House in Ireland, and that every bill so considered
and approved should be either passed without amendment or rejected.
[403]

The session opened with a solemn recognition of the paramount authority
of the mother country. The Commons ordered their clerk to read to them
the English Act which required them to take the Oath of Supremacy and to
subscribe the Declaration against Transubstantiation. Having heard the
Act read, they immediately proceeded to obey it. Addresses were then
voted which expressed the warmest gratitude and attachment to the King.
Two members, who had been untrue to the Protestant and English interest
during the troubles, were expelled. Supplies, liberal when compared with
the resources of a country devastated by years of predatory war, were
voted with eagerness. But the bill for confirming the Act of Settlement
was thought to be too favourable to the native gentry, and, as it could
not be amended, was with little ceremony rejected. A committee of the
whole House resolved that the unjustifiable indulgence with which the
Irish had been treated since the battle of the Boyne was one of the
chief causes of the misery of the kingdom. A Committee of Grievances
sate daily till eleven in the evening; and the proceedings of this
inquest greatly alarmed the Castle. Many instances of gross venality
and knavery on the part of men high in office were brought to light, and
many instances also of what was then thought a criminal lenity towards
the subject nation. This Papist had been allowed to enlist in the army;
that Papist had been allowed to keep a gun; a third had too good a
horse; a fourth had been protected against Protestants who wished to
bring actions against him for wrongs committed during the years of
confusion. The Lord Lieutenant, having obtained nearly as much money as
he could expect, determined to put an end to these unpleasant inquiries.
He knew, however, that if he quarrelled with the Parliament for treating
either peculators or Papists with severity, he should have little
support in England. He therefore looked out for a pretext, and was
fortunate enough to find one. The Commons had passed a vote which might
with some plausibility be represented as inconsistent with the
Poynings statute. Any thing which looked like a violation of that great
fundamental law was likely to excite strong disapprobation on the other
side of Saint George's Channel. The Viceroy saw his advantage, and
availed himself of i