their native Scotland, and given lands in the Counties Kilkenny, Waterford and Tipperary. It is curious to speculate on what might have occurred had this been carried out. Would "Waterford and not Belfast have been to-day the commercial capital of Ireland, or would the soft Munster air have proved too much even for Scottish vigour?
The plan was given up, apparently because too hard to carry out. The English Presbyterians were now at variance with the ruling Independent faction and might have taken up the cause of their co-religionists of Ireland, in which case Scotland, which had not yet been thoroughly subdued, would certainly have broken out again.
Gradually, however, the new scheme of settlement took shape. But it was not definitely announced until late in the year 1653, several months after all resistance had ceased.
In short there were to be two Irelands, one English east of the Shannon, in which a new colony might be planted free from all fear of contamination by admixture with the natives, the other comprising Connaught and Clare where alone those natives who had failed to prove constant good affection might hold land.
The reason for choosing Connaught and Clare as the place of confinement for the Irish is obvious. The Shannon, the Lower Erne and the woods, bogs and mountains of Leitrim cut this district off from the rest of the country. And, to secure against all possibility of the Irish breaking bounds, they were not to be allowed to live within four miles of the Shannon, or of the sea, nor on any of the islands
