! supplies, the king would certainly confirm the promised graces; and in order to banish from their minds all diffidence in that respect," Surely," said he," so great a meanness cannot enter your hearts, as once to suspect his majesty's gracious regards of you, and performance with you, where you affie yourselves upon his grace." And yet his lordship had not only advised his majesty, as I have already observed, to break his solemn promise to these people; but also, in order more effectually to persuade him to do so, had even engaged to take upon himself all the danger and infamy that was likely to arise from it. For which wonderful piece of service, his majesty, soon after, thanked him, in a letter written with his own hand.t But lest these artful insinuations should not prevail with the commons, he thought proper to enforce his demands by some high expressions, tending to frighten them into a speedy compliance. Let me not," said he, " prove a Cassandra amongst you, to speak truth, and not to be believed. How 5 Strafford's State Letters, vol. i. fol. 223. 6 Ib. But with how little sincerity, appears from his letter to the secretary Coke on that subject: "Let me," says he, tell you in your ear, howbeit we set a fair style on these laws, as beneficial to the commonwealth, yet there are of them, which I dare confidently affirm, will be worth the king at least four thousand pounds a year in the court of wards and alienations, a point which my masters in the house dream not of.”—State Letters, vol. i. fol. 305. These laws were the statutes of wills and uses, which he afterwards, with much difficulty and in breach of his public promise," that religion should not be touched upon," got passed in his packed parliament. "And by which, (as he afterwards boasted) his majesty had gained an unavoid able power in the education of the heirs of all the great families in the kingdom, as they fell; and so means to bring them up in our religion; a superintendency (adds he) of vast consequence, if rightly applied, as in part appears in the person of the earl of Ormond. Ib. vol. ii. fol. 8.-The abolition of this court was one of the principal graces which the king had solemnly promised to these people in 1628, for the valuable consideration hereafter mentioned. "WENTWORTH, "Before I answer any of your particular letters to me, I must tell you, that your last public dispatch has given me a great deal of contentment; and especially for the keeping off the envy of a necessary negative from me of those unreasonable graces that people expected from me."— Straff. State Lett. vol. i. fol. 381.; ever, speak truth I will, were I to become your enemy for it; remember therefore, that I tell you, you may either mar or make this parliament. If you proceed with respect, without laying clogs or conditions on the king, as wise men and good subjects ought to do, you shall infallibly set up this parliament eminent to posterity, as the very basis and foundation of the greatest happiness and prosperity that ever befell this nation. But, if you meet a great king with narrow circumscribed hearts, if you will needs be wise and cautious above the moon, remember again that I tell you, you shall never be able to cast your mists before the eyes of so discerning a king; you shall be found out, your sons shall wish they had been the children of more believing parents; and in a time when you look not. for it, when it will be too late for you to help, the sad repentance of an unadvised breach shall be yours; lasting honour shall be my master's." CHAP. VIII. The legality of several elections questioned, but the motion over-ruled. THE very next day after lord Wentworth had delivered this speech to parliament (which it seems he did with so much haughty vehemence,* ,* « that he was faint at the present, and the worse for it two or three days after,") the recusants began to call for “ the purging of the house ;" an operation, which we may well presume, it then stood in great need of. But that motion was, with some difficulty, over-ruled. This interruption his lordship had not foreseen; and therefore ordered, that on the following day, the supplies should be instantly moved for,3" Not to be diverted," says he, " by any other proposition; not even by moving, that it should rest till the z Ib. 3 Ib. fol. 278. 1 Strafford's State Letters, vol. i. fol. 273. "For this way," says he, "I was assured, they should have sounds at least; and the success was answerable. For had it been low and modestly delivered, I might, perchance, have gotten from them: It was pretty well; whereas this way, filling one of their senses with noise, and amusing the rest with earnestness and vehemence: It was the best spoken they ever heard in their lives.”—State Letters, vol. i. fol. 331. house had taken this purging physic, which they so hotly called for." The supplies were accordingly moved for on the following day, and six entire subsidies were unanimously voted to his majesty, payable in four years.* These supplies were very considerable;† and far exceeded his lordship's expectation." The proportion he was guided by, was to rate every thousand pounds per annum, with forty pounds payment to the king, each subsidy, so that," says he, "the subsidies raised this first, were more than I proposed to be had in both sessions, and were given freely and without any contradiction." His lordship's observation on the catholics calling so hotly for "the purging of the house," is worthy of some notice. 4 Id. ib. "In this house (says Wentworth) the parties were in a manner equal; some few odds on the protestant party; and one watching the other lest their fellow should rob them, and apply the whole grace of his majesty's thanks to himself from the others; an emulation so well fomented underhand, that when the motion for the king's supply was made yesterday in the house of commons, being the fifth day of the session, they did with one voice assent to the giving of six subsidies, to be paid in four years.”Ib. fol. 274. Each of these subsidies amounted to fifty thousand pounds; and he never propounded more to the king than thirty thousand."-Ib. fol. 273. But not without another attempt by the recusants for purging the house: "for," says Wentworth himself, “ just as I foresaw, the popish party moved a stay, till the house were purged forsooth; they put it roundly to the question, and carried it by twenty-eight voices. Instantly the house turned into a committee; that side, fearing to lose their part of the honor and thanks (for the supplies), came round with all the chearfulness possible; and the other surprized, and no time left to recollect themselves, they all, with one voice, concluded the gift of six subsidies as was desired, before twelve o'clock.”—Ib. fol. 278. An altercation which happened on this motion for purging the house, between sir John Dungan, bart, and one captain Price, a creature of tlie deputy's, may give us some idea of the tyrannical disposition of that government. The captain having made some indecent reflections on that motion, in the hearing of sir John, who sat so near him that he could not help over-hearing him; the knight, it seems, resented them so warmly, that the captain imagined he had given him the lie: but instead of demanding what is called private satisfaction for the affront, as military men are but too apt to do, this gallant officer lodged a public complaint against "This warm motions for purging the house," says he, “doubtless with an aim of putting out a great company of protestants, upon the point of non-residency, came not, as I was well assured, from any backwardness to supply the king; but out of an hope, by this means putting out many of the other party, to become the greater number, and so endear themselves the more with his majesty, to make that work (granting the subsidies) wholly their own, and themselves more considerable; which would turn a greater obligation on the king, than I conceive his majesty would be willing they should put upon him, or indeed was fit, the present condition of affairs considered." By this condition of affairs is plainly to be understood, his majesty's and the viceroy's preconcerted design, to carry on the enquiry into defective titles, notwithstanding the royal promise to the contrary; for which iniquitous put. pose, these unqualified members were still retained and protected, to the great prejudice of real representatives of the people, and at the expence of his majesty's justice and honor. Strafford's State Letters, vol. i. fol. 278. the knight in the castle-chamber (the star-chamber of Ireland). The sen tence pronounced against sir John Dungan in that court was, that he should beg captain Price's pardon publicly on his knees, both in the council-chamber and house of commons; and afterwards enter into bonds with the clerk of the council, in the sum of five hundred pounds English, to his majesty's use, with condition to render his person to the constable of the castle four days before the next session of parliament (of which he was a member), there to remain in the condition of a prisoner, during the pleasure of the lord deputy: and (what the knight perhaps, deemed the severest part of the punishment) to declare in the same public and submis sive manner, that captain Price was a person of truth, and a speaker of truth, and that he held him to be a valiant gentleman, every way worthy of the command he held in his majesty's army."-Journals of the Irish Com. vol. i. fol. 122. The reasons assigned by the deputy and council for this severity, are too curious to be omitted." Upon consideration (say they) of the whole matter, it is conceived at this board, that it was not a mannerly or civil part in the said sir John Dungan to lend his ear to overhear any other man, himself not being spoken to; and in that place (house of commons) not only unmannerly and uncivil, but deserving punishment; wherein it is conceived he committed a terrible offence; first, against the king; se condly, against the house of commons; and thirdly, against the person of captain Price. It is therefore ordered, &c."—Ib. CHAP. IX. The remonstrance of the Irish commons to the deputy, concerning the promised graces. THE commons, relying on the merit of these unconditional supplies, chearfully and unanimously granted, appointed a committee to draw up a remonstrance to the lord deputy, concerning his majesty's promise; particularly, in relation to the enquiry into defective titles. In that remonstrance they set forth,*"That sensibly apprehending the manifold inconveniencies that had befallen the kingdom, through the uncertainty of estates, occasioned by the embezzling, burning and defacing of records, in times loose and uncertain, troubled with continual war, until the beginning of his late majesty's happy reign; and increased by the negligence or ignorance of sundry persons heretofore employed in passing of patents and estates from the crown; whereby many errors in law crept into these grants, whereof divers indigent persons, with eagleeyes piercing thereinto, commonly took advantage, to the utter overthrow of many noble and deserving persons, who for valuable considerations of service to the crown, or for money, or for both, honorably and fairly acquired their estates, That, therefore, finding in themselves a sensible feeling of • "The peers also complained loudly of public grievances; pressed for the confirmation of the royal graces; were particularly urgent for estabfishing the article, which confined the king's claim on their lands to a retrospect of sixty years; and frequently mentioned the royal promise, in a manner highly offensive to an administration resolved that it should not be fulfilled."-Lel. Hist. of Ireland, vol. iii. p. 20. "Both houses pressed extremely for the graces (says Wentworth) especially for the law in England of threescore years possession to conclude his majesty's promise at every turn." State Let. vol. i. fol. 279.—The reason, be tells us, why the lords did not join with the commons in this remonstrance was, “ a trivial difference then subsisting between the two houses, which kept them asunder all that session; the commons not consenting to confer with the lords, unless they might sit and be covered as well as their lordships, which the lords would by no means admit." Ib.-He adds, "that by keeping both houses thus at a distance, he did avoid their joining in a petition for the graces, which (says he) they infallibly would have done."-Ib. |