Page:Studies in Irish History, 1649-1775 (1903).djvu/271

Sarsfield, says the writer, England should increase the number of privateers. Conversely, it was the evident duty of James to apply himself, were it only in his own interest, to see that the trade should be promoted and not checked in the country which was to be ravaged by reason of its fidelity. He did not, it is true, do what William did a few months after the Boyne, and prohibit expressly all exportation of wool or hides from Ireland except to England. But he came as near as he dared, by refusing to accept Louis' proposals for a reciprocal lessening of import duties. Further, while William and his counsellors had no sentimental scruples about the feelings of those whom William claimed to be his Irish subjects, James persistently refused to allow the English to be regarded as the enemy. Englishmen, unless under arms, might come and go as they pleased in Ireland; Irishmen were clapped in jail if found landing in an English port. The natural result was that while William was perfectly informed of James's movements, D'Avaux describes the Irish party as totally without knowledge of what was doing across the Channel.

Thus it was under a nerveless king and a half-hearted direction that Sarsfield had to serve. He was employed with five hundred horse to keep 259