The Assembly at once declared that they met as a provisional government, and not as a parliament.  The preliminary arrangements occupied them until the 1st of November.  From the 1st until the 4th, the committee was engaged in drawing up a form for the Confederate Government; on the 4th it was sanctioned by the two houses.  Magna Charta, and the common and statute law of England, in all points not contrary to the Catholic religion, or inconsistent with the liberty of Ireland, were made the basis of the new Government.  The administrative authority was vested in a Supreme Council, which was then chosen, and of which Lord Mountgarret was elected President.

[Illustration:  PARLIAMENT HOUSE, KILKENNY.]

There were six members elected for each province.  For Leinster, the Archbishop of Dublin, Lords Gormanstown and Mountgarret, Nicholas Plunket, Richard Belling, and James Cusack.  For Ulster, the Archbishop of Armagh, the Bishop of Down, Philip O’Reilly, Colonel MacMahon, Heber Magennis, and Turlough O’Neill.  For Munster, Viscount Roche, Sir Daniel O’Brien, Edmund FitzMaurice, Dr. Fennell, Robert Lambert, and George Comyn.  For Connaught, the Archbishop of Tuam, Viscount Mayo, the Bishop of Clonfert, Sir Lucas Dillon, Geoffrey Browne, and Patrick Darcy.  The Earl of Castlehaven, who had just escaped from his imprisonment in Dublin, was added as a twenty-fifth member.  Generals were appointed to take the command of the forces—­Owen Roe O’Neill, for Ulster; Preston, for Leinster; Barry, for Munster; and Burke, for Connaught.  A seal was made, a printing-press set up, and a mint established.  Money was coined and levied for the necessary expenses; and a levy of 31,700 men was prepared to be drilled by the new officers.  Envoys were sent to solicit assistance from the Catholic courts of Europe; and the famous and learned Franciscan, Father Luke Wadding, applied himself to the cause with unremitting earnestness.  Father John Talbot was employed in a similar manner in Spain.

The Assembly broke up on the 9th of January, 1643, after sending a remonstrance to the King, declaring their loyalty, and explaining their grievances.  The complicated state of English politics proved the ruin of this noble undertaking, so auspiciously commenced.  Charles was anxious to make terms with men whom he knew would probably be the only subjects on whose loyalty he could thoroughly depend.  His enemies—­and the most cursory glance at English history during this period proves how many and how powerful they were—­desired to keep open the rupture, and, if possible, to bring it down, from the high stand of dignified remonstrance, to the more perilous and lower position of a general and ill-organized insurrection.  The Lords Justices Borlase and Parsons were on the look-out for plunder; but Charles had as yet sufficient power to form a commission of his own, and he sent the Marquis of Ormonde and some other noblemen to treat with the Confederates.  Ormonde was a cold, calculating, and, if we must judge him by his acts, a cruel man; for, to give only one specimen of his dealings, immediately after his appointment, he butchered the brave garrison of Timolin, who had surrendered on promise of quarter.