Page:Confiscation in Irish history.djvu/192

 was provided for by Clauses VI. and VII. of the Act. They were to keep v/hatever they were in possession of on May 7th, 1659, and furthermore all the corporate towns, certain counties, and other lands were set apart to pay the arrears of the "forty-nine" officers as those Protestants who had served the King as officers before 1649 were called.

As to the restoration of the Irish, it was provided that "innocent Protestants" and "innocent Papists" were to be immediately restored, and that in restoring them those who had taken no lands in Connaught or Clare were to have precedence over those who had taken such lands. Adventurers and soldiers as well as transplanted persons removed to make way for such "innocents'" were to be reprised, that is to get lands of equivalent value immediately after removal.

But the remainder of the restorable Irish were to get back their lands only after the Cromwellian in possession should be reprised. This was the fundamental condition, which wrecked the whole scheme. For, in spite of what had been represented to the King, there was no stock of land available out of which sufficient reprisals could be made. And what little there was was reduced by the most appalling jobbery and corruption. Thus James Duke of York was granted all the lands that had been set out to the regicides, computed at 120,000 acres, largely made up of some of the best lands in Tipperary and elsewhere. Some of the estates thus given to him had actually belonged to