In some cases the Commons showed indulgence; but their indulgence
was not less unjustifiable, nor of less pernicious example, than
their severity. The ancient rule, a rule which is still strictly
maintained, and which cannot be relaxed without danger of
boundless profusion and shameless jobbery, is that whatever the
Parliament grants shall be granted to the Sovereign, and that no
public bounty shall be bestowed on any private person except by
the Sovereign.

The Lower House now, contemptuously disregarding both principles
and precedents, took on itself to carve estates out of the
forfeitures for persons whom it was inclined to favour. To the
Duke of Ormond especially, who ranked among the Tories and was
distinguished by his dislike of the foreigners, marked partiality
was shown. Some of his friends, indeed, hoped that they should be
able to insert in the bill a clause bestowing on him all the
confiscated estates in the county of Tipperary. But they found
that it would be prudent in them to content themselves with
conferring on him a boon smaller in amount, but equally
objectionable in principle. He had owed very large debts to
persons who had forfeited to the Crown all that belonged to them.
Those debts were therefore now due from him to the Crown. The
House determined to make him a present of the whole, that very
House which would not consent to leave a single acre to the
general who had stormed Athlone, who had gained the battle of
Aghrim, who had entered Galway in triumph, and who had received
the submission of Limerick.

That a bill so violent, so unjust, and so unconstitutional would
pass the Lords without considerable alteration was hardly to be