1628] DISCONTENT EXCITED IN IRELAND 633 ture of linen, the breeding of cattle, and the growing of wool. In this prosperity the industrious Irish shared; all diversities of race were, as far as possible, destroyed. There was, however, a large population of dispossessed landowners, who lived a life of idleness and disturbance, and against whom Acts of Parliament had to be passed. These formed a dangerous class, and the policy of England would have been to unite all the Protestant interests of the country to oppose it. Unfortunately there were two classes of Protestants, the one consisting of the Scotch colonists in the North, and many of the new settlers who were Puritans, and the other of those English who had passed over in Elizabeth's time, and who were drawn from a higher class, to whom Puritanism was hateful. Of course, to Laud and to Charles it appeared necessary, before all things, that this party should be raised to prominence, and the Northern Puritans suppressed. It was felt, too, that Ireland might supply troops, which, in case of difficulty, might help to suppress any Puritan movement in England. To carry out these views, Wentworth assumed the viceroyalty. His first measures were directed towards allaying the discontent which the Government of the last few years had caused, and which bade fair to neutralize all the advantages gained in the preceding reign. Falkland's 1628. The old Irish difficulties were reviving in all their vehemence, and Papists, Churchmen, and Puritans were on the verge of open fighting. The army had almost disappeared, 1350 government. foot and 200 horse were all that remained, and these consisted chiefly of substitutes, receiving about a fourth of their nominal pay, their officers (for the most part Privy Councillors) appropriating the remainder. A more efficient army was absolutely necessary. The country was put under the government of Lord Falkland. But the only way of supporting the new army was by putting it at free quarters. Driven to despair by this project, the Irish offered to pay a large voluntary contribution, £100,000, at the rate of £10,000 a quarter, if they could get certain concessions or graces granted. The list of these graces explains from what they suffered. They desired relief from illegal taxation by the courts, from illegal payments to the soldiery, from illegal monopolies, from the religious penal statutes, and from the constant inquiry into titles, which was a fruitful source of revenue, but which rendered every man's property insecure. All this was to be ratified by an Irish Parliament. But Falkland unfortunately issued the writs for that Parliament without attention to the requirements of Poynings' Law. Consequently the Parliament was declared null. Still the Catholics, believing that the relief contained in the graces would be Wentworth's government. 1633. given them, began openly to declare their rights, and to establish a Roman Catholic seminary. When Falkland issued a proclamation against their proceedings, the Catholics, full of anger, joined the Protestants in demanding the promised graces, and in refusing to pay the voluntary contribution till they were conceded. His government having proved a failure, Falkland withdrew to England. For a few months the government by Lords-Justices made things worse. Voluntary contribution was threatening to cease altogether. The sole hope now lay in Wentworth. He at once changed the character of the government. He wrote to prohibit the action of the justices, and when they declared that the legal fine of a shilling a Sunday upon all recusants was the only visible resource left, he declared himself against it, as destroying the whole confidence of the Catholics, and asserted that he could with ease secure a new voluntary subscription. He came with almost full power. "It is impossible for me," he said, "to remedy the evils, unless I be entirely trusted and livelily assisted and countenanced by his Majesty." His views were the same as they had been in the North. In Ireland he had more scope for carrying them out. There, as in a conquered country, the King in Council had originally had the power of superseding the common law. By degrees, as civilization gathered strength, this privilege had sunk into disuse; Falkland had wholly abandoned it. But Wentworth did not intend to allow so good a means of establishing his arbitrary authority to lie dormant; whatever his words may have been, it is certain that he intended to treat Ireland again as a conquered country. "These lawyers," he writes, "would monopolize all judicature, as if no honour or justice could be rightly administered but under one of their bencher's gowns. I am sure they little understand the unsettled state of this kingdom that could advise the King to lessen the power of his Deputy. Therefore, I beseech you, assist me therein; I shall be answerable for my head." Consequently the Castle Court assumed as dominant a position as the Star Chamber or the Court of York in England. Wentworth's personal predominance secured the renewal of the voluntary grant. But he was not contented. He wanted an army to suppress opposition, the army must be paid, and the payment must not be precarious; there was no way to secure such an income but by Parliament. It was not without persuasion that he overcame Charles's dislike to such assemblies. In a most curious despatch he explained his plans, and removed his master's objections. His chief reliance was on Poynings' Law. By that law nothing could be proposed in the Irish Parliament which had not first been approved by 1636] WENTWORTH'S GOVERNMENT IN IRELAND 635 the English Council. The Act was doubtless intended to place the initiative in the English Council as a safeguard against the influence of the great Irish chiefs or overweening deputies. But the letter of the law was with Wentworth ; he made the best of it. "The mighty power," he said, "gotten by the wisdom of former ages must be preserved with hallowed care.” It was thus he made use of it: the Parliament which was to be summoned was to be divided into two sessions—the first to be occupied entirely with matters of finance; the second, it was promised, should be given to the confirmation of the graces. The letter in which he explains his plans lays bare what is He explains his simply a monstrous trick to secure absolutism. The first plans in a letter. session having been successful, and the money granted, in the second session, in virtue of Poynings' Law, only such graces should be introduced as the King may please. In other words, the money was to be taken and the price refused. If the Parliament refused the money, the world would approve of extreme measures, if they started aside, the general peace abroad admitted of their chastisement. But such extremes were not likely to be necessary; the Parliament was to be judiciously packed. A number of military officers were to be elected, while the remainder of the members were to be balanced equally between Catholics and Protestants. If the Catholics made objections to the supplies, the weekly shilling for recusancy was to be demanded from them; if the Protestants objected, they were to be told that the voluntary subscription must remain in force. With his usual pomp, and with the words, that "if they expected protection without contribution towards it, they looked for more than had ever been the portion of a conquered kingdom," Wentworth opened the session. His "bullying manner," he says, "answered well." Six subsidies were granted. But in the second session the Parliament found how they had been duped. Wentworth openly asserted that he had not even sent the graces to England, and, justifying himself with Poynings' Law, refused to introduce them. The Catholics made some feeble resistance, but before the close of the session Wentworth wrote, "The King is now as absolute here as any prince in the world can be, and may be still, if not spoiled on that side." The Ulster Protestants were to be forced to become Episcopalians. High Church Bishops were sent among them, a Court of High Commission established, the Act of Uniformity universally applied, a new body of Canons passed, and Commissioners sent down to the North to secure the dismissal of Puritan ministers. The persecution was so severe that many men took refuge in the woods. The threatening position of the Roman Catholic Irish prevented the Puritans, thus persecuted, from thinking of insurrection. It was upon England alone, in some shape or other, that they could rely. Wentworth knew this when persecuting them. He felt he was secure from any effort of theirs. colonization of Ulster. 1636. Nor had he the least intention of letting Ireland fall back into its native anarchy. On the contrary, he determined to proceed with the He attempts the colonization, and to settle Connaught. This country was still exclusively Irish. In order to get possession. of it, Wentworth insisted on the examination of titledeeds. A vast number of the proprietors had no such deeds to show, and four-fifths of the land fell into the hands of the Crown. Wentworth's proceedings were of the most high-handed character. In spite of the King's promise, that no claim beyond sixty years should be revived, he set no limits to his inquiries; and the juries who failed to find verdicts according to his wishes fared but badly. He had thus succeeded in exciting the anger both of the Celtic Roman Catholic population and of the Puritans of the North. But he was still able, Consequent discontent of natives and Puritans. Scotland. when the contest between parties was growing to a head, to take advantage of deep-set religious differences, and to array against the Puritans from Scotland an army of Roman Catholics. But when that army was subsequently disbanded on the demand of Parliament, the Puritans being hostile and the Roman Catholics estranged, there was no important party whom the King could trust, and the Great Rebellion of 1641 was the consequence. The same ecclesiastical policy which had thus alienated the Puritans of Ireland was the chief cause of the hostility of Scotland. Charles determined to follow up the designs of his father. It will be remembered that the great difficulty that King had found in the restoration of Episcopacy was the transference which had taken place of Church property into the hands of the laity. In 1626 and 1628, Charles announced that all grants would be resumed, whether they had been given before or after the great Act of 1587. Even tithes were to be restored: "An Act which was the groundstone," says Sir John Balfour, "of all the mischief that followed it." To attempt the restoration of Church property was to touch the nobility in their tenderest point; and they thenceforward became the determined opponents of the Crown. Finally, after much disputing, the lay proprietors agreed to arbitration, and a series of private lawsuits settled the question. The tithes were Church property 1633] DISCONTENT excited IN SCOTLAND 637 Charles visits Scotland, and quarrels with the Parliament. 1633. changed into a fixed rent charge; and these arbitrations and arrangements were ratified by the Parliament in 1633. Still there was much mistrust on the part of the laity, and they still feared, we are told, that the Church would find means, in spite of the arrangements, to get back all its property, which would amount to about a third of the kingdom. In this same year Charles visited his Northern kingdom, and was there crowned; but, with his usual want of tact, contrived to quarrel with his Parliament. In the first place, he tampered with the election of the Lords of the Articles, as that Committee was called which prepared measures to be introduced into the Scotch Parliament. This body was very different in structure from the English Parliament. It consisted of Lords spiritual and temporal, deputies from the royal burghs, and representatives of the lesser tenants in capite; but though the voting was by order, there was no division into Houses, all orders sat together, and the vote was taken by a simple Yes or No on the measures introduced by the Lords of the Articles, no amendment being allowed. The consequence of this arrangement was to give the Lords of the Articles great influence, and they were frequently able to tack obnoxious clauses to bills which were too good to be wholly rejected; thus, on the present occasion, to a bill declaring the royal prerogative was added a clause arranging the apparel of the clergy. To make matters worse, Charles himself sat in the Parliament, and made note of those who voted against his wishes. This question of the apparel of the clergy gained more importance from the ritualistic observances of the King's Chapel, and when Laud returned to London, he Laud's ritualissued an order that "the whites," as the clerical dress istic measures. was called, should be universally worn. The whites were much hated by the Presbyterians; by some they were even regarded as an idolatrous remnant of the dress of the priests of Isis. From this time onward the efforts of Laud to assimilate the Church of Scotland with that of England were continued. He made Spottiswood of St. Andrews High Chancellor and President of the Council, and in pursuance of his plan for introducing the Church into the secular government, he obtained the admission of four other Bishops to the Council. Having become Archbishop of Canterbury, he assumed supremacy over the Scotch Church. At his orders, and without any ecclesiastical meeting, Canons were introduced. Thus His illegal arbitrarily promulgated, they were generally regarded at Canons. once as illegal and as "subjecting the nation to the discipline of a |