by his master, took an amusing and profitable revenge. He was employed in the spring of 1641 to promote a petition against episcopacy, and was said to have received 300_l._ for his services. Signatures were easily got, but Bramhall said they were all of ignorant and obscure persons, 'not one that I know but Patrick Derry of the Newry, not one Englishman.' After Strafford's death Ormonde and others who had taken part in Stewart's trial admitted that they had been mistaken and were excused, but the Lords Justices Borlase and Parsons offered some arguments in their predecessor's favour. They allowed that the case was one for the law-courts and not for the Castle-chamber; but this error was not Strafford's, who followed a long established practice. The heaviness of the fine was meant to strike terror into others, and not to ruin the individuals charged, and they were even inclined to think that the sentence was just. It is nevertheless evident that the invention and enforcement of the Black Oath by prerogative only was unadulterated despotism. The Roman Catholics of Ireland had much to complain of, but they were not called upon to take oaths which had no parliamentary sanction.[213] [Sidenote: Strafford proposes to drive out all the Scots, 1640.] [Sidenote: 'Under Scots' to be deported to remote places.] When Strafford was impeached, two witnesses swore that at the time of Stewart's trial he had openly threatened to root out stock and branch all Scots who would not conform, and had called them rebels and traitors. This no doubt was said hastily and in anger, but he afterwards expressed the same sentiments when he had had time, plenty of time, to think. Writing to Radcliffe from York more than a year later he proposed 'to banish all the under Scots in Ulster by proclamation,' grounded upon a request from his subservient Irish Parliament. By 'under Scots' he meant all who had not given hostage to fortune by acquiring considerable estates in land. There were 40,000 able-bodied Scots ready to welcome Argyle if he landed in Ireland, and that chief was cunning enough to tempt 'the mere Irish, the ancient dependents of the O'Neills in that province,' to strike a blow for lands and liberty. A vote of this kind in the Irish Parliament would help the King much, for it would infallibly create 'a perpetual distrust and hatred' between England and Scotland, and would add to his Majesty's reputation in foreign parts. The banishment might be called conditional upon the continuance of hostilities. As to the owners of 'considerable estates,' they were but few, and the loss to them of all their tenants and servants was nothing to the general peace which would follow the expulsion of the 'under Scots, who are so numerous and so ready for insurrection,' and who were already armed. Even those who had taken the Black Oath were to be treated as prospective rebels. Shipping was to be provided at once, and the exiles landed in some bays or lochs