The History of Ireland: 17th Century. Bagwell Richard
roads of England were still very bad. The charge was placed on the parishes, and compulsory powers were given to take small stones out of quarries, and underwood when required, paying such compensation as the supervisor thought reasonable. An Act of Mary against bringing in Scots and marrying with them was repealed in consequence of the union of England, Scotland, and Ireland ‘under one imperial crown.’ The only other act of great importance passed was one for a general pardon of all offences not specially excepted. But the list of exceptions was a long one, including treason and misprision of treason, piracy and murder, since the beginning of the reign. Burglary, arson, horse-stealing, and rape were pardoned unless committed within one year before the beginning of the session. Witchcraft, however, and most offences against the revenue, were excepted if committed since the King’s accession. Outlaws were excepted until such satisfaction was given as would lead to a reversal of the outlawry, and a special Act was passed to restrict the power of private suitors to place their adversaries in such a position. ‘No kingdom or people,’ said Davies, ‘have more need of this Act for a general pardon than Ireland,’ but it was considered very insufficient. Nothing was done to abate extortion in the Exchequer and other courts, and there were no words of ‘pardon of intrusions and alienations, which is the burden that lies heavy upon all the gentlemen of the kingdom.’[125]
Parliament is dissolved October, 1615,
and the King falls back on prerogative.
Obsolete statutes.
The subsidy having been granted, Parliament was prorogued after sitting four weeks, and it was intended to have another session in October. Long before the recess was over James made up his mind that there should be a dissolution, and that he would not receive another deputation from the Irish Commons. The reasons given were that the existence of Parliament interfered with the ordinary course of justice, and that the luxury was too expensive both for the members and for the constituents, who paid them more or less sufficiently. That this was not the true reason may be inferred from the fact that a dissolution was very unpopular. Probably the King thought Irish Parliaments dangerous and unmanageable as he learned to regard English ones, and he had no great appetite for legislation when the prerogative was strong enough to carry out the most pressing reforms. Orders were given to reduce the scale of legal fees and to have them hung up in all the courts. If the clergy exacted excessive charges for burials they were to modify them. Restraints on trade were to be removed by proclamation, but the exportation of wool was forbidden except into England. Finally the Statute of Kilkenny and all other Acts prohibiting commerce between English and Irish were to be treated as obsolete until the next Parliament, when they might be utterly repealed. As a matter of fact no Parliament met until Strafford’s time, and the system of bureaucratic government without effective criticism was not destined to be successful.[126]
FOOTNOTES:
[98] Instructions for Carew, June 24, 1611, in Carew Papers; Chichester to Salisbury, February 17, 1611; Lords of Council to Chichester, March 7, 1613; King to same, March 21; Lords of Council to same, October 9, 1612.
[99] List of Perrott’s Parliament in Tracts Relating to Ireland, ii. 139; List of the Parliament of 1613 in Liber mun. pub. Hiberniæ, vii. 50; Remembrances touching the Parliament, No. 93 in vol. v. of Carew Papers; as to Connaught and Munster, ib., Nos. 92, 87; Calculations as to the votes of the nobility, ib. 86; Brief Relation of the Passages in Parliament (part in Carew’s hand), ib. 149. Counties and boroughs sending burgesses to Parliament in State Papers, Ireland, April 1, 1613. A letter written in 1612 by David Kearney, Archbishop of Cashel, and others, to the Irish seminaries in Spain, says, ‘What keeps everyone in a state of intense suspense is the fear of the approaching Parliament, in which the heretics intend to vomit out all their poison and infect with it the purity of our holy religion, and it is expected that things will take place in it such as have not been seen since the schism of Henry VIII. began.’—Spicilegium Ossoriense, i. 122.
[100] Carew’s Remembrances to be thought of touching the Parliament in Carew Papers, 1611, No. 93; Davies to Salisbury, October 14, 1611, State Papers, Ireland; The King to Chichester, June 2 and September 26, 1612, in Cal. of State Papers, Ireland; Brief Relation, etc., in Carew Papers, 1613, No. 149.
[101] Letter of Lords Gormanston, Slane, Killeen, Trimleston, Dunsany, and Louth to the King, November 25, 1612, printed in Leland, ii. 443; the King to Chichester, March 4 and 31, 1613, in Cal. of State Papers, Ireland.
[102] Petition of May 18, 1613, with Chichester’s answer in Carew Papers. The signatories are Lords Gormanston, Fermoy, Mountgarrett, Buttevant, Delvin, Slane, Trimleston, Louth, Dunboyne, and Cahir. The names of Lords Killeen and Dunsany, who signed the first letter, are absent, but the former was active later.
[103] Narratives in Carew Papers, 1613, Nos. 146, 147, 149, the last paper being a detailed account signed by forty-one Protestant members. Dr. Ryves to Dr. Dunn, May 29, in Cal. of State Papers, Ireland. St. John had been active in the English Parliament of 1593, and was M.P. for Portsmouth 1604–1607.
[104] Narratives ut sup. Davies’s first speech is given in Grosart’s edition of his Prose Works, ii. 218 (Private Circulation, 1876); the other in Davies’s Tracts, 1787, from a copy in the British Museum, formerly in Clarendon’s possession, compared with one in the Commons Journal, printed by Leland as an appendix. Both speeches are printed in Desiderata Curiosa Hibernica. Davies was well versed in English history and legal antiquities, but he confounds the ‘Parlement’ of Paris with the States General.
[105] Petitions and declarations by the Recusants in Parliament calendared in State Papers, Ireland, May 17–27, 1613; Lord Deputy and Council to the King, ib. No. 685; the King to Chichester, ib. July 8.
[106] The instructions to the Commissioners are in Desiderata Curiosa Hibernica, omitting the first two which are now supplied by Irish Cal., 1613, No. 781. Bacon to the King, January 1614, in Spedding, v. 2; The King to Chichester, September 1613, Cal. No. 759.
[107] Schedule of returns in Irish Cal., May 31, 1613, with the Commissioners’ awards at November 12, also printed in Desiderata Curiosa Hibernica. The other disputed county elections were in Armagh, Cavan, Down, King’s County, Limerick, and Roscommon.
[108] Schedule ut sup.
[109] Schedule ut sup.
[110] The petition is in Desiderata Curiosa Hibernica, i. 212, the names and constituencies in Cal. of State Papers, Ireland, 1613, No. 692. Irish Statutes, 18 Edw. IV. cap. 2, 33 Henry VIII. sess. 2, cap. 1. Hallam’s Constitutional History, chap.