THE SONG OF REST. A Translation of Horace's Ode to Pompeius Grosphus. VOL. IV. (Carminum II. 16.) THEN o'er the wild Ægean sea WH The struggling moon gleams fitfully For Rest the weary Parthian prays, For neither wealth nor power nor state Dark Care eats through the strongest walls, Happy is he, and free from care, His sleep is calm, his mind is clear Why do we, creatures of a day, Why do we wander far from home? Dark Care delights to climb the sides Dark Care can pass the fleetest hind, Make not misfortune for the morrow; There is no rose without its thorn. In manhood's prime Achilles died, G Thy wealth is far beyond thy need, Calmly I till my little farm; To her who doth my lay inspire, WILLIAM DILLON. C HOW STRAFFORD GOVERNED IRELAND. (1632-1641.) HARLES I. ascended the throne of England in 1625. Unhappily the character of the new sovereign was ill suited to the temper of the times. His exalted notions of the divine right of kings and of the royal prerogative could hardly find favour with a generation reared in the belief, that the first and most essential of man's rights was that of private judgment even in sacred things. Piety and duplicity, violence and irresolution, were strangely combined in him. In other circumstances he might have been able to display his virtues and conceal his vices. But from the first day of his reign his unhappy destiny seemed to pursue him; and his own faults and the blind zeal of his friends did as much to bring about his untimely end as the persevering malice of his enemies. an The first and the chief difficulty he had to contend with was empty exchequer. James had squandered the public money on the favourites who had followed him in crowds from Scotland. Even the patrimony of the crown had been so diminished, that the usual charges of government could not be met without extraordinary aids from the people. Whatever may have been Charles' faults, prodigality could not be reckoned among them. He had dispensed in great part with the pomp that commonly attends the sovereign's coronation; he had mortgaged the crown lands in Cornwall to the London companies; even the King's gilt plate had been sold, and the number of servants reduced, to find “ savings for more noble undertakings." The proceeds could not meet the debt of £700,000 already due by the crown; still less could they allow the King to carry on vigorously the war undertaken by James. The apparent object of this war was to restore the Palatinate to 7: the Elector Frederic, his son-in-law; but its real purpose was to reduce, by a combination with the Protestant states of the north, the preponderance of the great Catholic powers, Austria and Spain. The war was a popular one; for the false notions that had been spread ab out so industriously during the last two reigns by interested persons, had by this time entered deep into the minds of the people, and were now a part of their religious creed: the triumph of the Catholic powers meant with them nothing less than the re-establishment of Catholicity as the State Church, and the bitter persecution of all its opponents. Four months after the King's accession he summoned his first Parliament. He needed money urgently, and he set before both Houses his wants in plain terms. little sympathy. A sum of £140,000 was voted; the charge for the His appeal evoked equipment of the navy alone amounted to £300,000; the necessary expenditure of the war would require seven times what was allowed. Even this small sum was granted with a bad grace; an account was demanded of the way in which former subsidies had been employed, and a list of grievances was presented that required to be redressed. The spirit of opposition was inflamed by the report spread abroad that the Duke of Buckingham, Charles' chief favourite, who then held the office of Lord Admiral, had lent some ships to the King of France to be employed against Rochelle, the last stronghold of the French Huguenots. The plague which had followed the Parliament from Westminster to Oxford, afforded the King a good pretext for a dissolution. Recourse was now had to loans; circular letters were sent, stating the sum required from each of those to whom they were addressed, "that which few men would deny a friend." With these contributions a fleet was equipped and an army of 10,000 men set on foot. It was hoped that if a landing could once be effected on the coast of Spain, the war would be maintained "by its own perquisites." The fleet set sail; the troops landed; vintner;" the commander-in-chief was soon obliged to reship his every man became his own bacchanalian troops, and Spain suffered no loss beyond that of a vast number of casks of wine. Sickness broke out, and the fleet returned to Plymouth with the loss of a thousand men. Early in 1626, another Parliament was called in the midst of necessities, "that the king might know how he was to frame his course and councils." The Commons, in reply, "professed their respect for his Majesty, and their intention to assist him in such a way as to make him safe at home and feared abroad." Yet no supplies were voted. "The great evils were first to be inquired into, and the grievances redressed." showed his regard for his favourite by imprisoning the managers of Buckingham was impeached; the King the prosecution; and it was not until the Commons refused to proceed to further business that he consented to their release. In June the second Parliament was dissolved. In his distress Charles turned his eyes towards Ireland; there at least he would not find a Parliament that would oppose his wishes. Forty new boroughs had been created by Chichester in the preceding reign, many of them being only paltry villages, to overwhelm the Catholic votes, which up to that time, in spite of persecution, held the preponderance. Henry Carey, Lord Falkland, had been sent over as Deputy in 1622. At his inauguration, Usher, then Protestant bishop of Meath and a privy councillor, preached a fanatical harangue, taking as his text the words of St. Paul: "He beareth not the sword in vain."* The following year a proclamation was issued for the banishment of all the Popish clergy, regular and secular; they were ordered to depart from the kingdom within forty days, and no one was allowed to hold intercourse with them after that time. Charles' accession made the Catholics hope that these hardships would cease in part if not wholly. He was known to be no fanatic. In religion he inclined more to the tolerant tenets of Episcopalianism than to the fierce doctrines of the Puritans. Besides, he had, in the very beginning of his reign, taken to wife the sister of the King of France; and one of the stipulations of the marriage was, that she and her household should be allowed the free exercise of the Catholic religion, even within the royal palaces. It was not unreasonable to hope that the influence of one so devoted to the interests of the Church as she was known to be, should obtain for those of her faith if not open toleration, at least connivance at its practice in secret. During the first two years of his reign the Irish Catholics enjoyed some little tranquillity; for this they were indebted to the King's instructions to the Deputy and council; and there is reason to believe that he would have granted them complete liberty of conscience if he had not been deterred by the outcry raised by the Protestant bishops.† It was thought likely that the unfortunate expedition to Cadiz would provoke the Spanish government to retaliate by making a descent on Ireland. The King ordered the army to be increased to 5,000 foot and 500 horse. The raising of the troops was not difficult; but it was no easy matter, in the low state of the public finances, to provide for their support. In 1628, by the Deputy's invitation, the Catholic proprietors, who were still very numerous, both nobility and gentry, met in Dublin. Several Protestants of rank took part in the meeting. The assembly was conducted throughout with wisdom and moderation. A statement was drawn up in the nature of a bill of rights, putting forth the grievances that needed redress. The royal assent was to be asked to their demands; and a promise was made that, on their being granted, a voluntary assessment of £120,000 would be raised by the Catholics of Ireland for the use of the crown. Agents were chosen to proceed to London and lay before the English Privy Council the resolutions agreed to by the meeting. report got abroad that the government was about to grant indulgences to the Catholic recusants. The Protestants took alarm. Usher. who was then Primate of Ireland, assembled the bishops to the number of twelve in his own house, and drew up the following "judgment of divers of the archbishops and bishops of Ireland con A See "Essays on the English State Church in Ireland," by W. Maziere Brady. D.D., p. 202. + Ware, ad ann. 1626-Grainger Biog. Hist. ii. 147. cerning toleration of religion;" which was signed not only by the bishops, but by Chichester, Boyle, and Parsons: "The religion of the Papists is superstitious and idolatrous; their faith and doctrine erroneous and heretical; their Church, in respect of both, apostatical. To give them therefore a toleration, or to consent that they may freely exercise their religion and profess their faith and doctrine, is a grievous sin, and that in two respects. For, 1st, it is to make ourselves accessory not only to their superstition, idolatry, and heresies, and, in a word, to all the abominations of Popery, but also to the sedition of the seduced people, which perish in the deluge of the Catholic apostasy. 2nd. To grant them toleration in respect of any money to be given, is to set religion to sale, and with it the souls of the people, whom Christ our Saviour hath redeemed with His most precious blood." It concluded with a prayer "beseeching the God of truth to make them who are in authority zealous, resolute, and courageous against all Popery, superstition, and idolatry." This judgment was soon after promulgated by Downham, Bishop of Derry, in Christ Church, Dublin, before the Lord Deputy and his Council. His hearers cried out: "Amen, Amen."* Charles' needs were too great to allow such arguments to weigh on his mind. He accepted the offer of £120,000, to be paid in three annual instalments of £40,000 each. In return he granted fifty-one graces. Some of these concerned Protestants as well as Catholics. By them recusants could practise henceforth in courts of law, and sue the livery of their lands out of the Court of Wards, on taking an oath of civil allegiance instead of that by which they acknowledged the king's supremacy in things spiritual; the claims of the crown should be confined to the last sixty years, and the inhabitants of Connaught allowed to make a new enrolment of their estates. A promise was made, that a Parliament should be held without delay to confirm these graces, and to establish every landholder in the undisputed possession of his lands. The delegates returned to Ireland, and were welcomed with joy by the people; they presented to the Deputy the order of the King. Secret instructions had been sent meantime, the tenor of which was quite opposed to the promises made to the agents. The Parliament was to be called, but Falkland should see that the writs of election were informal, and that in consequence of the informality the parliament was not held. The writs were duly * Mant, "History of the Church of Ireland," i., 143. A detailed list of the "graces" will be found in Carte's "Life of Ormonde," i, 51. The Court of Wards was established by James I. in 1617. Its ostensible motive was the better collection of the revenue; the real one, to root out the Catholic religion. All heirs to lands held of the crown--and at James' accession there was scarcely an acre in Ireland that was not so held-were obliged to sue out the livery of their lands in the Court of Wards; and the court could not grant such livery to any one who had not previously taken the oath of supremacy, and abjured several articles of the Catholic creed, Either he must forswear his religion or forfeit his property. If the heir was a minor, the court could grant the wardship to whomsoever it pleased; the grantee was obliged by his patent "to educate his ward in the English religion and habits of Trinity College, Dublin."-See O'Flaherty's "IarConnaught," annot. by Hardiman. It is obvious that in a short time every landowner in Ireland should, by the operation of this law, become a sworn Protestant; at times it was defeated by long leases and secret trusts. See Lingard vii., 119. |