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choosen out of the honestest and most substantiall free-holders. Now, most all the freeholders of that realme are Irish which when the cause shall fall betwixt an Englishman and an Irish, or betweene the Queene and any fre-holder of that country they make noe more scruple to pass agaynst an Englishman and the Queene, though it be to strayne theyr othes, then to drinke milke unstrayned. Soe that, before the Jurye goe togither, it is well knowen what the verdict will be. The tryall herof have I soe often seene, that I dare confidently avouch the abuse thereof. Yet is the lawe of itself, I say, good; and the first institution thereof, being given to all naturall Englishmen, very rightfull, but now that the Irish have stept into the roomes of the English . yt is good reason that either that course of the lawe for tryall be altered or other provision for jureyes made.

P. 619. Against heavy penalties:

Iren. I thinke sure that will doe small good; for when a people are inclined to any vice, or have noe touch of conscience, nor sence of theyr evill doings, it is booteless to thinke to restrayne them by any penaltyes or feare of punnishment; but either the occasion is to be taken away, or a more understanding of the right, and shame of the fault to be imprinted. For yf that Licurgus should have made it death for the Lacedemonians to steale, they being a people which naturally delighted in stealth; or yf it should be made a capitall crime for the Flemmings to be taken in drounkenness, there should have bene few Lacedemonians then left, and fewer Flemmings. Soe impossible it is to remove any fault, soe generall in a people, with terrour of lawes or most sharpe restrayntes.

By rehearsall of this, I remember also of an other like, which I have often observed in tryalls to have wrought great hurt and hindraunce, and that is, the exceptions which the Common Law alloweth a fellon in his tryall; for he may have (as you knowe) thirty-six exceptions peremptorye agaynst the jurours, of which he shall shewe noe cause. By which shift there being (as I have shewed you) small store of honest jurye men, he will either putt of his tryall, or leave it to such men as (perhaps) are not of the soundest sort, by whose meanes, yf he can acquitt himself of the crime, as he is likely, then will he plague such as were brought first to be of his jurye, and all such as made any party against him. And when he comes foorth, he will make theyr cowes and garrans to walke, yf he doe noe other mischeif to theyr persons.

This allusion to "cattle-driving" is interesting. The writing in these passages, I submit, points to the training

of the lawyer. The words "the tryall hereof have I soe often seene" are not necessarily evidence of the author having been in Ireland, as he is writing in character, and the words are put into the mouth of Irenaeus, who is supposed to have lately come from that country. There is nothing here (or in the rest of the treatise) which a writer with the opportunities and equipment of Bacon could not have got from dispatches and conversations with the Sidneys, with Ralegh, Pelham, or other English captains who had served in Ireland. Evidence of the legal training of the writer will be found in other places, e.g. “the superior power of her Majesties prerogative, agaynst which her owne grauntes are not to be pleaded or enforced" (p. 622); and again, “it is daungerous to leave the sence of the lawe unto the reason or will of the judges, whoe are men and may be miscarryed by affections, and many other meanes. But the lawes ought to be like unto stonye tables, playne, steadfast, and immoveable (p. 623)-a typically Baconian analogy.

On pp. 630-632 occurs the tour de force in writing as to the uses of the Irish mantle. It is characteristic of the author that he should pause at the end to draw attention to his own ingenuity ("O evill mynded man," etc.). There are some words in this description, "Venus mantell lined with starres," for which a parallel occurs in the description of Venus and Adonis on the tapestry in "Castle Joyeous" (F.Q. III. i. 36):

And whilst he slept she over him would spred
Her mantle, colour'd like the starry skyes.

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If the View were an acknowledged work of Bacon, the parallel would, I suppose, be seized on by "Baconians as among the evidence that he also wrote the poems of Spenser, and the "Spenserians" would, no doubt, reply that such expressions were the common speech of a poetical age, or derived from a common origin. We should perhaps also be told that it was grotesque to suggest that a lawyer, and a man so lacking in sympathy and imagination as the author of the View evidently was,

could have written poetry (even if he could have found the time), and particularly such poetry as the passage referred to. Another similar parallel occurs at p. 649:

For all Innovation is perilous, insoemuch as though it be mente for the better, yet soe many accidents and fearfull events may come betwene, as that it may hazarde the losse of the whole.

Compare F.Q. V. ii. 36, "All change is perillous." Compare also Bacon, "Of Innovations":

It is good also not to try experiments in States, except the necessity be urgent, or the utility evident.

P. 639. The following description of the Irish horsesoldier and his accoutrements is interesting. There is nothing here which a writer in London could not learn from reading and conversation.

Iren. Noe; all these that I have rehearsed unto you, be not Irish garments, but English; for the quilted leather Jacke is old English; for it was the proper weede of the horseman, as ye may reade in Chaucer, where he describeth Sir Thopas his apparrell and armoure, when he went to fight agaynst the Gyant, in his robe of shecklaton, which shecklaton is that kind of guilded leather with which they use to embroder theyr Irish jackes. And there likewise by all that description ye may see the very fashion and manner of the Irish horseman most lively set foorth, his long hose, his shooes of costly cordewayne, his hacqueton, and his habberjon, with all the rest therto belonging.

Eudox. I surely thought that that manner had bene kindly Irish, for it is farr differing from that we have nowe: as also all the furniture of his horse, his stronge brasse bitt, his slyding raynes, his shaunck pillion without stirrops, his manner of mounting, his fashion of riding, his charging of his speare aloft above head, and the forme of his speare.

Iren. Noe sure; they be native English, and brought in by the Englishmen first into Ireland: neither is the same counted an uncomelye manner of riding; for I have heard some greate warriours say, that, in all the services which they had seene abroade in forrayne countreys, they never sawe a more comely horseman then the Irish man, nor that cometh on more bravely in his charge: neither is his manner of mounting unseemely, though he wante stirrops, but more ready then with stirrops: for in his getting up his horse is still going, wherby he gayneth way. And therfore the stirrops were called soe in scorne, as it

were a stayre to gett up, being derived of the old English woord sty, which is, to gett up, or mounte.

Eudox. It seemeth then that ye finde noe fault with this manner of riding; why then would you have the quilted Jacke layed away?

Iren. I would not have that layed away, but the abuse therof to be putt away; for being used to the end that it was framed, that is, to be worne in warre under a shirte of mayle, it is allowable, as also the shirte of mayle, and all his other furniture: but to be worne daylye at home, and in townes and civill places, it is a rude habite and most uncomely, seeming like a players paynted coate.

The description of the "galloglass and kearne" which follows should be compared with the Bacon extracts given above. In the tribute to the Irish soldier abroad (in contrast with his condition and conduct at home) is, no doubt, to be found the opinion of such men as Sir John Norris and Ralegh.

Eudox. What be those?

Iren. Marye, those be the most lothsome and barbarous conditions of any people (I thinke) under heaven; for, from the time they enter into that course, they doe use all the beastly behaviour that may be to oppress all men; they, spoyle as well the subject as the enemy; they steale, they are cruell and bloudye, full of revenge and delighting in deadly execution, licentious, swearers, and blasphemers, common ravishers of women, and murtherers of children.

Eudox. These be most villenous conditions; I marvayle then that ever they be used or employed, or allmost suffred to live what good can there then be in them?

Iren. Yet sure they are very valiaunte and hardye, for the most part great endurours of cold, labour, hunger, and all hardiness, very active and stronge of hand, very swift of foote, very vigilaunte and circumspect in theyr enterprises, very present in perrills, very great scorners of death.

Eudox. Truly, by this that ye saie, it seemes the Irishman is a very brave souldiour.

Iren. Yea surely, even in that rude kind of service he beareth himself very couragiously. But when he cometh to experience of service abroade, and is putt to a peece, or a pike, he maketh as woorthy a souldiour as any nation he meeteth with.

P. 640. The Irish Bards. I give this passage in full,

for the light which it throws on the author's mind and method, as much as for the interest of the subject. Here again he is evidently carried away by his own facility and gift of imagination, though, no doubt, there was a large element of truth in his statements.

Iren. There is amongest the Irish a certayne kind of people called Bards, which are to them insteede of poetts, whose profession is to sett foorth the prayses and disprayses of men in theyr poems and rimes; the which are had in soe high request and estimation amongest them, that none dare to displease them for feare of running into reproche through theyr offence, and to be made infamous in the mouthes of all men. For theyr verses are taken up with a generall applause, and usually songe at all feasts and meetinges, by certayne other persons, whose proper function that is, which also receave for the same greate rewardes and reputation besides.

Eudox. Doe you blame this in them, which I would otherwise have thought to have bene woorthy of good accounte, and rather to have bene mayntayned and augmented amongest them, then to have bene misliked? For I have reade that in all ages Poettes have bene had in speciall reputation, and that (me seemes) not without greate cause; for besides theyr sweete inventions, and most wittye layes, they have allwayes used to sett foorth the prayses of the good and vertuous, and to beate downe and disgrace the badd and vicious. Soe that many brave yong myndes have oftentimes, through hearing of the prayses and famous Eulogies of woorthy men song and reported unto them, bene stirred up to affect like comendacions, and soe to strive to like desertes. Soe they say the Lacedemonians were more enclined to desire of honour with the excellent verses of the Poet Tirtaus, then with all the exhortations of their Captaines, or authoritye of theyr Rulers and Magistrates.

Iren. It is most true that such Poetts, as in theyr writings doe laboure to better the manners of men, and through the sweete bayte of theyr numbers, to steale into yonge spiritts a desire of honour and vertue, are worthy to be had in great respect. But these Irish Bards are for the most part of another mynd, and soe farr from instructing yong men in morall discipline, that they themselves doe more desarve to be sharpely disciplined; for they seldome use to choose unto themselves the doinges of good men for the ornamentes of theyr poems, but whomsoever they find to be most licentious of life, most bold and lawless in his doinges, most daungerous and desperate in all partes of disobedience and rebellious disposition, him they

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