suits by no
manner of judgment or discretion, secretly, of himself, without any
communication with Ormond, concluded a peace with the council of
Kilkenny, and agreed, in the king's name, that the Irish should enjoy
all the churches of which they had ever been in possession since the
commencement of their insurrection, on condition that they should assist
the king in England with a body of ten thousand men. This transaction
was discovered by accident. The titular archbishop of Tuam being killed
by a sally of the garrison of Sligo, the articles of the treaty were
found among his baggage, and were immediately published every where,
and copies of them sent over to the English parliament.[*] The lord
lieutenant and Lord Digby, foreseeing the clamor which would be raised
against the king, committed Glamorgan to prison, charged him with
treason for his temerity, and maintained that he had acted altogether
without any authority from his master. The English parliament, however,
neglected not so favorable an opportunity of reviving the old clamor
with regard to the king's favor of Popery, and accused him of delivering
over, in a manner, the whole kingdom of Ireland to that hated sect. The
king told them, "that the earl of Glamorgan, having made an offer to
raise forces in the kingdom of Ireland, and to conduct them into England
for his majesty's service, had a commission to that purpose, and to that
purpose only; and that he had no commission at all to treat of any thing
else, without the privity and direction of the lord lieutenant, much
less to capitulate any thing concerning religion, or any property
belonging either to church or laity."[**] Though this declaration seems
agreeable to truth, it gave no satisfaction to the parliament; and
some historians, even at present, when the ancient bigotry is somewhat
abated, are desirous of representing this very innocent transaction, in
which the king was engaged by the most violent necessity, as a stain on
the memory of that unfortunate prince.[***] [16]

* Rush, vol. vii. p. 239.

** Birch, p. 119.

*** See note P, at the end of the volume.

Having lost all hope of prevailing over the rigor of the parliament,
either by arms or by treaty, the only resource which remained to the
king was derived from the intestine dissensions which ran very high
among his enemies. Presbyterians and Independents, even before their
victory was fully completed, fell into contests about t