1556. end he caused an act to pass in the same parliament, authorizing the Lord Chancellor, from time to time, to award commissions to such persons as the Lord Deputy should nominate and appoint, to viewe and perambulate those Irish territories; and thereupon to divide and limit the same into such and so manie several counties, as they should thinke meete; which being certified to the lord deputie and approved by him, should bee returned and enrolled in the Chancery, and from thenceforth be of like force and effect, as if it were doone by act of parliament. Thus did the Earl of Sussex lay open a passage for the civil government in the unreformed partes of this kingdome; but himself proceeded no farther than is before declared."

Mary'sgo

vernment

to the Irish.

So confident was the English government of the displeasing pacific disposition of the Irish in this reign, that the army was reduced to about 1000 men. The renewed turbulence, however, of some Irish chiefs to each other, and the lawless conduct of the Scottish adventurers, soon rendered it necessary to encrease it with reinforcements from England. Although the Irish were in general gratified by the restoration of the catholic religion to its ancient footing, they were dissatisfied with the civil administration of the power of the crown within the kingdom.

*To show the precarious title of the crown out of the pale, the preamble of this act particularly recites, that as these territories were known not to be within any shire of the kingdom, no title for the crown could be found, as will be seen at large in the first section of 2 chap. of 3 and 4 of P. and M.

They were particularly sore at the power vested in the Lord Lieutenant, to dispose of the territories of Leix and Offaly in royal grants, which defeated the inheritable rights of the native owners of those lands. O'Sullivan says, that notwithstanding Mary's zeal for supporting and promoting the catholic religion, yet was her administration injurious to Ireland*. She died on the 17th of November 1558.

Que tametsi Catholicam religionem tueri et amplificare conata est, ejus tamen præfecti et conciliarii injuriam Ibernis inferre non destiterunt. Sull. Cath. Hist. p. 81.

1558.

1560.

Effects of this parlia

ment.

tholic religion had been renewed, should be repealed; that the Queen should be enabled to appoint commissioners to exercise ecclesiastical jurisdiction; that all officers and ministers ecclesiastical or lay should on pain of forfeiture and total incapacity take the oath of supremacy; that every person, as well as his aider, abettor, or counsellor, who should in any way maintain the spiritual supremacy of the Bishop of Rome, should forfeit for the first offence all his estates real and personal (or be imprisoned for one year if not worth 201.), incur a præmunire for the second offence, and become guilty of high treason for the third; that the use of the Common Prayer should be enforced as in England; that every person should resort to the established church, and attend the new service under pain of ecclesiastical censures, and of the forfeiture of twelvepence for every offence, to be levied by the churchwardens by distress of the lands or chattels of the defaulter; that the first fruits and twentieths of all church revenues should be restored to the crown; and the old writ and form of congé d'élire superseded by the King's letters patent, by which in future all collations to vacant sees were to be made. These ordinances were followed by an act of recognition of the Queen's title to the crown; and it was made a case of præmunire to speak, and treason to write against it.

So much had Sussex been alarmed by the opposition he had encountered in parliament, though he

*It sat from the 12th of January to the 12th of February.

ultimately succeeded, that he found it necessary quickly 1561. to dissolve it. He repaired to England to give to the Queen, in person, a minute and faithful account of the reception these new laws had met with from the Irish nation. The people were provoked by the violence offered to their religious prejudices. The partizans of Rome inveighed against the Queen as an heretic. The non-conforming clergy abandoned their cures ; no reformed ministers could be found to supply them; the churches fell to ruin; the people were left without religious worship; and the statutes lately made were evaded or neglected with impunity.

convenes a

liament.

Under this general discontent the kingdom was for Elizabeth several years convulsed, either by internal feuds, or second par the grand insurrection of O'Nial, that ended by his treacherous murder at a banquet in the camp of the Scotch adventurers. In order to put down faction and disturbance, to provide for the necessities of government, and forward reform, Elizabeth *, in the eleventh year of her reign, convened

2 Lel. p. 226. The late Lord Clare, who was less ignorant than desirous of the good of Ireland, has fairly described the state of the kingdom under Elizabeth. "It seems difficult to conceive any more unjust or impolitic act of government, than an attempt to force new modes of religious faith and worship by severe penalties upon a rude, superstitious, and unlettered people. Persecutions or attempts to force conscience will never produce conviction. They are calculated only to make hypocrites or martyrs: and accordingly the violence committed by the regency of Edward, and continued by Elizabeth, to force the reformed religion cn Ireland, had no other effect, than to foment a general disaffection to the English government; a disaffection so general, as to induce Philip II.

1569. another parliament, which continued by several prorogations to the thirteenth. This, like too many other parliaments of Ireland, amidst some plausible and be neficial acts passed others, which in their nature could but increase the disaffection of the people, and consequently operate to the prejudice of both kingdoms. Such must ever be the effect of the unconstitu tional formation of a parliament for the base purpose of giving legislative sanction to unjust measures. Whilst the English pursued a system so galling to the Irish, opposition was to be expected: to counteract which considerable management had been used, and irregularities committed by the court party in the elections and returns of the Commons.

Differences in the House of Commons.

Stanihurst, recorder of Dublin, and Sir Christopher Barnewall, a favorite of the old English race, were proposed by their respective partizans for the office of speaker. The election of Stanihurst by the influ ence of the court enraged the party in opposition. Barnewall was universally esteemed for his political knowledge; he insisted, that the present House of Commons was illegally constituted; and on that ground opposed the admission of any bill. He was supported by Sir Edmond Butler and the whole real landed interest of the kingdom. It was alleged, that members were returned for towns not incorporated; that several sheriffs and magistrates of corporations had re

of Spain to attempt partial descents on the southern coasts of this island, preparatory to his meditated attack upon England." Speech of Lord Clare in the Irish House of Lords, 10th February, 1800,