Page:Confiscation in Irish history.djvu/248

 of a century before; the remainder to colonists planted on confiscated lands. Then comes the great upheaval of 1641. Old Irish and old English combine for the first time in opposition to the newcomers.

All the lands in possession of Catholics were confiscated under Cromwell, except those of the few who were able to prove "constant good affection" to the parliament of England. But to certain classes he set out lands west of the Shannon estimated at about one and a half million English acres at the outside, or something under one-thirteenth of the whole area. By fraud, by force, or by sale at nominal prices, a large portion of this passed into the hands of Cromwell's supporters. In 1664 the Irish agents asserted that there were still one hundred and fifty-six thousand (Irish?) acres due but not yet set out to transplanted persons.

The remainder of the confiscated land was divided amongst his supporters, largely among the soldiers who had fought in, and the "Adventurers" who had subscribed money for the conquest of Ireland.

The Restoration upset this state of affairs. The Catholics retained what had been set out to them in Connaught, and the fortunate few among them recovered a certain amount of what they had lost. How much is a disputed point. The highest estimate, Petty's, asserts that the Catholics ultimately under Charles II. possessed one-third of the