Sidney received minute instructions as to the principles on which he was to conduct the Government. He was to make close inquiry as to the best available means for establishing the 'Christian religion' among the people, and St. Patrick's was to be at once surveyed, with a view to founding a college. The judicial bench was to be purged of partial men; and if necessary, lawyers with increased stipends would be sent from England. The jurisdiction of the courts was to be extended as much as possible in the Irish districts. Sheriffs were to be regularly appointed for Leix, Offaly, and for what is now the county of Wicklow. The Celtic countries between the Shannon and the Pale were, if possible, to be joined to Meath, or to the King's and Queen's Counties. Besides the five shires of the Pale, Carlow, Wexford, Kilkenny, Waterford, Tipperary, Cork, Kerry, and Limerick were, as a matter of course, to be considered under the law; and Desmond and Ormonde were to protect sheriffs and coroners in the execution of their duties. A Presidency would be established for Munster, and perhaps another for Connaught; and in the meantime every means was to be taken to substitute English manners for Irish customs, fixed payments for arbitrary exactions, and estates of inheritance for tribal chiefries. Many existing statutes were unknown, because they had never been printed, and Sidney was directed to send exemplifications of such as appeared fit to be published and observed.[103] [Sidenote: Revenue.] The finances were to be reformed, if possible, without further charge to the Queen, and with greater ease to the subject, an impossible task, which Sidney well knew that he could never perform. Many of the rules laid down were, however, very good, and it was clearly seen that much of the financial confusion arose from private jobbing, and from a faulty system of public accounts. What Elizabeth would not as yet see was that the first and greatest irregularity consisted in leaving soldiers unpaid, and in fixing salaries at rates which would not support the incumbents. In order to keep the reforming spirit alive, the Lord Deputy and Council were ordered to read their instructions over every three months, and to report progress to the Queen. 'How strange a thing it may seem to be,' says her Majesty in Council, 'that such a realm as that is, where no just cause is to fear invasion of any other prince, where any person dwelling in that land has never directly or indirectly denied the sovereignty of that Crown to belong to the Crown of England, yet nevertheless to remain so chargeable to the Crown of England for the governance thereof only, and the revenues thereof to be so mean as the like burden and charge is not found in any place of Christendom, where commonly though the countries be subject to titles of other princes, or full of rebellions even for the sovereignties, yet the same do contribute sufficiently to the charge for their own government.'[104]