Oliver Plunket 327 Talbot, O'Molony, and other Bishops 328 Recusants after James II. 330 Slow growth of toleration 331 APPENDIX Letter from Ormonde to Bennet, 1663 333 MAP Ireland to illustrate the reign of James II. _At end of the volume._ IRELAND UNDER THE STUARTS CHAPTER XL THE RESTORATION GOVERNMENT, 1660 The King enjoyed his own again, and England rejoiced exceedingly. Even Oliver's unbeaten soldiers, disgusted with his incompetent successors, were for the most part ready to retire into private life. Yet the spirit of the Puritan revolution survived, and the Mayor of Dover presented a richly bound Bible to the restored monarch, who graciously accepted it, remarking that it was the thing that he loved above all things in the world. At Canterbury a crowd of importunate suitors gave him some foretaste of future troubles, but the entry into London was wonderful. 'I stood in the Strand,' says Evelyn, 'and beheld it, and blessed God.' With the shouts of welcome still in his ears Charles took refuge in the arms of Barbara Palmer, and next day issued a proclamation against vicious, debauched, and profane persons. [Sidenote: The Irish Convention.] Coote and Broghill were jealous of each other. There is reason to believe that the former was inclined to claim the whole credit of restoring the King, but that the latter proved his own priority by producing a letter from his rival acknowledging the fact. They agreed that the Restoration might be delayed or frustrated by hasty action in Ireland, and that it was better to wait until England herself was committed to it. The officers who had gladly pronounced for a free Parliament might not have been united had royalty been openly favoured. But the Irish Convention lost no time in repudiating Cromwell's plan of one legislature for the whole of the British Islands, while strongly approving the restoration of the secluded members in England. They declared that 'as for several hundreds of years last passed by the laws and laudable custom and constitution of this nation, Parliaments have been usually held in Ireland and that in those Parliaments laws have been enacted and laws repealed, and subsidies granted, as public occasion required so that right of having Parliaments held in Ireland is still justly and lawfully due and belonging to Ireland, and that the Parliament of England never charged Ireland in any age with subsidies or other public taxes and assessments, until after the violence offered to the Parliament of England in December 1648, since which time they who invaded the rights of the Parliament of England invaded also the rights of the Parliament of Ireland by imposing taxes and assessments upon Ireland.' This important declaration was not made for more than