measure, believing it would be destructive to the commercial interests of Ireland; yet it was carried, including a clause against horses, in the autumn of 1666, by 165 to 104 in the English Commons, and 63 to 47 in the Lords. A subscription of 30,000 cattle from Ireland for the relief of the sufferers by the Fire of London, rather hastened the passage of the measure; such importation being felt by the English country party to be a direct infringement of their profits. After the passage of the Act, we are told that in Ireland horses fell from 30s. to 1s., and beeves from 50s. to 10s. each. The Duke endeavoured to lighten the gloom that settled down upon the country consequent on this and other measures fettering its trade and commerce. He fostered the linen and woollen manufactures, and encouraged the opening up of commercial relations with the Continent. Reflections upon Ireland by the Duke of Buckingham, in the course of debates upon the Cattle Bill, precipitated differences long brewing between him and the Duke of Ormond, whom Buckingham felt to be his opponent in the King's graces. Lord Ossory especially resented an expression of Buckingham's, that none were against the Bill "but those who had either Irish estates or Irish understandings," and a duel would have been fought but for Charles's intervention on behalf of his favourite. The influence of Buckingham and others was so powerful, that early in 1669 Ormond was dismissed from the Lord-Lieutenancy. The opinion entertained in England of the frivolous character of the pretences upon which this change was made, and of Ormond's high character, was shown by his being almost immediately chosen Chancellor of the University of Oxford. To rebut charges of malversation and aggrandisement, Carte gives, in his 7th Book, a table showing that the Duke was a loser to the extent of £868,590 during the war. An attempt to assassinate Ormond was made by Colonel Blood and his associates, in London, on 6th December 1670. So certain was the Earl of Ossory that Buckingham was mixed up in the transaction, that he took the first opportunity, in the King's presence, of charging him with complicity in the crime, adding: "If my father comes to a violent end by sword or pistol, if he dies by the hand of a ruffian, or by the more secret way of poison, I shall not be at a loss to know the first author of it; I shall consider you as the assassin; I shall treat you as such; and wherever I meet you I shall pistol you, though you stood behind the King's chair." Afterwards, when Blood was forgiven by the King for stealing his regalia, Ormond, who was requested to condone the attack, drily replied, that "if the King could forgive him the stealing of his crown, he might easily forgive him the attempt on his life." His deprivation of the Lord-Lieutenancy did not appear to lessen the Duke's interest in the affairs of Government. The Stewardship of the Household kept him much about the Court, and he took a prominent part in the deliberations of the Council, labouring "more zealously, and with better judgment, integrity, and success than any of the Ministers to advance the King's service, and to prevent the ill effects of the measures of administration in which he was not concerned … The Duke's resolution was never to be out of humour with his prince, however his prince might be out of humour with him … Nothing provoked the Duke's enemies more than that all the mortifications they threw in his way did neither, on the one hand, humble and make him crouch to them, nor, on the other, drive him to offend the King, to fling up his staff, or join with the disaffected." 271 The Duke's mother. Lady Thurles, "a lady of admirable sense, virtue, and piety," died in May 1673, aged 86. Next year he left London to return to Kilkenny for a time. In 1675 complaints regarding his late Irish administration were made to the King and Council by Lord Ranelagh: after protracted proceeding he was, in 1677, fully cleared, and was shortly afterwards reinstated in the Lord-Lieutenancy. He again met a warm and respectful reception in Dublin, and about this period laid the foundation stone of the Royal Military Hospital, Kilmainham. Much of his attention was necessarily turned towards placing the revenues of the country upon a proper basis. The reputed Popish plot of the following year caused him much anxiety; the Acts for the banishment of the Catholic clergy were rigidly put in force, and the Catholic inhabitants were deprived of arms and ammunition. On the other hand, it is stated that he discountenanced more extreme measures against the Catholic gentry, strongly urged upon the Government by many of their Irish adherents. In August 1683, during a visit to London, he was made an English Duke. The policy adopted by James II., after his accession, by no means met his approval. He was, however, now far advanced in years, and absented himself more and more from public life. In June 1688 he was seized with a shivering fit, at a residence he had rented—Kingston Hall in Dorsetshire. He gradually declined—preserving, as he had all along desired, his intellect clear
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