On August 12 they passed their Act of Settlement, the authorship of which was attributed to Lord Orrery, in this respect the worthy son of the first Earl of Cork.

Under this act there were four chief descriptions of persons whose status was thus settled: 1.

All ecclesiastics and royalist proprietors were exempted from pardon of life or estate.2.All royalist commissioned officers were condemned to banishment, and the forfeit of two-thirds of their property, one-third being retained for the support of their wives and children.3.Those who had not been in arms, but could be shown, by a parliamentary commission, to have manifested 'a constant, good affection' to the war, were to forfeit one-third of their estates, and receive 'an equivalent' for the remaining two-thirds west of the Shannon.4.All husbandmen and others of the inferior sort, 'not possessed of lands or goods exceeding the value of 10 l.,' were to have a free pardon, on condition also of transporting themselves across the Shannon.
This last condition of the Cromwellian settlement distinguished it, in our annals, from every other proscription of the native population formerly attempted.

The great river of Ireland, rising in the mountains of Leitrim, nearly severs the five western counties from the rest of the kingdom.

The province thus set apart, though one of the largest in superficial extent, had also the largest proportion of waste and water, mountain and moorland.