Ireland under the Stuarts and During the Interregnum, Vol. 1 (of 3), 1603-1642Bagwell, Richard
History
Ireland under the Stuarts and During the Interregnum, Vol. 1 (of 3), 1603-1642
Bagwell, Richard
Ireland -- History -- 17th century
Sir Oliver St. John advised some garrisons and corporations, but relied
rather upon making the Irish tenants of the Crown at high rents. The
Irish, he said, were more used to esteem a landlord whom they knew than
a king of whom they seldom heard. Make the King their landlord and they
will turn to him, neglecting 'their wonted tyrants whom naturally they
love not.' Salisbury had already turned his attention to the subject,
and the Privy Council in England lost no time in expressing their
general approval of Chichester's plan.[57]
[Sidenote: Bacon on colonisation.]
Bacon's attention was much drawn to Ireland at this critical time, and
Chichester's secretary, Henry Perse, kept him well informed. Davies
wrote to him at length about the flight of the Earls, and he saw that
the opportunity had come for making a fresh start. 'I see manifestly,'
he told Davies, 'the beginning of better or worse.' It may therefore be
assumed that he had some hand in the proceedings that followed. Both
he and Chichester were naturally thinking of the scheme of American
colonisation which had just so nearly failed, and were anxious that
the mistakes made should not be repeated. 'I had rather labour with my
hands,' said the Lord Deputy, 'in the plantation of Ulster than dance
or play in that of Virginia.' The American enterprise, said the Lord
Chancellor, 'differs as much from this, as Amadis de Gaul differs from
Cæsar's Commentaries.' Bacon warned the Government against sending
over needy broken-down gentlemen as settlers. Men of capital were
to be preferred, such as were fit to 'purchase dry reversions after
lives or years, or to put out money upon long returns.' They might
not go themselves, but they would send younger sons and cousins to
advance them, while retaining the property 'for the sweetness of the
expectation of a great bargain in the end.' He thought enough was not
done to encourage the growth of towns and fortified posts, and yet the
example of the Munster failure was ready to hand as to 'the danger
of any attempts of kernes and swordsmen.' The wisdom of this advice
was seen in 1641, when Londonderry alone stood out in all the planted
counties. Bacon discouraged facilities for making under-tenancies, for
the excluded natives would offer tempting rents and fines, the interest
of the grantee waning when he parted with actual possession. Here also
the advice was good. The undertakers took Irish tenants, in spite of
the rules, because they could get no others, and these tenants turned
against them when the day of trial came.[58]
[Sidenote: Scots in Ulster. Bishop Montgomery]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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