[537] The protestants, he wrote word, had a majority of eight in the Commons. He told them, "it was very indifferent to him what resolution the house might take; that there were two ends he had in view, and one he would infallibly attain—either a submission of the people to his majesty's just demands, or a just occasion of breach, and either would content the king; the first was undeniably and evidently best for them."—Id. 277, 278. In his speech to the two houses, he said, "His majesty expects not to find you muttering, or to name it more truly, mutinying in corners. I am commanded to carry a very watchful eye over these private and secret conventicles, to punish the transgression with a heavy and severe hand; therefore it behoves you to look to it."—Id. 289. "Finally," he concludes, "I wish you had a right judgment in all things; yet let me not prove a Cassandra amongst you, to speak truth and not be believed. However, speak truth I will, were I to become your enemy for it. Remember therefore that I tell you, you may easily make or mar this parliament. If you proceed with respect, without laying clogs and conditions upon the king, as wise men and good subjects ought to do, you shall infallibly set up this parliament eminent to posterity, as the very basis and foundation of the greatest happiness and prosperity that ever befell this nation. But, if you meet a great king with narrow circumscribed hearts, if you will needs be wise and cautious above the moon [sic], remember again that I tell you, you shall never be able to cast your mists before the eyes of a discerning king; you shall be found out; your sons shall wish they had been the children of more believing parents; and in a time when you look not for it, when it will be too late for you to help, the sad repentance of an unadvised heart shall be yours, lasting honour shall be my master's."
These subsidies were reckoned at near £41,000 each, and were thus apportioned: Leinster paid £13,000 (of which £1000 from the city of Dublin), Munster £11,000, Ulster £10,000, Connaught £6,800. Mountmorres, ii. 16.
[538] Irish Statutes, 10 Car. 1, c. 1, 2, 3, etc.; Strafford Letters, i. 279, 312. The king expressly approved the denial of the graces, though promised formerly by himself. Id. 345; Leland, iii. 20.
"I can now say," Strafford observes (Id. 344), "the king is as absolute here as any prince in the whole world can be; and may still be, if it be not spoiled on that side."
[539] Strafford Letters, i. 353, 370, 402, 442, 451, 454, 473; ii. 113, 139, 366; Leland, iii. 30, 39; Carte, 82.
[540] It is, however, true that he discouraged the woollen manufacture, in order to keep the kingdom more dependent, and that this was part of his motive in promoting the other. Vol. ii. 19.
[541] Leland, iii. 51. Strafford himself (ii. 397) speaks highly of their disposition.
[542] Carte's Ormond, 100, 140; Leland, iii. 54 et post; Mountmorres, ii. 29. A remonstrance of the Commons to Lord-Deputy Wandesford against various grievances was presented 7th November 1640, before Lord Strafford had been impeached. Id. 39. As to confirming the graces, the delay, whether it proceeded from the king or his Irish representatives, seems to have caused some suspicion. Lord Clanricarde mentions the ill consequences that might result, in a letter to Lord Bristol. Carte's Ormond, iii. 40.
[543] Sir Henry Vane communicated to the lords justices, by the king's command, March 16, 1640-1, that advice had been received and confirmed by the ministers in Spain and elsewhere, which "deserved to be seriously considered, and an especial care and watchfulness to be had therein: that of late there have passed from Spain (and the like may well have been from other parts) an unspeakable number of Irish churchmen for England and Ireland, and some good old soldiers, under pretext of asking leave to raise men for the King of Spain; whereas, it is observed among the Irish friars there, a whisper was, as if they expected a rebellion in Ireland, and particularly in Connaught." Carte's Ormond, iii. 30. This letter, which Carte seems to have taken from a printed book, is authenticated in Clarendon State Papers, ii. 143. I have mentioned in another part of this work (Chap. VIII.) the provocations which might have induced the cabinet of Madrid to foment disturbances in Charles's dominions. The lords justices are taxed by Carte with supineness in paying no attention to this letter (vol. i. 166); but how he knew that they paid none seems hard to say.
Another imputation has been thrown on the Irish government and on the parliament, for objecting to permit levies to be made for the Spanish service out of the army raised by Strafford, and disbanded in the spring of 1641, which the king had himself proposed. Carte, i. 133; and Leland, 82, who follows the former implicitly, as he always does. The events indeed proved that it would have been far safer to let those soldiers, chiefly catholics, enlist under a foreign banner; but considering the long connection of Spain with that party, and the apprehension always entertained that the disaffected might acquire military experience in her service, the objection does not seem so very unreasonable.