Page:Studies in Irish History, 1649-1775 (1903).djvu/156

James II have found it false in, whole or in part, aggravated or misrepresented so as to alter the whole face of the story and give it perfectly another air and turn, insomuch that, though many things he says are true, yet he has hardly spoken a true word, that is, told it truly and nakedly without a warp." It is an extremely significant fact that, although King survived the publication of this pamphlet for thirty-seven years, he never attempted to reply to it: nor can it be pretended that it proceeded from a quarter which he was entitled to regard with contempt. Charles Lesley, who, during the reign of James the Second, filled the office of chancellor of the diocese of Connor, had in learning and abilities no equal among the Irish Protestant clergy, and is acknowledged even by hostile writers to have been by far the most subtle disputant in the nonjuring body. His controversial writings, though by no means free from the faults inherent in compositions of that nature, are distinguished by extraordinary dialectical skill; and he had lately devoted his rare powers to the defence of his Church against the attacks of the ablest Catholic divines. Nor did his hostility to Popery always show itself in a purely abstract form. He was a justice of the peace for the county of Monaghan, and when, under the government of Tyrconnell, a Catholic 144