Vast numbers of Protestants had been leaving Ireland ever since the death of Charles II., but many remained because they could not get away or because they had no means elsewhere. Many placemen stood their ground, for patents could not be voided without some process of law, and the depositaries of official knowledge might reasonably hope to be found indispensable. Among them was the accountant-general, James Bonnell, who took up the active duties of his office in 1685. Clarendon, while acknowledging him to be ‘ingenious,’ did not think him strong enough for the work, but there were trained clerks, and he soon learned the business. He had travelled, and saw that Versailles was sucking the life-blood of France as clearly as Arthur Young did more than a century later. He was a remarkably good and religious man, and his Anglican orthodoxy is certified by many bishops, and by the fact that his familiar friend was the Rev. John Strype. Bonnell was, nevertheless, willing to meet the Presbyterians half-way on the question of orders. He spent his salary and his spare time in relieving the wants of others during the time of Tyrconnel and James II. The doctrine of passive obedience weighed heavily with him, but he ‘could not but secretly wish success to King William,’ and accepted the result gladly. When Bishop Cartwright, of whom historians have little good to say, died in Dublin in April 1689, Bonnell gives him credit for fidelity to the Church of England, and a sort of disinterestedness—‘he was buried decently from the Bishop of Meath’s house, and at his charge, for he had no money.’ On July 3, 1690, Bonnell saw his fellow-Protestants ‘congratulate and embrace one another as they met, like persons alive from the dead.’ Later on, when Aughrim had been won and Limerick taken, Bonnell wished to have a parliamentary union as in Cromwell’s time and to make all English laws since Henry VII. applicable to Ireland. By these means the English and Protestant interests might be preserved.[258]
As the principal traders, the skilled artisans and the officials were mostly Protestants, and as they were the chief sufferers the tradition of the Brass Money has naturally been preserved among their descendants. The crowd of fugitives from country visitors added to the confusion. Men who had been rich were reduced to penury, and the holders of power and influence were either in exile or reduced to the condition of a conquered population. As in 1641 the established clergy and laymen with property guaranteed by the Act of Settlement were often surprised at what happened. They found the conquered people friendly enough in common life, and often failed to see that they were perfectly certain to retake their own when they could, and in doing so often to take what never belonged to them. Trinity College, Dublin, though the fellows had escaped personal attainder, was not spared. Under Tyrconnel no rents were paid and but one meal a day was given in the hall, ‘and that a dinner, because the supper is the more expensive by reason of coals, &c.’ But fourpence a day was allowed to each fellow for kitchen and buttery. All arms and horses were taken away. When James landed, Vice-provost Acton and his three remaining colleagues waited on him and were promised protection and encouragement. But six months later the college was turned into a barrack and prison for Protestants. The government grant to the scholars was stopped. The chapel plate—all that was left of a rich store—was sent to the custom-house by Luttrell, but preserved by a friendly commissioner of revenue. The chapel itself was re-consecrated and Mass said there, but later it was made a magazine. All the woodwork in the college was destroyed, first by way of searching for arms, and then no doubt for fuel, of which there was a famine in Dublin. Dr. Michael Moore, a distinguished scholar and a man of high character, was made Provost by James, but soon had to resign as a punishment for having preached against the Jesuits. Another priest, Tiege MacCarthy, had charge of the library, and is honourably distinguished for having preserved the books and manuscripts. Provost Huntingdon and the fellows returned immediately after the Boyne.[259]
FOOTNOTES:
[239] Schomberg’s letters to William, calendared in State Papers, Domestic, July 21 to August 3. Journal in Kazner’s Schomberg, ii. 282. Hamilton to Melville in Leven and Melville Papers, August 1, 1689.
[240] Journal in Kazner’s Schomberg. Story’s Impartial History. Avaux to Louvois, September 10/20. Schomberg to King William, August 16, State Papers, Domestic. Dean’s information is in Clarke’s Life of James, Original Mem., ii. 374. Berwick’s Memoirs. Contemporary letter in Benn’s History of Belfast, p. 171.
[241] Story’s Impartial History, pp. 7-10. Schomberg to King William, August 27, State Papers, Domestic. Light to the Blind. The articles of capitulation are in Story’s Continuation and in McSkimmin’s History of Carrickfergus, part i. Letter printed in Benn’s History of Belfast, p. 171. Nihill’s Journal in Macpherson’s Original Papers, i. 222. Letter of September 2 in Le Fleming Papers.
[242] Story’s Impartial History, pp. 10-16, 38—‘A regiment of Dutch were so well hutted that not above eleven of them died the whole campaign.’ Schomberg letters of September 20 and 21 and January 9, 1689-90, in State Papers, Domestic, and Dalrymple. He says the English were ‘si delicatement élevés,’ that in all countries he had seen them die off at the beginning of a campaign. Early in the journal, in Kazner appx. no. 85, it is said that the English nation ‘veut assez être conduite à son sens et n’aime que peu la subordination quoiqu’au reste très belliqueuse,’ and under September 9 the writer says the English soldiers liked no law but ‘leurs fantaisies.’ Writing on October 8, 1689, Schomberg says his levies were as raw as those of King James, but the latter twice as numerous, Leven and Melville Papers. General Douglas’s opinion of the English soldiers is in Evelyn’s Diary, February 19, 1689-90: they were very brave and very badly treated. Dumont de Bostaquet, whose Mémoires inédits were published in 1864, was with Schomberg in September 1689, and describes the Enniskilleners as very good troops, but ‘trop picoreurs.’
[243] Story’s Impartial Hist., pp. 17-28. Light to the Blind. Avaux to Louis XIV., August 20/30, August 28/September 7, September 10/20, September 17/27. In the last it is mentioned that Rosen visited the outposts at midnight and found all sentries and vedettes asleep, ‘sans en excepter pas un.’ Same to same, October 21/31. Nihill’s journal in Macpherson, i. 222. Memoires du Marquis de Sourches, September 19/29. Schomberg to William III., September 15, 20, 27, October 3, 6, State Papers, Domestic; and Dalrymple. Lord Lisburn to Shrewsbury, September 25, ib. A Jacobite account is in A relation of what most remarkably happened, 1689. On October 28 Dangeau notes that Avaux had told the French King that James’s army was in a good state, twenty-eight battalions of 600 men, sixteen squadrons of cavalry and ten of dragoons. He offered battle in two lines, leaving a reserve under Sutherland. Hamilton was at the centre of the first line with the King, Tyrconnel on the right, Rosen and Galway on the left. Berwick was at the centre of the second line with Sarsfield on the right. A diagram sent by Avaux is in Dangeau’s Diary, iii. 23.
[244] Schomberg to William III., September 20-27 and November 14, State Papers, Domestic. Caillemote to Shrewsbury, September 23, ib. Story’s Impartial History, p. 25. Letter in Le Fleming Papers, October 24. Dumont, who had fled from Normandy to Holland to escape the dragonnades, throws light on the sincerity of official conversions in France: he had received absolution from a conscientious priest at Rouen, who told him to take his time and not to go to church till he had reflected, ‘ce que j’ai executé fort religieusement, n’ayant jamais entendu de messe ni participé à leurs mystères.’ Luttrell, i. 613.
[245] Story’s Impartial History. Schomberg’s letters from September to December 1689, in State Papers, Domestic. W. Harbord to William III., October 23, ib. Newsletter of November 28, ib. Luttrell’s Diary, October and November, particularly November 15, where it is noted that letters from Ireland report a mortality of at least 10,000 in the Jacobite army. Evelyn’s Diary, February 19, 1689-90. Mr. Waller’s evidence in Grey’s Debates, November 26. During the terrible days of December 1812, after Napoleon deserted his army, Segur testifies to the extreme demoralisation of the survivors: ‘Tels que les sauvages, les plus forts dépouillaient les plus faibles: ils accouraient autour des mourants, souvent ils n’attendaient pas leurs derniers soupirs.’ Dumont lay in the Dundalk hospital for four weeks with enteric fever and actually recovered.
[246] Schomberg’s letters, ut sup. Story’s Impartial History, vol. i. Commons Journal, November 26, December 2 and 16. Grey’s Debates, November 26. A defence of Shales is attempted in Walton’s Hist. of the British Army, p. 74. Foxcroft’s Halifax, ii. 82. On February 19, 1689-90, Evelyn met General Douglas at dinner, who mentioned ‘the exceeding neglect of the English soldiers, suffering severely for want of clothes and necessaries this winter, exceedingly magnifying their courage and bravery during all their hardships.’
[247] Story’s Impartial History, pp. 25, 34. Avaux’s narrative sent to Seignelay on November 24/December 6, 1689. Luttrell’s Diary, October 3, November 15. State Papers, Domestic, November 28. Clarke’s Life of James II., ii. 383.
[248] Stevens, p. 72. Light to the Blind, p. 90. Macariæ Excidium, p. 38. Avaux to Louis XIV., November 14/24 1689, and February 1/11, 1689-90.
[249] Louis XIV. to Avaux, May 24 and November 16, 1689. Avaux to Louis XIV., November 24. Dangeau, January 6, 1689-90. De Sourches, November 19, February 20. Bussy Rabutin to Madame de Sévigné, March 23, 1689.
[250] Avaux to Louvois, October 11/21, 1689, and April 2/12, 1690. Louvois to Buridal, May 11, 1690, in Rousset, iv. 383. Schomberg considered that MacCarthy had broken his parole, but he was acquitted by a Court Martial in France. A sergeant whom he had bribed was executed. The regiments that sailed were those of MacCarthy himself, Butler, O’Brien, Fielding, and Dillon.
[251] Avaux to Louis XIV., November 14/24 and January 15/25 1689-90. Louis XIV. to Avaux, December 25/January 4. De Sourches, April 18, 1689. Madame de Sévigné, May 31, 1690. Lauzun to Louvois, May 10/20, in Ranke’s appendix. Letter of Rizzini in Haile’s Mary of Modena, p. 261. Louis privately cautioned James against trusting Albeville, who was known to be corrupt.
[252] Clarendon to Rochester, February 8, 1685-6. Proclamations of June 18 and 27, 1689. On September 19 Dr. King notes in his diary that ‘the great gun which lay in Castle yard was taken away in order to be melted and coined.’ Avaux to Louis XIV., December 12/22. On December 26/January 5 Louvois wrote to Avaux: ‘Comme le roi a veu par vos lettres que le Roy d’Angleterre craignait de manquer de cuivre pour faire de la monnoye; Sa Majesté a donné ordre que l’on mist sur le bastiment qui portera cette lettre une piece de canon du calibre de deux qui est eventée, de laquelle ceux qui travaillent à la monnoye du Roy d’Angleterre pourront se servir pour continuer à faire de la monnoye, en attendant que les soixante et quinze milliers de cuivre que le Roy envoye soient arrivez.’
[253] Proclamations of February 4 and 28, March 28, April 21, June 9 and 15, 1690; and July 10 (William III.). Avaux to Louis XIV., July 5/15, 1689; to Louvois, June 30/July 10; to Louis XIV., August 20/30 and September 10/20; to Louvois, November 1/11, November 26/December 6, 1689, and January 22/February 1, 1689-90. Light to the Blind. King’s State of the Protestants, chap. iii. section 11. Transactions of the Late King James in Ireland, licensed July 7, 1690, p. 57. Character of the Protestants of Ireland, licensed November 13, 1689. This last well-written tract has been attributed to Halifax, but neither Miss Foxcroft nor Sir W. Raleigh mention it. Story’s Impartial History, l. 93. Lauzun to Louvois, June 16/26, in Ranke’s appendix. King makes the total base coinage 965,375l. Story learned from treasury officials that ‘not much above’ 1,100,000l. had been coined. The True and Perfect Journal, 1690, states the amount at about two millions. Tyrconnel’s letter is in Haile’s Mary of Modena, p. 258.
[254] Captain Kennedy to the Scotch Council, December 12, in Leven and Melville Papers. Story’s Impartial History, November to February, 1689-90. The author of Light to the Blind says the attack on Newry was a mere reconnaissance and that there was no repulse. Schomberg says Boisseleau was there, State Papers, Domestic, December 6. As to the action at Cavan, besides the above and Berwick’s memoirs, there are accounts in State Papers, Domestic, particularly Schomberg’s letter, February 19, and that of Gustavus Hamilton, ambiguously calendared under March 21, 1689 (Addenda, p. 571).
[255] Melfort’s unpopularity is sufficiently shown by Dundee’s letters to him, June 27 and 28, Napier, iii. 599. Notices in Dangeau and De Sourches. Avaux’s letters, particularly that of July 16/26, enclosing James’s requirements, Louvois to Avaux, September 7/17. Madame de Sévigné marvelled greatly at Lauzun’s ‘second volume.’ The reference to her letters and to Bussy Rabutin’s concerning him are collected in the Grands Ecrivains edition of La Bruyère, i. 335, 535, where he is characterised under the name of Straton. Madame de Caylus in her memoirs notes the good luck of Lauzun in being in England at the critical time, gaining honour and glory for helping William by assisting the flight of James.
[256] Lauzun to Seignelay, April 6/16, in appendix to Ranke’s History and to Louvois, ib. June 16. Proclamation of March 25/April 4. It was known at the French Court that Lauzun was ‘extrêmement ulceré avec raison’ against Dover, De Sourches, April 24/May 4. Compare the extracts in Miss Sandars’s Lauzun. True and Perfect Journal, June 16.
[257] Simon Luttrell’s orders as Governor of Dublin, May 3 and June 18, 1690, in appendix to King’s State of the Protestants, nos. 30 and 31. Besides King’s principal book on this subject we have his autobiography, the original Latin printed in English Historical Review, vol. xiii., an English version in King’s A great Archbishop of Dublin, and his diary edited by Dr. Lawlor in the Irish Journal of Archæology, 1903.
[258] Archdeacon Hamilton’s Life of Bonnell, 3rd edition, 1707, particularly pp. 60, 273. Bonnell to Strype, August 20, 1684, January 21, and April 17, 1689, and August 5, 1690, in English Historical Review, xix. 122, 299. Clarendon and Rochester Corr., i. 245, 266. Cartwright was buried in Christ Church with a full choral service, all the principal people in Dublin attending, Athenæ Oxonienses, p. 831. Bonnell to Harty, Portland Papers, November 3, 1691.
[259] College register for 1689-90 printed in Stubbs’s Hist. of the University of Dublin, pp. 127-133. Harris’s Ware, ii. 288. King, iii. 15.