On his return to Ireland Ormonde was at once involved in revenue difficulties. Ranelagh was allowed to collect arrears long after his contract had expired, and the Lord Lieutenant had the worst opinion of Sir James Shaen, who was the chief man among the new farmers. Indeed it was amply proved that great abuses are inseparable from a system of farming, and that a complete change would have to be made. The farmers, said Petty, 'have done all that knaves and fools and that sharks and beggars could do.' He was himself named as one, but Ranelagh and Shaen managed to keep him out, and he had endless trouble with them. The system indeed was essentially bad. The army was too weak, but small as it was the pay was always in arrear. Ormonde saw his way to increasing the revenue gradually, and was anxious to increase the army too, but not until accounts could be balanced. He proposed to hold a Parliament and obtain twelve subsidies amounting to 180,000_l._ payable in three years. But the farmers of the revenue objected to this on the ground that the additional burden on the taxpayer would make it impossible for them to fulfil their contracts. The King, Coventry wrote, 'is much more desirous of a revenue than subsidies, and would have your chief application be to improve that to 300,000_l._ a year, and he hath commanded me to tell your Grace you may assure them it shall all be spent in the kingdom and none sent over hither.'[117] [Sidenote: A Parliament contemplated.] [Sidenote: Unceasing scramble for land.] [Sidenote: Proposed remedial legislation.]