Page:History of England (Froude) Vol 10.djvu/321

 15 73-1 STATE OF IRELAND. 301 their part would undertake to support the Crown and prevent oppression and anarchy, the English troops should be withdrawn. The administration of Sidney had not been without effect. Wherever order had been continuously preserved they had found the advantage of it, and Tremayne was convinced that the lesson had not been thrown away. If the people were trusted, he believed that they would, deserve their trust, and that if the garrisons were removed they would settle down in peace. 1 The experiment might not have succeeded, but as the abolition of the new bishops and clergy must have followed, it might have been worth trying ; while con- ciliation alloyed by distrust was certain to fail. Unfortunately, a fresh chimera had taken possession of the English imagination, and the Queen had been persuaded that conquest was still possible, though it was to cost her nothing. The settlement of Minister had broken down because it was undertaken by greedy adventurers in the mere spirit of personal acquisition ; and Smith had fared no better in Antrim, because he had gone to work with insufficient means, and without those high and public aims which would make success either possible or desirable. An English nobleman now came forward to do battle with the Irish giant like a knight of King Arthur's table. Walter Devereux, Lord Hereford, was one of the few Peers who, in the Norfolk conspiracy, had been true 1 MS. in Tremayne ? s hand. Endorsed by Burghley, ' For Ireland. Diminution of Charges.'