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give.’ Falkland was very suspicious, and it is clear enough that a general redress of grievances was part of the plan; but Westmeath and his friends were probably too loyal to excite much enthusiasm, and the whole scheme was given up because subscriptions did not come in.

      Proclamation against the priests, Jan. 1624,

      which takes little effect.

      Alarmist rumours.

      Falkland’s grievances.

      Death of James I.

      Henry IV. is reported to have said that his brother of England was the wisest fool in Christendom. Macaulay thought him like the Emperor Claudius. Gardiner tried to be fair, but admitted that the popular estimate of James is based upon the ‘Fortunes of Nigel’; and therefore it is not likely to be soon altered. He has been more praised for his Irish policy than for anything else, and perhaps with truth; for there is such a thing as political long sight, clear for objects at a distance and clouded for those which are near at hand. The settlement has preserved one province to the English connection, and has thus done much to secure the rest; but it may be doubted whether the unfairness of it was not the chief cause of the outbreak in 1641, and so to a great degree of the bitterness which has permeated Irish life ever since.

      FOOTNOTES:

       Table of Contents

      [137] Chamberlain to Carleton, April 6, 1616, in Court and Times; Bacon to Sir George Villiers, July 1, 1616 (Spedding, v. 375). Installation of St. John in Liber Munerum, ii. 6. St. John to Winwood, August 1616 (No. 289); Lord Carew to Sir Thomas Roe (Camden Society) December.

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