In unison with the wishes of Laud, Wentworth as a part of his "general scheme of government projected reducing all the people of Ireland to a conformity of religion; still it was by measures many of them conceived in a spirit of large and wide spreading policy."* "He knew the useless horrors of theological strife," and he began his work slowly, and at what he judged to be the root of the evil; restoring ruined churches and re-adjusting their revenues, to enable better stipends to be given, and therefore better men to be procured for the offices of the church.

About this time Wentworth applied to the king for an Earldom, thinking that such promotion would exalt his government in the eyes of that "wild and rude people, and therefore be of infinite importance to its security. Notwithstanding his immeasurable and acknowledged services, Charles in his short-sighted and selfish wisdom refused the request."+ Disappointed as he was, Wentworth found his relief in the prosecution of vigorous measures, forcing upon the clergy canons and measures which soon produced "a new and most astounding Protestant uniformity." In the next place, after rendering even the lawyers obsequious to the royal prerogative, he re-organized and improved the army; which was in his eyes to be the main agent in the desired establishment of absolute power; but he was foiled by the indolence of the English Court in making it as strong as he wished. He next devoted himself to the improvement, both in certainty and amount, of the revenue; and by the legitimate means of better modes of collection, and the freeing of commerce from the dangers of pirates, &c., he greatly increased the customs; and the removal of certain monopolies also further favoured the increase of trade. He also, by setting up the growth and manufacture of flax, did great benefit to Ireland;

though his real motive appears from his words, "to serve your majesty completely well in Ireland, we must not only endeavour to enrich them, but make sure still to hold them dependent on the crown, and not able to subsist without us."

By such politic and vigorous measures Lord Wentworth was enabled, at the end of five years, to announce a surplus of revenue over expenditure amounting to £60,000. He himself wished to continue the parliament, but Charles would not allow it; "like cats," said he, "they (parliaments) ever grow curst with age." At Charles' suggestion he set to work to increase the crown estates by searching after defective titles; and discovered that all Connaught had, many years previously, lapsed to the crown, and that the conveyances subsequently granted were all invalid through flaws. He thereupon proceeded to assert the Royal title by action at law; in Mayo and Sligo he summoned a jury which under his threats found in his favour. In Roscommon he was opposed, but all opponents were heavily fined in consequence. Exasperated at the murmurings both in Ireland and England against his arbitrary government, he determined to make an example of Lord Mountnorris, and for a few insignificant words procured his condemnation to death; the real reason being, as stated by Lord Clarendon that, "either the deputy of Ireland must destroy my Lord Mountnorris while he continued in his office, or my Lord Mountnorris must destroy the deputy as soon as his commission was determined." Having thus reduced Mountnorris to ignominy Wentworth was satisfied with granting him a contemptuous pardon of his life. Here it may be remarked that this fierce prosecution of apparently a personal resentment, was, in fact, as in all cases "the simple carrying out of that despotic principle in its length and breadth, and with reference to its ulterior aims, which had become the very law of his being. The cruelties associated with the name of Lord Mountnorris have their rational

and philosophical solution in this point of view alone."* Nevertheless this treatment of Mountnorris raised a storm against Wentworth. To justify himself, by permission he appeared at court in May 1636; and his account of his measures proved most satisfactory to the king. "He left the court for Wentworth Woodhouse, (his Yorkshire seat) loaded with the applause of the king and his lords of the council, and followed by the awful gaze of doubting multitudes."+ After a short stay there, during which he exercised his power of Lord President of the North, just before his departure he again, and on similar but stronger grounds, solicited from Charles and was refused-a bitter disappointment to him-the honour of an Earldom. He returned to Ireland, and resumed his measures with the same vigour and policy as before; augmenting revenue by maintaining security and therefore prosperity-but the security of absolutism.

But little more remains to be told of Wentworth's Irish government; he already saw that the folly of the Court was such as would probably involve him, least of all a participator thereof, in ruin; that his despotical acts were beginning to call forth a loud and bold clamour of disapproval from the popular party at home; and that he had in England no useful, only one real, friend-Laud. The Queen, too, was against him; and she influenced Charles greatly. Still he carried on his government as vigorously as ever, despite public disrepute, bitter enemies, cold friends, and the most painful physical disorders: Chancellor Loftus he deprived of his seals and imprisoned for disputing his judicial functions: the King he most efficiently aided by his advice, dissuading the Spanish war; and by his advice, and by prompt contributions of men and money towards the repression of the Scotch troubles. Charles, in fact, soon began to feel that Wentworth was all in all to him, and called him to his side; leaving the government of

* Forster's Life, p. 275. † ibid, p. 346.

Ireland to Wandesford, and most tenderly committing his daughters to Lady Clare, his mother-in-law, Wentworth, despite of illness, hastened to join his master, and arrived in London in November, 1639. There his energetic measures overcame the most formidable obstacles; and now at last it was that Charles, induced by the fear of this trusty servant deserting him, granted him tardy honour; creating him Earl of Strafford and Baron of Raby, a Knight of the Garter, and Lord Lieutenant of Ireland. In March, 1640, Strafford returned to Ireland, and was received with apparently loyal devotion by the newly assembled parliament, who at once voted four subsidies, and formally thanked him for his good government. This much obtained, and a levy of 8000 men raised, he again, in a fortnight, set sail for England, never again to return.

Here, then, ends the history of Strafford's Irish government. It cannot be doubted that throughout his one object was to establish absolute monarchy at the expense of the constitutional liberty of the subject. Strafford had never imbibed in its highest and truest sense, the meaning and force of the maxim 'salus populi suprema lex.' Trained in the school of 'authority,' and uneducated in, and unsympathising with those broad principles of true liberty, of which the glorious Reformation was at once the exponent and the origin, his great personal ambition and love of power induced him to throw himself eagerly into a cause where he saw that he could, consistently with, nay, in furtherance of his principles, obtain the summit of his desires. Whatever may have been the results of his government we may feel certain of this, that it was not primarily directed to the one legitimate and supreme end of all good government, the greatest good of the governed. The question before the English nation at the present day is, how are we Englishmen to govern Ireland at once consistently with our conceptions of general utility, and without provoking the resentment, rather so as

to draw towards us the affections of the impetuous and inconsiderate Irishman? In considering Strafford's government these points hardly come into consideration for the objections which apply to it would have applied with even greater force, had its scene been England. His disregard of the exigences of the Celtic character was not, as ours may have been, an AngloSaxon disregard; but was based on his theory of absolute government. Thus it was that his trial was "the solemn arbitration of an issue between the two great antagonistic principles, liberty and despotism,"* in which liberty proved triumphant.

The results of Strafford's government may be best summed up in the words of Guizot:

"A peine le gouvernement de l'Irlande fut confié à Strafford, que ce royaume, qui jusque-la n'avait été pour la couronne qu' un embarras et une charge, lui devint une source de richesse et de force. Les dettes publiques y furent payées; le revenu, naguère perçu sans règle et dilapidé sans pudeur, fut administré régulièrement et s'éleva bientôt au-dessus des dépenses; les grands seigneurs cessèrent de vexer impunément les peuples, et les factions aristocratiques ou religieuses de se déchirer en toute liberté. L'armée, que Strafford avait trouvée faible, sans habits, sans discipline, fut recrutée, bien disciplinée, bien payée, et cessa de piller les habitants. A la faveur de l'ordre, le commerce prospéra, des manufactures s'établirent, l'agriculture fit des progrès. Enfin l'Irlande fut gouvernée arbitrairement, durement, souvent même avec une odieuse violence, mais dans l'intérêt de la civilization commune et du ponvoir royal, au lieu d'être, comme jadis, en proie a l'avidité des employés du fisc et à la domination d'une aristocratie égoiste et ignorante.”+

The class on whom Strafford's arbitrary rule fell most oppressively was the landed aristocracy; he destroyed

*Forster's Life, p. 357.

+ Guizot, pp. 179, 180.