he fatally relied on the king's promise of protection, he repaired to London, and resigned himself to the power of an incensed parliament. To deprive him of the services of an able and faithful friend, whose evidence must have proved essentially favourable to his cause, Sir George Ratcliffe was accused of high treason, and conveyed a prisoner from Ireland. The earl himself was impeached, sequestered from parliament and committed to custody. His numerous enemies of the three kingsdoms were raised to the utmost pitch of exultation, and waited with impatience the event of this bold and well concerted attack.

THE sudden death of Wandesford, lord deputy Carte, of Ireland, is imputed to the violent impression on his mind, made by the prosecution of Strafford, and the vexations of his government. It was an event attended with momentous consequences to this kingdom for the present, it afforded the Irish committee, resident in London, a fair occasion of proving and displayed their power. Soon after the prorogation of the Irish parliament, they were joined by some lords of Ireland, not delegated by the upper house, but by a number of the Irish nobility, most unfriendly to Strafford, and directed to unite with the agents of the commons, in representing the grievances of the nation. The popular leaders in the English parliament were not scrupulous to examine the validity of their commission. They received them with open arms; and industriously affected the utmost deference and attention to the delegates of both houses of the Irish legislature, who came to explain the injuries of their nation, and to prove the iniquity of their chief governor. Such was the consequence they had gained, that the king himself deemed it necessary to court them, and laboured to soften their resentments against his favourite by some incautious condescensions.

THE appointment of a successor to Wandesford Ibid. became an immediate object of deliberation. The earl of Strafford, who knew the circumstances of Ireland, and sincerely studied the interests of the

king, recommended with particular earnestness, that the earl of Ormond should be nominated, lord deputy; a nobleman of vigor and abilities, of powerful connections, zealous in the royal cause, an onemy both to the Romish and puritan factions, and already successful in opposing the violences of both. But the Irish committee, in the fulness of pride and power, had the hardiness to remonstrate against this nomination, and, by the assistance of the earl of Arundel, (who claimed some lands of which Ormond was possessed, and hence became his mortal enemy) were so successful, that the king relinquished the design of employing the earl of Ormond, and declared his resolution of committing the Irish government to two lords justices, equally chosen for the contending parties, lord Dillon of Kilkenny-west a nobleman of approved affection to the royal service, and Sir William Parsons, distinguished for his attachment to the popular and puritanic faction.

BUT the Irish committee were too well instructed, and had imbibed the spirit of the times too deeply not to take advantage of this condescension, and to press the king with new demands. They proceeded to remonstrate against lord Dillon as a person unfit to be entrusted with the administration of Irish government. Charles listened to their frivolous objections. With an impatience to be relieved from a contest of an inferior nature, and which interrupted his attention to matters more urgent and important, he revoked the nomination of lord Dillon, and abandoned the government of Ireland to Sir William Parsons and Sir John Borlase, two puritan lords justices without abilities or character, and full fraught with that party virulence which is readily imbibed by men of mean understandings and illiberal principles.

IN proportion to the king's concessions, the committee rose in their demands. And Charles, having already stooped to such extraordinary condescensions, felt less reluctance in granting their addition

al

al requests. He consented to send orders to Ire land, that they should not be prosecuted for departing without licence; that the leaf which had been torn from the Journals of the Irish commons, should be replaced; that the subsidies should be assessed in the manner prescribed by their house; that all the king's correspondence with his ministers of Ireland should be entered in the signet office, open to be inspected or copied, by every subject; and that all those, who complained of any order or decree, should have copies of records, certificates orders of council, public letters, or other entries necessary for declaration of their grievances.

HAVING thus far experienced the compliance of Carte. the king, they at length presented their remonstrance in due form. An answer prepared by Sir George Ratcliffe, was soon after read in council; and a coРУ delivered to the committee. They were alarmed; they protested against the king's consulting on their affairs either with the earl of Strafford, Ratcliffe, or Sir Philip Mainwaring, another of his zealous friends. They were called to make their reply; the discussion of particulars was difficult and hazardous; they agreed to entrench themselves in a general declaration of the sense of the Irish house of commons, concerning the grievances alleged. It was prepared; Strafford, on this part, solicited a commission of enquiry into every particular of their remonstrance, severally and distinctly: the committee were not without their apprehensions of such a discussion; they declined presenting their declaration to the king.

THE Irish parliament in the mean time assembled, and with spirits still more elevated. That formidable power which the ruling party in the English legislature had acquired by firamess and perseverance, that applause and popularity which attended their proceedings, the embarrassment of the king's affairs, the weakness and dejection of his party, the attenVOL. III.

I

tion

Com.

Journ. 1640.

tion shewn to the Irish committee, and the surprising success of their applications to the throne, were all powerful incentives to the Irish houses, to exert themselves vigorously on an occasion so favourable to the popular interest. Not contented with demanding a redress of former grievances, they aspired, in imitation of their neighbours, to new privileges, new advantages and securities. Having provided for the support of their agents in London, by a public assessment, they proceeded to instruct them to apply to the throne for new laws and regulations, calculated to encrease their own power no less than to advance the public interest. Among other particulars, they were directed to move his majesty for a bill for the further explanation of Poynings' law, in such parts as had occasioned any doubts of the manner of certifying bills into England, or any other matter concerning the further explanation of the law, which they shall think fit: and, that the house of commons, during the parliament, may draw up bills by their own committee, and transmit them.

In all their endeavours for reformation, it was their purpose (and it was a purpose particularly acceptable to their friends in England) to represent the earl of Strafford as the great author of all national grievances. But in the preamble to the bill of subsidies in their first session, a magnificent encomium had been bestowed on this chief governor and his administration. It was the united and unanimous declaration of both houses, attended with expressions of uncommon satisfaction and attachment. The transaction was too remarkable and too recent to be forgotten. To evade its force, and obviate the dif ficulty it might create to the prosecutors of this earl, they now inveighed against the secret contrivers of this clause; they enquired, with an affected wonder and indignation, into the authors of it; they drew up a protestation to be transmitted to their committee, in which they declared that, it had been sur

reptiti

reptitiously inserted in their bill, either by the earl of Strafford or his agents; that, constrained by representations of the king's necessities, they had not opposed the fraud, lest his majesty should suffer by a rejection of the bill thus sophisticated; that the matter of this preamble was entirely false; and that the nation had really been oppressed and impoverished by the administration of the earl. The committee were directed to petition his majesty for a bill to erase this preamble from their records; and that, neither the earl nor his ministers or advisers might have any share in conducting the affairs of Ireland. The upper house were prevailed on to join in this protestation, notwithstanding the opposition of Ormond, Digby, and other zealous royalists.

MS Trin.

THE lords had by this time caught the spirit of Jour, of the other house, and adopted all the sentiments and H. of passions of the popular party. They nominated the Lords peers, already resident in London, a committee ofCol. Dub. their house, for the purpose of conveying their griev- Carte. ances to the throne, adding another of their body to the number. A catalogue of those grievances was prepared and presented to the lords. It consisted of eighteen articles; wherein they complained that the nobility were over-rated in the subsidies, some of them detained in prison, though not impeached of any capital offence, and none allowed to be absent from the house, without leaving a proxy with some lord of the chief governor's nomination; that noblemen voted in their house in consequence of new titles of honor, without possessing any lands or property in the kingdom; that they could not, without special licence, repair to England, to present their petitions to the throne. In other articles they echoed the remonstrance of the commons; such were their complaints of the grievous dicouragement of trade! by heavy impositions, of monopolies, of the decision! of civil causes and vacating letters patent by extrajudicial opinions, at the council board; the benefits of the act of limitation denied to the subjects, the

uncon