1611-3] Parliament meets.— Opposition to Government 515

assent of Parliament to its proceedings. Still, if it had been merely a question of obtaining a parliamentary confirmation of the plantation, precedents were not wanting from Elizabeth's reign to show that it might have been accomplished without resorting to any methods that went beyond the constitution. But the known intention of the Government to propose fresh measures of penal legislation against the Catholics, and the natural apprehension that the opportunity would be seized to use the plantation for securing a Protestant majority in Parliament, forced the gentry of the Pale into a position of extreme hostility to the Crown, when its intention of exercising its right to create some forty new boroughs became known. In itself there was indeed nothing very outrageous in this exercise of the royal prerogative; and, if some of the newly-created boroughs were hardly to be found on the map, there was in this respect, as James shrewdly remarked, no very great difference between them and many of the older ones. The real objection was of course that they were merely Government pocket-boroughs.

In announcing (November, 1611) the King's intention to summon a Parliament, Chichester, with an appearance of the utmost candour, invited the nobility of the Pale to confer with one another as to the measures they thought necessary to pass for the benefit of the country. This they refused to do, urging their right, according to a doubtful interpretation of a clause in Poynings' Act, to be made acquainted as part of the Council of the realm with the measures intended to be passed in Parliament. But, finding Chichester absolutely determined not to admit their claim and confirmed in their worst anticipations of further penal legislation by the public execution or martyrdom, in February, 1612, of Cornelius O'Devany, Catholic Bishop of Down and Connor, they addressed in November a strong remonstrance to the King. In it they complained that they had not been consulted by the Deputy as the statute required, and that the erection of corporations "consisting of some few and beggarly cottages" could "tend to naught else. . . but that . . . penal laws should be imposed upon your subjects." No attention was paid to this protest; and in April, 1613, the elections took place amid great excitement. No sooner had Parliament met on May 18 and a motion to elect Sir John Davis Speaker been made, than the long pent-up storm broke loose. On the ground that Davis, having no residence in county Fermanagh, had been improperly returned as a knight of that shire, the Opposition insisted on scrutinising all elections before proceeding to any other business. But, allowing themselves to be persuaded to nominate a candidate of their own, and letting their choice fall on Sir John Everard, the supporters of Sir John Davis, following English precedent, retired from the chamber to tell their numbers. During their absence the Opposition declared Everard elected and placed him in the chair. Apprised of what had happened, the Government party finding themselves in the majority returned in hot haste, and, having ejected Everard, installed

516

Chichester recalled. Growing discontent [1613-26

Davis in his place. Hereupon the Opposition, declining to take further part in the Parliament, withdrew. Their friends in the Upper House made common cause with them; and Chichester, after vainly trying to effect a compromise, yielded to their request to allow them to send a deputation to submit their complaints to the King. In the meantime he prorogued Parliament.

The petition resolved itself into an elaborate attack on Chichester's administration. It was, as James confidentially admitted, a specious document; and, though he was convinced that it was all a piece of jesuitry, yet, inasmuch as he was anxious that his Irish subjects should learn" rather to address themselves to the sovereign by humble petition . . . than, after the old fashion of that country to run out, upon every occasion of discontent, to the bog and wood," he thought it advisable to appoint a Commission to investigate their complaints. How far his impartiality extended was seen from his nominating Chichester head of the Commission. It reported on November 12; and on April 20, 1614, James read the Irish deputation a severe lecture on their undutiful and disgraceful behaviour. Their charges against Chichester he pronounced wholly unfounded; and all that, as a matter of grace, he would concede was the temporary disfranchisement of several boroughs, provided the petitioners consented to sign a formal instrument of submission.

But the opposition which he had encountered gave James reason to pause; and when Chichester reopened Parliament in October he was authorised to announce that the Bill against the Jesuits had been withdrawn. The concession worked favourably on the Catholics; and under Sir John Everard's leadership they offered no further resistance to Government. With their support a subsidy Bill was passed in the following session, and there was every prospect that with a little goodwill on both sides a reasonable compromise might have been effected. Unfortunately at this juncture Parliament was dissolved and Chichester recalled.

Where he had failed, there was little reason to expect that either Sir Oliver St John (1616-22), or Lord Falkland (1622-9), would prove more successful, hampered as they were in their anti-Catholic line of policy by having to regulate their conduct according as the wind blew from Spain or in a contrary direction, and by the perennial bankruptcy of the Irish treasury. The time had passed away when the Counterreformation could be dammed in by shilling fines for non-attendance at church and futile proclamations for the banishment of the Catholic clergy. Such proceedings and the constant rummaging of the land for plantation purposes served only to irritate. Year by year the dissatisfaction grew; and in 1626 it was more than doubtful whether Government could command the majority in Parliament which it had possessed ten years earlier. Anyhow, the experiment was one that Charles preferred, if possible, to avoid. But, with a war with France likely to be added to that with Spain, it was imperative that Ireland, which was openly spoken of as the

1626-34] The "Graces."

Wentworth appointed Deputy 517

back-door to England, should be put in a posture of defence. For this purpose Falkland was authorised (September, 1626) to sound the nobility and gentry as to their willingness, in return for certain valuable concessions, to undertake on behalf of the country to maintain an army of 5000 foot and 500 horse. These concessions, known as the "Graces," were skilfully contrived so as to appeal to the interests of every class in the community and were coupled with the promise of a speedy confirmation by Parliament. To the Catholic landowner in Connaught in particular, whom fear of a plantation kept in a constant state of anxiety, the offer of the Crown to accept sixty years' possession as a bar to all claims came as a special boon. Nevertheless, so general was the repugnance to this extra-parliamentary method of taxation that the agents representing the landed gentry only with the greatest difficulty could be induced (May, 1628) to bind the country to contribute £120,000, to be spread over three years, and to be deducted from whatever subsidies might be granted by Parliament. The contribution began at once; and Falkland in fulfilment of his part of the transaction made preparations for calling a Parliament. But whether Charles deliberately meant to cheat the nation, or whether, as seems more likely, his courage to confront the difficulties of the situation evaporated, time went by, and no Parliament was summoned. In 1629 Falkland was recalled. By reducing the army one-half and by exercising the strictest economy his successors, the Lords Justices Loftus and Cork, managed to spread the contribution over four years. The neglect to call a Parliament was, however, an irreparable blunder, not merely because it rendered such contributions precarious in the future, but chiefly because, by weakening the general confidence in the sincerity of Government, it created a situation of which the Jesuits were not slow to take advantage. Indeed the only interest which the period possesses is that which attaches to the extraordinary progress made in it by Roman Catholicism. The fact is bewailed in nearly every State-paper of the time; but, beyond knocking down a few mass-houses and digging up St Patrick's purgatory, the Lords Justices could suggest no means of counteracting it. Without the courage, and perhaps the will, to take the only step that promised safety they looked on helplessly, while the country drifted into anarchy.

Such was the situation of affairs in January, 1632, when Charles announced the appointment of a new Deputy. More than a year and a half elapsed before Wentworth landed at Ringsend; but his influence had long before then made itself felt in the affairs of the country. With the single object before him of making Ireland a source of strength to the Crown instead of one of weakness, as it had hitherto been, he succeeded, by alternately playing on the fears and hopes of the Catholic party and flattering the loyalty of the Protestants, in obtaining a prolongation of the contribution for two years. Thus he secured for himself breathing-space in which to develop his policy.

518

Wentworth's policy.—Six subsidies granted [1634

Starting with the axiom that a prosperous people is also a loyal people, Wentworth bent all his energies to the development of the natural resources of Ireland. And it must be said for him that, if in trying to accomplish his purpose he spared no one who ventured to oppose him, neither did he spare himself. His eye was everywhere. If the exportation and manufacture of wool had to be discouraged as detrimental to the staple trade of England, he, by way of compensation, personally superintended the development of the linen industry, and insisted on a free export of hides and tallow. He arranged the details of a commercial treaty with Spain, calculated to encourage the fishing industry; he brought over experts to explore the mineral resources of the country; laid down stringent regulations for the preservation of the rapidly disappearing forests; exerted himself to improve the breed of cattle; cleared the narrow seas of the pirates that infested them and rendered commerce insecure; and, by buying out all private interests detrimental to the Crown, succeeded in more than doubling the revenue of the State. Knowing the value of order and decorum in public life, he insisted on a strict observance of Court etiquette; repaired Dublin Castle; cleared out the wine-vaults under Christ Church; and by his own example infused a spirit of emulation in the army which shortly raised it to the highest pitch of efficiency. For the rest, he was content to bide his time. What he could do to realise his friend Laud's wishes in the matter of ecclesiastical uniformity and discipline by pressure on the episcopacy, and to restore dignity to the Church by the recovery of its property, he did. But it was no part of his policy to irritate the Catholics by fining them for non-attendance at church when, as was too often the case, there was no church for them to attend. Doubtless he made many enemies by his policy of "thorough"; but in his struggle with Cork, Wilmot, Mountnorris, Crosby, and the rest, we cannot deny him a certain measure of sympathy. Under his controlling hand Ireland emerged from the state of anarchy into which she had drifted, and, feeling confident of his ability to steer an independent course, he obtained Charles' reluctant consent to risk a Parliament.

The event more than answered his expectations. Parliament met on July 14, 1634. It was the most splendid scene Dublin had ever witnessed. In his opening speech Wentworth announced the King's intention to hold two sessions, the one for himself, the other for the benefit of his subjects. The proposal to separate grievances from supply was agreeable to neither Catholics nor Protestants; but so evenly balanced were they that, as Wentworth put the case, neither party would allow the other to rob it of applying the whole grace of His Majesty's thanks to itself. Hence, when the motion for supply was made, both "did with one voice assent to the giving of six subsidies to be paid in four years." But, if the Commons ever imagined that their loyalty would be rewarded by a candid confirmation of the long-promised Graces, they

1634-5] "Graces" refused.-Commission of defective titles 519

were speedily disabused of the idea. There was nothing on which Wentworth depended more for an improvement of the revenue than a new plantation and a strict revision of the old ones. He was therefore determined at any cost to prevent the confirmation of any Grace which threatened to cross his purpose, and particularly of that which accepted sixty years' possession as a bar to all claims on the part of the Crown. To this end he divided the Graces into three classes: viz. those which he thought not fit to be granted, those which might be continued by way of instruction, and those proper to be passed into laws. By neglecting, as by Poynings' Law he was able to do, to transmit any except those in the last class, he transferred all responsibility in the matter from the Crown to himself and the Irish Council.

When Parliament reassembled in November the indignation of the Catholics knew no bounds, and finding themselves accidentally in the majority, they rejected without consideration all and every measure submitted to them. For a moment Wentworth thought of adjourning Parliament; but the Protestants came to his rescue and enabled him to bring the session to a satisfactory conclusion. For the next four years his course was clear; and with characteristic energy he at once took up his plantation project.

Hitherto, however they might have answered their purpose of substituting a British for a native proprietary, the plantations had proved singularly unprofitable to the Crown. Not only had vastly more land, for which they of course paid no rent, been passed to the undertakers than was set out in their patents, but their eager haste to turn their estates to immediate profit had led to such a general breach of the conditions of plantation as constituted a serious danger to the State. So notoriously was this the case in regard to the London Society that in 1632 the Star Chamber had ordered the suspension of its charter and the sequestration of its rents. Though not responsible for this step, Wentworth fully approved it; and, on the confiscation of the Society's Charter in 1635, he suggested the conversion of its estates into an appanage for the Duke of York. But the Londoners were not the only offenders; and, though it was impossible to deal with private individuals in the same drastic fashion without imperilling the whole settlement, the Commission for the remedy of defective titles was admirably contrived to make them pay handsomely for their defaults and at the same time to teach them a salutary lesson for the future. As for the plantations which he intended himself to set on foot in Connaught and elsewhere, though inconsiderable in comparison with those already established, he hoped, by a stricter admeasurement of land and by making estates only in capite, to render them not less profitable to the Crown, and by at the same time restricting them to English undertakers, to create a counterpoise to the Scottish settlers in the north. For himself, he was perfectly convinced of the validity of