Stuart dynasty

King and Exile. 187
but mistaken sovereign -who had proved unable to hold his
own in Ireland in 1690, at a moment when England's
temporary loss of maritime ascendancy in the Channel,
after the fight off Beachy Head, was eliciting sympathetic
movements in that portion of the realm on behalf of the
exiled Stuarts.
The campaign in Ireland which ended at the Boyne forms
a subject which it is impossible to deal with satisfactorily in
the small space here available ; but it is creditable to the ex-
King to know that, when r.he abrogation of Poyning's laws
was proposed to him, so that the necessity of initiating laws
by the English Council might cease and Ireland become
practically independent, he replied : — " I will not hurt my
kingdom, although I no longer reign in it. " * Moreover,
during the siege of Londonderry, when the Irish Parliament,
in which there were only six Protestants, resolved to confis-
cate the lands of certain Protestant proprietors, he aquiesced
unwillingly, offering 10,000Z. out of his private purse to
recompense the losers. It is fair to add that this confiscation
included also some Koman Catholics, "f
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 bunderland,
there is no direct evidence upon this subject.
There can, however, be no doubt that the King of England
did, previous to the Kevolution, use Tyrconnel as an instru-
ment to advance the Eoman 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
* Dalrymple's ' Memoirs,' edition 1790, vol. ii. pt. ii. bk. ii. p. 70.
t Ibid., p. 68. Dalrymple attributes this to James's consciousness of the
injustice done.
J Barillon to Louis XIV., Oct. 16, 1687. Dalrymple, vol. ii. Appendix to
bk. v. p. 137.
§ Macaulay's 'History of England,' edition 1849, vol. ii. p. 426.