Page:History of England (Froude) Vol 10.djvu/537

 1 5 74-] THE DESMOND REBELLION. 517 To the Earl this order was a sentence of disgrace and ruin. He had embarked honour and fortune in the enterprise. To force him to abandon it thus, at the end of a few months, was held at once unjust to himself and dangerous to the realm. His friends represented to her, that he had failed so far only from his anomalous posi- tion, and from the jealousy of the Deputy, Fitzwilliam. If Essex was made Deputy himself, his own energy, sup- ported by the Queen's authority, would overbear opposi- tion. The conquest of Ulster, the conquest of all Ireland, presented no real difficulty. The Irish Lords, Ormond, Desmond, O'Neil, O'Donnell, Clancarty, O'Brien, and Clanrickard maintained among them twenty thousand armed vagabonds, who were the obstacle to the pacifica- tion of the country. The same cost and the same land which supported ail army of anarchy, would support, at 110 cost to England, at least half the number of English police ; and ' the idle kerne could then be set to their work or to the gallows.' 1 This might be true in itself: but to make the kerne work, and to replace them with police, implied that the backs of the chiefs should be first broken, an exploit wLich might be called easy, but had hitherto proved to be hard. Elizabeth however partially yielded. Essex had shown many noble qualities ; but a capacity for independent command had not been one of them. She made him Governor of Ulster, with a direct commission from the Crown ; but she kept Fitzwilliam at his post 1 Reasons for my Lord of Essex's February 19; Essex to Burghley preferment to be Deputy of Ireland, February 9 : MSS. Ibid.