party in Ireland, while troops of that
religious persuasion were drafted into English
regiments. - ) - But the policy of eradicating the
Saxon possessors of the soil in Ireland, and at the
same time conquering England by means of the Celt,
was never attempted under James II.
Any permanent result which might have followed
the Jacobite endeavours to retain Ireland for the
Stuarts, would surely have been prefaced by the
success of Viscount Dundee's great campaign in
Perthshire, which, however, ended disastrously,
though gloriously, at Killiecrankie, on July 27, 1689.
It is interesting to know that the brave commander
who died there was braced up to his task by a belief
* Barillon to Louis XIV., Oct. 16, 1687. Dalrymple, vol. ii. Appendix
to bk. v. p. 137.
f Maoaulay's ' History of England,' edition 1849, vol. ii. p. 426.