Tyrconnel wished to keep Sheridan back in Ireland, but orders came from Sunderland that he was to come over, and they went on to Shrewsbury together to meet James, who sent for Sheridan early next morning, and told him he should expect a full report at Chester. There were heated discussions about the Act of Settlement, but no decision was come to. 'God damn you,' said Tyrconnel, 'for making you a Privy Councillor!' to which the secretary replied that the King made him. The Deputy then damned himself for making him secretary, and told him to go to the devil. Rice and Nagle tried to smooth matters by attributing all this to Sunderland's wine, but Sheridan says he was sober. Next day Tyrconnel thought it prudent to apologise, pressing the other to dine, 'and taking him about the neck and hugging him.' The quarrel broke out again as soon as they got back to Dublin.[162] [Sidenote: Municipal charters annulled.] Tyrconnel had been able to report at Chester that the transformation of the corporations was already well begun. Dublin had resisted successfully for a time, but _quo warrantos_ were brought against all the corporations, except a few that surrendered at discretion. Soon after his return from the Chester conference, James wrote to Tyrconnel announcing that judgment had been given against most of the cities and towns, and that suits were pending for the rest. The Deputy was empowered to issue new charters appointing the officers and members of all municipalities by name, with power to fill up vacancies and to return two members to Parliament. He was to reserve power for himself and his successors to remove all magistrates and officers by Order in Council, both they and the freemen being obliged to swear 'that it is not lawful upon any pretence whatsoever to take arms against the King.' This, of course, made all the corporations absolutely subservient to the Government. The charters were brought into the Exchequer, the only Irish court whence no writ of error lay in England, and were nearly all declared forfeited. Rice and his brethren took advantage of every legal quibble, and it does not appear that any case was tried upon its substantial merits. Strafford had long since discovered how easy it was to find technical flaws in letters patent, and Rice before he was a judge had said that he could drive a coach and six through the Act of Settlement. The general result was that two-thirds of each corporation were Roman Catholics who could be trusted to return members of their own persuasion when the time came for a parliament. In many old towns this was no doubt only a return to the state of things that had existed before the Civil War, but the new boroughs were chiefly the creation of English Protestants. No exception was made, Londonderry and Belfast faring like the rest. The colonists were placed in the power of men who had seldom any substantial commercial interest, and who were often descended from the insurgents of 1641.[163]