[530] Faculty.—­Document in the State Paper Office, Dublin, entitled Smyth’s Information for Ireland.

[531] Aloes.—­Ulster Arch.  Jour. vol. iii. p. 163.

[532] Roman Catholics.—­The noisy and violent opposition which was made to a Catholic if he attempted to enter either a trade or a profession, would scarcely be credited at the present day; yet it should be known and remembered by those who wish to estimate the social state of this country accurately and fairly.  After the Revolution, the Protestant portion of the Guild of Tailors petitioned William III. to make their corporation exclusively Protestant, and their request was granted.

[533] High-street.—­Gilbert’s Dublin, vol. i. p. 220.

[534] Vision.—­Gilbert’s Dublin, vol. ii. p. 149.

[535] Castle.—­Gilbert’s Dublin, vol. ii. p. 69.  There is a curious account in the Quarterly Journal of the Kilkenny Archaeological Society, July, 1862, p. 165, of a comic playbill, issued for a Kilkenny theatre, in May, 1793.  The value of the tickets was to be taken, if required, in candles, bacon, soap, butter, and cheese, and no one was to be admitted into the boxes without shoes and stockings; which leads one to conclude that the form of admission and style of attire were not uncommon, or there would have been no joke in the announcement.

[536] Wright.—­Domestic Manners, pp. 465, 466:  “Oh! what an excellent thing is an English pudding!  Make a pudding for an Englishman, and you will regale him, be he where he will.”

[537] Chamber.—­This most interesting and amusing journal is published in the Ulster Arch.  Jour. vol. iii. p. 73, with a translation and notes.  The original is in Latin.

CHAPTER XXXIII.

Accession of James II.—­Position of Public Affairs—­Birth of an Heir—­Landing of William of Orange—­Arrival of King James in Ireland—­The Siege of Derry—­Cruelties of the Enniskilleners—­Disease in Schomberg’s Camp—­The Battle of the Boyne—­James’ Defeat and Disgraceful Plight—­The Siege of Athlone—­The Siege of Limerick—­Marlborough appears before Cork—­William raises the Siege of Limerick and returns to England—­The Siege of Athlone, Heroic Valour of its Defenders—­The Battle of Aughrim—­Surrender of Limerick.

[A.D. 1688-1691.]

King James’ accession again raised the hopes of the Catholics, and again they were doomed to disappointment; while the Protestants, who had their fears also, soon learned that policy would bend itself to popularity.  Colonel Richard Talbot was now raised to the peerage as Earl of Tyrconnel, and appointed Commander-in-Chief of the forces, with an authority independent of the Lord Lieutenant.  His character, as well as that of his royal master, has been judged rather by his political opinions than by facts, and both have suffered considerably at the hands of a modern historian, who has offered more than one holocaust to the manes of his hero, William of Orange.