Page:History of England (Froude) Vol 3.djvu/457

1539.] his injunctions were imperfectly attended to; he was contending with a feeling which the reluctant subjugation of an alien race rendered inevitable in their conquerors—at once conscious of the weakness of their numbers, and proud of their personal superiority. The antagonism of English and Irish could be understood and partially excused; and although the deputy, who was related by blood to both peoples, ought to have held the balance between them impartially, his error, if he had inclined to one side or the other, would at least have been intelligible. But Lord Leonard, to his misfortune, treated such Irishmen as were out of favour with the Geraldines with English insolence and tyranny. Under pretence of doing equal justice, he allowed the Geraldine dependents to avenge their own real or imagined injuries on the settlers of the Pale with their own hands. At the close of his administration he ventured on an act which only his own confession would have obliged us to credit. In a list of accusations to which he pleaded guilty is the following clause:—

Whereas it is ordained by authority of Parliament that, if any person shall draw, incite, or procure, by any manner of means, any Irishman to come in hostility into the King's dominion, to rob or spoil any of the King's subjects, or consent to the same, either by comforting or abetting any such Irishman before the act, or, after the same committed, shall aid, favour, and