Page:Cassell's Illustrated History of England vol 3.djvu/182

168 care and judgment; yet my opinion is, that it will not be the worse for my service though their obstinacy make you to break them, for I fear they have some ground to demand more than it is fit for me to give."



Wentworth knew that very well, but meant to grant nothing of the kind. He sent out a hundred letters of recommendation in favour of the return of candidates on whom he could rely, and procured a royal order for the absent peers to send blank proxies, which he might fill up as he pleased. Those were considerable in number, and consisted chiefly of Englishmen who had obtained their estates or titles from Charles or his father. Thus he secured a majority; and on opening parliament he informed the members that he meant to hold two sessions—one for the benefit of the king, the other for redressing the grievances of the people. Had the Irish noticed what had been going forward in England, they would have augured no good from such an arrangement, and might have followed the example of the English commons, who would always insist on stating their grievances before parting with their money. But the unfortunate Irish listened to the glowing tones of the lord deputy, who assured them that if they put their trust in him and the king, they would have the happiest parliament that had ever sate in that kingdom. He talked of the misfortunes which had happened to the English parliament through distrusting the king—he himself having been one of the chief actors in these distrusts—and assuring them that he was anxious to hasten to the second session and the removal of all then complaints, they voted him six subsidies of larger amount than had ever been granted before.

But when they came to the second session, awful was the astonishment, and terrible the consternation, of the liberal granters of subsidies. The shameless trickster coolly informed them that of the fifty-one graces promised them by the king, very few were of a kind which he who knew the circumstances of the country, could grant. In vain they