Page:Confiscation in Irish history.djvu/186

 Confederates early in 1648 to the Bishop of Ferns and Sir Nicholas Plunkett who were being sent on a mission to the Pope. In this the Pope was asked to be mediator between the Irish and Queen Henrietta Maria, then in France, and the Prince now Charles II. This seems a sufficiently harmless mission, but there was a further instruction that if all else failed the Pope was to be asked to act as Protector of Ireland. This document was signed by Plunkett himself. At the same time were produced drafts, in Plunkett's handwriting, of instructions to envoys to Spain and France similarly asking for mediation, and in the last resort protection. At the time the Queen and probably also the Prince must have been aware of these steps, and certainly they were taken as much in their interests as in that of the Irish. But technically the Irish were in the wrong. Charles professed the greatest indignation. Plunkett was debarred from all access to the King and Court, and the Privy Council on March 14th, 1661—2, decided that no further hearing was to be given to any petitions or remonstrances from the Irish.

The main provisions of the Bill for the Settlement of Ireland were then settled by the Privy Council and transmitted to Ireland, and, in May, 1662, passed by both houses.

The victory of the Protestant party is fully apparent in the preamble to the Act of Settlement, which is such a remarkable presentation of the Protestant case that the more material parts deserve quotation in full.