Armagh, Fermanagh, and Cavan-amounting to 511,465* acres-was confiscated to the crown and given to settlers: Sir Arthur Chichester had the management of this Plantation, which was commenced in 1608.

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523. The lots" were of three sizes:-2,000, 1,500, and 1,000 acres. The planters were of three classes :-First: English and Scotch undertakers, who got the 2,000-acre lots, and who were required to people them with English and Scotch tenants-no Irish-and to build a castle and a bawn (a large walled enclosure near the castle). Second: "servitors," i. e. those who had served the crown in Ireland-all to be Protestants. These got the 1,500-acre lots; they might take English, Scotch, or Irish tenants, all to be Protestants; and they should build a strong house and a bawn. The 1,000-acre lots might be taken by English, Scotch, or Irish planters, who might be either Protestants or Catholics, and the Catholics were not required to take the oath of supremacy.

524. Vast tracts were given to London companies of merchants or tradesmen, and to certain high officials. Chichester had for his share the whole of Innishowen, Sir Cahir O'Doherty's territory. Large tracts were granted for religious and educational purposes, all Protestant: Trinity College, Dublin, got 9,600 acres.

525. Of the whole body of old Irish proprietors, only 286 were provided for: these got 58,000 acres-about one-ninth of the escheated lands. All the rest of the natives were ordered "to depart with their goods and chattels at or before the first of May next [1609] into what other part of the realm they pleased." But the greater number, instead of migrating to a distance, clung to their native place, and betook them to the hills, glens, and bogs, where they eked out a scanty subsistence, with bitter memories in their hearts.

About three quarters of a million English acres. There was bog

and waste land besides: the total area of these six counties is about 3 millions of English acres; so that the waste land was at that time four times the extent of the arable land.

526. This turned out by far the most successful of all the plantations; and in a short time vast numbers of English Protestants and Scotch Presbyterians were settled on the rich lowland farms all over the confiscated counties.

527. To help to pay the expenses of this plantation, the king, in 1611, created the order of "baronets"; who were to bear on their coat of arms the "bloody hand" of the O'Neills. Each new baronet had to pay for the maintenance of thirty soldiers for three years at 8d. a day each (about £1,095). The title is hereditary.

528. The lord deputy now resolved to summon a parliament, the first for many years: and in order to enable him to pass measures pleasing to the king, he took steps to have a Protestant majority, by creating forty spurious "boroughs," nearly all among the settlers of Ulster; each returning two Members. This parliament, which met in 1618, consisted of 232 members of the house of commons, of whom less than half were Catholic "recusants"; and fifty lords, of whom twenty-five were Protestant bishops, with several others lay Protestants.

529. A violent scene occurred on the election of a speaker, the Catholics proposing Sir John Everard, and the Protestants Sir John Davies (page 79); and others equally violent followed; so that deputy Chichester, finding it impossible to carry on business, prorogued parliament.

530. On the expostulation of the Catholics some concessions were made; and when parliament next assembled business was carried on quietly. Large sums were voted for the king, who was always in want of money and some old penal statutes against natives of Irish blood were repealed.

531. English law was extended to the whole of Ireland, a concession the Irish had often previously asked for in vain (247), and for which king James I. should get full credit. An act was passed for the attainder of the earls of Tyrone and Tirconnell, though they had committed no offence to warrant such a proceeding. This parliament was disolved in 1615.

532. Chichester was succeeded in 1616 by Oliver St. John, who enforced all the penal statutes against Catholics. He deprived Waterford of its charter, because the corporation refused the oath of supremacy. But his proceedings caused such dangerous commotion that the king removed him, and in 1622 appointed lord Falkland deputy in his place. 533. About this time king James, bent on following up the plantations, appointed a commission of inquiry into titles. The country swarmed with persons called "discoverers who made their living by finding flaws, or pretended flaws, in titles; these either got the estates themselves, or shared with the king the increase of rent the proprietors had to pay to buy themselves off. They unsettled titles all over Leinster: and a great part of the province was given to English undertakers, the owners being turned off; and those who were allowed to remain had to pay a largely increased rent. These proceedings resulted in several other minor plantations in different parts of the country.

584. The discoverers extended their evil practices into Connaught also; but here matters were delayed till next reign. Iniquitous law proceedings unsettled everything; the whole country was in a state of uncertainty; and no man was sure of his property for a day.

535. In the midst of all this inquietude king James I. died in 1625, and was succeeded by his son Charles I. This king was in perpetual straits for money and the Catholics hoped that by granting him subsidies he would have the penal laws relaxed. The Protestants also had

their troubles, for many of them-as well as the Catholics -were threatened with the loss of their estates through the knaveries of the discoverers.

586. Accordingly the Irish gentry, Catholic and Protestant, encouraged by Falkland, offered to pay £120,000 in instalments to the king, who agreed to grant certain concessions or 66 graces as they were called.

537. There were altogether fifty-one graces, of which the most important were:-(1) Defects of title were not to be searched for farther back than sixty years; so that those who could prove sixty years title without a flaw were to be secure. Previous to this the discoverers had often gone back to the time of Henry II. This grace affected Protestants as well as Catholics. (2) Recusants were to be required to take an oath of allegiance only (which any subject might take): not an oath of supremacy (which no Catholic could take). (3) The people of Connaught to have their titles confirmed: and (4) the exactions and oppressions of the soldiery on the people, which had by this time grown intolerable, to be restrained.

538. The graces could not be granted without the confirmation of the Irish parliament. But though the people continued to pay the instalments, the king and Falkland dishonestly evaded the summoning of parliament; and the graces remained unconfirmed. Meantime the Catholics were allowed some toleration for the time; and never suspecting any duplicity, they hoped that the next parlia ment would make matters right.

539. But the Dublin council were so provoked to see the Catholics openly practising their religion, and building churches and schools, that they pressed lord Falkland to put a stop to it. So Falkland issued a proclamation forbidding such practices, which ended in nothing. For he was a mild tolerant sort of man who did not wish to persecute any one; and though the proclamation was there, he did not attempt to enforce it; so that things went on the same as before. At last the king had to

recall him in 1629: and then the government was committed to the hands of viscount Ely, lord chancellor, and Richard Boyle earl of Cork, lord high treasurer, a man who had made himself rich and great by cunning and fraud: these held office for four years.

540. This was an evil change for the Catholics; for the two new justices proceeded to enforce the laws, especially that which compelled attendance at Protestant worship. By their orders & file of soldiers entered a chapel where some Carmelites were celebrating Mass, and carried off the priest in his vestments, who however was immediately rescued by the congregation. This so incensed the authorities, that they seized sixteen Catholic religious houses in Dublin and closed them up; and suppressed the Catholic college. But the king at last bethought him that he could get more money by milder treatment, and ordered the justices to desist.

541. In 1633 the king sent over as deputy, lord Wentworth, afterwards the earl of Strafford, the most despotic ruler the Irish had yet experienced. He adopted a new course, for he cared nothing about any man's religion. His two main objects were to carry out the behests of the king and to raise money for him; which he pursued through right and wrong, and trampled on all that crossed him, Protestants and Catholics alike. The recusants were induced to give him £20,000 for the king, on promise that the penal statutes against them should not be enforced.

542. The Irish landholders, still feeling insecure, induced the deputy to summon a parliament, with the object of having the graces confirmed; paying at the same time another year's subsidy. Parliament met in 1634 and passed subsidies amounting to £240,000; but Wentworth, partly by bullying, and partly by trickery, succeeded in evading the graces.

543. The motives of all this soon appeared; for in 1635, immediately after the dissolution, he proceeded to break the titles all over Connaught, on the plea that they had not been enrolled in the time of Elizabeth when the