For Wentworth was so far from being satisfied with this submissive petition and offer, that he insisted upon a public acknowledgment from these jurors of their having committed, not only an error in judgment, but even actual perjury, in the verdict they had given; which being refused by them, he, besides planting their country at the rate before-mentioned, procured an order from the king, that their agents in London should be sent prisoners to Dublin, to be tried before himself in the castlechamber, for having dared to patronise their cause. These severities however, raised no small apprehensions in some that were about the king, and even the king himself," lest they might disaffect the people of Ireland, and dispose them to call over the Irish regiments from Flanders, to their assistance." About this time, "the bishops and their chancellors began again to question the catholics, and lay heavy fines upon them for their christenings and marriages." But the deputy wisely considered, "that it would be too much at once to distemper them by bringing plantations upon them, and disturb them in the exercise of their religion; and very inconsiderate to move in the latter, till the former was fully settled, and by that means, the protestant party become much the stronger, which he did not then conceive it to be." Finding, therefore, that these proceedings of the bishops had very much disquieted the catholics, and given them terrible apprehensions of an instant persecution, he wrote to England for orders to put a stop to them; "as," says he," it is a course which alone will never bring them to 5 Straff. State Let. vol. ii. fol. 36. Id. ib. 6 Ib. fol. 39. the fines of the sheriff and jury of Galway, were afterwards reduced, the plantations laid aside, and the inhabitants confirmed in the enjoyment of their estates, upon the like terms as the rest of the kingdom, without suffering the hardships, change of possessions, or other disagreeable circumstances, which attended a plantation."-Orm. vol. i. f. 82. The sheriff and jury of Galway were imprisoned about the year 1634; and if we recollect, that upon Wentworth's making a report to the king in council, in the year 1636, of his proceedings towards these gentlemen, his majesty told him, " that it was no severity; and that if he served him otherwise, he should not serve him as he expected;" (ib. vol. iii. fol. 11.)— We shall find but little probability in Mr. Carte's assertion, especially since it appears that they still continued prisoners in the year 1637,See Straff. State Let. vol. ii, fol. 25. church; but is rather an engine to draw money out of their pockets, than to raise a right belief in their hearts." CHAP. VI. The court of wards and high commission in Ireland. ALL this while complaints were every where heard of grievances, arising from the court of wards, and that of the high commission. The former was a new court,* never known in Ireland till the 14th of James I. "It' had no warrant from any law or statute, as that in England had." Sir William Parsons, by whom it was first projected, was appointed master of it, a man justly and universally hated by the Irish. And such were the illegal and arbitrary proceedings of that court, that, "the heirs of catholic noblemen and other catholics were destroyed in their estates, bred in dissolution and ignorance; their parents' debts unsatisfied, their sisters and younger brothers left wholly unprovided for; the antient appearing tenures of mesne lords unregarded; estates valid in law, and made for valuable considerations, avoided against law; and the whole land filled with frequent swarms of escheators, feudatories, pursuivants, and others, by authority of that court." The unlimited power and great oppression of the high commission-court, which was still more recent in Ireland, than the 1 Carte's Orm. vol. i. fol. 517. 2 Remonst. from Trim. It is mentioned in the complaints of the Irish nobility and gentry in the year 1614, as an oppressive court. Lord deputy Chichester applauds it, among other reasons, because “there was a clause in every grant of ward. ship, that the wards should be brought up in the college near Dublin, in English habits and religion; which,” adds he, " is the only cause of their grievance in this point."-Desid. Curios. Hibern. vol. i. p. 268. The King and English council to sir Arthur Chichester and Irish council, have these words, "Within what bounds his majesty wisheth you to contain yourselves, we mean to touch that point no farther at this time, saying only in answer to one point of your letter of the 9th of July (1606), to let you know, that if any motion shall be made here for reviving of a high commission, it shall appear that his majesty thinketh the same unseasonable, and therefore, without order from him, we require you to forbear to give any way to it."-Ib. p. 496. † Lord Wentworth proposed the erecting of the high commission-court court of wards, was not less grievously complained of by the catholics, on account of3 "the incapacity thereby contracted, for all offices and employments ;* their disability to sue out livery of their estates, without taking the oath of supremacy ;† the severe penalties of various kinds inflicted by that court on all those of that religion, they being an hundred to one more than those of any other religion; in which respect, the case of Ireland was very different from that of England or Scotland, where there was scarce one Roman catholic to a thousand protestants." Yet, in the midst of so many depredations and pressures, the catholics of Ireland gave such unquestionable proofs of their loyalty and dutiful affection to the crown of England (and that also at a very critical juncture), as cannot, perhaps, be paralleled in the history of any other people under the like circum stances. These proofs were exhibited in that parliament which met at Dublin, in 1640, in order to raise large supplies towards suppressing the rebellion in Scotland, which had then risen to a formidable height. Their zeal on this occasion, was honorably attested by several privy-counsellors, members of that parliament,5" persons," says Wentworth himself, " best able to sa 3 Remonst. from Trim. 4 Carte's Orm. vol. i. fol. 517. 5 Strafford's State Letters, vol. ii. fol. 398. in Ireland, in January 1633,'" to bring," says he, " the people here to a conformity in religion; and, in the way to that, raise perhaps a good reve nue to the crown."-State Lett. vol. i. fol. 188. "These regulations in the ecclesiastical system, were followed by an establishment too odious, and therefore too dangerous to be attempted during the sessions of parliament, that of an high-commission court, which was erected in Dublin after the English model, with the same formality, and the same tremendous powers."—Leland's History of Ireland, p. 28. + Sir Arthur Chichester, in a letter to the king and council in England, anno 1613, says, "By the statute of 2 Eliz. c. 1. in this kingdom (Ireland), 'tis ordained, that every person suing livery or ouster le maynes, shall, before his livery or ouster le maynes sued forth and allowed, take the oath of supremacy. And therefore they (the Irish) being obstinate recusants, are not permitted to sue forth their liveries under the great seal till they take the oath; and so they continue intruders upon the king's possession; for which intrusion, they are justly sued in the exchequer, and the damage they suffer is by their own wilful default and contempt of the law."--Desid. Curies. Hibern. vol. i. p. 263. tisfy, and in themselves most to be trusted."- Among these, I find sir William Parsons, sir John Borlase, sir Charles Coote, and others, whose malevolence and enmity to the Irish in general, are well known and confessed; and whose testimony, therefore, in their favor cannot reasonably be suspected. "After the proposal of such acts of grace, and advantage to the subject," say these privy-counsellors in their letter to Secretary Windebank, on this occasion, " as we conceived most fit to lead in order the propounding of the six subsidies, these six subsidies were demanded for his majesty; whereupon some of the natives declared that six or more were fit to be given, it being apparent that the peace and safety of the kingdom were be come so nearly concerned. Some also of them said, that his majesty should have a fee simple of subsidies in their estates on such occasions, for the honor of his person and safety of his kingdoms; that it was fit to be done, though with leaving themselves nothing but hose and doublet. Some of them with much earnestness, after forward expressions of readiness towards advancing the business, concluded that, as his majesty was the best of kings, so this people should strive to be ranked among the best of subjects. "Thus," continues the privy-counsellor's letter," every of them seeming in a manner to contend, who should shew most affection and forwardness to comply with his majesty's occasions; and all of them expressing, even with passion, how much they abhorred and detested the Scotch covenanters ; and how readily every man's hand ought to be laid on his sword, to assist the king in reducing them by force to obe dience, they desired that themselves, and others of this nation, might have the honor to be employed in this expedition; and declared, with very great demonstration of chearful affection, that their hearts contained mines of subsidies for his majesty ; that twenty subsidies, if their abilities were equal to their desires, were too little to be given to so sacred a majesty. "In the end, considering how unable they were, without too much pressure to them, to advance more at this time, they humbly besought, that by the lord lieutenant's interposition, four subsidies might be accepted from them; yet with this declaration, made by them with as much demonstration of loyalty, as ever nation or people expressed towards a king, that if more than four subsidies should be requisite, and the occasions of the war continued, they would be ready to grant more; or to lay down their lives and estates at his majesty's feet, to further his royal design for the correction of the disordered factions in Scotland. And this they did declare with general acclamations and signs of joy and contentment, even to the throwing up of their hats and lifting of their hands." CHAP. VII. Some invidious reflections on the foregoing passage considered, BUT we are told by some reputable historians, that in the very next session, the untoward behaviour of these commons discovered the insincerity of their professions ;* that they' "who had but just before devoted their lives and possessions to the service of the best of kings, grew cold, querulous and suspicious; objected to the rates of assessment, though the same which had been used in the late parliament; and in short, that a general combination was formed throughout the kingdom, to prevent the levying any money, until a new manner of taxation should be settled by the parliament; or in other words, until they should annul and rescind the late money bill, enacted with such remarkable zeal and unanimity." The late parliament here alluded to, was that which had met in Dublin in 1634, under lord Wentworth; who, as we have already seen, had formed and managed it entirely for his own and his master's private purposes. "His lordship re garded Ireland as a conquered kingdom, and from that conception deduced a consequence, at once ridiculous and detestable, that the subjects of this country, without distinction, had forfeited the rights of men and citizens, and for whatever 2 Id. ib. 1 Lel. Hist. of Ireland, vol. ii. * Lord Wentworth, who was certainly a more competent judge of that matter, than any historian that has since appeared, says on this occasion, "It is hardly to be believed, what a forwardness there is in this people to serve in this expedition (against the Scots); certainly, they will sell themselves to the last farthing, before they deny any thing, which can be asked of them, in order to that." State Letters, vol. ii.—In another letter be tells the king," that their zeal is all on fire to serve his majesty."—Ib. |