James II
pealed; that all persons who, by the operation of those Acts, had been excluded from property which they or their ancestors had possessed on the 22nd of October, 1641, should be re-instated in their inheritance; that all attainders and outlawries since that date should be null and void; that all officers having "the custody or keeping of the said attainders or outlawries" should cancel the same, or be liable, in case of neglect, to a fine of £500; that commissioners should be appointed to hear and determine the claims and title of restorable persons; and that any person who, "by reason of the oppressions, distractions, and confusions hereinbefore mentioned, and of the length of time since the ancient proprietors have been dispossessed," should have mislaid his title-deeds and so be unable to make good his claim before the commissioners, should "use and have his action and remedy in any of his Majesty's courts of law or equity for recovery of his rights." Special provisions of an extremely minute and technical character followed, dealing with the lands which had been assigned to transplanted persons in Clare and Connaught.
The landowners whom this statute deprived of their property comprised, according to the estimate of Archbishop King, about two-thirds of the Protestant proprietary of Ireland,92 and were
172
