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INTRODUCTION.
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In 1692 he was again sent as Lord Lieutenant-General and Governor to Ireland, a post of great difficulty, in the management of which he seems to have entirely failed. Burnet says, "that a Parliament had been summoned there by the Lord Sidney, but they met full of discontent, and were disposed to find fault with every thing; and there was too much matter to work upon, for the Lord Lieutenant was apt to excuse or justify those who had the address to insinuate themselves into his favour,[1] so that they were dismissed before they
- ↑ Burnet mentions an instance of this, in which he was counteracted by "the pious care" of Queen Mary. "The state of Ireland leads us to insert here a very particular instance of the Queen's pious care in the disposing of bishopricks. Lord Sidney was so far engaged in the interest of a great family in Ireland, that he was too easily wrought on to recommend a branch of it to a vacant see. The representation was made with an undue character of the person, so the Queen granted it. But when she understood that he lay under a very bad character, she wrote a letter in her own hand to Lord Sidney, letting him know what she had heard, and ordered him to call for six Irish bishops, whom she named to him, and to require them to certify to her their opinion of that person. They all agreed that he laboured under an ill fame, and till that was examined into, they did not think it proper to promote him; so that matter was let fall. I do not name the person, for I intend not to leave a blemish upon him, but set this down as an example, fit to be imitated by Christian princes."—iv. 209.
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