Page:History of England (Froude) Vol 7.djvu/558

 538 REIGN OF ELIZABETH. [CH. 46. to her Majesty ; and yet, contrary to all other realms, the realm of Ireland had been and yet continued so chargeable to the Crown of England, and the revenues thereof so mean, and those which were, so decayed and so diminished, that great yearly treasures were carried out of the realm of England to satisfy the stipends of the officers and soldiers required for the governance of the same.' l Sir Henry Sidney paid the penalty of his ability in being selected to terminate in some form or other a state of things which could no longer be endured. Again before he would consent he repeated and even ex- aggerated his conditions. He would not go as others had gone, ' fed on the chameleon's dish/ to twine ropes of sand and sea- slime to bind the Irish rebels with. He would go with a force to back him, or he would not go at all. He must have power, he said, to raise as many men as the Queen's service required ; and she must trust his honour to keep them no longer than they were abso- lutely wanted. "No remedial measures could be attempted till anarchy had been trampled down ; and then the country would prosper of itself. ' To go to work by force,' he said, ' will be chargeable it is true ; but if you will give the people justice and minister law among them, and exercise the sword of the sovereign, and put away the sword of the subject omnia haec adjicientur vobis you shall drive the now man of war to be an husbandman, and he that now liveth like a 1 Instructions to Sir H. Sidney, October 5 ; Irish MSS. Eolls Ho