Page:A View of the State of Ireland - 1809.djvu/497

 OF IRELAND. 199 heere it multiplyeth, heere it is spent, they have their due, the Prince is bettered, you are quieted, Iustice executed, malefactours terrifyed. Were they never so deare collopps of your owne flesh and bloud, I see not how you could either have coloured their offence, or qualifyed their punishment, the one so notorious, that it cannot be dissembled, the other so ordinary, that Course of law prescribeth it. Therefore as you have well done, so you have done but your duties, allowed an inch to receive an ell, abridged your owne foes, avenged your own injuryes, condemned your owne oppressors. And yet this duty being on your parts, so cheerefully and painfully, so lovingly and advisedly performed, deserveth great thankes, and shall finde it too, If I bee the man, either in office able to consider you, or out of office in place to friend you. I am to depart into England shortly, lay your heads together, and article the points, whereby this Realme may be furthered, use mee either as a mouth to speake for you, or an eye to direct you, or as a hand to under-prop you, aut consilio, aid auocilio. Besides, the generall which I ought to have for you all, as your governour, and yoked together under one obedience, English blouds, and English hearts, I am linked to you as to my continuall acquaintance these many yeares, hither I came in my spring, heere I have spent my summer, I returne in the fall of the leafe, now is the time, in- timate your defects in demaunds, or what else soever may content you, and see whether I will tender your common-wealth. I meane not the pretended common-