Page:History of England (Froude) Vol 3.djvu/461

1540.] to govern a country which had tried the brain and wrecked the reputation of many a wiser man. His recommendation had been his connection with a powerful native family; and the choice of a relation of the Geraldines implied a desire on the part of the English administration to conciliate. But to pursue prudently a policy of conciliation towards a half-conquered insubordinate race is the most arduous task which a ruler can be called on to discharge, and the connection had only surrounded him with seductive influences. His official advisers were, for the most part, little wiser than himself; and his mind yielded to a burden to which it was fundamentally unequal. His complicated embarrassments unhinged a disposition which nature had imperfectly balanced. After each and all the articles of accusation had been sifted, five of the most important were considered to have been substantiated.

In a meeting of the English privy council, on the 15th of December (after Cromwell had fallen, it is to be remembered, and when the peers had recovered their weight), 'It was agreed, after long and mature consideration, that the Lord Leonard Grey, late the King's deputy in Ireland, being led by the affection which he bare to the Geraldines, by reason of the marriage between his sister and the late Earl of Kildare, had done and committed heinous offences against the King's Majesty, and especially in the five points following, that is to say:—

'1. The entertaining of Margaret O'Connor, O'More's sons, Prior Walsh and his brother, knowing