equal answer thereunto, as by his majesty I had been strictly enjoined; and to afford his good people all respect and freedom in the setting forth and defence of their several rights and claims. With this" continues he, "I left them marvelously well satisfied, for a few good words please them more than can be imagined." "The next morning, however," adds his lordship," the gen tlemen of the country petitioned, that the inquisition might be deferred to a longer time, they being unprovided; which I refused, as I had caused notice of it, by a scire facias, to be issued from the Chancery; twenty days before; which was more also than had formerly been accustomed, in cases of that nature. So presently" proceeds he, "we went to the place appointed, read the commission, called and swore the jury, and so on with our work." * Sir Lucas Dillon was foreman of this jury, and seems to have behaved on that occasion entirely to the deputy's liking. Nevertheless, after the lawyers on both sides had done speaking, lord Wentworth made a speech to the jury, which did not at all encourage them to use that freedom which he had promised to allow them, in returning an impartial verdict; but on the contrary, rather convinced them, that his lordship had already prejudged the cause against their countrymen. For among other things he told them, " that his majesty was indifferent whether they found for him or no; that he had directed him to press nothing upon them, where the path to his right lay so open and plain before him; but yet, that of himself, and as one that must ever wish prosperity to their nation, he desired them first to descend into their own consciences, to take them to counsel, and there they should find the evidence for the crown clear and conclusive. Next to beware, how they appeared resolved or obstinate, against so manifest a truth; or how they let slip out of their hands the means to weave themselves into the royal thoughts and care of his majesty, through a chearful and ready acknowledgment of his right, and a due and full submission 2 Ib. fol. 442. "In truth," says he of this gentleman," he deserves to be extraordina rily well dealt withal; and so he shall be, if it pleases his majesty to leave him to me."--State Letters, vol.i. fol. 444. R thereunto. That if they would be inclined to truth, and do best for themselves, they were undoubtedly to find the title for the king. But if they were passionately resolved to go over all bounds to their own will, and without respect at all to their own good, to do that which were simply best for his majesty, then he should advise them roughly and pertinaciously, to deny to find any title at all; and there," says he, " I left them to chant together, as they call it over their evidence; and the next day they found the king's title without scruple or hesitation." ! CHAP. IV. The deputy's severity towards the jury of the county of THE juries of the counties of Sligo and Mayo followed the example set them by that of the Roscommon; but the jury of the county of Galway was, by no means, so complying; and they suffered grievously on that account. For, upon their refusing to find a title in the crown to the estates of their countrymen, lord Wentworth made use of some of his just and honorable means, to convince them of their mistake.' "We bethought ourselves," says he on this occasion, "of a course to vindicate his majesty's honor and justice, not only against the person of the jurors, but also against the sheriff for returning so insufficient, indeed we conceive so packed a jury; and therefore we fined the sheriff in a thousand pounds to his Majesty." The mulct on the jurors was much greater. "They were fined four thousand pounds each; their estates were seized, and themselves imprisoned,† till the fines were paid." Such was the sentence pronounced against them in the castle-chamber, to which his lordship had bound them over; "The star-chamber (says lord deputy Chichester, in 1613) is the proper place to punish jurors that will not find for the king upon good evidence."--Desid. Curios. Hib. vol. i. p. 262. "The jurors of Galway were to remain in prison, till each of them paid his fine of four thousand pounds, and acknowledged his offence in cours upon his knees."--Leland's Hist. of Irel, vol. iii. p. 32, and where," he conceived it was fit, that their pertinacious carriage should be followed with all just severity." What was then understood by " just severity," may be collected from an extract of the grievances which, towards the end of his administration, the commons voted "real ;" and which, in one article, seems to allude to this very case, viz. “that jurors, who gave their verdict according to their consciences, were censured in the castle-chamber in great fines: sometimes pillored with loss of ears, and bored through the tongue, and sometimes marked in the forehead with an iron, with other in. famous punishments." And although he had publicly promised," that their council on this occasion should be freely and willingly heard, in defence of their respective rights:" yet he scrupled not to take severe vengeance on two eminent lawyers,* who ventured to plead in their behalf; and all his lordship's proceedings against them, and against the sheriff and jurors before-mentioned, were afterwards' approved of by his majesty.† Another of his just and honorable means, to attain this end, as he himself informs us," was to enquire out fit men to serve upon juries; and to treat with such as would give furtherance to the king's title." He, besides, proposed the raising of four thousand horse, as good lookers-on, while the plantations were settling. And lastly, he prevailed on the king to bestow four shillings in the pound, upon the lord chief justice and chief baron, forth of the first yearly rent raised upon the commission of defective titles; which," as he afterwards says," he had found, upon observation, to be the best given 7 Ib. fol. 442. 3 Ib. 4 Comm. Jour. vol. i. 5 Strafford's State Letters, vol. ii. fol. 465. 6 Ib. vol. i. 339. Ib. vol. ii. fol. 41. "As for the counsellors of the law," says he, "who so labored against the king's title, we conceive it is fit, that such of them as we shall find reason to proceed withal, be put to take the oath of supremacy, which if they refuse, that then they be silenced, and not admitted to practice." State Let ters, vol. i. fol. 454.--This was accordingly done. † He tells us himself, that upon his making a report to the king and council in England, of these proceedings, his majesty said, "It was no severity, wished him to go on in that way; for that if he served him otherwise, he should not serve him as he expected. So I knecled down,” adds he, "kissed his majesty's hand; and the council rose."--Carte's Ormond, vol. ¡¡¡, p.11. that ever was; for that by these means, they did intend that business with as much care and diligence, as if it were their own private; and that every four shillings, once paid, would better his majesty's revenue four pounds." Against the deputy's predatory designs, thus planned and executed, the natives were destitute of all manner of defence.» "No title in the subject could stand against his claim.” At first none was held good, but that which was founded on letters patent; yet when even letters patent were produced, as in most cases they were, none were allowed valid,* nor yet sought to be legally avoided; so that one hundred and fifty letters patent were set aside in one morning; which course was continued, until all the letters patent in the kingdom, except a few, were declared void, CHAP. V. Further distresses of the people of Connaught. "THE gentlemen of Connaught," says Mr. Carte, « la. bored under a particular hardship on this occasion; for their not having enrolled their patents and surrenders of the 13th Jacobi, (which was what alone rendered their titles defective) was not their fault, but the neglect of a clerk entrusted by them. For they had paid near three thousand pounds to the offices at Dublin, for the enrollment of these surrenders and patents, which was never made. There was an act of state made in lord Grandison's time, and dated May 14th, 1618, 9 Remonstrance from Trim. The deputy and commissioners of plantation, in their public dispatch to secretary Coke, on this subject, confessed, "That in former plantations in Ireland, all men claiming by letters patent had the full benefit of them, either in enjoying the lands granted them, or other lands equiva lent thereunto, whether their letters patent were valid or invalid. And indeed," add they, "in those (former) plantations, that favor might better be yielded, where the lands claimed by letters patent, were not in any great or considerable proportion, than here, where almost all the lands falling under plantation are granted, or mentioned to be granted, by letters patent."-Straff. State Letters, vol. ii. fol. 139. full in their favor and confirmed their possessions; and they - had paid great sums of money for it into the exchequer; they were quietly settled in their lands, and paid the king his composition better than any other part of the kingdom. It was hard, in those circumstances, to turn them out of their estates, upon a mere nicety of law, which ought to be tenderly made use of in derogation of the honor and faith of the king's broad seal." * So general and lasting were the terrors arising from these severe proceedings of the deputy, that in 1637, the whole body. of the gentry of the county of Galway offered to make a surrender of their estates to the crown, and for that purpose, sent a letter of attorney to the earl of Clanrickard, then at London, signed by an hundred and twenty-five persons of the best quality in the county. “At the same time, the still imprisoned sheriff and jurors, instead of seeking redress, petitioned, but in vain, for pardon;3 offering to acknowledge the deputy's justice, and their own errors of judgment, upon condition only, that they and the rest, might be put upon the same footing with the other planted countries;" for in these cases,+ the general rule was, that a fourth part of their lands should be taken from the natives, with an increase of rent upon the remainder; " but the county of Galway, on account of its former refractoriness, was planted at a double rate, so that they lost half."+ 2 Straff. State Letters, vol. ii. fol. 25. 3 Id. ib. 4 Id. fol. 35. It was in ford Clanrickard's house, that Wentworth held this court of inquisition;" and the death of that lord, (which happened soon after) enflamed the popular odium against the deputy. It was imputed to the vexation conceived by this nobleman at the attempts against his property by an insolent governor, who possessed himself of the earl's house at Portumna; and, in his hall, held that court which impeached his title to his lands."-Leb Hist. of Irel. + Thus secretary Coke writes to Wentworth on this occasion, "That a greater proportion of land should be taken from the pretended owners in the county of Galway, than in the rest, is thought just and reasonable, for the reasons you allege. And such seizures as you intend both against the jurors and all others, that will not lay hold of the grace offered them by the proclamation."-Straff. State Let. vol. i. fol. 465. Mr. Carte indeed asserts (but upon what authority appears not)," that by the interposition of Ulicke Burke, earl of Clanrickard, in England, |