voted him thanks, and ordered that a letter to that effect should be sent to him, signed by the speaker, and to which was affixed the seal of the House. On the 19th of the same month, they also appointed him one of the com missioners for the management of the affairs of Ireland. All dissembling was quickly at an end. On the 14th of May, old style, King Charles II. was proclaimed in Dublin, and immediately after throughout all the great towns, with general acclamations of joy; and on the 25th of that month, Sir Charles Coote was appointed, with others, to wait upon his majesty, to present to him the congratulations of the nation. His eminent services in contributing to the Restoration, were rewarded by the King with several offices of profit and honour; and on the 6th of September, 1660, he was created Baron and Wiscount Coote, and Earl of Mountrath, in the Queen's county, in Ireland; he was also appointed one of the lords justices of that kingdom. His honours, however, he did not long live to enjoy, as he died of the small-pox, December 18, 1661, and was succeeded in his titles and estates by Charles, his second son, from whom is descended the present Earl of Mountrath.
Lord Mountrath was undoubtedly a man of extraordinary abilities, and it is to be lamented that he lived in an unhappy period of civil dissension; when the arms and power of one party were directed against another; and the true patriot can only lament over every victory, since whoever was conquered or victorious, the blood of brothers and fellow-citizens was mournfully shed; and what was a joy to one part of the nation, was to others of his countrymen a cause of sorrow and lamentation:—
“Bella geri placuit nullus habitura triumphos.”
Whatever may be the opinion which we may be disposed to entertain of the merits of the cause which Sir Charles Coote embraced in the commencement of the troubles, there is reason to believe he was actuated by a conscientious regard to what he conceived was his duty; as the family were most zealous presbyterians in their religious principles. The power which he acquired enabled him at
