d more extensively useful than
the establishment of the liberty of the press. Up to this time no
book or newspaper could be published in England without a license.[2]
In the period of the Commonwealth John Milton, the great Puritan poet,
had earnestly labored to get this severe law repealed, declaring that
"while he who kills a man kills a reasonable creature,...he who
destroys a good book [by refusing to let it appear in print] kills
reason itself."[3] But under James II, Chief Justice Scroggs had
declared it a crime to publish anything whatever concerning the
government, whether true or false, without a license. During that
reign there were only four places in England--namely, London, Oxford,
Cambridge, and York--where any book, pamphlet, or newspaper could be
legally issued, and then only with the sanction of a rigid inspector.

[2] See Summary of Constitutional History in the Appendix, p. xxiii,
S26.
[3] Milton's "Areopagitica," or "Speech for the Liberty of Unlicensed
Printing."

Under William and Mary this restriction was removed. Henceforth men
were free not only to think, but to print and circulate their thought
(subject, of course, to the law of libel and sedition). They could
thus bring the government more directly before that bar of public
opinion which judges all men and all institutions.

499. James II lands in Ireland (1689); Act of Attainder; Siege of
Londonderry.

But though William was King of England, and had been accepted as King
of Scotland, yet the Irish, like the Scotch Highlanders, refused to
recognize him as their lawful sovereign. The great body of Irish
population was then, as now, Roman Catholic. But they had been
gradually dispossessed of their hold on the land (SS159, 402, 453),
and the larger part of the most desirable portion of the island was
owned by a few hundred thousand Protestant colonists.

On the other hand, James II had, during his reign, put the civil
government and the military power in the hands of the Catholics. The
Earl of Tyrconnel (S488) now raised the standard of rebellion in
Ireland in the interest of the Catholics, and invited James II to come
over from France (S491) and regain his throne. The Protestants of the
north stood by William of Orange (S491), and thus got that name of
Orangemen which they have ever since retained. James landed in
Ireland in the spring (1689) with a small French force lent him by
Louis XIV (S491).

He established his headquart