Page:History of England (Froude) Vol 10.djvu/252

 232 REIGN OF ELIZABETH. [en. 59. that they should not be looked upon ' as banished men/ and declaring that they meant rather ' to carry Eng- I569 land to Ireland/ than to leave, as so many else February. ^ ac [ d one ^ their own nationality behind them. 1 This enormous scheme was submitted to the con- sideration of Cecil. His sense of justice and his caution were alike alarmed by the magnitude of the intended operations. ' Forfeiture/ he wrote in the margin of the petition, ( could not be enforced before attainder by some order of law, nor before offence found/ He was disposed to agree that the adventurers might have the lands, if the owners ' could be either adjudged felons by common law, or declared traitors by proclamation of the Lord Deputy ; ' but he suggested that the young gentle- men should, begin their experiment with the county of Cork, and advance as they found their ground secure. But the projectors knew what they were about. If their adventure was to succeed at all, they conceived that it could succeed only if tried on an Imperial scale. The Irish might prove too strong for them, if they could gather on their flanks and were left with harbours through which they could bring in the Spaniards. They persisted that they must have the whole coast- line from the mouth of the Shannon to Cork harbour included in their grant. They would then have but a single frontier to defend on the short line from Cork to Limerick. 2 Wild as their project may April. 1 Petition of sundry her Ma- jesty's good subjects, February 12, 1569 : MSS. Ireland. 2 Settlement of Munster, April, 1569, with side notes by Cecil' MSS. Ireland.