sessions, as well of the Irish as of the English, in Leinster, Connaught, and Munster, are settled and secured since His Majesty came to the crown; whereby the hearts of the people are also settled, not only to live in peace, but raised and encouraged to build, to plant, to give better education to their children, and to improve the commodities of their lands, whereby the yearly value. thereof is already increased double of that it was within these few years, and is like daily to rise higher, till it amount to the price of our land in England. Lastly, the possessions of the Irishry in the province of Ulster, though it were the most rude and unreformed part of Ireland, and the seat and nest of the last great rebellion, are now better disposed and established than any the lands in the other provinces which have been passed and settled upon surrenders. For, as the occasion of the disposing of those lands did not happen without the special providence and finger of God, which did cast out those wicked and ungrateful traitors who were the only enemies of the reformation of Ireland; so the distribution and plantation thereof hath been projected and prosecuted by the special direction and care of the King himself; wherein His Majesty hath corrected the errors before spoken of committed by King Henry the Second and King John in distributing and planting the first conquered lands. For, although there were six whole shires to be disposed, His Majesty gave not an entire country or county to any particular person; much less did he grant Jura Regalia or any extraordinary liberties. For the best British undertaker had but a proportion of 3000 acres for himself, with power to create a manor and hold a Court Baron; albeit many of these undertakers were of as great birth and quality as the best adventurers in the first conquest. Again, His Majesty did not utterly exclude the natives out of this plantation with a purpose to root them out, as the Irish were excluded out of the first English colonies, but made a mixed plantation of British and Irish, that they might grow up together in one nation; only, the Irish were in some places transplanted from the woods and mountains into the plains and open countries, that, being removed, like wild fruit-trees, they might grow the milder and bear the better and sweeter fruit. And this, truly, is the masterpiece and most excellent part of the work of reformation, and is worthy indeed of His Majesty's royal pains. For when this plantation hath taken root and been fixed and settled but a few years, with the favour and blessing of God—– for the Son of God Himself hath said in the Gospel, "Omnis plantatio, quam non plantavit pater meus, eradicabitur" 1—it will secure the peace of Ireland, assure it to the Crown of England for ever, and, finally, make it a civil and a rich, a mighty and a flourishing, kingdom. I omit to speak of the increase of the revenue of the Crown, both certain and casual, which is raised to a double proportion, at least, above that it was, by deriving the public justice into all parts of the realm, by settling all the possessions both of the Irish and English, by re-establishing the compositions, by restoring and resuming the customs, by reviving the tenures in capite and knights-service, and reducing many other things into charge. which by the confusion and negligence of former times became. concealed and subtracted from the Crown. I forbear likewise to speak of the due and ready bringing in of the revenue, which is brought to pass by the well-ordering of the Court of Exchequer and the authority and pains of the Commissioners for Accounts. I might also add hereunto the encouragement that hath been given to the maritime towns and cities, as well to increase their trade of merchandise as to cherish mechanical arts and sciences, in that all their charters have been renewed and their liberties more enlarged by His Majesty than by any of his progenitors since the conquest. As likewise the care and course that hath been taken to make civil commerce and intercourse between the 2 (1 Every plant which My heavenly Father hath not planted shall be rooted up." subjects newly reformed and brought under obedience, by granting markets and fairs to be holden in their countries, and by erecting of corporate towns among them. Briefly, the clock of the civil government is now well set, and all the wheels thereof do move in order. The strings of this Irish harp which the civil magistrate doth finger are all in tune ; for I omit to speak of the State Ecclesiastical;—and make a good harmony in this Commonweal. So as we may well conceive a hope that Ireland, which heretofore might properly be called the Land of Ire, because the irascible power was predominant there for the space of four hundred years together, will from henceforth prove a Land of Peace and Concord. And though heretofore it hath been like the lean cow of Egypt in Pharaoh's dream, devouring the fat of England, and yet remaining as lean as it was before, it will hereafter be as fruitful as the land of Canaan; the description whereof in the eighth of Deuteronomy doth in every part agree with Ireland, being,1 "Terra rivorum, aquarumque, et fontium; in cuius campis, et montibus, erumpunt fluviorum abyssi; terra frumenti, et hordei; terra lactis, et mellis; ubi absque ulla penuria comedes panem tuum, et rerum abundantia perfrueris." And thus I have discovered and expressed the defects and errors as well in the managing of the martial affairs as of the civil, which in former ages gave impediment to the reducing of all Ireland to the obedience and subjection of the Crown of England. I have likewise observed what courses have been taken to reform the defects and errors in government and to reduce the people of this land to obedience since the beginning of the reign of King Edward the Third till the latter end of the reign of Queen Elizabeth. 1 "A land of brooks of water, of fountains and depths that spring out of valleys and hills; a land of wheat and barley, a land of milk and honey; a land wherein thou shalt eat bread without scarceness, thou shalt not lack anything in it." Sir John Davies, omitting from the quotation vines, figs, pomegranates, and olives, fitly puts milk in their place. T And, lastly, I have declared and set forth how all the said errors have been corrected and the defects supplied under the prosperous government of His Majesty. So as I may positively conclude in the same words which I have used in the title of this discourse, that until the beginning of His Majesty's reign Ireland was never entirely subdued and brought under the obedience of the Crown of England. But since the crown of this kingdom, with the undoubted right and title thereof, descended upon His Majesty, the whole island from sea to sea hath been brought into His Highness's peaceable possession, and all the inhabitants in every corner thereof have been absolutely reduced under his immediate subjection. In which condition of subjects they will gladly continue without defection or adhering to any other Lord or King, as long as they may be protected and justly governed without oppression on the one side or impunity on the other. For there is no nation of people under the sun that doth love equal and indifferent justice better than the Irish, or will rest better satisfied with the execution thereof, although it be against themselves; so as they may have the protection and benefit of the law when upon just cause they do desire it. |