Page:Studies in Irish History, 1649-1775 (1903).djvu/99

Charles II 1673, Essex having been then more than a year in office, the Primate again describes him as "a wise and prudent man, who does not willingly give annoyance to those who live in peace." In 1677 and the following years, during the second Viceroyalty of Ormond, the same excellent prelate repeatedly speaks of his administration as "peaceful and mild." Finally, we have the evidence of Sarsfield and the officers who were associated with him in framing the Articles of Limerick. The first article of that celebrated treaty provides that "The Roman Catholics of this kingdom shall enjoy such privileges in the exercise of their religion as are consistent with the laws of Ireland, or as they did enjoy in the reign of Charles the Second"; a conclusive proof that the condition of Irish Roman Catholics in that reign was, in the opinion of the most illustrious members of their body, far from intolerable.

But, if the lot of the Irish Catholics was far better than it had once been, or than it was again in a short time destined to be; if they were no longer hunted lke wolves, as in the days of the Protectorate; if they were not yet exposed to the more cold-blooded and systematic tyranny of the penal code, they had already become what they were long doomed to remain, 87