Page:Studies in Irish History, 1649-1775 (1903).djvu/116

Charles II firmness to disregard, he speedily wearied of a position which he had never desired, and, as early as 1675, begged to be relieved of duties which he felt himself incompetent to fulfil. That his request was not immediately complied with must be attributed to the extreme difficulty which the Government found in providing him with a successor. The critical condition into which Ireland was rapidly drifting, and the violence of the opposition in England, rendered imperative the choice of a nobleman who should be neither suspected of Popish tendencies nor likely to become a tool in the hands of Lord Shaftesbury and his party. Such a nobleman it was by no means easy to find. A rumour that the selection had been entrusted to Richard Talbot, and that the office had been offered by him to the highest bidder, though widely current at the time, is too ludicrously extravagant to deserve attention.

At length, in August, 1677, a choice of all others the least expected was made. Ormond, who for many years had been totally estranged from the Court, owed his restoration to office to the favour of the same prince who, at an earlier period, had been most active in procuring his recall. The motives for this singular alliance can only be conjectured; but there is one ex-

104