pelled the ministers of Charles to conciliate the affections of a people, whose feelings and whose religion they would otherwise have persecuted. The instructions, therefore, to Lord Falkland, recommended a mild and parental exercise of authority. The religious worship of the catholics was once more celebrated with all due solemnity, and, as Mr Leland is pleased to describe," with the full parade of their ostentatious ritual." The toleration now experienced by the catholics gave the greatest displeasure to the established church, and so excited the apprehensions of the council of the colony, that they prevailed on Falkland to depart from that moderate and indulgent course which he was pursuing, and to issue a proclamation, preventing the presumptuous exercise of all papist rites and ceremonies. This proclamation not being in accordance with the policy of the English cabinet, became a dead letter, and the catholics followed their religion without interruption. Those partial triumphs over a bigotted monopoly could not fail of developing the weakness of their ancient enemy, the cabinet of England. They therefore pressed on this weakened power the necessity of making further concessions to the people, of diminishing the unsufferable burdens under which they laboured, of ceasing to institute vexatious and torturing inquisitions into the titles of their estates. The Irish government struck to the murmurs of the people, and one half the stipulated contribution was accepted as the condition of future tranquillity.

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Lord Falkland's administration, in consequence of this defalcation of the royal resources, soon incurred the charge of imbécility. He was re called in 1630, and two lords justices, Adam Lof tus, Viscount Ely, lord chancellor, and Richard, Earl of Cork, lord high treasurer, were nominated to succeed Lord Falkland in the administration of Ireland. These men were remarkable for their antipathy to every thing Irish, and their supersti tious abhorrence of the catholic religion. Mr Leland bestows extravagant praise on the Earl of Cork, for the assiduity and zeal with which he executed his scheme of banishing the native Irish from their properties in the county of Wicklow, and substituting, as Mr Leland observes," a numerous, well-regulated, and well-defended body of English protestants." The errors of popery were peculiarly offensive to this active partizan of England; and the barbarism which it promoted, was repugnant to his benevolent principles of civilization. This compliment to the character of the Earl of Cork is peculiarly ludicrous, when following the historical fact, that this same colonist banished the Irish from the lands of their forefathers, and thus most effectually created the barbarism he pretended to abhor. The same spirit which distinguished him in his private station, characterized his public acts, and the catholics were doomed to experience the extreme rigors of his intolerant bigotry. Charles, however, interfered, and suspended the sword of persecution. The wants of the king were hourly multiplying, and the necessity of adopting such measures as

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would procure an effectual supply from his dominions in Ireland, determined him to commit its administration to a nobleman whose vigour and abilities would compromise with no difficulties, and lis ten to no remonstrance. The lords justices, whom Wentworth was about to succeed, were incapable of concurring or acting upon any great and comprehensive measure of finance. The resources of their minds were as limited as the hostility of the people to their government was determined; they could enforce the regulations of the bigot with a pious ardour; they could impose penalties upon conscience; but they could not suggest any scheme of resources, which, from its universality, could administer solid or substantial relief to the exhausted treasury of Charles. The king suspected that the lords justices had secret and disloyal practices with his protestant enemies of England; and though well inclined to exercise the most relentless tyranny over the devoted catholics, yet the hopes of forcing Charles, by their co-operation with the English parliament, to strike to their demands, slackened their zeal in the enforcement of those contributions which they might otherwise have obtained.

Lord Wentworth was ordered by his master to assume the reins of government in Ireland; and though this famed and eloquent nobleman was pursued to the block by the partizans of English liberty, yet the poor people of Ireland experienced, during his administration in Ireland, the grateful consolation of witnessing the humiliation of their most inveterate enemies. "One great and favour

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ite scheme of Wentworth," says Mr Leland, "was to break the power of the great lords, which had frequently been applied to the worst of purposes." He therefore determined to reduce their power, as well as that of the puritans, (the bitterest enemies of the catholics.) On his first interview with the council in 1634, he treated the most exalted characters of the colony with the most insulting arrogance. He would listen to no remonstrance from them against any measure he thought contributed to promote the interests of Charles; he told them he sought their obedience to his will, not any suggestions from their council, and that without any aid from them he would procure the supplies necessary for the support of his government. He told them that he would recommend his majesty to accede to the measure of calling a meeting of parliament, if they would agree to renew their contributions for one year: the contributions were granted, and an army, formidable in numbers and in discipline, was raised under the active genius of the deputy.

The despotic disposition of Charles is singularly marked in his reply to Wentworth's communication, respecting the meeting of his Irish parliament; and his faithless and unprincipled anxiety to violate his promise to the Irish, to confirm the royal graces by act of the legislature, clearly points out the wisdom of that jealousy which distinguished the English parliament, and which never suffered them to place any confidence in the royal word. Charles writes thus to his deputy, Lord Wentworth : "As for that hydra, a parliament, take good heed, for

you know that there have I found it as well cunning as malicious; it is true, that your grounds are 'well laid, and I assure you that I have great trust in your care and judgment; yet my opinion is, that it will not be the worse for my service, though their obstinacy make you break them, for I fear that they have some ground to demand more than it is fit for me to give."

The king conquered his scruples, and trusted implicitly to the zeal and talent of his deputy in the management of the Irish parliament. Wentworth went to work with all the skill of a practical statesman. He made the hopes and fears of each party, the puritan, the church man, and the catholic, tributary to his purposes. He promised protection to the catholic, against the persecution of the puritan, and made the disposition of the latter to inflict pains and penalties, the argument by which he reasoned them into a submission to his purposes. so managed that the house of commons should be composed of papists and protestants, equally balanced in numbers and property; he refused, as was customary, to consult with the lords of the pale before parliament assembled; he told them their duty was submission to the will of the king, "The king," said Wentworth to the assembled lords of the pale,

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desires this great work may be settled by parliament; as a faithful servant to his majesty, I shall counsel him to attempt it first by the ordinary means. -Disappointed there, where he may with so much right expect it, I could not, in a cause so just and necessary, deny to appear for him at the head of my