Page:Life of Sir William Petty 1623 – 1687.djvu/268

 could be convicted, and crime went unpunished, as it was practically impossible for an English and a Protestant settler to live; for the priests had, as Sir William puts it, 'a militia' of their own, consisting of 'the divested persons,' who roamed about the country, and were far stronger than any armed force which the regular Government could oppose to them. They eagerly watched every opportunity, and with undaunted hopes looked forward to the subversion of the existing order of affairs, and to their own restoration to their ancestral lands and their former political supremacy. Already at the beginning of the confused period which followed the fall of Clarendon and the retirement of Ormonde in 1668, they made a bold attempt to resume the offensive. Lord Robartes had succeeded the Duke. He was a great Presbyterian noble of austere manners, who quickly rendered himself impossible. His successor was Lord Berkeley, at heart a Roman Catholic. Notwithstanding the nominal existence of the laws forbidding the presence of 'Popish priests,' Talbot, the Roman Catholic Archbishop of Dublin, was allowed to appear at the Council Table in episcopal robes, and the Lord-Lieutenant was supposed to have said to him that soon 'he hoped to see high Mass at Christ Church.' Meanwhile he had undoubtedly sent him plate and hangings from the Castle to furnish out a ceremony in the Viceregal chapel. But the English Parliament, the majority of which throughout the Long Parliament of Charles II. never wavered in its devotion to the Church of England, and was equally hostile to the Roman Catholics and the Dissenters, became alarmed at the course of affairs. Lord Berkeley was recalled. His successor in 1672 was Lord Essex, a man of the most opposite stamp, and, like Lord Robartes, nurtured in Presbyterian traditions. But his melancholy character made a retention of his high position for any lengthened period impossible, and in 1676 he made way for the Duke of Ormonde.

After these events it was not unnatural that, when a wild