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CRO  and Commonwealth." The war in Ireland was continued by Ireton (who died at Limerick the end of 1651) and by Ludlow, and was not brought to a conclusion until nearly two years after Cromwell's departure. Henry Cromwell (Oliver's son) was for many years Lord-Deputy, and had much to do in carrying out the Cromwellian policy. Before and at the conclusion of the war in 1652, it is stated by Prendergast that as many as 40,000 Irish were permitted to enlist in the armies of the Continent: "Just as the King of Spain sent over his agents to treat with the Government for the Irish swordsmen, the merchants of Bristol had agents treating with it for men, women, and children, to be sent to the sugar plantations in the West Indies. The Commissioners of Ireland gave them orders upon the governors of garrisons, to deliver to them prisoners of war; upon the keepers of gaols, for offenders in custody; upon masters of workhouses, for the, destitute in their care 'who were of an age to labour; or, if women, were marriageable, and not past breeding;' and gave directions to all in authority to deliver them to these agents of the Bristol sugar merchants—in execution of which latter direction, Ireland must have exhibited scenes in every part like the slave marts in Africa… In the course of four years they had seized and shipped about 6,400 Irish—men and women, boys and maidens." In March 1655 these proceedings were discontinued until October, when another shipment of 1,000 boys and 1,000 girls for Jamaica was arranged for at Galway. The following succinct account of the Cromwellian settlement is given by Mr. Froude: "Ireland was now a blank sheet of paper, on which the English Commonwealth might write what characters they pleased… The principles of the Cromwellian settlement were generally these. The surviving population was estimated by Dr. Petty at about 850,000, of whom 150,000 were English and Scots. Experience had shown too repeatedly that when the English and Irish were intermixed, the distinctive English character in a few generations was lost. To prevent a recurrence of a transformation so subtle and so dangerous, Cromwell determined to make Connaught into a second Wales. The western province had a natural boundary in the Shannon. Beyond this deep and effectual barrier, the families of the chiefs, the leading members of the Irish race—the middle and upper classes, as we should call them, from whose ranks the worst elements of disorder arose—might receive an equivalent for the lands of which they were deprived. There, living among themselves, they might die out or multiply as their lot might be. A line of physical demarcation would then be drawn between the Teutonic and Celtic population. Ulster, Munster, and Leinster would be the exclusive possession of Protestant English and Protestant Scots, reinforced, it might be, by Calvinist fugitives from the Continent. The Irish peasantry might be trusted to remain under their new masters, if the chiefs of their own blood were removed; and with peace, order, and good government, and protected from spoliation, they might be expected to conform, at no distant time, to the habits, language, and religion of their conquerors. The 'swordsmen,' those who had been out in the war, were offered the alternative of Connaught or exile. Some chose the first, the larger number chose the second, and went with the most devoted of their followers, into the French, Spanish, and Austrian services. The Catholic priests were more sharply dealt with. They were declared in a sweeping judgment guilty of high treason, and ordered to depart. A thousand of them hastened away of themselves, but as many or more remained, and it was a question what to do with them. At first, such of them as did not remove of their own accord were put on board vessels bound for Spain. This proving no deterrent, they were sent to the Barbadoes settlement. Finally, when the numbers arrested were too great to be so provided for, they were removed to two islands in the Atlantic—the Isle of Aran and Inishbofin, where cabins were built for them, and they were allowed sixpence a day for their maintenance. On these principles Ireland was laid out and resettled by Cromwell's officers. In the apportionment of the claims, the soldiers were asked whether their lands should be selected by authority for them, or divided by lot. They answered remarkably, 'that they would rather take a lot upon a barren mountain as from the Lord, than a portion in the most fruitful valley of their own choice.' Both methods were adopted in the final decision. The regiments were kept together in bodies; the lot determined the situation of individuals. 'They were settled down regiment by regiment, troop by troop, company by company, almost on the lands they had conquered. The peasants remained under them in their natural homes as their under-tenants, or farm servants. They built and planted, 114