cry against the Roman Catholics arose in England, the Irish Protestants should join in it. The policy of Ormonde was directed to securing the country from any actual danger, but he refused, so far as was possible in the excited condition of the public mind, to gratify the vindictive outcry for blood which arose on every side around him, and was fanned by Buckingham and Shaftesbury in England, in the hope of involving him personally in the unpopularity which attached to real or supposed Popish sympathisers.[1] The judicial murder of Archbishop Plunket is the chief record of this triumph of religious bigotry and political intrigue. The main argument on which, in order to baffle the popular outcry, Sir William and the supporters of Ormonde relied, was an appeal to the practical impossibility of the Roman Catholics of Ireland, in their then reduced condition, being able, at least at that particular moment, to give serious trouble, whatever might be the intentions of their co-religionists in England, or the hopes of some of the Roman Catholic leaders in Ireland, such as Colonel Richard Talbot and his brother the Archbishop. The opinions of Sir William on this subject were set out by him in various memoranda, the main argument of which is to be found in a complete shape in the 'Political Anatomy of Ireland.' 'That the Irish will not easily rebel again,' he said, 'I believe;' and he gives as reasons the possession by the Protestant interest of three-fourths of the land and five-sixths of the housing of the country, of nine-tenths of all the housing in the walled towns and places of strength, and of two-thirds of the whole trade of the country; also that the Crown had the means of raising, easily and at once, 7,000 men of a regular army, and a Protestant militia of 25,000 men, mostly experienced soldiers; that there were places of strength and cities of refuge within easy reach of the sea, to which in case of
- ↑ The death of the Duke's son, the Earl of Ossory, at this moment, was generally recognised as a great public calamity, and is thus quaintly alluded to by Sir William: 'The name of Ossory is a tender thing; he that sullys it by handling with dirty thumbs won't be excused by saying he meant no harm.' This did not prevent him writing a copy of indifferent English verses on the occasion. Seventh Report of the Historical MSS. Commission, p. 742, 'Ormonde Collection.' Carte, iv. 483-490.
