James II
complained loudly of ill-usage; and these complaints, though probably often exaggerated, were not always destitute of foundation. James, however, continued to express his entire satisfaction with the proceedings of the general; and Clarendon, while strongly censuring the recklessness and violence of Tyrconnell's conduct, repeatedly declared that he was himself willing to carry out a similar policy in a more orderly and prudent fashion.23
The condition of the country was indeed extremely menacing. A class which had long enjoyed a monopoly of political rights found itself suddenly shorn of its exclusive privileges. A class which had been long excluded from all public trust was rapidly rising to political ascendancy. Nor was this all. The history of the past century rendered a revolution of property the almost inevitable complement of a revolution of power. Feeling on both sides ran high. The appointment of Catholic judges and sheriffs had encouraged the Irish to appeal to that law which they had formerly known only as an enemy; accusations of disloyalty were freely tendered, with some show of plausibility, against the more violent Protestants; and Clarendon at one time expressed a fear lest the latter should suffer in their turn all the wrongs which a few years
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