The  Protestants,  who  were  the  wealthiest
traders  as  well  as  the  most  ingenious  arti-
sans of  the  kingdom,  began  to  emigrate :  the
revenue  is  said  to  haye.dl3clined:  the  greater
part  of  the  Protestant  oflicers  of  the  army,
alarmed  by  the  removal  o[  their  brethren,
sold  their  commissionsjor  inadequate  prices,
and,  obtained  military  appointments  in  Hol-
land, then  the  home  of  the  exile  and  the
refuge  of  the  oppressed. t  But  that  which
Tyrconnel  most  pursued,  and  the  Protestants
most  dreaded,  was  the  repeal  of  the  Act  of
Settlement.  The  new  proprietors  were  not,
indee(l,  aware  how  much  cause  there  was
for  their  alarms.  Tyrconnel  boasted  that  he
had  secured  the  support  of  the  Queen  by  the
present  of  a  pearl  necklace  worth  10,000i.,
which  Prince  Rupert  had  bequeathed  to  his
mistress.  In  all  extensive  transfers- of  pro-
perty not  governed  by  rules  of  law,  where
both  jMirties  to  a  corrupt  transaction  have  a
great  interest  in  concealment,  and  where
mere  can  Seldom  be  any  efiective  responw-


♦  Our  accounts  of  Tyrconners  Irish  administra-
tion before  the  Revolution  are  peculiarly  impeTfect
and  subpiciotts.  King;  afterwards  Archbishop  of
Dublin,  whose  State  of  the  Protestants  has  lieen
usually  quoted  as  authority,  was  the  most  zealous
of  Irish  Protestants,  and  his  ingenious  antago-
nist, Leslie,  was  the  moat  inflexible  of  Jacobites.
Thouf[h  both  were  men  of  great  abilities,  their
atteniioo  was  so  much  occupied  in  personalities
and  in  the  discussion  of  controverted  opinions,
that  thejL  have  done  little  to  elucidate  matters  of
fact,  dlarendon  and  Sheridan's  MS.  agree  so
exactly  in  their  picture  of  Tyrconnel,  and  have
such  an  air  of  truth  in  their  accounts  of  him,  that
it  is  not  easy  to  refuse  them  credit,  though  they
were  both  hi»  enemies.
