these transactions, which was no doubt a great exaggeration, but he could state with some truth that the interests of Sir Richard Masterson and other old English settlers were threatened by the assertion of a title 'dormant and not heard of time out of mind.' The Commissioners for Irish causes in London so far supported the petition that they advised the revocation of all patents granted since the surrender of the native landowners, and that no advantage should be taken of them except to exact a moderate increase of the Crown rent. The King thereupon ordered Chichester to revoke the patents to Fisher and Esmond, to raise the rent from 45_l._ to 50_l._, and not to allow Henry Walsh to be molested. The petitioners, said the King, had been denied the benefit of the Commission of defective titles, and 'advantage taken of their surrender to their own disherison.' Chichester objected that the Commissioners for Irish causes had been misled by false statements, and that he would suspend all action until he had fresh orders. Whereupon the King, who had been having some talk with Sir John Davies, declared that Walsh's petition was 'full of false and cautelous surmises,' and ordered him to be summoned before the Irish Council and punished in an exemplary manner if he failed to prove his statements. Chichester was directed to go on with the plantation, assured of his Majesty's continued approbation, and encouraged to make the work his own by visiting the district in person.[144] [Sidenote: The critics to be punished.] The preparations for holding a Parliament may have hindered Chichester's activity, but the King's vacillations would have caused delay in any case. At the end of 1612 James revoked all former letters on the subject except that of May 7, 1611, by which the Lord Deputy had been authorised to receive the surrender of the natives and to make 'regrants to such of them as he should think fit such quantities of land and at such rent and upon such conditions as he should think fit.' There might then be made such an intermixture of English settlers as would civilise the country and 'annoy the mountain neighbours if they should thereafter stir.' Henry Walsh and Thomas Hoare, who had held public indignation meetings and 'endeavoured seditiously to stir up the inhabitants' against the King's title and against his good work of plantation, were ordered to be duly punished for their 'inordinate and contemptuous behaviour.'[145] [Sidenote: Nullum Tempus occurrit Regi.] [Sidenote: Bishop Rothe's view of the plantation.] [Sidenote: He foretells future trouble.]