very best to give his readers an idea of the manner in which the people of Scotland suffered from the "cessing" of Claverhouse's dragoons. But even the Wizard of the North never could conjure up in fancy such a scene as Sir John Davys knew to be a very vulgar matter of fact. And as things were when Sir John wrote the passage we have quoted, so they continued. Every day, Sir John himself assures Cecil, complaints of that kind came to the Lord Deputy. Further on, Lord Barry Buttevant tells the Chief Secretary, that the people are daily expecting some measure for the repression of the extortions of Government troops, soldiers, sheriffs, and cesses, "who impoverish this poor kingdom and commonwealth."* But the people expected relief in vain. More than a year afterwards (March 12th, 1605), Chichester briefly tells Cecil that the soldiers render it impossible for him to raise the tax; they keep no garrison, but live as they please upon the people. And about the same time the King's Majesty is informed by Richard Hudson that, "the whole country is depopulated, wasted, and rent asunder by the daily extortion of the soldiers taking meat and money at their pleasure, whereas by the statute of that realm "-James care for statutes !+"the soldiers should pay for their meat, whereby great numbers of the subjects perished." After hearing all this we are prepared for what Chichester afterwards tells Cecil, that the very sight or name of a soldier is odious and hateful to all the country.§ But, perhaps, worse than the cessing of the English soldiers was the rapacity of the English commanders. On this matter we should not expect the Calendar to be very communicative, for the Irish officials would naturally not tell tales on themselves. But, fortunately, some of the most common passions of man expose bad causes as well as good causes to suffer from traitors. In the volume before us we have indications of squabbles among the thieves, and one of the ordinary consequences of such squabbles occurs. In p. 203 we have a letter to Cecil written by Sir Jeffrey Fenton. Fenton had been lately across Lord Barry Buttevant to Cecil, p. 153. The very first official act of James, after his accession to the throne of England, was a direct violation of English law. It happened on his journey from Edinburgh to London. A thief, caught in the act of stealing, was brought before his Majesty; his Majesty had him hanged at once, without any form of trial whatever. And in this he was, for once, self-consistent ; for in his philosophy the King was the speaking law. See Guthrie's "History of Scotland," vol. ix. p. 7. "A Discourse presented to the King's Majesty touching Ireland," by Richard Hudson, p. 230. § Sir Arthur Chichester to the Earl of Salisbury, p. 279. the Channel to see the Secretary, and the Secretary had roundly charged him with wholesale robbery in Ireland. Cecil appears, for once in a way, to have been seriously indignant. When Sir Jeffery pleaded his innocence, Cecil would give him no hearing; but, in so far as we can gather, ordered him peremptorily to the door. Sir Jeffrey's wife was then at Lichfield. Thither the worthy knight betook himself, and, with Lady Fenton's assistance, drew up, for Cecil to read, the defence which that minister was too disgusted to hear. It is no present concern of ours whether or not Sir Jeffrey's statement of his affairs is veracious. We are content to suppose that it is, for we do not like to doubt a man who speaks so finely of "God's justice, which sleepeth not," and who is so charitable to his adversaries that he leaves them utterly to the Divine will. But there is a part of Sir Jeffrey's plea which we ask the reader to look to. He knows, he says, that he has been informed upon by some of his fellow-officials. But he defies them all. He is the one clean-handed, white-souled seraph among them; "for," says he, proudly, "what I have got is mine by no unlawful or dishonest ways, and there are not many of my informers who can in like safety of conscience avow the same for themselves." That we venture to consider a very suggestive remark, and Salisbury might be expected to regard it as calling for further inquiry. But the subtle Secretary did not so regard it. Fenton he believed to be a scandalous robber. Fenton's accusers he believed to be as bad as Fenton himself. But both were only doing their duty, for both were only acting as the policy of England taught them to act. And so the matter dropped. Sir Jeffrey Fenton returned to Ireland; his accusers held their places still; and both accused and accusers went on to rob and lie and quote Scripture as before. But that the members of the Irish executive were guilty of the grossest embezzlement, and that if there was one honest man amongst them he had missed his vocation, rests on evidence much more definite and decisive than a general charge made by a known rogue. The Calendar leaves no room for doubt on the matter. No Englishman took service in Ireland except with the understanding that he might act both as a royal cruiser and as a privateer. Elizabeth had declared that office in Ireland was per se a preferment, and that when she gave a man an appointment in that country she expected that, no matter what had been his previous services, he would come to her for no further reward. The English officials of James remembered the hint of the Virgin Queen. They came to Ireland, as Mr. George Montgomery, 66 bishop, save the mark, tells us he came, to make a fortune. On the 12th of March, 1605, Sir Arthur Chichester tells Viscount Cranbourne that the Government surveyors are monstrously corrupt; that they give away the lands to their friends at the smallest assignable fraction of their real value; that these abuses, however, have been connived at so long that it is next to impossible to amend or prevent them; that, in fact, Chichester's Government is disgraced and nullified by the conduct of the other officials, "most men," says he, applying their employments here to enable themselves after a few years spent in that service (as they unjustly term it) to live better elsewhere."* More than half a year afterwards + he makes the same complaint in terms still stronger. He laments the unabated corruption of the under officers. He insinuates that the corruption extends even to the Council, and that the very men who have been appointed to advise and assist him in governing the country are occupied solely in receiving the pay and "sucking the sweets of Ireland." He is evidently disgusted with the conduct of his fellows; he evidently foresees that that conduct will ruin the country; his own position is hopeless; and being as yet, though a tyrant, something of an honest man, he tells the Chief Secretary that he would like to retire. But, unhappily for himself, he was left in office. And the corruption which annoyed him in the beginning annoys him even to the end. On the 14th of August, 1606, we have Sir Henry Brounker complaining to Cecil of the juggling of the treasurer and the corruption of the paymaster, "who enrich themselves," &c; but, one fortnight before, the unfortunate Chichester had to make a similar though far more serious complaint. The money, he says, which the English Council sends him is embezzled on the way. And that will be the case, he thinks, as long as it is left to the fingering of Sir George Carey & Co. "If," says he, "you were to send me £20,000 to-morrow, and to send it through that channel, I would never see the half thereof."§ The lofty opinion which Chichester entertained of his predecessor's powers of embezzlement was amply merited. Among the rogues who had ruled Ireland for James I., Sir George Carey is a giant among pigmies. Father Meehan speaks of him as a grinding money-lender and thorough adept in sordid peculation. That is all thoroughly true. *Calendar, p. 267. October 2nd, 1605. Chichester to Salisbury, p. 325. But F. Meehan does not do Sir 'George proper justice, and the tone he employs is not, as it ought to be, reverential and solemn. Sir George was a man of genius. It is one of the characteristics of genius to be exhaustive. Sir George was exhaustive. He robbed Ireland so well that when he retired to his native country he did not leave even a respectable greyhound behind him.* And he had the reward of genius even in his own days. Officials who had won high honours in roguery looked up to him with boundless awe, and spoke of him with the hush of voice and indefiniteness of language with which the instincts of humanity do homage to the vast and sublime. We can produce only two testimonies to Sir George's eminence, and one of these has the disadvantage of being somewhat lengthy. But both will be found very interesting, and both will throw great light on these years of Irish history of which we are writing. The Earl of Clanrickarde supplies our first testimony. The earl himself is one of those characters whom men now call queer." For services rendered to the cause of loyalty he was made President of Connaught, with extensive emoluments and possession of the castle and crown lands of Athlone. He was also honoured with a place in the Irish Privy Council; and when the army in Ireland was reduced by the King's order to about one-tenth of its number, he was allowed to retain his troop entire. He himself is so moved by the King's bounty that in a letter of thanks which he sends to Cecil he protests that Cecil may do with him whatever he pleases. And yet in a few months after that gushing epistle was written, he complains that there is no man in Ireland treated half so badly as he. But his great desire is to get over to England. We may say here that Cecil was not very long in procuring for him the necessary permission-Clanrickarde's wife had been Countess of Essex-and that thenceforward we hear no complaints of ill-treatment. But in one of those letters which Clanrickarde wrote before his departure from Ireland the following passages occur: He is weary of this unhappy Ireland, that yields no contentment to any except such as take pleasure in corrupt actions and make a merchandise of justice. He (Clanrickarde) is none of these, and therefore desires to be in Ireland as little as he can. Deplores the conduct of the late Deputy (Carey), * "Endeavours his best to get fair dogs for him, of which the country is very scarce, the Lord Deputy having already sent as many as he could get into England."-Sir A. Chichester to Viscount Cranbourne, 4th January, 1605. Cal. p. 243. VOL. XX.—NO. XXXIX. [New Series.] C but will be silent till he comes over. Fully believes that this gentleman who now is Deputy (Chichester) will carry himself very worthily.* We shall not stop to remark on the instances in this letter of the Clanrickarde character. It was nothing extraordinary to be blind and dumb while Carey was doing the harm; nothing extraordinary to be suddenly alive to Carey's corruption when Carey was leaving office; and nothing extraordinary to predict that the rising sun would be a magnificent luminary. But let the reader observe the earl's unconscious admission of Sir George's excellence as a rogue. The very thought of that excellence overpowers Clanrickarde. It is so great, and has been shown in such multitudinous ways, that only over the wine and walnuts can Clanrickarde describe or Cranbourne understand it. Our second testimony is a correspondent of the Earl of Northumberland, one of his Majesty's English Privy Council. The references which the writer makes to Carey cover a considerable space; but we do not think that the reader will be sorry if he reads them through. We give them as they are found in the Calendar, pp. 245, 246 : About three weeks past the Lord Deputy embarked the most part of his money, plate, jewels, and stuff, and sent them away for England. It is believed that the goods were of great value, and that his lordship made such a hand for enriching himself in this land as the like was never done by any other that supplied his place. Is well assured that he had all the means to enable him so to do; for, first, being treasurer and master of the exchange of both the realms, he and his paymaster made a great hand that way, especially in passing many bills of exchange in the names of divers (persons) that were never privy to them, and in paying the army and others in mixed moneys; and, secondly, himself being Deputy, disposed the money as pleased him, no one daring to question his doings, having both the sword and purse in his own hands. His lordship disbursed £1,000 or thereabouts, at the rate of the mixed moneys, to certain provost-marshals appointed for the five shires of the English Pale to weed out loose people and masterless men. This was to be borne by the inhabitants of the five shires; and the money is now levied by him, after three or four for one, upon the country—a very grievous matter; but yet the people know not to whom they may complain, Earl of Clanrickarde to Viscount Cranbourne, p. 262. In the same letter the noble earl gives us a touch of description, which, though he never meant it to be so, may be almost called tragic. Dr. Russell, with his wonted discrimination, gives us here the writer's exact words:"Good, my lord," says Clanrickarde," hasten my leave, for there is great difference between the sound of Cormac's harp and the tune and harsh sound of a cow or garran, as here is no other music." Alas, no; the heart of Ireland was in no mood for music just then; but " no music but the sound of a cow or garran "-for the "Land of Song" what a picture of desolation ! |