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James II to dispense with this regulation at discretion. Of this power James now resolved to avail himself; and Clarendon, at the express desire of his master, addressed a letter to the most important municipalities informing them that it was the King's wish that they should admit Catholics to some share in their privileges. The corporation of Dublin, which had successfully resisted a similar attempt in the time of Lord Berkeley, refused obedience; its example was followed by other leading towns; and, in the face of their united opposition, the scheme was postponed.

While Clarendon was thus transforming the civil government, Tyrconnell was engaged in effecting a no less complete revolution in the army. Nine years earlier Ormond, then Lord Lieutenant, had been ordered to deprive of their commissions all officers who, in the troubles of the preceding reign, had borne arms against the court. The Duke was too prudent to meet this order with a direct refusal; but he easily found pretexts to defer its execution, "for he foresaw it was to make room for Papists." During the "No Popery" panic which followed a precisely opposite policy was adopted; the tests, which had sometimes been neglected, were stringently enforced; the Catholic soldiers were disbanded; and, at the accession of James, the troops were 134