[Sidenote: The Act of Satisfaction, Sept. 27, 1653.] [Sidenote: Declaration of the Irish Government, Oct. 14, 1653.] [Sidenote: The basis of taxation and compensation.] From the Commissioners' letter of April 22, 1653, quoted above, it is evident that the Bill for satisfaction of Adventurers and soldiers was before the Long Parliament for some time. The changes consequent upon its expulsion caused further delay, and it was not till just before Michaelmas that the action of the Lord General and Council was legalised, so far as any legal force could attach to the new Parliament's sanction. The Act confirmed what had been done, and further empowered the Commissioners to shorten proceedings by transplanting the Irish at once, 'although their claims be not first determined or their qualifications distinguished,' and to give them lands in occupation 'proportionable to the estate by them claimed or competent to such stock as each of the said persons shall have.' Adventurers and soldiers receiving lands were relieved for five years from the payment of quit-rents imposed by the Act of 1642, and taxation for the same period was not to exceed one-fourth of the annual value. When the Commissioners in Ireland received the Act with its final directions they published a declaration for enforcing it. All who took part in or abetted 'the rebellions, murders, or massacres' during the first year, all who at any time were in actual arms as rebels, and all who had any land entitling them to compensation by the Act of Settlement, were to remove across the Shannon by May 1, 1654. Protestants who had not joined the rebels before the first cessation on September 15, 1643, were excepted, and so was any woman who married an English Protestant before December 2, 1650, on condition of openly renouncing Popery. All persons not excepted, or without special licence, found east of the Shannon after the appointed day were to be treated as hostile spies, 'tried by martial law, and suffer death.' All transplantable persons were to report themselves to the commissioners of revenue in the precinct where they lived, giving the names of their families, particulars as to tenants and others who would accompany them voluntarily, with their ages, colour and height, and an account of the cattle and tillage 'for which they pay contribution in the places from whence they remove.' After satisfying themselves that the information was true, the Commissioners were to issue certificates, and regulations were made as to how these documents might be converted into land in Connaught or Clare.[264] [Sidenote: The transplantation. Slow progress.]