HISTORY OF GREAT BRITAIN AND IRELAND. 



peaceful Lowlanders. When the Scottish conven- 

 tion was about to settle the crown on William and 

 Mary, Viscount Dundee, formerly Graham of 

 Claverhouse, and celebrated for his severity upon 

 the recusant Presbyterians, raised an insurrection 

 in the Highlands in favour of King James, which 

 threatened at first to be successful. General 

 Mackay, who was sent with a body of troops to 

 suppress it, encountered Dundee at Killiecrankie 

 (July 27, 1689), and, though his troops were 

 greatly superior in number and discipline, experi- 

 enced a complete defeat. Dundee, however, fell 

 by a musket-shot in the moment of victory, and 

 his army was unable to follow up its advantage. 

 In a short time the Highland clans were induced 

 to yield a nominal obedience to William and 

 Mary. 



In Ireland, where, since the accession of James, 

 Catholicism had been virtually predominant, a 

 much more formidable resistance was offered to 

 the Revolution Settlement. In March 1689, James 

 proceeded in person from France to Ireland, where 

 he found himself at the head of a large though 

 ill-disciplined army, which had been assembled by 

 the Earl of Tyrconnel, who had been viceroy in 

 the previous reign. He immediately ratified an 

 act of the Irish parliament for annulling that 

 settlement of the Protestants upon the lands of 

 Catholics which had taken place in the time of 

 Cromwell, and another for attainting between two 

 and three thousand Protestants. The Protestants 

 or Englishry, finding themselves thus dispossessed 

 of what they considered their property, and ex- 

 posed to the vengeance of a majority over whom 

 they had long ruled, fled to Londonderry, Ennis- 

 killen, and other fortified towns, where they made 

 a desperate resistance, in the hope of being 

 speedily succoured by King William. That sove- 

 reign now led over a large army to Ireland, 

 and (July i, 1690) attacked the native forces under 

 his father-in-law at the fords of the river Boyne, 

 near the village of Dunore, where he gained a 

 complete victory. 



James was completely dispirited by this disaster, 

 and lost no time in sailing again to France. The 

 Duke of Berwick, a natural son of James, and the 

 Earl of Tyrconnel, still kept the field with a large 

 body of cavalry, and the infantry were in the 

 meantime effectually protected in the town of 

 Limerick. The Irish army next year, on I2th 

 July, fought a regular battle at Aghrim, when, 

 partly owing to the loss of their brave French 

 leader, St Ruth, they were totally routed by the 

 Dutch general Ginkell, who was afterwards 

 created Earl of Athlone. The remains of the 

 Catholic forces took refuge in Limerick, where, 

 with their gallant commander, Sarsfield, they 

 finally submitted. 



The supremacy of the colonists was now secured 

 beyond the possibility of a doubt, and an act was 

 passed in England making it necessary for all 

 members of the Irish parliament, and all persons 

 filling civil, military, and ecclesiastical offices in 

 Ireland, to take an oath abjuring the most import- 

 ant doctrines of the Catholic faith. 



REIGN OF WILLIAM III. 



Though all military opposition was thus over- 

 come, William soon found difficulties of another 

 kind in the management of the state. The Tories, 



though glad to save the established church by 

 calling in his interference, had submitted with no 

 good grace to the necessity of making him king ; 

 and no sooner was the danger past, than they 

 reasserted their doctrine of hereditary right. From 

 the name of the exiled monarch, they now began 

 to be known by the appellation of Jacobites. 

 James's hopes of a restoration were thus for a 

 long time kept alive, and the peace of William's 

 mind was so much imbittered, as to make his 

 sovereignty appear a dear purchase. Perhaps the 

 only circumstance which reconciled the king to 

 his situation, was the great additional force he 

 could now bring against the ambitious designs of 

 Louis XIV. Almost from his accession he entered 

 heartily into the combination of European powers 

 for checking this warlike prince, and conducted 

 military operations against him every summer in 

 person. The necessity of having supplies for that 

 purpose rendered him unfit, even if he had been 

 willing, to resist any liberal measures proposed to 

 him in parliament, and hence his passing of the 

 famous Triennial Act in 1694, by which it was 

 appointed that a new parliament should be called 

 every third year. In this year died Queen Mary, 

 without offspring ; after which William reigned as 

 sole monarch. 



While William was treated in England with less 

 than justice, he lost all his popularity in Scotland, 

 in consequence of two separate acts, characterised 

 by great cruelty and injustice. An order had 

 been issued, commanding all the Highland chiefs, 

 under pain of fire and sword, to give in their sub- 

 mission before the last day of the year 1691. One 

 chief, M'lan the head of the Macdonalds of 

 Glencoe was prevented by accident from observ- 

 ing the day ; and Dalrymple, the secretary for 

 Scotland, made his delay a pretext for obtain- 

 ing from William letters of fire and sword, 

 decreeing the destruction of the whole clan. The 

 military party intrusted with this duty, instead 

 of boldly advancing to the task, came among the 

 clan as friends, partook of their hospitality and 

 amusements, and never indicated their intentions 

 till the morning of the I3th of February (1692), 

 when they attacked the unsuspecting people in 

 their beds, and mercilessly slew all that came in 

 their way. Thirty-eight persons, including the 

 chief and his wife, were slaughtered, and many 

 others died in the snow, as they vainly tried to 

 escape. A more atrocious action does not stain 

 modern history, though the barbarous circum- 

 stances of the slaughter were more owing to 

 feelings of private revenge on the part of some of 

 the officials of government in Scotland, than to 

 the intentions of William. As, however, he did 

 nothing more than dismiss Dalrymple, when the 

 circumstances of the massacre were made known 

 to him, his name was unfortunately associated 

 with it in the minds of the Scotch people. 



Two or three years after, the Scottish people 

 began to turn their attention to commerce, by 

 which they saw great advantages gained by neigh- 

 bouring states, and they subscribed among them- 

 selves ,400,000 for the founding of a colony on the 

 Isthmus of Darien, which they thought might 

 become an emporium for American and Indian 

 produce. The scheme was at first sanctioned by 

 an act of parliament, but on account of the jealousy 

 of English trading companies, and the remon- 

 strances of the Spaniards, who feared their colonies 



