show that they had soon cause to regret not having held out to the last extremity, though they should have been buried in the ruins of their ancient city.
statement on this subject, it seems needful to give a precise view of the real purport and limitations of the engagements taken towards the Irish Catholics upon this occasion. Independently, then, of the royal promise of future parliamentary relief to" protect Catholics from all disturbance," there was the general engagement for such privileges to Catholics in the exercise of their religion" as were consistent with the laws of Ireland; or, as they did enjoy in the reign of Charles treaty, that "The oath to be administered to such Roman Catholics as submit to their majesties' government shall be the oath above-mentioned (namely, the oath of allegiance), and no other." These provisions were applicable to all Catholics living in any part of Ireland. Other articles of the treaty, from the second to the eighth inclusive, related only, first, to the people of Limerick and other garrisons then held by the Irish; second, to officers and soldiers then serving King James, in the counties of Limerick, Clare, Kerry, Cork, and Mayo; third, to "all such as were under their protection in the said counties," meaning all the inhabitants of those counties. These three classes of persons were to be secured their properties and their rights, privileges, and immunities (as in the reign of Charles the Second), and to be permited to exercise their several call
It was afterwards known, too, that William was himself so sensible of the necessity of finishing this struggle and bringing his troops to re-enforce his army on the continent, that he had sent instructions to the lords-justices to issue a proclamation assuring the Irish of much more favourable conditions than they afterwards obtained by the Articles of Limer- | II." And also the ninth article of the ick. And the justices actually framed these instructions into a proclamation, afterwards called the secret proclamation, because, though printed, it was never published; for their lordships, learning that the defenders of Limerick were offering to capitulate, hastened to Ginkell's camp, that they might hold the Irish to as hard terms as could possibly be wrung from them. So that, as Lord Macaulay complacently observes, the Dutch general "had about him persons who were competent to direct him."
to do in that reign. We need not, at this day, occupy ourselves at great length with these latter specific stipulations; but attend to the general proviso in favour of all Catholics. What, then, were the rights of Catholics under King Charles the Second?-for this seems to be what is meant by the other phrase, "consistent with the laws of Ireland."
In return for this full and final surrender of the last fortress which held for King James, and of the whole cause of that monarch, the Irish Catholic leaders stipulated, it must be confessed, for but a poor measure of civil and religious freedom, when they put their hands to the clause engaging that "The Roman Catholics of this kingdom shall enjoy such privilegesings as freely as Catholics were permitted in the exercise of their religion as are consistent with the laws of Ireland; or, as they did enjoy in the reign of King Charles the Second." But it is probable that, placing more reliance on the good faith of King William than events afterwards justified, they believed themselves secured by the remaining words of that article" And their majesties, as soon as their affairs will permit them to summon a parliament in this kingdom, will endeavour to procure the said Roman Catholics such further security in that particular as may preserve them from any listurbance upon the account of their said religion." All which was duly ratified by their majesties' letters-patent. Sarsfield and Wauchop then, with their French brother-officers, in marching out of Lim-in practice so general a toleration as allowed erick, thought that they were leaving, as a barrier against oppression of the Catholies, at least the honour of a king.
The whole history of Ireland, from that day until the year 1793, consists of one long and continual breach of this treaty.
But as there has been, both among Irish and English political writers, a great deal of wild declamation and unwarranted
Now, it is true that penal laws against Catholic priests and Catholic worship did exist in Ireland during the reign of Charles the Second: Catholics, for example, could not be members of a corporation in Ireland, nor hold certain civil offices in that reign. But there was no law to prevent Catholic peers and commons from sitting in parliament. There was also
Catholic lawyers and physicians to practise their professions. At the very lowest, therefore, this practical toleration must have been what the Catholics thought they were stipulating for in the Articles of Limerick. Neither did there exist in the reign of Charles the Second that long and sanguinary series of enactments concerning education, the holding of land, the owning of horses, and the like, which