Page:History of England (Froude) Vol 10.djvu/298

278 REIGN OF ELIZABETH. [CM. 59- submitted to no opposition, and on the 25th of March - he left Ireland to its fate. The Queen, from whom he had received small acknowledgment, after an interval and not very graciously, offered him a peerage ; but as she did not accompany his promotion with a grant of land or money, he declined an honour which would have > burdened further his already impoverished estate. 1 The government was left in the hands of the old Treasurer, Sir William Fitzwilliam, once an able soldier, but now past work ; and his appointment was a tacit intimation that the attempt to coerce the Irish was for the present at an end. The Establishment at Dublin was again reduced ; the garrisons in the scattered castles were dismissed or cut down ; and the allowances which had been hitherto made to noblemen calling themselves loyal were stop- ped. 2 Scheme after scheme for the improvement of the country having failed, Lord Burghley had to find means of discharging the enormous debt which had been in- curred in the attempt. The outlook this way was not hopeful. The public officers, like the President of Connaught, had been left 1 ' My husband is greatly dis- mayed with the hard choice offered him, either to be a Baron in the number of those more able than him- self to maintain it withal, or, in re- fusing, to incur her Highness' s dis- pleasure. We have no ability to maintain a higher title than we now possess. Consider a poor perplexed woman to see her husband thus hardly dealt with. Since no better grace will be obtained to enable us to a higher title, let the motion be no further offered. Stay the motion of this title and surely we shall think ourselves most bound to you.' Lady Sidney to Burghley, May 2, 1572 : MSS. Ireland. 2 ' Nor does it appear why her Majesty should continue to pay for a hundred Kerne serving the Earl of Kildare.' Articles for the reduc- tion of Irish expenditure, March 3, 1571 : MSS. Ibid.