"The second journey the Earl of Sussex made into those quarters of Ulster he sent me and others into the island of Raghlyns, where before, in the time of Sir James Crofts' deputation, Sir Raulf Bagnall, Captain Cuff, and others sent by him landed, little to their advantage, for there were they hurt and taken, and the most of their men that landed either killed or taken; but we landed more politicly and safely, and encamped in the isle until we had spoiled the same, all mankind, corn, and cattle in it.

"Sundry times during my foresaid governments I had sundry skirmishes with the rebels, always with victory, namely one, and that a great one, which was at the very time that Calais was lost. I (the same time being Christmas holidays, upon the sudden,) invaded Firkaol, otherwise called O'Meloyes' country, the very receptacle of all the rebels, burned and wasted the same, and in my return homewards was fought withal by the rebels the O'Conors, O'Mores, and O'Meloyes, and the people of Mack Gochigan; albeit he in person was with me in that skirmish, I received in a frieze jerkin (though armed under it) four or five Irish arrows. Some blood I drew with my own hands, but my men beat the rebels well, and truly I went through their paces (passes), straights, and woods lustily, and killed as many of them as saved not their lives by running away; among whom the chief captain, called Callogh O'Meloy, was one, and his head brought me by an English gentleman and a good soldier, called Robert Cowley. I tarried and encamped in that country till I had cut down and enlarged divers long and straight paces (passes), whereby the country ever since hath been more obedient and corrigible. Somewhat more I did; and so I did, as the country well spake of it, and well judged of it; and I received from the Queen comfortable and thankful letters, signed with her own hand, which I have yet to show; and when I was sent to her (as I was once or twice) most graciously she would accept me and my service, and honourably speak of the same, yea, and reward me.

"The rest of my life is, with an over-long precedent discourse, in part manifested to you, which I humbly and heartily desire you to accept in good part. Some things written may haply be misplaced or mistimed, for help had I noue, either of any other man, or note of mine, but only such help as my old mother memory afforded me out of her store. But this, to your little comfort, I cannot omit, that whereas my father had but one son, and he of no great proof,

being 24 years of age at his death, and I having three sons, one of excellent good proof, the second of great good hope, and the third not to be despaired of, but very well to be liked, if I die to-morrow next I should leave them worse than my father left me by twenty thousand pounds, and I am now 5 years of age, toothless, and trembling, being five thousand pounds in debt, yea, and thirty thousand pounds worse than I was at the death of my most dear king and master, King Edward the VI. I have not of the Crown of England of my own getting so much ground as I can cover with my foot. All my fees amount not to one hundred marks a year. I never had since the Queen's reign any extraordinary aid by licence, forfeit, or otherwise; and yet for all that was done, and somewhat more than here is written, I cannot obtain to have in fee farm one hundred pounds a year, already in my own possession, paying the rent. Dura est conditio servorum.

"And now, dear Sir and brother, an end of this tedious tragical treatise tedious for you to read, but more tedious it would have been if it had come written with my own hand, as first it was. Tragical I may well term it, for that it began with the joyful love and great liking, with likelihood of matrimonial match between our dear and most sweet children, whom God bless, and endeth with declaration of my unfortunate and bad estate. Our Lord bless you with long life and healthful happiness. I pray you, Sir, commend me most heartily to my good lady, cousin, and sister, your wife, and bless and buss our sweet daughter; and, if you will vouchsafe, bestow a blessing upon the young knight, Sir Philip. From Ludlowe Castle, with more pain than haste, the first of March 1582. "Your most assured fast friend "and loving brother,

"HENRY SYDNEY."

Sir Henry Sydney was succeeded in the deputyship by Sir William Drury, President of Munster, who entered on his office 14th September 1578. The Carew Papers furnish very little information of his proceedings. The rebellion of Desmond is passed over with the slightest and scanticst notice. But the account furnished by the Deputy and Sir Edward Fyton of their visit to Munster and the west of Ireland in the autumn of the same year is not without

interest.* The chief difficulty with which the new Deputy had to contend was to be found in the disputes and disaffection of the Desmonds, now anxiously expecting, more than ever, encouragement from Spain, and watching a favourable opportunity for throwing off the authority of England. Irritated by the assistance rendered to the United Provinces by Elizabeth, Philip II. had resolved to retaliate by lending aid to the rebellious Irish. Gregory XIII. was not unwilling to help a confederacy which had for its object the recovery to the Church of its lost dominions, and the temporal punishment of those who utterly despised his spiritual censures. As might be expected, the war in Ireland assumed a religious aspect. The government of Ireland had to contend not only against those who hated the dominion of the stranger, but against those also who cloaked their disaffection under the more specious pretext of religious toleration. Chiefs like Desmond and Turlough Lynagh, who had never before shown any great zeal for the Church or for the restoration of the ancient faith, now learned to treat the Papal emissaries, of whom Dr. Saunders was the most conspicuous, with more than usual reverence. The cause of Irish independence became inextricably interwoven with the Papal supremacy and the restoration of the old religion; and English rulers incurred the odium of despising the rights of conscience, even when they sought to insist upon nothing more than obedience to the law, and to mete out even-handed justice to the oppressed. Though the tenant farmers and all the industrious classes in Ireland had for years groaned under a system which laid them open to every kind of exaction and oppression on the part of their native chiefs and captains, they could not understand that their truest interests were identical with those of their con

* Vol. II. p. 140.

querors. Confining their views only to the present, they failed to appreciate the fact-naturally enough-that for them all progress and all improvement were only compatible with obedience to that rule which, if it brought the people, brought their chiefs also, under submission to the same equal and inflexible laws. So they preferred to hoist the Pope's banner and welcome the dictation of Spain, in the hopes of delivering themselves from the rule of Elizabeth, improvident of the future and careless of the consequences.

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As the English rulers could not entirely disengage their cause from its religious aspect, they were exposed to the temptation of confounding rebellion with an adherence to Popery. Many of the Deputies shared with their contemporaries across the Channel an abhorrence of the Roman Catholic faith as the main cause of disloyalty as the active incentive to all the political troubles of the times. They thought that if submission to Papal domination and the promoters of it were weakened and disabled, the cause of law and order must necessarily prevail; and in this view they were supported by the Protestant bishops and clergy, the more influential of whom were Englishmen like themselves, and possessed by the same ideas. Thus their greatest efforts were devoted to the suppression of Popery in its most public and objectionable forms. A compulsory respect to Protestantism was to be exacted from those who utterly hated it. In Sir William Drury's journey to Munster, among numerous instances of vigour, prudence, and moderation in dealing with the disaffected and in suppressing disorders displayed by him in common with many other Irish Deputies, the following incidents are recorded, apparently not without satisfaction:

«Understanding of a notable idol or image of St. Sunday or St. Dominick, whereunto great offerings were made by night every Sunday and holiday, because time served not for us to stay for the

searching of it out, we left commission with the bishop, the mayor, and other discreet persons, to inquire and search for the same, who within two days after our departure laboured so diligently, though it were carefully shifted out of the way, as they found it, and burnt it at the High Cross openly, the Bishop himself putting fire thereunto, not without great lamenting of the people." *

And again † :

Having had notice from our very good lord the Bishop of Ossory that not only the chiefest men of that town, as for the most part they are bent to Popery, refused obstinately to come to the church, and that they could by no means be brought to hear the divine service there with their wives and families (as by her Majesty's injunctions they are bound to do), but that also almost all the churches and chapels or chancels within that his diocese were utterly ruined and decayed, and that neither the parishioners nor others that are bound to repair them and set them up could by any means be won or induced so to do--we therefore directed forth commission to our said very good lord the Bishop and others, principal gentlemen, such as he thought meet to nominate and appoint, authorizing them either to compel such as ought to do it to repair and build them in such sort as God's glory and divine service be, according to her Majesty's injunctions, duly celebrate and exercised; or else, in case they should refuse or obstinately deny the performing of their duties in that behalf, that then they should take their distresses so refusing, and with the money thereof growing, after orderly and due warning and praising (appraising) thereof, to set in hand themselves the reparation and building of such churches or chancels as they whose distresses they shall have taken are bound to repair. And before our departure out of the town, we bound before us in recognisance[s] of 401. ster. a-piece the chief men of the town, such as his lordship nominate unto us, that they and their wives should duly every Sunday and holiday frequent the church, and hear divine service therein."

Readers well acquainted with the superstition of the times, a vice from which none were entirely free, will be less