20 INTRODUCTORY. 



Even more unhappily, Ireland, with the travesty of a con- 

 stitution, was visited with even greater wrongs. The malig- 

 nant ingenuity of Chancellor Brodrick, and first Lord 

 Middleton, the sole inventor of the Penal Code, was supple- 

 mented by the selfishness which destroyed the manufactures, 

 the trade, and even the agriculture of Ireland. 



Perhaps few of the English kings had less sympathy with 

 the people over whom they reigned than William had. His 

 very virtues, his courageous stoicism, his unwearied efforts 

 after a high political ideal, his sincere attachment to his 

 friends, his generous disregard of calumny and perfidy, made 

 him unpopular. In the nature of things, and under the new 

 settlement, it was not possible that he should exercise the 

 same personal influence which his predecessors had, either 

 with the whole nation, or with those who were attached to 

 the policy or person of the reigning sovereign. The English 

 had been the rivals of the Dutch during the greater part of 

 the century, and statesmen like Cromwell as well as volup- 

 tuaries like Charles had inflicted serious injuries on the 

 gallant and enterprising republic, either under the influence of 

 commercial jealousy, or in pursuance of a corrupt bargain. 

 But entirely unjustifiable as the war of 1672 was, it un- 

 doubtedly told in the interests of the East India Company. 

 It was difficult in a time when trade beyond the line was 

 hardly to be distinguished from buccaneering, for English 

 traders to be just to their commercial rivals, and William 

 never let it be concealed that he was a Dutchman first and an 

 Englishman afterwards. I suspect that the jealousy of 

 William's Dutch friends was as keen among the Whig mer- 

 chants as it was among the country squires. It is not Swift 

 only who writes lampoons on the Dutch ; even the tolerant 

 Defoe girds at them. 



During the period which begins with the middle of 

 Elizabeth's reign and ends with the accession of Anne 

 marvellous progress had been made in several directions. 

 Its commencement is marked by the literary activity which 



