James II
genuine reprisal, viz, "that it be as good at least, if not in some respects better, than the thing I am to part with; that I myself be judge whether it be better or worse; that I keep what I have till I am reprised." Of these conditions he insisted, "not one is like to be observed in the intended reprisals." The reprisable persons would not obtain "equal value, worth, and purchase." "The parties themselves are not made the judges, but the commissioners." Lastly, "they are to be turned out immediately, and wait for a reprisal afterwards." Of these arguments the first alone is important, and it is flatly contradicted by the very words of the Act.
Within a few days after the passing of the Act of Repeal a bill was introduced into the House of Commons attainting more than two thousand persons99; a measure which has been described as unparalleled in its magnitude by writers who do not choose to remember that, only thirty-seven years earlier, the Long Parliament had attainted about fifty times that number of Irishmen.100 After a preamble, in which the "most horrid invasion made by your unnatural enemy, the Prince of Orange," was condemned in terms of the most effusive loyalty, a list was framed containing in all nearly 1,300 names of persons who were described as having "noto-
177
