Sidney found his Parliament in more submissive mood than at its first meeting, the Irish party having been cowed by his vigour, and by the sight of unsuccessful rebellion. The influence of a Speaker must needs be considerable, and Stanihurst was devoted to the Government, which received valuable support from his grave and conciliatory demeanour. The Lord Deputy opened the session with a pithy speech, in which he earnestly prayed the members to show their activity by amending Bills brought before them, but not by rejecting necessary measures. An Act was then passed reciting the Queen’s efforts to establish order and justice, notwithstanding which ‘the wicked, better acquainted with darkness than light, have chosen to wallow in their own filth and puddle of tyranny, oppression, rape, ravine, and spoil.’
Attainders.
Clancare, Fitzmaurice, Ormonde’s three brothers, and several other Butlers of less note, were then attainted by name as ‘vile and ingrate traitors;’ and treasons committed within a limited time were prospectively included in the attainder. The Queen stayed the execution of this Act, but Ormonde objected to it on general grounds, and especially to its prospective effect. ‘Alas,’ he said, ‘what availeth life, and to live with infamy (as I perceive my brethren must do coming to arraignment)! But the Queen’s staying of their judgment and execution is an exceeding mercy, far above their deserts of late days ... and for the stain of my house I confesseth it nippeth me to the heart. But what remedy the best is they may, with the Queen’s goodness, live to requite this evil with good service hereafter.... My brother Edmond was not his own man since he was bewitched. Myself have not escaped free by means of a drink given me by some unhappy hand. I recovered hardly by drinking salt and oil, bleeding very much, and being purged. I bled forty ounces at twenty-one times.... This act is very general, and so perilous that the judgment is given before the offence committed. Many innocents may be indicted upon malice, and peradventure have no notice of the proclamation to come to justify themselves according to the law.’
The Butlers pardoned.
Sir Edmund, who was certainly of an excitable nature, felt the disgrace so keenly that he was actually out of his mind for a time. Later on, when it was proposed to print the Act in London, Ormonde complained bitterly that the praise of suppressing the rebellion was given in general terms to Sidney, and begged that ‘the odious discourse’ might be kept back. Some Butlers were, indeed, by God’s visitation induced to act beyond their reason, and the family honours had been spotted for the first time; but the head of the House had brought them back, and the tree now bore its accustomed good fruit. Edward Butler at last submitted to the Earl, but seems never to have put himself into Sidney’s power. In 1573 the three brothers were pardoned, but it seems that by some omission they were never restored in blood. The legal stain remained, but the moral stain was removed by much after good service.[182]
First attempt at national education.
Opposition to Government Bills.
An Act was passed in this session for the erection of a free school in every diocese at the cost of the diocese, with an English master appointed by the Lord Deputy, except in Armagh, Dublin, Meath, and Kildare, where the Bishops were made patrons. The foundation was Scriptural and Protestant, for the Elizabethans could not understand the possible permanence of any but the State religion. Henry VIII.’s system of parochial schools having never come into being, this must be considered as the first attempt at national education. Salaries were to be fixed by the Lord Deputy, but paid by the clergy, one-third by the ordinary, and two-thirds by the general body. The results of the diocesan schools, as they came to be called, fell far short of what some expected, and it is probable that in many dioceses they were never founded at all. But Sidney’s measure was well meant, and was not entirely inoperative like the mediæval attempts at Irish universities. A Bill to compel the residence of spiritual persons was thrown out by the Commons, as well as one to abolish the extortionate demand of meat and drink; the majority of members probably having a personal interest in supporting the old abuse in either case. A Bill for limiting interests which had been acquired by lessees in entailed property was also thrown out, the real object of it being to restore to Ormonde those lands of his family which had been improvidently alienated. Sidney did not oppose the measure, but foresaw that it would fail. He was ready to do what he could to meet Ormonde’s views, but only so far as was consistent with ordinary process of law. ‘If the gentlemen that have lands of his in the English Pale, in fee farm and otherwise, do not consent in all points to his lordship’s liking, having law on their side, I cannot use compulsory means to wrest justice, nor, I hope, it is not required in my place.’ Wise words, but it would have been better for Sidney’s reputation had he been equally careful in guarding prescriptive rights against Sir Peter Carew.[183]
Commercial legislation. Monopolies.
The Butlers having returned to their right mind, and Fitzmaurice being reduced to wandering with a few followers, Sidney busied himself chiefly with the affairs of the North. His marvellous power of despatching causes, his extraordinary knowledge of Irish septs and alliances, and his untiring industry, were the theme of general admiration; and the lightning rapidity of his movements struck terror into Irish hearts. Before he could bring the Northern chiefs to any settlement offering a chance of permanence, he had to hold two more sessions of Parliament, and to make arrangements for the Presidency of Munster, as he had already done for Connaught. The legislation attempted was chiefly commercial. Thus a Bill, which was at first thrown out in the Lower House by an effort of untutored common sense, was pressed successfully forward by the Government, who thought it important that the ancient staple commodities wool and wool-fells, raw or manufactured, wax, and butter, should not be exported except by the merchants of the staple towns. Such exportation had been already restrained by duties with a view of encouraging Irish manufactures, but the law had not answered expectation, having had the natural result of throwing the trade into French, Scotch, Spanish, and other foreign hands. Instead of repealing the Act which had done so much harm, the true protectionist policy of further restraint was adopted. Manufactured articles, to which linen yarn was added, might be exported by the merchants of the staple at Dublin, Drogheda, Cork, and Waterford, and by the merchants of other borough towns, on paying the custom; and all power of dispensing with the law was taken away from the Irish Government. The raw material had continued to be exported to some extent, but the intention to benefit Irish manufactures by forcibly retaining it was again recorded, and infringement of the monopoly was made felony; the Government being in this case also declared incapable of dispensing with the Act. It was soon discovered that trade could not be forced in this way, and the Queen was besieged by applications for patents, the projectors pretending to cure the evils of one monopoly by creating another. Lancashire and Cheshire had benefited much by Irish yarn, 4,000 hands being employed in weaving it at Manchester alone. The embargo, it was urged, had nearly ruined Manchester, and had not benefited Ireland, where the weavers were few, and the people naturally given to idleness; spinning, of course, requiring no industry. It was admitted that the lack of lawful outlet for the cloth had something to say to the want of weavers, but as the suitors for patents were Englishmen, that side of the question was not pressed.[184]