It would not be germane to my subject to enter into detail at greater length than to establish the provocation, or necessity existing at this time, for a large emigration of the Irish people. The English government had long held for the crown an absurd claim which involved the title of every estate in Connaught. The Catholics held nine tenths of the land and they bore in numbers about the same proportion to the population. During the reign of James an effort had been made to clear off this claimed lien, and large sums of money had been paid by the owners to the English government for this purpose, with the understanding that these transactions should be made a public record. When Charles came to the throne it was found that James had appropriated this money for his own use, and the only record existing was one in which only the title of estates held by Protestants was established. For an additional sum Charles promised, among many other promises which he did not keep, to have the title of the estates held by the Catholics cleared of all government claims, wherever the holder could prove his right of possession. For this ostensible purpose a commission was appointed, at the head of which was the Lord Chief Justice and the chief prosecuting officer for the crown in Ireland. It is now known that the real object of the commission was to obtain some pretext for a general confiscation of the land, and to make a plantation of Catholic Connaught, after the people had been disposed of. As a stimulus to the zeal of these officers an additional bonus of two shillings on the pound was granted from the value of each estate confiscated to the crown, when made on the plea of a defective title. The owner was generally made foreman of the jury and whenever the verdict was a “Prevarication on the evidence,” as it was termed, and not for the crown, he was fined to bankruptcy, his estate confiscated “legally,” and the jurymen were both fined and imprisoned. But this semblance of justice proved to be too slow a process, so the country was suddenly overrun with English troops to force an extended outbreak. Additional instructions were given to exterminate, if possible, the whole Catholic population, English as well as Irish, as is clearly proved by the writings of Leland, Clarendon, Warner, Carte, and other writers, who had no sympathy for the Irish people. The cattle and all available property were seized; persons in all stations of life were imprisoned, without having charges preferred against them, or they were wilfully murdered without provocation; the wives and daughters of the Catholic Irish were subjected to unspeakable brutality, and it was a frequent boast that no woman was spared; the well and the sick, the young and the old were indiscriminately turned adrift, their houses were burned, and all provisions and stores which could not be used by the troops were wantonly destroyed.