ral sensibility. In June 1686, Tyrconnel came.
His commission authorised him only to command the troops, but he brought
with him royal instructions touching all parts of the administration,
and at once took the real government of the island into his own hands.
On the day after his arrival he explicitly said that commissions must be
largely given to Roman Catholic officers, and that room must be made for
them by dismissing more Protestants. He pushed on the remodelling of
the army eagerly and indefatigably. It was indeed the only part of the
functions of a Commander in Chief which he was competent to perform;
for, though courageous in brawls and duels, he knew nothing of military
duty. At the very first review which he held, it was evident to all who
were near to him that he did not know how to draw up a regiment. [178]
To turn Englishmen out and to put Irishmen in was, in his view, the
beginning and the end of the administration of war. He had the insolence
to cashier the Captain of the Lord Lieutenant's own Body Guard: nor was
Clarendon aware of what had happened till he saw a Roman Catholic, whose
face was quite unknown to him, escorting the state coach. [179] The
change was not confined to the officers alone. The ranks were completely
broken up and recomposed. Four or five hundred soldiers were turned
out of a single regiment chiefly on the ground that they were below the
proper stature. Yet the most unpractised eye at once perceived that they
were taller and better made men than their successors, whose wild and
squalid appearance disgusted the beholders. [180] Orders were given
to the new officers that no man of the Protestant religion was to be
suffered to enlist. The recruiting parties, instead of beating their
drums for volunteers at fairs and markets, as had been the old practice,
repaired to places to which the Roman Catholics were in the habit of
making pilgrimages for purposes of devotion. In a few weeks the General
had introduced more than two thousand natives into the ranks; and the
people about him confidently affirmed that by Christmas day not a man of
English race would be left in the whole army. [181]

On all questions which arose in the Privy Council, Tyrconnel showed
similar violence and partiality. John Keating, Chief Justice of the
Common Pleas, a man distinguished by ability, integrity, and loyalty,
represented with great mildness that perfect equality was all that the
General could reasonably ask f