Note 32 — PREFACE.

In James the Second’s reign some of the measures were calculated to be of the greatest service to Ireland, and emanated from a wise and discreet minister, formerly attached to the Protestant interest, the second Earl of Clarendon. His instructions announced the intentions of the legislature, or at least of the King, to introduce Catholics into the corporations, and invest them with magistracies and judicial offices; and he gave his opinion in favour of the legality of the measure, though contrary to an Act of Elizabeth. But the greatest evil which can occur to a reformation, is to have it undertaken by men of small capacity; as their best intentions are ever marred by their petulance and dullness. The folly with which James hurried on a change, and the injudiciousness of some of the proposed measures, caused his own ruin, and that of the unhappy country he made the principal scene of his egregious weakness and incapacity.