above a fourth part had been restored to the ancient proprietors
in conformity with the civil articles of the treaty of Limerick.
About one seventh of the remaining three fourths had been given
back to unhappy families, which, though they could not plead the
letter of the treaty, had been thought fit objects of clemency.
The rest had been bestowed, partly on persons whose seances
merited all and more than all that they obtained, but chiefly on
the King's personal friends. Romney had obtained a considerable
share of the royal bounty. But of all the grants the largest was
to Woodstock, the eldest son of Portland; the next was to
Albemarle. An admirer of William cannot relate without pain that
he divided between these two foreigners an extent of country
larger than Hertfordshire.

This fact, simply reported, would have sufficed to excite a
strong feeling of indignation in a House of Commons less
irritable and querulous than that which then sate at Westminster.
But Trenchard and his confederates were not content with simply
reporting the fact. They employed all their skill to inflame the
passions of the majority. They at once applied goads to its anger
and held out baits to its cupidity.

They censured that part of William's conduct which deserved high
praise even more severely than that part of his conduct for which
it is impossible to set up any defence. They told the Parliament
that the old proprietors of the soil had been treated with
pernicious indulgence; that the capitulation of Limerick had been
construed in a manner far too favourable to the conquered race;
and that the King had suffered his compassion to lead him into
the error of showing indulgence to many who could not pretend