128

LIMERICK SURRENDERS TO GINKELL.

[1690.

most desperate resolution. The English and Dutch attacked and fell back, again and again. The issue was at one time very doubtful. But at the very crisis of the engagement, the French general was killed by a cannon-ball, and his death was concealed. The other general, Sarsfield, was inactive with the reserve, waiting for orders. The Irish were overpowered, and were soon disorganized. The victory of the English was complete, and they did not use it with moderation. There were few prisoners; and four thousand Irish lay dead on the actual battle-field. It is supposed that seven thousand altogether fell in the horrible carnage which accompanied the total rout of Aghrim. Ginkell followed up his victory by obtaining the capitulation of Galway; its garrison, with the French general, D'Usson, being permitted to retire to Limerick. Here was the last stand made against the triumphant army of king William. That army was now well supplied with artillery and the munitions of war. The same ground was occupied as in the previous year; but it was not in the same wet condition. Ginkell, by a bold manœuvre, crossed the Shannon on a bridge of boats, and scattered the Irish horse that were encamped near the city. He then succeeded in carrying a detached fort, which commanded the bridge called Thomond's; and a fearful slaughter of the garrison accompanied this success. The bombardment was terribly effective. The garrison might hold out till the whole town was in ashes; but even then, unless the besiegers were compelled to retire on the approach of the wet season, hunger would effect what cannon-balls and bombs had left incomplete. The fall of the city became inevitable. In 1690 a French fleet commanded the approaches from the sea. Now, an English fleet rode in the Shannon. Hostilities were suspended for some days during the progress of negotiations. On the 1st of October, two treaties were signed-one military, the other civil. The civil treaty was signed by the Lords Justices, who had repaired to the camp. The first article of this civil treaty was in the following words: "It is agreed that the Roman Catholics of this kingdom shall enjoy such privileges 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. 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 this particular, as may preserve them from any disturbance on account of their said religion." An entire amnesty was promised to all who should take the oath of allegiance. Limerick bears the name of "the City of the Violated Treaty." Years of unjust and vindictive penal laws, which are now happily swept away, have manifested that this reproach is not unfounded. The Parliament of Ireland became wholly Protestant, and laws were passed which not only denied the Roman Catholics "privilege, in the exercise of their religion," but deprived them of the most sacred civil rights-the rights of family. The war in Ireland was at an end-but not its woes. It was offered to the thousands of Irish troops at Limerick, to make their election for entering the army of king William, or to become the soldiers of king Louis in France. The greater number decided for France. It had been promised by the Irish general that those who embarked for another country should be allowed to take their wives and families with them. The promise could only be partly realised. "When the ablest men," says the writer of "Macarie

1690.]

TREATY OF LIMERICK.

129

Excidium," ," "were once got on shipboard, the women and babes were left on the shore, exposed to hunger and cold, without any manner of provision, and without any shelter in that rigorous season but the canopy of heaven; and in such a miserable condition that it moved pity in some of their enemies." Ireland thus passed under the rule of the English colonizers. Happy would it have been, if years had not been suffered to elapse before it was felt that penal laws were the worst of all modes for securing religious conformity; happy, if another series of years had not been wasted in attempts to maintain the Union of two nations without an equal participation of civil rights. The present generation has honestly laboured to repair the injustice of the past; and the time may thus arrive when even the name of the third William shall be pronounced without party hatreds.

VOL V.

K

34

Scotland-Affairs of Religion-Plots-The Highland Clans dispersed-State of the Highlands in 1691-Breadalbane-Proclamation of the Government-The Master of Stair-Tardy submission of MacIan-Order as to rebels not submitted-Order for Maclan of Glencoe, and his tribe-Letters of the Master of Stair-Highland troops arrive in Glencoe-The Massacre of the MacDonalds-Inquiry into the Massacre in 1695-Resolutions of the Scottish Parliament-Master of Stair dismissed-The other persons implicated-Breadalbane-Misconceptions connected with the Massacre-Character of William unjustly

assailed.

THE politics of Scotland in the first two years after the Revolution were more complicated than those of England. The ascendancy of the Presbyterians had been established; but the Episcopalians were still a formidable body. In 1689, although episcopacy had been abolished, the church-government had not been defined. There was no supreme directing power in affairs of religion. In 1690, the Parliament of Scotland established the synodical authority; made the signature to the Confession of Faith the test of orthodoxy; and Patronage was abolished, under certain small compensations to the patrons. The dissensions connected with these arrangements gave courage to those who looked to discord as the means for restoring the Stuart king. A knot of turbulent and discontented men, known as The Club,