after the date of this letter, he forwarded an elaborate despatch to the secretary for the consideration of the king. In this despatch he insisted very strongly on the wide distinction between English and Irish parliaments which had been planted by the act of Poynings1, he

in the counsel as in the execution. God deliver me from this ill sort of men, and give me grace so far to see into them beforehand, as that neither my master's service or myself suffer by them. My lord, I ever weary you when I begin, and judge how I should have troubled you, if the wind had stood oftener for England. The earl of Strafford had melancholy and disastrous proof of the truth of that account by Wentworth, "of the genius of that place." Some of the men who hunted him most fiercely to the scaffold were men that had been willing instruments of his worst power in Ireland.

The

1 The origin of this act has been already adverted to. popular leaders in England declaimed strongly against Wentworth's interpretation of it. If measures were produced, they maintained, of sufficient weight to satisfy the king and council, the intention of the law was fulfilled; for, they argued, it was never designed to preclude the members of parliament, when once assembled, from introducing such other topics as they might deem expedient for the general welfare. Wentworth, on the other hand, strenuously contended that the express letter of the law was not to be thus evaded; that the previous approbation of the king and council was distinctly required to each proposition; and that no other measures could ever be made the subject of discussion. Surely, however, looking at the origin of the measure, the popular is the just construction. The act was designed, with a beneficial purpose, to lodge the initiative power of parliament in the English council, as a protection against the tyranny of lords and deputies. But once establish this power, and the restraint was designed to terminate. Great was the opportunity, however, for Wentworth, and he made the most of it. Poynings' act was his shield. "I am of opinion," he writes to Cooke, "there cannot be any thing invaded, which in reason of state ought to be by his majesty's deputy preserved with a more hallowed care, than Poynings' act, and which I shall never willingly suffer to be touched or blemished, more than my right eye." Vol. i. p. 279. Again, when the English attorney proposed something which the lord deputy feared might work against the stability of the Poynings' bill, Wentworth described it, "A mighty power gotten by the wisdom of former times; and it would be imputed to this age, I fear, as a mighty lacheté by those that shall still succeed, should we now be so improvident as to lose it; and, for my own part, so zealous am I for the prerogatives of my master, so infinitely in love with this in especial, that my hand shall never be had as an instrument of so

dwelt on the exigencies of the state, and alleged various powerful reasons in that regard. He claimed also the permission to issue the writs instantly; for if they were deferred till the voluntary contribution should again be about to terminate, they would appear, he argued, to issue from necessity, the parliament would be emboldened to clog their grants with conditions, "and conditions are not to be admitted with any subjects, much less with this people, where your majesty's absolute sovereignty goes much higher than it is taken (perhaps) to be in England." A detailed plan succeeded his many and most emphatic reasons, which unquestionably "clenched" them. The parliament that was to be summoned, Wentworth pledged himself should be divided into two sessions,-the first of which should be exclusively devoted to the subject of supplies; while the second, which might be held six months afterwards, should be occupied with the confirmation of the "graces," and other national measures, which his majesty so fearfully apprehended. Now the parliament, Wentworth reasoned, would, in its first session, in all probability, grant a sufficient supply for the expenditure of three years, and this once secured, the graces" might be flung over if necessary. Further, the lord deputy pledged himself that he would procure the return of a nearly equal number of protestants and catholics to the house of commons, in order that both parties, being nearly balanced against each other, might be more easily managed. He proposed, moreover, to obtain qualifications for a sufficient number of military officers, whose situations would render them dependent on propitiating the pleasure of the lord deputy. Then,

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fatal a disservice to the crown, as I judge the remittal or weakening this power would be."

he urged, with the parties nearly equal, they might easily be kept in an equal condition of restraint and harmlessness, since the catholics might be privately warned, that if no other provision was made for the maintenance of the army, it would be necessary to levy on them the legal fines; while all that was necessary to keep the protestants in check, would be to hint to them that, until a regular revenue was established, the king could not let go the voluntary contributions, or irritate the recusants by the enforcement of the penal statutes. "In the higher house," Wentworth concluded, "your majesty will have, I trust, the bishops wholly for you; the titular lords, rather than come over themselves, will put their proxies into such safe hands as may be thought of on this side; and in the rest, your majesty hath such interest, what out of duty to the crown, and obnoxiousness in themselves, as I do not apprehend much, indeed any, difficulty amongst them."

The whole of this extraordinary document is given in an appendix to this volume1, and the reader is requested to turn to it there.

Let him turn afterwards to the dying words of its author, and sympathise, if he can, with the declaration they conveyed, that "he was so far from being against parliaments, that he did always think parliaments in England to be the happy constitution of the kingdom and nation, and the best means, under God, to make the king and his people happy." In what sense these words were intended, under what dark veil their real object was concealed, the reader may now judge. It is uplifted before him. Those five sections by which Charles is "fully persuaded to condescend to the present

1 See Appendix I. p. 279.

calling of a parliament,"-the notice of the villanous juggle of the "two sessions," with which the wretched. people are to be gulled,-the chuckling mention of the advantage to be taken of "the frightful apprehension which at this time makes their hearts beat,”—the complacent provision made for the alternative of their "starting aside," the king who is to be able, and the minister who is to be ready, "to chastise such forgetfulness," and "justly to punish so great a forfeit as this must needs be judged to be in them,”—all these things have long ago been expiated by Wentworth and his master; but their damning record remains against those, who would proclaim that expiation to have been unjustly demanded.

Overwhelmed by his minister's project, Charles at last yielded.1 Still, even while, reluctantly, he consented, he could not see altogether clearly the necessity for "these things being done these ways," and all the assurances of the lord deputy could not prevent Charles bidding him, "as for that hydra, take good heed; for you know, that here I have found it as well cunning as malicious. It is true, that your grounds are well laid, and, I assure you, that I have a great trust in your care and judgment; yet my opinion is, that it will not be the worse for my service, though their obstinacy make you to break them, for I fear that they have some ground to demand more than it is fit for me to give. This I would not say, if I had not confidence in your courage and dexterity; that, in that case, you would set me down there an example what to do here."

Wentworth now issued his writs for a parliament to be instantly held in Dublin, and great joy prevailed among 1 Strafford Papers, vol. i. p. 231.

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the people. The privy council were summoned, in conformity with the provisions of the law of Poynings, to deliberate on the propositions to be transmitted to England as subjects for discussion in the session. gain this first entrance into the work," Wentworth observes, "I thought it fit to intrust it in this manner with a committee, not only to expedite the thing itself the more, but also better to discover how their pulses beat, wherein I conceived they would deliver themselves more freely, than if I had been present amongst them myself." Soon, however, while the lord deputy waited without, he was rejoined by his trusty counsellors Wandesford and Radcliffe, with the news that their associates were restive; that they were proposing all sorts of popular laws as necessary to conciliate the houses; and that, as to subsidies, they quite objected to transmitting a bill with blanks to be filled up at discretion, and were of opinion that the amount should be specified, and confined within the strictest limits of necessity. "I not knowing what this might grow to," writes Wentworth, "went instantly unto them, where they were in council, and told them plainly I feared they began at the wrong end, thus consulting what might please the people in a parliament, when it would better become a privy council to consider what might please the king, and induce him to call one." The imperious deputy next addressed them in a very long and able speech, pressed upon them the necessities of the nation, and the only modes of arresting them. "The king therefore desires," he continued, "this great work may be set on his right foot, settled by parliament as the more beaten path he covets to walk in, yet not more legal than if done by his prerogative royal, where the ordinary way fails him. If this