Page:History of England (Froude) Vol 10.djvu/245

 i 5 68.] STATE OF IRELAND. 225 preserved without soldiers ; the soldiers could not be kept under discipline without regular wages ; and money as usual, and especially money for Ireland, was a subject on which not one of her ministers approached Elizabeth without terror. 1 Cecil, with the utmost diffi- culty, extracted sufficient sums from time to time to stave off mutiny, but the Irish debt was frightfully in- creasing. The Queen insisted that Ireland should be made to pay at least the cost of its police duty, and the council once more went to work on the interminable problem. The obvious method, unless the practical difficulties proved insuperable, was to people the country with military colonies. The exclusive right of a savage population over lands which they will not cultivate is always disputable. The Irish chiefs might be held to have forfeited such title as they possessed by their repeated rebellions, and might be fairly required to surrender a part of their domains as the price of their pardon. A thousand brimstone, four ounces of turpen- tine, five ounces of parmaceti, a handful of nettles, and a quantity of oil of balm, and put all the afore- said in them stamped and sew them up and roast them, and take the drops and anoint you where your grief is, and by God's grace your Honour shall find help.' The Arch- bishop of Armagh to Cecil, March 25, 1571 : MSS. Ireland. 1 The duty was thrust on Cecil, who, Avriting to Sidney, says : ' In all these things I only am forced to VOL. x. break the ice, and if I might be an- swered comfortably, as reason re- quireth, the pains were tolerable, but truly, my Lord, as it is used I can- not further endure it. Every other councillor is burdened but with as- senting and commanding ; and I am like a slave put to all the drudgery to carry out all disgraces. But it is good for me to stay, for if I open this gate I should lead you into a bottomless pit of my miseries.' - Cecil to Sidney, February 2, 1569: MSS. Ireland. 15