Whatever may be the exact meaning of this declaration, or however it may be reconciled with the Acts of Settlement and of Satisfaction, it soon became quite clear that the transplantation could not be effected by May 1, 1654. As a matter of fact the procedure was applied only to landowners and their families, and to such tenants as might choose to go with them. A few did go early in the day, but the vast majority clung to their homes. Licences to remain were freely granted to the aged and infirm and to those who could show that they had befriended the English. Even in cases where the service was too slight to deserve permanent exemption, Colonel Lawrence assures us that indulgence was shown for considerable periods, 'that a cup of cold water might not go unrequited.' The time was extended generally, first to December, so that seed time and harvest might be included, and afterwards to March 1655, the doomed proprietors remaining on their old property as tenants at will to the State. When March arrived most of the work was still to be done, for the officers and soldiers 'and other faithful Protestants' of Leinster, petitioned the Irish Government to execute the 'further instructions' of July 2, 1653, and to transplant 'all the Irish into Connaught excepting males of fourteen years of age and females of twelve.' The first reason was lest the settlers should become idolaters from intermarriage with the natives, many who came over in Queen Elizabeth's time having thus fallen away and been concerned in the late murders and massacres. Among many Old Testament texts the petitioners gave precedence to the verses of Ezra, where the Israelites were forbidden to take Gentile wives, 'that they might be strong and eat the good of the land and leave it for an inheritance to their children for ever.' If this principle was neglected even the Parliamentary soldiers might join with the natives to attack the colonists, having first learned the vices that reigned in the land, such as swearing, drunkenness, dissembling, and deceiving. The second argument was 'grounded on the law of nature, which teacheth self-preservation.' Experience showed that the priests would go to any lengths to advance their Church, and that the people would follow them, and Edmund Campion the Jesuit is quoted as to the perfidiousness of the Irish. The great thing was to get rid of the Tories out of three provinces, and thus encourage honest men to come from England and strengthen those who were already committed to Ireland. As things actually stood the English were confined to garrisons and forced to fold their cattle, while the Irish occupied the best land, keeping their flocks and herds in the fields by day and night. When it was a question of paying taxes they hid their stock in the woods, 'which the English cannot do, who by that means will be liable to bear a greater proportion of contribution than the Irish.'[265] [Sidenote: The Protectorate established.]