and the ingenuity of court lawyers was employed to invalidate all patents granted to the possessors of lands there, from the reign of queen Elizabeth." The deputy even seemed to entertain thoughts of calling to his assistance the authority of his packed parliament, on that occasion.s "This house," says he, in a letter to the secretary," is very well composed, so as the protestants are the majority; and this may be of great use to confirm and settle his majesty's title to the plantations of Connaught and Ormond; for this you may be sure of, all the protestants are for plantations, all the others against them; so as these being the greater number, you can want no help they can give you therein.* Nay, in case there be no title to be made good to these countries in the crown, yet should not I despair, forth of reasons of state, and for the strength and se. curity of the kingdom, to have them passed to the king by an immediate act of parliament,"

CHAP. II.

The Earl of Ormond surrenders his country to the king. WE have already seen that by the earl of Ormond's spi rited behavior, in the beginning of this parliament, Wentworth conceived a particular friendship for him; which was so far mutual on the earl's part, that he made a voluntary surrender of his country to the king, in whom otherwise no title could be found to it. For this condescension, his lordship it.t was, by the deputy's mediation, made a privy-counsellor, in the room of sir Pierce Crosby, lately sequestered from that

Straff. State Lett. vol. i. fol. 353.

This shews the falsity of what is generally asserted, that the protestants suffered as much as the catholics by these plantations. See Harris's Fiction Unmasked.-In the same letter Wentworth says, "that he considered that a majority of the protestants in the house of commons as a good rod to hold over the papists."

66

+ Seeing," says Wentworth on this occasion, "we have sped so well, where our title was borrowed, or at least supported by my lord of Ormond, and indeed could not have stood alone upon the king's evidence, I am most confident we shall have like success for Clare."-State Lett. vol ii, fol. 93.

board for no other cause, but his having voted in parliament against a bill which lord Wentworth had approved and signed in the privy-council. "There were twenty-eight counsellors present when he was sequestered, and not one dissenting voice, but all for the sequestration."

"Soon after sir Pierce Crosby's sequestration, a libel being published and scattered abroad, reflecting on the deputy, he was immediately suspected to be the author of it; upon this suspicion, the deputy sent his captain of the guards, and a serjeant at arms, to arrest him, and commit him to prison; whilst sir Philip Mainwaring, secretary of state, with others, broke into his study, and secured his papers in hopes of finding a copy of the libel, but none was found."

The surrender of Ormond was soon followed by that of Limerick and Clare; but the people of Connaught were not at all so complaisant; altho' they too had some leading examples of that kind in their own province.

It

About this time lord Wentworth acquainted his majesty,3 " that he should be able to find for him, a just and honorable title to Connaught, against all opposition; and that the acquisition to his majesty, in that province alone, would amount to no less than an hundred and twenty thousand acres."* is but natural to enquire, by what means a just and honorable title could be so suddenly found, which, but a few months before, seemed to be altogether despaired of. Lord Wentworth himself shall satisfy the reader's curiosity in that respect.+

Before his lordship left Dublin, to hold this court of inqui1 Id. ib. vol. i. fol. 350.

"Wentworth's project was nothing less," says Leland, " than to subvert the title to every estate, in every part of Connaught, and to establish a new plantation through that whole province. A project, which when first proposed in the late reign, was received with horror and amazement."-Hist. of Irel vol. iii. p. 30.

"How to make out," says Wentworth, "his majesty's title to Connaught and Ormond, (which, considering how they have been already attempted and foiled, is of all the rest the greatest difficulty) I have not hitherto received the least instruction from your lordship, or any other minister on that side."-Letter to Lord Treasurer Straff. vol. i. fol. 339.

sition in Connaught, he had given orders to his managers there, that gentlemen of the best estates and understandings, in the different counties, should be returned on the juries which were to be held in the first trials of defective titles. This he did not, as one might imagine, on a supposition of their greater knowledge, integrity or honor; but because, as he says himself, this being a leading case for the whole province, it would set a value, in their estimation, upon the goodness of the king's title, if found by those persons of quality." And on the other hand, if the king's title should not be found, or, as he expresses it, if the jury should prevaricate," he would be sure then to have " persons of such means, as might answer to the king in a round fine in the castle-chamber; and because the fear of that fine would be apter to produce the desired effect in such persons, than in others, who had little or nothing to lose."

CHAP. III.

The deputy holds his court of inquisition.

HIS lordship having thus prepared matters, went himself to the abbey of Boyle, in the county of Roscommon; "where," says he, "finding that divers affrights had been put into the people's minds, concerning his majesty's intention in this work, I sent for half a dozen of the principal gentlemen amongst them; and in the presence of the commissioners, desired that they would acquaint the rest of the country, that the end of my coming was, the next day to execute his majesty's commission, for finding a clear and undoubted title in the crown to the province of Connaught, proposing to begin first with the county of Roscommon; wherein, nevertheless, to manifest his majesty's justice and honor, I thought fit to let them know, that it was his majesty's gracious pleasure that any man's counsel should be fully and willingly heard, in defence of their respective rights; being a favor never before afforded to any upon taking these inquisitions; as also, if there was any thing else they desired, that I was ready to hear them, and would return them a fair and

equal answer thereunto, as by his majesty I had been strictly enjoined; and to afford his good people all respect and freedom in the setting forth and defence of their several rights and claims. With this" continues he, "I left them marvelously well satisfied, for a few good words please them more than can be imagined."

"The next morning, however," adds his lordship, "the gen tlemen of the country petitioned, that the inquisition might be deferred to a longer time, they being unprovided; which I refused, as I had caused notice of it, by a scire facias, to be issued from the Chancery; twenty days before; which was more also than had formerly been accustomed, in cases of that nature. So presently" proceeds he, "we went to the place appointed, read the commission, called and swore the jury, and so on with our work."

Sir Lucas Dillon was foreman of this jury, and seems to have behaved on that occasion entirely to the deputy's liking. Ne vertheless, after the lawyers on both sides had done speaking, lord Wentworth made a speech to the jury, which did not at all encourage them to use that freedom which he had promised to allow them, in returning an impartial verdict; but on the contrary, rather convinced them, that his lordship had already prejudged the cause against their countrymen. For among other things he told them, "that his majesty was indifferent whether they found for him or no; that he had directed him to press nothing upon them, where the path to his right lay so open and plain before him; but yet, that of himself, and as one that must ever wish prosperity to their nation, he desired them first to descend into their own consciences, to take them to counsel, and there they should find the evidence for the crown clear and conclusive. Next to beware, how they appeared resolved or obstinate, against so manifest a truth; or how they let slip out of their hands the means to weave themselves into the royal thoughts and care of his majesty, through a chearful and ready acknowledgment of his right, and a due and full submission

2 Ib. fol. 442.

* "In truth," says he of this gentleman," he deserves to be extraordina rily well dealt withal; and so he shall be, if it pleases his majesty to leave him to me."State Letters, vol. i, fol. 444.

thereunto. That if they would be inclined to truth, and do best for themselves, they were undoubtedly to find the title for the king. But if they were passionately resolved to go over all bounds to their own will, and without respect at all to their own good, to do that which were simply best for his majesty, then he should advise them roughly and pertinaciously, to deny to find any title at all; and there," says he, " I left them to chant together, as they call it over their evidence; and the next day they found the king's title without scruple or hesitation."

CHAP. IV.

The deputy's severity towards the jury of the county of
Galway.

THE juries of the counties of Sligo and Mayo followed the example set them by that of the Roscommon; but the jury of the county of Galway was, by no means, so complying; and they suffered grievously on that account.

For, upon their refusing to find a title in the crown to the estates of their countrymen, lord Wentworth made use of some of his just and honorable means, to convince them of their mistake.' "We bethought ourselves," says he on this occasion, ❝of a course to vindicate his majesty's honor and justice, not only against the person of the jurors, but also against the sheriff for returning so insufficient, indeed we conceive so packed a jury; and therefore we fined the sheriff in a thousand pounds to his Majesty." The mulct on the jurors was much greater.2 "They were fined four thousand pounds each; their estates were seized, and themselves imprisoned, † till the fines were paid." Such was the sentence pronounced against them in the castle-chamber, to which his lordship had bound them over

"The star-chamber (says lord deputy Chichester, in 1613) is the proper place to punish jurors that will not find for the king upon good evidence."-Desid. Curios. Hib. vol. i. p. 262.

"The jurors of Galway were to remain in prison, till each of them paid his fine of four thousand pounds, and acknowledged his offence in court. upon his knees."--Leland's Hist. of Irel. vol. iii. p. 32.