closed; which accordingly, that afternoon, was unanimously voted; first with the bishops, and then with the rest of the clergy, excepting one man, who singly did deliberate upon receiving the articles of England."

This was, perhaps, the highest exertion of lay-ecclesiastical authority that was ever known in this or any other kingdom. For, as by this canon, excommunication is expressly denounced against all those who should affirm, that, " the articles of the church of England were such as they might not, with a good conscience, subscribe unto ;" and as the members of this convocation seem to have thought them to be really such, (for otherwise, they would have more readily acquiesced in them), It appears that these bishops and clergy were then obliged to subscribe to a canon, denouncing excommunication against themselves, in case they should ever after venture to publish their real opinion of these articles.*

6 Canons agreed upon in the synod begun and holden in St. Patrick's church, Dublin, anno 1634, p. i.

"These canons were confirmed and published by his majesty's authority under the great seal of Ireland."-Borlase's Irish Reb. fol. 238.

"And are the canons and constitutions (says Nicholson, bishop of Derry) which are still observed in the established church of Ireland."-Irish Hista Library, p. 76.

BOOK IV.

ว

CHAP. I.

Lord Wentworth's proceedings upon the enquiry into defective

titles.

WENTWORTH was well informed what ample rewards two of his predecessors in the government of Ireland had obtained, by their activity and success in carrying on the enquiry into defective titles ;" one of them having lands bestowed upon him, which in the year 1633, were of no less than ten thousand pounds yearly value; and the other ten thousand pounds in one gift." Hoping therefore, for the like, or greater retribution, his lordship exerted himself in that business with uncommon resolution and vigor; "having procured inqui sitions, upon feigned titles to estates, against many hundred years possession, whilst jurors refusing to find such offices, as being against their consciences, and the evidence, were censured to public infamy, and the ruin of their estates."

The deputy had chosen Connaught, and Ormond, to make his first essay upon, in this enquiry. His lordship owns,3 "that he had often labored to find a title in the crown to these countries, but that he was always foiled in the attempt." And, in several of his letters into England, he laments, that he could gather no light from thence into these matters. An accident, however, removed, soon after, his perplexity with regard to Ormond; but the nobility and gentry in some parts of Connaught, gave him great opposition. Wherefore,+" old records of state and the memorials of antient monasteries, were ransacked to ascertain the king's original title to that province; 1 Sir Arthur Chichester. Straff. State Lett. vol. ii. fol. 294. 2 Lord Faulkland, ib. vol. ii. fol. 294.

3 Straff. St. Let. vol. i. fol. 339. 4 Lel. ubi supra, p. 31.

• "Needy projectors, and rapacious courtiers, still continued the scandalous traffic of pleading the king's title against the possessors of estates, seizing their lands, or forcing them to grievous compositions."Lel. Hist. of Irel. vol. iii. p. 13.

and the ingenuity of court lawyers was employed to invalidate all patents granted to the possessors of lands there, from the rein 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 spirited 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 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 protes tants suffered as much as the catholics by these plantations. See Harris'e 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."

"Seeing," says Wentworth on this occasion, "we have sped so well, where our title was borrowed, or at least supported by my lord of Grmond, 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 re spect.t

Before his lordship left Dublin, to hold this court of inqui 1 Id. ib. vol. i. fol. 350.

2 Carte's Orm. vol. i. fol. 86.

3 Straff. State Let. vol. i. fol. 350.

4 Ib. fol. 442.

"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