HOW STRAFFORD GOVERNED IRELAND (1632-1641).

IV.

THE first session of the Parliament summoned in 1634 ended on the 2nd of August. The Deputy was not idle during the recess. Knowing well what importance the Irish people were wont to attach to titles and outward show, he petitioned the King to confer on him an Earldom. Affairs were in a prosperous way in Ireland; few other means would improve them so much as the credit vouchsafed by his Majesty to his representative. Much had been done; much more remained to do, greater things than he would dare to propound until he had matured them for his Majesty's judgment. His duties were far above those of his predecessors; it was meet that his dignities should be on a par with his position. He asked that he might obtain this mark of the royal favour before the next meeting of Parliament; it would give proof to all of the approval his conduct in the government of Ireland met with from the King.

In the beginning of his career as a courtier he had been created a Viscount, and made President of the Council of the North, "the highest place of honour in those parts." Now he was set to rule a kingdom, to personate the King, to repress a haughty and jealous nobility; surely he might lay claim to all the aids that could be afforded to him to carry out his arduous task, to all the rewards that gratitude could confer on a devoted servant. So certain was he of the success of his petition, that he sent to his friend Coke, the Secretary of State, a letter containing the title he wished to take. After a tedious delay of a month, the King deigned to answer. He began by expressing his great contentment, especially for keeping off the odium of a necessary negative of those "unreasonable graces" that the people expected; he differed from the Deputy's opinion only in the matter of the free exportation of tallow. He was not displeased with the asking of such a favour, but at present he would not grant it; he would do all things a su modo.

The people had shown a readiness to aid the King in his distress; the judges, on their next circuits in the full assizes, were ordered to assure them of his Majesty's good opinion of the faithfulness and loyalty manifested in the last Parliament, and of his desire to show himself gracious to them as occasion should offer. It was a matter of unavoidable necessity for the defence of the country against foreign invasion and intestine rebellion, and for the protection of the vessels trading on the coasts, to call for the yearly contribution of £20,000; but this burden would be soon removed; the tax would cease in December; the subsidies, so generously granted by the Parliament, would be expended solely for the advantage of Ireland. In the next place, they should direct the attention of the people to the unsettled condition of many estates throughout the country, arising from the distempers and disturbances of the late rebellions.

For their benefit, the King had been graciously pleased to issue a Commission of Grace for the confirmation of defective titles, and to give in the last Parliament his royal assent to an act for confirming all estates to be passed in that Commission. The profits arising from it should be employed in defraying the public charges of the kingdom. This, he assured them, was a much more general provision, and a far better security for all who compounded than the law passed in England, which concluded the rights of the crown in three score years' possession; and in due time, after the present Commission had ended, they could have even that law, if they pleased, which they seemed to desire so much. The excessive fees of the officers, both in the temporal and spiritual courts, should be moderated, that all might gather the blessed fruits of justice with as great expedition and as little expense as might be. The Archbishops and Bishops should in future forbear all questioning about clandestine marriages and christenings, which had hitherto been a great burden and charge on the people. Cattle, corn, and other articles, named in the Graces of 1628, could be exported free of charge. A promise was made, too, that a choice of all the best laws enacted for above a hundred years past, for which the subjects of England had paid threescore subsidies at least, and which were not yet in force in Ireland, should now be introduced and enacted. Between the present time and the next session of Parliament, all were to bethink themselves of anything that might tend to their welfare, and make the same known, the good of the kingdom being that which his Majesty principally intended.

Wentworth next drew up a list of the "Graces," fifty-one in number, which had been asked for and promised in Lord Falkland's time. By the side of each he set down, "the humble advice of the Lord Deputy and Council, to be of good use to his Majesty in framing the answer which he would send to the petition of the Lower House." "With some art and difficulty," he obtained from the Council a written adhesion to his own views; but he thought it "the more comely way," that the refusal of the Graces should proceed from those who were interested in obtaining them, and that his "Majesty might be saved from all appearance of declining to grant what would be so prejudicial to the Crown." The list was submitted to the King; and with it the request of the House of Commons presented in 1628, and the instructions issued in reply under the royal signature that had been brought over by the agents. The instructions he now "humbly craved leave to disavise in some parts, as not consisting with the furtherance of the King's service and the good of the kingdom."

The second session of Parliament began on the 4th of November. The first demand of the Commons was that the "Graces" should be confirmed. They had done their part; the bargain struck in Falkland's time had been more than fulfilled; even the most ardent hopes of Wentworth had been surpassed by their generosity. With the Speaker at their head, they asked to be admitted to present their demand to the Deputy. The Lords were not

But Wentworth had his answer ready made.

On

less earnest. the 19th of November, he wrote to the Secretary of State, "I am resolved to give them an answer, round and clear, such as, I trust, will stifle them in their replication. I hope to have the Council along with me: howbeit, rather than fail, on I will alone by myself. The course I purpose to hold is, to give my answer in writing, negative or affirmative, as the case requires, without any reason at all, saving that, in the preamble to those I refuse to transmit, as neither fit to pass as laws, or indeed to be once offered to his Majesty, as being, in my judgment, hurtful to the Commonwealth, I will express it in general terms to be done for great and weighty reasons of State and Government. The Graces I will divide into three kinds: the first, of those that are not to be at all granted; and these I will let them know I have not at all transmitted, nor indeed shall, for the reason before expressed; so as they are herewith to rest satisfied, and to look no further after them. The second sort of them may be well granted; and these I will let them know I have transmitted, and his Majesty is graciously pleased they proceed as is desired. The third sort of them may be continued by way of instruction, so long as shall please his Majesty, but not to pass for laws, as they desire. These I will likewise allow to have transmitted over to his Majesty, and that his Majesty is graciously pleased the subject may continue to take the benefit of them, unless his Majesty shall hold it fit for the better government of his people to alter the same. Thus, as I take it, all that is to be denied we take clearly from the King to ourselves, and all that is to be granted we leave it for them wholly to be derived from the bounty and goodness of his Majesty."

Such was the return made for the nation's generosity, such the answer to the confidence placed in the King's repeated pledges. No wonder "the Catholic party showed a wayward frowardness. They lost all temper, and broke forth into such a froward sullenness as was strange; to that excess it went, that, had it continued two days in that state, the Deputy was resolved to adjourn the House." The Protestants, who had hitherto given him an unqualified support, now began to absent themselves in such numbers, that the Catholic party had a steady majority of ten, and used it to reject most of the bills that were brought in. Wentworth had boasted that "all the graces prejudicial to the Crown had been so bound asleep, that he was very confident they would never be awakened more." This boast was premature. I was very much troubled," he wrote to the Secretary of State, "albeit the King had got his reply. I was wondrously unwilling any malevolent tongue should seemingly charge us that, having served the King, we now meanly became careless of what in honour and justice we owed to his people; extremely loth so many good laws should be lost, which might be of excellent use in the future reducement of this kingdom to civility, to a peaceable and sure temper of Government." He summoned the Lords to his presence, and told them "what a shame it was for the Protestant party, that was in number the greater, to suffer their religion to be insensibly transplanted, his Majesty in some degree disregarded, the good ordinances

transmitted for their future peace and good government, to be thus disdainfully trodden under foot by a company of wilful, insolent people, envious both to their religion and fears; and all this for want of a few days' diligent attendance upon the service of the public. He besought those of the Council to speak with all their friends, and show them their great fault, thus to suffer the opposite party to boast and pride themselves in destroying all that the wisdom of his Majesty had provided for the security of themselves and their posterity, and to urge them, in their own name and in his, to attend the House punctually for ten or twelve days, and there do their conscience." The remonstrance had the desired effect; the absentees returned to their duty. The next day, to test the strength of both parties, a motion was made for the expulsion of a member who was obnoxious to the Government; the Protestant party proved to have a majority of sixteen, which, in spite of protests, carried through every measure that was proposed by the Crown.

The cause of all this obstinacy, he asserts, were "the Friars and Jesuits, who, through fear that these laws would conform them to the manners of England, and in time be a means to lead them into a conformity in religion and faith also, oppose and fence up every path leading to so good a purpose." "I see plainly," he adds, " that so long as this kingdom continues popish, they are not a people for the Crown of England to be confident of. Whereas, if they were not still distempered by the infusion of these Friars and Jesuits, I am of belief they would be as good and loyal to their King as any other subjects."

The names of those who had shown most zeal on behalf of the royal interests, and "carried themselves with best affections," were sent to the King, that he might by letter "signify to them his knowledge and acceptance of their good endeavours." Sir Piers Crosby, one of the Privy Council, had not been as blindly obedient as the other members; on one occasion he thought fit to have an opinion of his own, and to give expression to it in the House "against all the rules of sure Government." He was summarily dismissed from the Council; and when he requested permission to wait on the King and present a petition to be restored, he was told he should have it "in convenient time." Lord Ormond was substituted for him at the Council board; "he had ever expressed very good affections to the Crown and Government; and without him no title could be found for the Crown to Ormond, nor a plantation be established there." A short time before, Ormond had dared to refuse obedience to the Deputy's order. At the opening of Parliament, a proclamation, first issued in Chichester's time, was renewed, forbidding members to enter the Houses with their swords. The usher of the black rod was placed at the entrance of the House of Lords to receive the swords of the peers. Ormond refused to obey; and when the demand was repeated, he replied, that if the officer must receive his sword, it should be in his body. He was allowed to pass; and he sat the whole day in the House with his sword by his side. When the sitting was over, he was summoned before the Council to answer for his

disobedience. Ormond admitted that he was aware of the order; but he added, that, as he was invested with his Earldom per cincturam gladii, he was not only entitled, but obliged by a superior authority, the royal command, to attend Parliament gladio cinctus. The Deputy, though sorely mortified at the rebuke, was prudent enough to conceal his anger. He dismissed Ormond, and sent for his friends Radcliffe and Wandesforde to take counsel with them whether he should admit his mistake, or avenge his offended dignity. His advisers recommended the milder course; they reminded him of the influence of Ormond in the House, of the necessity of gaining over some of the Irish nobles to his side; and they pointed out that the talents and courage he had already displayed, made his friendship highly desirable. Overtures were made to him and gladly accepted. The quarrel was soon forgotten, and there was no firmer supporter of Wentworth's policy ever after than Ormond.* The young Earl of Kildare did not think he was treated by the Deputy with the respect due to his high position as first peer of the realm. He determined, in consequence, to absent himself from Parliament, and to send his proxy. The King wrote to him, insisting on his personal attendance. He obeyed; but either from resentment, or through the influence of the Earl of Cork, his father-in-law, he opposed every measure brought forward by the Crown. Wentworth did not conceal his anger; he even went so far as to reprimand the Earl. Kildare, stung by such insolence, took ship privately for England, intending to lay the whole matter before the King, and seek redress from him. But the Deputy's letter anticipated him; he was told that he could regain the royal favour only by submission and a promise of future service to the Crown, a course which he was wise enough to adopt.†

During the Christmas recess Wentworth submitted to the Secretary of State his doubts about the future. The next session would open on the 26th of January; it would end before Easter; and all the laws he needed could be passed within that time. He doubted whether it was best absolutely to dissolve the Parliament or merely prorogue it; he inclined to the latter course. If prorogued, it could do no harm, it could exercise no power; at any moment before the day named for meeting "it might be blown over with the least breath from his Majesty." The House was well composed; the Protestants formed a compact majority, entirely devoted to the King's interests; it would not be easy to get such another. They would enable him to hold a rod over the Popish party, by putting it in the King's power to pass against them all the laws of England concerning religion; they would help to confirm and settle his Majesty's title to the plantations of Connaught and Ormond-a thing much desired by the Protestants. Even though it should be found that the Crown had no title to the countries, for reasons of State, and for the strength and security of the kingdom, an act would be readily carried through Parliament conferring them on the King. The King's arbitrary nature could not brook the constitutional check of a Parliament. He would not

*Carte, "Life of Ormond," I. 64.

† Leland, III. 20.