“‘It is, I think, impossible to read and consider the charter without coming to the conclusion that the powers granted to the society were more extensive than, and very different from, any which in the ordinary course of affairs are vested, or would upon this occasion have been vested, in mere private Trustees for the benefit of particular undertakers. The powers indeed are, many of them, of a public and political nature, and ... were given for the public purposes of the Plantation.... The Companies of London were, with the burthen of undertaking the plantation of such lands as might be allotted to them, to receive such benefits as were offered to ... ordinary undertakers.... The Charter of Charles appears to me to be substantially, as it is avowedly, a restoration of the Charter of James. The property is part of that granted for the purposes of the Plantation, and the powers possessed by the Society, as well as the duties with which it is charged, _have all of them reference to the Plantation_. I AM OF OPINION THAT THE POWERS GRANTED TO THE SOCIETY, AND THE TRUSTS REPOSED IN THEM, WERE IN PART OF A GENERAL AND PUBLIC NATURE, INDEPENDENT OF THE PRIVATE BENEFIT OF THE COMPANIES OF LONDON, AND WERE INTENDED BY THE CROWN TO BENEFIT IRELAND, AND THE CITY OF LONDON, BY CONNECTING THE CITY OF LONDONDERRY AND THE TOWN OF COLERAINE AND A CONSIDERABLE IRISH DISTRICT WITH THE CITY OF LONDON, AND TO PROMOTE THE GENERAL PURPOSES OF THE PLANTATION, NOT ONLY BY SECURING THE PERFORMANCE OF THE CONDITIONS IMPOSED ON ORDINARY UNDERTAKERS, BUT ALSO BY THE EXERCISE OF POWERS AND THE PERFORMANCE OF TRUSTS NOT WITHIN THE SCOPE OF THOSE CONDITIONS’” (pp. 44, 45). Since this decision the Irish Society has remained untouched. After the Report of the Royal Commission of Inquiry into the Livery Companies of London, a Bill was prepared on lines indicated by this Report, but the Bill did not pass into law. THE GREAT PLAGUE AND FIRE CHAPTER I PLAGUE