ch was caused by a collision between the coach
of the Speaker and the coach of the Chancellor. There were, indeed,
factions, but factions which sprang merely from personal pretensions and
animosities. The names of Whig and Tory had been carried across Saint
George's Channel, but had in the passage lost all their meaning. A man
who was called a Tory at Dublin would have passed at Westminster for as
stanch a Whig as Wharton. The highest Churchmen in Ireland abhorred
and dreaded Popery so much that they were disposed to consider every
Protestant as a brother. They remembered the tyranny of James, the
robberies, the burnings, the confiscations, the brass money, the Act
of Attainder, with bitter resentment. They honoured William as their
deliverer and preserver. Nay, they could not help feeling a certain
respect even for the memory of Cromwell; for, whatever else he might
have been, he had been the champion and the avenger of their race.
Between the divisions of England, therefore, and the divisions of
Ireland, there was scarcely any thing in common. In England there were
two parties, of the same race and religion, contending with each other.
In Ireland there were two castes, of different races and religions, one
trampling on the other.

Scotland too was quiet. The harvest of the last year had indeed been
scanty; and there was consequently much suffering. But the spirit of
the nation was buoyed up by wild hopes, destined to end in cruel
disappointment. A magnificent daydream of wealth and empire so
completely occupied the minds of men that they hardly felt the present
distress. How that dream originated, and by how terrible an awakening it
was broken, will be related hereafter.

In the autumn of 1696 the Estates of Scotland met at Edinburgh. The
attendance was thin; and the session lasted only five weeks. A supply
amounting to little more than a hundred thousand pounds sterling was
voted. Two Acts for the securing of the government were passed. One of
those Acts required all persons in public trust to sign an Association
similar to the Association which had been so generally subscribed in
the south of the island. The other Act provided that the Parliament of
Scotland should not be dissolved by the death of the King. But by far
the most important event of this short session was the passing of the
Act for the settling of Schools. By this memorable law it was, in the
Scotch phrase, statuted and ordained that every parish in th