James II
was enacted it is important to remember that, although by the letter of the Act a great number of persons were rendered liable to capital punishment, if they should fail to fulfil the conditions imposed upon them, in no known instance was such punishment actually inflicted. Long before the introduction of the Bill of Attainder the individuals named in it had fled beyond the jurisdiction of the Irish Parliament; and the subsequent legislation must be regarded as having been directed not against their persons but against their estates. The Act was essentially one of confiscation—a single episode in an agrarian struggle which had continued for three generations—and, considered as an act of confiscation, it must be pronounced violent indeed and vindictive, but neither unprecedented nor unprovoked.
Of the specific charges which have been brought against the Act and its authors a few words must be said. The Speaker, when presenting the bill to James for his assent is said to have informed his Majesty that of the persons named in it "many were attainted upon such evidence as fully satisfied the House; the rest upon common fame"; and, although this statement rests upon the authority of one very untrustworthy witness,102 it is perfectly clear that
181
