suffering such a proceeding, took possession of the minutes, and ordered archbishop Usher himself to frame a canon authorising the English articles. Usher's production, however, did not satisfy him; he therefore drew up a form himself, and sent it to the convocation, commanding that no debate should take place, but the articles should be at once adopted, and informing them that every one's vote should be reported to him. Only one member of the whole convocation dared to vote against his will; the rest submitted, but with the utmost indignation.
Having thus with a high hand carried his measures—refused the confirmation of the graces, conformed the Irish to the English church in one session, and obtained such an amount of money as would not only pay off the debts of the crown, but would supply for some years the extraordinary demands of the government, he wrote exultingly to England, declaring that the king was as absolute in Ireland as any king in the world, and might be the same in England if they did their duty there. He boldly demanded an earl's coronet, on account of these services, which, however, Charles deferred for awhile, thinking that he should hold such a man to his work rather by the hope than he possession of high preferment. Wentworth was so delighted with his overriding the Irish parliament, that he proposed to the king to merely prorogue and not dissolve it, as being the most convenient instrument for effecting his further designs on the country. But Charles would not listen to it, remarking that parliaments were like cats, they ever grew cursed with age. and it was better to put an end to them easily, young ones being most tractable. He thanked him for what he had done, and especially for saving him from the odium of breaking his promise about the graces.
How little did this bold bad man see that, whilst he was serving the king's worst purposes, he was preparing his own destruction. In fact, though he had stunned the Irish for a moment by the audacity of his bearing, he had struck deep into their souls a resentment that no man, however powerful or subtle, could withstand. He was, however, only on the threshold of the sweeping changes that he contemplated in that country, for he was resolved to reduce it to a condition of absolute dependence on the crown. He was not content with forcing the English articles on the Irish church, but he refused to the catholics every relief that Charles had pledged himself to in order to get their money. Instead of abolishing, as promised, the oppressive power of the court of wards, he gave them a more virulent activity. The catholic heir was still obliged to sue out the livery of his lands, and before he could obtain them, to take the oaths of allegiance and supremacy. To obtain his rightful property, he was thus compelled to abjure his religion. But he entertained a still more gigantic design, which was to seize on the fee-simple of the greater part of Ireland, on pretence of defective title.
We have seen that in the reigns of Elizabeth and James the titles of the great landed proprietors both in Connaught and Ulster had been called in question, and those monarchs had pretended to renew them on condition of certain payments. These conditions had been repeatedly fulfilled by the proprietors, but not by the crown. Charles, in 1628, amongst the other benefits promised, had engaged to ratify these titles; but Wentworth showed him the folly of doing that, whilst by alarming them on that head, he might draw immense sums from them, or get possession of the lands. To this detestable proposal Charles consented, and the experiment was begun with Connaught. Wentworth proceeded at the head of a commission, to hold an inquisition in every county of Connaught. He opened his proceedings at Roscommon, where he summoned a jury of "gentlemen of the best estates and understandings," that more weight might attach to then decisions, if favourable, or if adverse, he might levy heavy fines upon them. He assured the jury that his majesty merely meant to ascertain the condition of all titles, that if defective he might graciously render them legal. It was on this plea that the freeholders had been wheedled into the surrender of their deeds and patents beforetime by Elizabeth and James; but Wentworth added another alarming fiction. He contended that Henry III., reserving only five cantreds to himself, had given the remainder to Richard de Burgo, to beholden of him and his heirs of the crown, and that those tenures had now descended to the present king, by the marriage of the heirs of de Burgo with the royal line. According to this the king was the rightful owner of every acre of land in Ireland. He assured the jury, therefore, that it was their best interest to give a general verdict for the king, as he could without their consent establish his right, and if compelled to do that in opposition to them, the result must be much worse for them. By these means he induced the juries in Roscommon, Sligo, Mayo, Clare, and Limerick, to return a verdict in favour of the crown, but the people of Galway stoutly resisted. They declared that the title of the king, though Edward IV., from Richard de Burgo, could not be proved; there was a hiatus in the genealogy. They were all catholics, and were the more resolute from having been so shamefully deluded in the matter of wardship. Wentworth was rather glad to be able to make an example of them, and he therefore fined the sheriff one thousand pounds for returning so obstinate and perverse a jury, and dragged the jury into his star-chamber, the chamber of the castle, and fined them four thousand pounds a-piece. He fell with especial vindictiveness on the old earl of Clanricarde, and other great landowners of Galway, and set about to seize the fort of Galway, march a body of troops into the country, and compel it to submit to the king's will. The proprietors, incredulous that the king could know of or sanction such infamous breaches of faith and acts of oppression, sent over a deputation to Charles to lay the matter before him. But the king received them with reproaches, declared his full approval of the proceedings of the lord deputy, and sent them back to Ireland as state prisoners. The old earl of Clanricarde, whose son had been the bead of the deputation, died soon after receiving the news of this shameful conduct of the monarch, and Wentworth wrote to Charles that he was accused of being the cause of his death. "They might as well," he added, haughtily., "impolite to me the crime of his being three score and ten." He was still busily pursing other noblemen with the same rancour, the earl of Cork, lord Wilmot, and others, when the catholic party in England, who had a friend in queen Henrietta, made their
