Cromwell's Government, that it had not endeavoured to extirpate Prelacy and Popery according to the Covenant, the poet said :'No man well in his wits, endeavouring to root up weeds out of his ground, instead of using the spade will take up a mallet or a beetle; nor doth the Covenant in any way engage us to extirpate or prosecute the men, but the heresies and errors in them, which we tell these divines and the rest that understand not, belongs chiefly to their own functions in the diligent preaching and insisting on sound doctrine, in the confuting-not the railing down-encountering errors, both in public and private conference, and by the power of truth-not a persecution—subduing those authors of heretical opinions; and, lastly, in the spiritual execution of church discipline within their congregations.' ' This is the spirit in which the English in Ireland, during the 17th and 18th centuries, ought to have conducted the government of that country. If they had done so, they would not have been troubled with civil wars or invasions from Spain and France; nor would their statesmen have now to confess with shame and regret the errors and crimes which have made the whole of Christendom take part with the Church of Rome in Ireland, whose fold has been crowded by persecution. It is, however, curious to remark that the late Rev. Dr. Reid, though regarded as one of the liberal party in the Presbyterian Assembly, of which he was one of the most learned members, in referring to this manifesto by Milton, speaks as bitterly about it as if he had been the clerk of the Belfast Presbytery. He says it was 'a fair sample of the scurrility and overbearing violence and contempt of the ministerial office by which the usurping faction and their abettors were characterised.' He adds, that during the vicissitudes of the civil war the Presbytery persevered in testifying against the power of the usurpers, and in favour of a limited monarchy. Commissioners were sent over from Scotland in 1650 to encourage them in their opposition to the Government, and in their adherence to the King, who was now solemnly pledged to support the Covenant. Providence, as if in anger, at length granted their prayer, but before that consummation which they 2 'Observations upon Articles of Peace with Irish Rebels, &c. so devoutly wished and had afterwards so much reason to deplore, they had an opportunity of enjoying the blessings of civil government, conducted on the principles of Christian equity and religious freedom, by the men whom they had reprobated as a'usurping faction.' With them at that time all other Christians were divided into three classes :-the Roman Catholics were Popish Idolaters,' the Episcopalians were 'Malignants,' and the Independents and Baptists were 'Sectaries.' The brief reign of peace, order, and prosperity which Ireland enjoyed under the Protectorate was due in a great measure to the personal character of Henry Cromwell, who arrived in Dublin in March 1654. He found the government in a most unsatisfactory state, the Council doing very little except making orders to give away the public lands from which the natives had been swept off by sword, famine, and pestilence, or by deportation to Connaught. As might be expected, they appropriated the larger shares to each of themselves. Of course such a régime must have produced general discontent. But Henry announced that the great desire of his father's Government was that all might be upon an equal account, as to encouragement and countenance.' The next year he went over again as Major-General of the army in Ireland, and he was soon after invested with the government of the country. It was reserved for him to give the most convincing and satisfactory proof of the truth of the oft-quoted testimony of Sir John Davis, so little regarded in his own practice and in the conduct of his colleagues, that of all people the Irish were emphatically 'lovers of equal and impartial justice, though it be against themselves.' This novelty they found under the administration of Henry Cromwell. His policy had a marvellous effect in tranquillising the minds of all parties, and softening sectarian animosities. The various denominations rivalled one another in the warmth of their testimony to 'his equal justice to all and mercy to the poor.' Notwithstanding the seditious proceedings of the Presbyterians, they were protected by him in the exercise of their discipline, and the observance of public worship. They were even allowed to enjoy the State endowment ' without any ensnaring engagement,' though they refused to keep the days of public fasting and thanksgiving ordered by the Go vernment. In 1658 he invited a number of the more eminent Independent and Presbyterian ministers to meet him in Dublin, in order to treat about the 'regulation and improvement of their maintenance, which had hitherto been carried on " in a mongrel way between salary and tithes."' The result was, that they adopted a plan by which each minister should have a salary of 1007. a year-a very liberal stipend considering the value of money in those times. The Independents were the ablest and most devoted champions of the Commonwealth, and they were naturally favourites of the Lord Protector. The Chancellor of Ireland was the head of that party in Dublin, and he was dissatisfied because it was not in the ascendant. But Henry Cromwell was determined to maintain the principle of religious equality, no matter what might be his personal predilections. 'I wish,' he wrote, 'I could truly say that the Independents were not dissatisfied. It may be some of them thought they should ride when they had thrown the Anabaptists out of the saddle. But I must neither respect persons, nor parties, nor rumours, so as to be thereby diverted from an equal distribution of respect and justice to all; though I hope I shall always take a good care of all (under what form soever) in whom I see the least appearance of godliness.' 1 1 We should not be surprised to learn that under the system of equal justice the kingdom continued to enjoy unusual tranquillity, and that in no part of the empire did there exist a more cordial and general submission to the new Protector. The Presbyterians improved the opportunity to the utmost of extending and strengthening their Church in Ulster; but while they did so, they were so blinded by political prejudice, that they exerted themselves by every means in their power to bring about the Restoration. Had not Charles solemnly sworn to maintain the League and Covenant? Would he not, therefore, favour the Presbyterians and establish their Church in Ireland, to the perpetual exclusion of Papists, Malignants, and Sectaries'? The event they so much desired came to pass; but never was a loyal Church so disappointed. 1 Reid, vol. ii. p. 317. CHAPTER XIV. THE RESTORATION OF PRELACY. CHARLES II. was brought back in triumph to his throne. Immediately a Presbyterian Synod was held at Ballymena, when all the brethren in the North were present. Mr. Adare brought to every one of them a warrant for the tithes of their respective parishes, as far as was in the power of the Commissioners in Dublin. Two ministers were deputed to present an address of congratulation to the King in London, expecting, no doubt, that their loyalty would obtain for them the warmest welcome, and that his Majesty would hasten to redeem his pledge to enforce the Solemn League and Covenant in Ireland. But they were disheartened as they approached the metropolis by ominous rumours of a change in the royal mind. One powerful friend after another declined to introduce them to the court. Monk, now Duke of Albemarle, who had lent them his troops to help them to enforce their discipline, now disgusted their address, and would not concern himself in it as it was drawn up,' because it contained a denunciation of Prelacy and a laudation of the Covenant. Sorely against their conscience they were obliged to expunge those repulsive words. The King condescended to hear the address read when it was thus expurgated. But he looked with an awful, majestical countenance on them,' meaning, no doubt, to assume the most sublime expression of Divine Right as the head of the Church. As usual with him, he gave them good words and told them they had nothing to fear; but, as Strafford said with reference to Charles I., that he knew the mind of the king best, and had his real meaning hid in his own breast, so the Ministers of Charles II. knew what he meant to do, in whatever contrary sense his royal declarations might be understood. This the Presbyterians soon found to their cost. Under the 6 Government which they had laboured to overthrow, their ministers had increased from half-a-dozen to seventy, regularly and permanently settled, and having under their charge eighty parishes or congregations, with a population not far from 100,000. But the flocks were soon scattered, and the shepherds compelled to flee. The bishops were immediately restored to their sees; and Bramhall and Leslie, their old enemies, came back to their posts, having a long account to settle with those who had been ruling in their places and denouncing them as Malignants.' Three of the Leslies, a lucky Scotch family, well represented still among the landed gentry of Ireland, then wore mitres in Ulster: John in Raphoe, Robert in Dromore, and Henry in Down and Connor. The latter was translated to Meath, and was succeeded by Jeremy Taylor, one of the most illustrious of the Irish bishops, who, during the Commonwealth, had been distinguished as the eloquent champion of religious freedom and the rights of conscience; but such is the weakness of human nature, such the effect of official position on the greatest minds, that when he came to his see at Lisburn he forgot the spirit and principles of his Liberty of Prophesying; and so he dealt with Presbyterians just as the Presbyterians had dealt with the Catholics. Presbytery was now scornfully repudiated by the nobility and gentry who had zealously patronised it a little while ago; by the Broghills, the Cootes, the Blaneys, the Caulfields, the Coles, the Rawdons, the Trevors, the Hills, and many others. It was no longer regarded by them as the religion of a gentleman, and their carriages were no longer seen driving up to the door of the meeting-house. Four Presbyterian ministers were sent as a deputation to Dublin to plead for freedom and fair play with the new authorities; but the Council being composed of bishops and their friends, they were received coldly, and by some rudely repulsed, reviled, and mocked. Jeremy Taylor summoned the incumbents he found in his diocese, and set before them a cruel dilemma, worthy of the casuistical mind of the author of Ductor Dubitantium. He told them that he perceived that they were in a hard taking; for if they did conform contrary to conscience, they would be but knaves, and if not, they could not be endured contrary to law.' He wished them, therefore, |