[Sidenote: Falkland's grievances.] The Lord Deputy complained that his letters were not answered, but the home Government were occupied with the English Parliament, which was prorogued May 29, 1624; and it was also thought desirable to hear what Sir Francis Annesley had to say. Falkland did not get on either with him or with Lord Chancellor Loftus, who were also Strafford's chief opponents. He granted certain licences for tanning and for selling spirits, which required the Great Seal to make them valid, but Loftus hesitated to affix it, saying that one was void in law and the other in equity. If the judges decided against him he would submit. Falkland's contention was that the Chancellor must seal anything he wished, but Loftus said his oath would in that case be broken and his office made superfluous. An angry correspondence ended by a reference to the King, and Loftus was called upon to explain. He was able to show that he also had suffered by Middlesex's economies, and that his official income was much smaller than that of his archiepiscopal predecessor's had been. A considerable increase was granted. And so the matter rested when James I. died.[157] [Sidenote: Death of James I.] Henry IV. is reported to have said that his brother of England was the wisest fool in Christendom. Macaulay thought him like the Emperor Claudius. Gardiner tried to be fair, but admitted that the popular estimate of James is based upon the 'Fortunes of Nigel'; and therefore it is not likely to be soon altered. He has been more praised for his Irish policy than for anything else, and perhaps with truth; for there is such a thing as political long sight, clear for objects at a distance and clouded for those which are near at hand. The settlement has preserved one province to the English connection, and has thus done much to secure the rest; but it may be doubted whether the unfairness of it was not the chief cause of the outbreak in 1641, and so to a great degree of the bitterness which has permeated Irish life ever since. FOOTNOTES: [137] Chamberlain to Carleton, April 6, 1616, in _Court and Times_; Bacon to Sir George Villiers, July 1, 1616 (_Spedding_, v. 375). Installation of St. John in _Liber Munerum_, ii. 6. St. John to Winwood, August 1616 (No. 289); Lord Carew to Sir Thomas Roe (Camden Society) December. [138] Bacon to Sir George Villiers, July 5, 1616, in _Spedding_, v. 378; Davies to Lake, December 20, 1615; St. John to Winwood, December 31, 1616, and October 11, 1617; Licence to send agents, May 18, 1618; return of the Commissioners, 1618, No. 431; surrender of charter announced, August 4, 1619. Histories of Waterford by Smith and Ryland. Bacon had recommended procedure by _Quo warranto_ or _Scire facias_, and St. John, doubtless prompted by Chief Justice Jones, says the same in his letter to the Privy Council, April 1618, No. 406.