Above : Portrait Of Cromwell

In November (1660) a ” Declaration regarding the Settlement of Ireland ” was issued by the King. He began by acknowledging the great services rendered to him by Irish officers and soldiers during his exile. He then went on to set forth the difficulty of reconciling the different interests in Ireland, and to mention the readiness which the army had displayed to help in his Restoration. Finally, he concluded by the announcement that, though in strict justice the soldiers and adventurers had no title to the lands which they held, yet he would yield to mercy and suffer them to retain them. The second part of the Declaration outlined the arrangements to be made.

It was in accordance with the terms of this document that the ” Act for the Settlement of Ireland,” which was put before the Irish Parliament in May 1661, was passed. The Preamble was intended to convey the impression that, the Catholic Irish having rebelled against Charles I, certain of his loyal Protestant subjects had subdued them, and, during the ” absence ” of his present Majesty, deprived them, as a punishment for their rebellion, of their estates. Having done this, they at once proceeded to recall the King, and place themselves and the people whom they had conquered under his authority.

According to this ” amazing piece of historical fiction,” as it has been aptly styled, the adventurers and soldiers had, the one contributed their money, the other hazarded their lives to reduce the Papist rebels to obedience to the Crown. If this were so, it would follow that they should not be deprived of the rewards which they had so well merited.

In the arrangements regarding the disposal of the lands which followed, great consideration was shown to the adventurers and soldiers, who were confirmed in the grants made them under the Cromwellian Settlement. In case, however, that the owner whom they had dispossessed was adjudged to be an ” innocent ” person, one that is who had taken no part whatever in the Irish rebellion, had not lived in ” rebel quarters,” or communicated with rebels, the Cromwellian planter should at once yield up the land to him, but should be fully ” reprised ” elsewhere, receiving an equal number of acres.

Certain nominees of the King, a list of whose names is given, were also to be restored ; in some cases immediately, in others only after land for ” reprisals ” had been found for the ejected planter. In the case of the ” Ensign men,” those who had followed the King’s fortunes abroad, and in that of ” Article men,” who had accepted terms of peace during the Civil War, the condition of the previous reprisal of the man in possession was to be rigidly enforced.

In actual fact the ancient proprietor was, by such a proviso, in the vast majority of cases prevented from ever regaining his property at all. Thus, only some ” nominees ” and ” innocents ” were really likely to derive benefit from the Act, except where the estate of an ” article man ” or ” ensign man ” still remained unassigned in the hands of the authorities.

To carry out the provisions of the Act fairly and honestly it Would be needful, as Ormond remarked, to discover a new Ireland. The land available for the purpose was, first, some portions which had been confiscated, but not yet granted to anyone ; secondly, a certain amount which could be resumed by disallowing the ” Doubling Ordinance ” of 1643, by which an adventurer who added twenty-five per cent, to his original subscription became entitled to a double number of acres ; thirdly, the regicides’ estates ; and lastly, whatever, on investigation, should prove to have been fraudulently acquired by the Planters, over and above their just due.

All this, however, would not nearly suffice to reprise the ejected Cromwellians, if any considerable number of the old proprietors were to be reinstated. To make the Act workable at all, the only method to pursue was to make reinstatement as difficult as possible, by throwing obstacles which few could surmount in the way of the Irish claimants. This in effect was done without scruple.