Page:History of England (Froude) Vol 10.djvu/311

 I572-] STATE OF IRELAND. 291 preferred having the rebel's head/ yet as that could not be, ' he thought verily he would prove a second St Paul for the service which he was like to do/ 1 So ended the first Presidency of Munster. It would not support - its cost, and, unless some plan could be found to govern Ireland which would pay its expenses, Elizabeth seemed contented that Ireland should not be governed. Fitz- william declared that he could not remain in office on those terms. Sidney was invited to return, but Sidney roughly refused. Lord Grey de Wilton was applied to next, but Lord Grey declined also ; and when pressed further, ' fell sick from grief of mind 9 at the fate with which he was threatened. The Yiceroyalty of Ireland x had become in the eyes of English noblemen a synonym for lost credit, ruined fortune, vexation, disappointment, distraction, madness. No one could be found to under- take it, and Fitzwilliam therefore was compelled to stay and drift before the wind, trusting to chance, to the non-arrival of the Spaniards, and to the Earl of Or- mond, whose solitary loyalty the new Archbishop of Cashel had done his best to shake by stirring the embers of the Butlers' quarrel. Happily he had not succeeded, and all that Cecil could now do was to furnish Fitzwil- liam with advice which it was impossible for him to fol- low to recommend him to enforce the Act of Uniform- ity, which had been one of the causes of the mischief; to curtail the expenses, already pared so low that barely a thousand soldiers now remained in the four provinces ; Report of the President of Munster, December 8.