Page:Studies in Irish History, 1649-1775 (1903).djvu/268

Sarsfield and Enniskillen. We only know that James at this time had a low opinion cf the brave, good-natured, gigantic Irishman; and it is scarcely probable that Sarsfield had a high opinion of James. The letters of Count d'Avaux, Louis's confidential agent, give a lamentable picture of the imbecility with which the Jacobite cause was then conducted. In Ireland itself everything was lacking, except men, and again and again the French observer dwells on the plenty and goodness of the recruits. To arm and drill these efficiently, to crush out the northern centres of resistance, to leave the expected invader without a base of support—that was the urgent need. Next after this, the military problem, came the political, which was complicated enough. Was the Act of Settlement to be undone? if so, how were Protestants to be treated who stood for King James? should their property be confiscated, and restored to its original Catholic holders? Admitting that this section was negligible in numbers, what of the "New Interest" as it was called? How should the King deal with the claims of those Catholics who had acquired by purchase from Protestants property which the Protestants owed to confiscation? On all these points a resolute policy was needed, and the policy carried out by the Parliament was 256