Page:Studies in Irish History, 1649-1775 (1903).djvu/145

James II was by no means disposed to underrate his own judgment, declared himself highly satisfied; but Tyrconnell, who knew Ireland much better, was of a different opinion. "By God, my lord," he 1s said to have exclaimed, "I must needs tell you the sheriffs you made are generally rogues and old Cromwellians"; and, when Clarendon insisted "that these sheriffs, generally speaking, were as good a set of men as any had been chosen these dozen years," "By God," retorted the general, "I believe it, for there has not been an honest man sheriff in Ireland these twenty years." With the assistance of Judge Nugent Tyrconnell then prepared a list for the following year which Clarendon was very reluctantly compelled to accept. This list was ostensibly composed of Catholics and Protestants in equal numbers; "but I am sure," wrote the Lord Lieutenant, "several of them, even of those who are styled Protestants, are men no way qualified for such offices of trust."

Thus a great share in the government of the country had been transferred from the colonists to the native race. One stronghold of the Protestant ascendency, however, remained. The corporations were still wholly Protestant; but the Act of Settlement, which excluded Catholics from these bodies, empowered the government 133