that all wisdom advises us to keep this kingdom as much subordinate and dependent on England as possible; and holding them from the manufacture of wool, which, unless otherwise directed, I shall by all means discourage, and then enforcing them to fetch their clothing from thence, and to take their salt from the King, being that which preserves and gives value to all their staple commodities, how can they depart from us without nakedness and beggary? Which in itself is so weighty a consideration as a small profit shall not bear it down."* The salt monopoly was not taken up by the Crown; it was thought that the profits would not repay the outlay needed to establish the manufacture. The civil war that arose in England soon after prevented his suggestions from being thoroughly carried out then; but they were not lost sight of. In June, 1698, the English House of Commons presented an address to King William, complaining of the increase of the woollen manufacture in Ireland, "which it became them, like their ancestors, to be jealous of, and to use their utmost endeavours to prevent." William's well-known reply was: "I shall do all that in me lies to discourage the woollen manufacture in Ireland."†

One difficulty yet remained before this brilliant idea could be realised, and Ireland made a prosperous draw-farm for the sister country. Incessant wars between the different nations of Europe had given rise to an organised system of piracy on every sea. Each of the belligerents sent out privateers with letters of marque, licensing them to plunder without mercy the enemy's ships; even those that sailed under a neutral flag were seized under various pretexts. A war was at this time raging between Spain and Holland. From the ports of the Bay of Biscay and from Dunkirk Spanish privateers issued forth in full force. But the Isle of Man was their favourite resort; from thence they could watch all the vessels that passed on the way to these countries, and seize them with impunity; the governor of the island was even suspected of being a sharer in the spoil in return for his kind offices. Of course, the Dutch were the principal sufferers; the whole of the trade between Ireland and the continent was in their hands; but of late they found it hardly worth their while to incur the risks of the voyage. The English navy was entirely under the control of the Lords of the Admiralty; and their disregard for the interests of the public was so great, that the vessels appointed to protect the coast were often obliged to remain at anchor in the harbours, while the enemy, well equipped, scoured the seas and seized their prey under the eyes of the coastguards. The Lords, in reply to most urgent entreaties, after much delay, sent an agent to equip the ships; Wentworth advanced him money. But when the stores were provided, they were found so bad that many of the seamen fell ill, and the rest were * Letters, &c. II.

+ Argument for Ireland, by John O'Connell, Appendix IV. p. 135, "The Commercial Injustices done by England to Ireland."

The Isle of Man at this time belonged to the Earl of Derby; it was given to William Stanley in 1403 by Henry IV. It passed from the Stanley family into the possession of James, second Duke of Athol, who was descended from the youngest daughter of the seventh Earl of Derby. In 1764, the Duke of Athol sold his sovereign rights over the island to the British Government for £70,000.

driven to the verge of mutiny. "Thus," he writes to the Secretary of State," are we used by your officers of the navy, and have no power to help ourselves, the King's guard lying idle in the harbour while the subject is pilfered hourly in every creek. I dare affirm, once for all, that had the Deputy the power over the ships appointed for this service, the Admiralty should not lose so much in honour as the King's affairs gain of advantage. It grieves me to the soul to see the commerce of this kingdom run immediately and fatally thus to ruin before mine eyes, and that there should be no means afforded me at all to remedy it, at least as far as I might be able." Wentworth advised the King to adopt the bold course of declaring that all hostilities between the contending nations should cease in the seas within his dominions, and that whoever broke this law, an ancient right of England, should, friend or foe, be regarded as an enemy and treated accordingly. This was a fatal blow to privateering. To complete his work, he petitioned the Lords of the Admiralty to create him viceadmiral of Munster; the patent was granted to him a few months after. He chose two ships, and ordered them to be ready to put to sea early in spring; from which time until the middle of October they were to cruise about. He conferred on the captain of one the honour of knighthood, "both to encourage his industry, and to invite others to be more diligent in what they go about for the King's service." One of the vessels was set to watch the western coast, the other cruised in St. George's Channel; and so successful was this plan that, in the course of a few months, the Channel was wholly rid of pirates, and the western coast was not once molested by them.

are

The Protestant Church in Ireland next attracted his attention; it stood sadly in need of reform. Many of the clergy were ignorant ; the churches and parsonages were mostly in ruins; the revenues were hired out to laymen, the moneys destined for the support of charitable institutions were seized on and converted to private uses. The vaults under the church where the Deputy himself went to pray were turned into an ale and tobacco shop. "The people," he says, pouring in or out there drink-offerings and incense, whilst we above are serving the high God."* The Bishops were the chief offenders. It was their custom to let the see-lands on lease for long periods, often for a term of sixty years, and receive a heavy fine in return. Wentworth took advice with Laud, Archbishop of Canterbury. They had met at the Council board four years before. The intimacy begun then grew into a friendship that continued ever after unbroken. He pointed out to Wentworth the forlorn state of the Church in Ireland: St. Andrew's Church, used as a stable for the Deputy's horses, school kept in Londonderry by a Jew for English pupils, a debt due by the Bishop of Waterford to St. John's College, legacies left to found vicarages which were seized by the Puritans and employed to support their preachers. But caution was needed in dealing with abuses of such long standing and so widely spread. Wentworth, less eager than Laud, proposed that a High Commission should be ap+ Ibid, T. 82.

* "Letters," &c. I. 173.

pointed to enforce the observance of the canons of the Church of England, and to examine into the state of the revenues; to deprive of their benefices all clergymen whose wives or children were recusants, above all to put a stop to the exercise of the Pope's jurisdiction in Ireland. Laud had no faith in commissions. "Where many are employed at once," he says, "there usually proves to be in some a fretting cankerworm of ambition, and that, for particular aims, makes such a decision as gives far greater impediment to the greatest affairs than any want of sufficiency can make. As to finding a body of men all able and none caring for any ends, so the King may be served, that is but a branch of Plato's commonwealth, that flourishes nowhere but in Utopia."* A Commission, however, was appointed by the King to examine into the condition of all alienated property. The worst cases were to be dealt with immediately. The Bishop of Killala attempted secretly to sell a lease of his lands. The attempt was discovered; he was called into the Deputy's presence and charged with "betraying his bishopric;" he was told that "he deserved to have his rochet pulled over his ears, and to be turned to a stipend of four nobles a year." He confessed his guilt, gave up the lease, and promised in future to promote the cause of the Church with all possible diligence.

"

Another and a far greater delinquent was Boyle, Earl of Cork. For several years he and his son-in-law, Lord Ely, had held the government of the country; he was still Lord Treasurer, the richest subject in the kingdom, the most respected for his sagacity and experience. He was one of "those sacrilegious lords who combined together to carry away the patrimony of the Church, and by that means to leave God's portion naked and desolate to posterity.' By Wentworth's directions he was indicted before the High Court of Castle Chamber, Dublin, for procuring and keeping illegal possession of the College of Youghal and its revenues; the Earl's kinsmen, the Bishops of Cork and Waterford, were at the same time charged with aiding and abetting him in his evil purpose. The indictment set forth that he had, for £28, gotten possession of the College from William Jones, who held it for Sir Walter Raleigh; that he had prevailed on the Bishop of Cork to deliver up the seal, charter, and other records of the College to him, and had procured a deed of conveyance from him of the College and its revenues; that he himself used the College as a dwelling. By all which and other methods he still continued in possession of its revenues to the value of £800 a year, besides the advowsons and oblations of the churches. On receiving notice of this charge, the Earl, not being ready to meet it, pleaded his privilege as a peer of the realm, as the Parliament was sitting; the suit was therefore deferred until the next term. The issue of the proceedings was the Earl's submission to the Deputy's arbitration. He was condemned to pay £15,000 fine to the King for the profits of the College during thirty-six years. The College House

Letter of Archbishop Laud to the Lord Deputy, L 133. +"Letters," I. 171.

and some demesnes belonging to it were left to him; but the advowsons and patronages of the livings hitherto annexed to the foundation were taken into the hands of the Crown.*

Laud's joy was very great at the successful issue of the suit. "My Lord," he writes to Wentworth, "I did not take you to be so good a physician before as I now see you are; for the truth is, a great many church cormorants have fed so full upon it that they are fallen into a fever; and for that no physic is better than a vomit, if it be given in time. And therefore you have taken a very judicious course to administer one so early to my Lord of Cork. I hope it will do him good, though perchance he thinks not so. Go on, my Lord, I must say this is thorough indeed, and so is your physic too." It would seem that Boyle was not the only one who was forced to deliver up what he had taken from the Church, for Windebank, writing from London to the Deputy about the same time, says: "there never appeared a worse face under a cork upon a bottle, than your Lordship hath caused some to make in disgorging such Church livings as their zeal hath eaten up."

Though the Catholics were no longer persecuted with the same ardour as formerly,§ a strict watch was kept on them everywhere. Mr. Justice Cressy, when going on circuit to Wexford, had been told to inquire into the state of religion there. The judge's report must have given serious alarm to all who had the Protestant interest at heart. He found the people of that county-nearly all English planters, who a short time before had been most eager to profess their adhesion to the reformed religion-now become "principally Romish and Popish; having among them a Romish hierarchy of their own, bishops, vicars-general, and parochial priests." He felt himself bound in conscience to declare to the grand jury the fearful consequences that would ensue from their allegiance to the Pope. But he spoke to deaf ears, for there was not one Protestant among them. He tried to get hold of the Bishop; but his effort was in vain.|| An attempt was even made to convert the good judge: for he tells how a professor of law bade him look to himself, as he was far advanced in years and likely to lay his bones among them; he even offered to send a priest to confer with him on his spiritual interests, a proposal not at all to the judge's taste. The account given by Bedell, Bishop

“Ecclesiastical Antiquities of Youghal," by the Rev. S. Hayman, in Kilkenny Arch. Jour. IV. 20. Carte's "Life of Ormonde," I. 67. We purpose giving in another issue of this Magazine a detailed account of the Boyle family.

"Letters," &c. I. 156.

Ibid, I. 161. An allusion to the "greybeards," or bottles with hideous bearded face fashioned upon the neck. They were also called "Bellarmines," in odium fidei, no doubt.-See Wilde's "Catalogue of Antiquities in the Museum of the Royal Irish Academy."

Quieti vivimus in privato exercitio conscientiae ac ministerii nostri. Letter of the Bishop of Ferns to the Propaganda, Nov. 18th, 1633.-Spicileg. Ossor. 1. 190. The Bishop to whose zeal Judge Cressy attributes the bringing over of the Protestants to the true faith, was Dr. John Roche; he occupied the See of Ferns from 1626 to 1636.-See "Collections on Irish Church History," edited by the Rev. Dr. M'Carthy, II. 5.

"Letters," &c. I. 102.

of Kilmore, was not more cheering. He had been accused of trying to prevent any contribution being raised for the support of the army, and he would throw the blame off his own shoulders on the poor Papists. "I know," he writes to the Deputy, "that in this kingdom of his Majesty, the Pope hath another kingdom far greater in number and constantly guided and directed by the orders of the new Congregation (de Propaganda fide) lately erected at Rome, and by means of the Pope's nuncio residing at Brussels or Paris; that the Pope hath here a clergy, if I may guess by my own diocese, double in number to us, the heads of which are by corporal oath bound to him to maintain him and his regalities contra omnem hominem, and to execute his mandates to their utmost forces. I know that there is in this kingdom for the moulding of the people to the Pope's obedience a rabble of irregular regulars, commonly younger brothers of good houses. . . . I know that his Holiness hath created a new University at Dublin to confront his Majesty's College there, and to breed up the youth of this kingdom to his devotion. I know and have given advertisement to the State that these regulars dare erect new friaries in the country since the dissolving of those in the city."

(To be continued.)

D. M.

"A PAINFULLY ENGLISH IDIOM."+

A DIALOGUE.

Modern Tutor-I find, my young friend, a painfully English idiom in your Latin composition, "Liberalibus disciplinis excultus!" This is, I repeat, a painfully English idiom.

Hedge Schoolboy-Musha, thin, if that's English, it isn't much English of that kind we hear in Cork. Arrah, now, mightn't it be Latin too?

M. T.-The words are doubtless Latin; but the idiom I tell you is English, quite painfully so.

H. S.-Maybe now the idiom itself isn't so bad afther all. Didn't Tully himself call a man Excultus? Sure 'tis your rivirince yerself remimbers well that beautiful passage in Cicero in his book "De Claris Oratoribus": Caiusque Tuditanus cum omni vita atque victu excultus atque expolitus, tum ejus elegans est habitum etiam orationis genus.

M. T.-Your Cicero is very good; but your application of it is, I regret to say, unfortunate. Cicero did say of a man that he was

* Letter of Bedell to the Lord Deputy. If this letter was a true expression of Bedell's sentiments, it is hard to see why "the Romish cut-throats" showed him such affection or why one of those who assisted at his burial uttered the prayer: "Anima mea sit cum Bedello."-See Mant's "History of the Church of Ireland," I 566.

See a review of the "Final Reliques of Father Prout" in the Academy for December 25, 1875.