Among the twenty-six Acts passed in the second session of Wentworth's obedient Parliament there were several relating to the tenure and alienation of land. Secret leases for long terms and other fraudulent conveyances were so common that titles to property were much obscured. Feudal burdens were shirked, and private injustice was often done. The general drift of Wentworth's legislation was to secure the public registration of deeds and wills, and to make the actual possession of land presumptive proof of its ownership. This reform, he wrote, 'will without question gain the Crown six wardships for one, besides an opportunity to breed the best houses up in religion as they fall, which in reason of state is of infinite consequence, as we see experimentally in my Lord of Ormonde, who, if he had been left to the education of his own parents, had been as mere Irish and Papist as the best of them, whereas now he is a very good Protestant, and consequently will make not only a faithful, but a very affectionate servant to the Crown of England.' The gain through the Court of Wards he afterwards reported to be £4,000 a year. The gain to his great scheme of plantation was obvious. Here again there was much immediate profit to the Crown and more in prospect by the establishment of an English and Protestant population. 'All the Protestants,' he said, 'are for plantations, all the others against them.' If juries drawn from the Recusant majority could be got to find the King's title to their lands, so much the better. If not, there was a Protestant majority in the House of Commons and the lands requisite for colonisation might be 'passed to the King by immediate Act of Parliament.' One of the districts selected was the north part of Tipperary called Ormond, where the Earl had grants which would have been fatal to Wentworth's scheme, but that he at once declared himself willing to co-operate. In Thomond or Clare Lord Inchiquin prudently followed Ormonde's example, but in neither case was time given to Wentworth for the establishment of his projected colony. The sept of the O'Brennans had long been in practical possession of Edough, the northern part of Kilkenny, which includes Castlecomer. The King's title was found in the usual way, and the territory was granted to Wandesford, who bought out certain other claimants and who even made some attempts to compensate the O'Brennans. Many English tenants were established, and Wandesford's representatives, after having been ousted during the rebellion, held their own under the Commonwealth and after the Restoration. Wentworth claimed the whole of Connaught for the Crown. The general idea was that one-fourth of the land should be given to settlers, and that the old owners should receive a valid title for the remainder. Leitrim had been lately planted, and the other four counties were now claimed. Galway was thought the most likely to resist, and was left to the last, lest its example should corrupt the others.[216]