The Catholic, or national interest, was certainly not represented; for there were present seventy-two Protestant peers, and only twenty-one Catholics; while the House of Commons comprised two hundred and sixty members, all of whom were burgesses except sixty-four, and the towns had been so entirely peopled by Cromwell’s Puritan followers, that there could be no doubt what course they would pursue.  An attempt was now made to expel the few Catholics who were present, by requiring them to take the oath of supremacy.  The obsequious Parliament voted L30,000 to the Duke of Ormonde, whose career of duplicity was crowned with success.  It is almost amusing to read his biographer’s account[505] of the favours bestowed on him, and the laudations he bestows on his master for his condescension in accepting them.  Carte would have us believe that Ormonde was a victim to his king and his country, and that the immense sums of money he received did not nearly compensate him for his outlays.  Posterity will scarcely confirm the partiality of the biographer.

The Bill of Settlement was opposed by the Irish Catholics through their counsel, but their claims were rejected and treated with contempt.  Charles had told his Parliament, on his restoration, that he expected they would have a care of his honour and of the promise he had made.  This promise had been explicitly renewed by Ormonde for the King, before he left for Breda; but the most solemn engagements were so regularly violated when Irish affairs were concerned, that nothing else could have been expected.  A Court of Claims was at length established, to try the cases of ejectment which had occurred during the Commonwealth; but this excited so much indignation and alarm amongst the Protestants, that all hope of justice was quickly at an end, and the time-serving Ormonde closed the court.  The grand occupation of each new reign, for the last few centuries, appears to have been to undo what had been done in the preceding reigns.  An Act of Explanation was now passed, and a Protestant militia raised, to satisfy that party.  It was provided by the new Act that the Protestants were, in the first place, and especially, to be settled; that any doubt which arose should be decided in their favour; and that no Papist, who, by the qualifications of the former Act, had not been adjudged innocent should at any future time be reputed innocent, or entitled to claim any lands or settlements.  It will be remembered that Ormonde had cut short the sittings of the court to satisfy Protestant clamour; in consequence of this, more than 8,000 Catholic claimants were condemned to forfeit their estates, without even the shadow of an inquiry, but with the pretence of having justice done to them, or, as Leland has expressed it, “without the justice granted to the vilest criminal—­that of a fair and equal trial."[506]