the like, wherein there can be no defence against the King's rent for the reason aforesaid. And it is just not to suffer the rent to run in arrearage, for else the wrong doer shall pay no rent, and the Patentee when he shall afterwards recover it shall be charged with his arrearage. But if the possessions have continued long against the King, or his Patentee, or if those erroneous and indirect courses of trying of rights against the King and his Patentees by actions of trespass, ejectione ferme, new commissions, or the like, have been allowed by the Courts of Justice there, and that sometimes by allowance and direction out of England (if by these means the right have appeared against the King), and if for those or any other reasons it shall seem good to your Lordships not suddenly to have such possessions removed, it may please you to give these or such other directions as shall seem good to your Lordships. First, where the lands are in the King's hands and not granted out: It is at his Majesty's pleasure to forbear to seize the lands, upon bond that if they do not prosecute their pretended right by petition with effect, so as they prove their right in due form of law within some convenient time to be prefixed, That then they shall yield the quiet possession with the mean profits incurred. And if any of those things be granted out, in which case the Patentee cannot be denied his ordinary remedies: yet he may with justice be denied to use any course in the King's name for his benefit, and therefore if he will desire to sue by information upon intrusion before his Patent, it may be refused. Also the Patentee can procure no seizure of the land for himself or his Majesty, otherwise than for the King's rent as aforesaid, in which case the Court may dispose of the land as they shall think most convenient. Lastly, if the Patentee can be brought to suffer the possession to continue, and accept of such bond as is before mentioned for the King till the title be tried according to due course of law with expedition, it will be a good quiet. But in this permitting of them (that pretend title against the King or his Patentee) to continue their possession, that favour (which is granted out of respect of convenience) would be extended only to so much as the pretenders do actually manure, for otherwise they may make it a colour to the possession of a large country, whereof they have neither use nor occupation; which may tend to the depopulation and decay of habitation therein. Also (if it seem good to your Lordships) a general direction to the Courts there would do well, that they should not hereafter permit those disordered proceedings by new inquisitions, trials in Ejectione firme, or otherwise, by the pretenders against the Patentees, that have as it seems been heretofore allowed against the King and his Patentees: But to observe in all things the rule of law by which they may judge and the people enjoy their own with certainty. And thus much touching the questions of the first case. 2. As touching the second case, concerning the proxeys granted in the time of King Henry the Eight by the Bishop of Mead unto the said King in exchange for certain parsonages impropriate, although we find some difficulty and that there may be difference of opinions whether the said grant of proxeys be good, although the same were granted by the said Bishop as Ordinary unto the King as supreme Ordinary, yet the said King and other his Majesty's predecessors and also his Highness having been possessed of the same as a revenue of the Crown, we are all of clear opinion that the granting of such Rectories in fee, fee-farm, or lease, by the late Queen can be no [hind]erance to his Majesty by extinguishment, suspension, or otherwise, of the said duties called proxeys [half a line worn away here] unto his Highness into his Exchequer, any the said grants of the said Rectories notwithstanding. 3. As touching the last question, whether a fine for alienation be due unto his Majesty upon a common recovery suffered in Ireland of lands holden by Knight's service in capite; we are of opinion that there is due a fine for alienation upon such recoveries, for that they are now but as conveyances and so accounted in law, upon which an use may be raised and averred as upon a fine or any other assurance. FR. BACON. HENRY HOBART. Whatever complications the title might in particular cases be subject to, there was no doubt that the reduction of that long rebellion VOL. IV. I left a large portion of the land in Ulster at the legitimate disposal of the Crown, and that the use which the Crown meant to make of its power was to establish among the inhabitants the authority and protection of law in place of the wild rule they had been accustomed to under their native chiefs. How this was to be done was a question of much doubt and difficulty then; and if it is easy now to say how it might have been done better, that is only because the region of the " might have been " and "would have been " is the historian's Utopia, where he can assign to every counsel the issue which he likes best. But though King James and his Councillors could not command the issue of their measures, it must at least be admitted that they took the course which seemed at the time to promise the best chance of a successful issue. About the end of October, 1608, the Chief Justice and Attorney General of Ireland were sent over to London, to confer with the Government on the measures to be taken. They were there joined in commission with four other persons, selected as best acquainted with Ireland, and instructed to prepare a project. On the 12th of December they submitted to the Government a scheme for the settlement of the County of Tyrone, and on the 9th of January for the five other Counties. It must have been in the interval between their first and second report that Bacon addressed to the King the following letter; of which the original is preserved in the Advocates' Library at Edinburgh; and there is a copy among Bacon's own papers at Lambeth,' docketed by himself— A LETTER TO THE KING UPON PRESENTING MY DISCOURSE TOUCHING THE PLANTATION OF IRELAND. TO THE KING'S MOST EXCELLENT MAJESTY. It may please your excellent Majesty, I knew not better how to express my good wishes of a good new-year to your Majesty, than by this little book, which in all humbleness I send you. The style is a style of business, rather than curious or elaborate. And herein I was encouraged by my experience of your Majesty's former grace, in accepting of the like poor field-fruits touching the Union. And certainly I reckon this action as a second brother to the Union. For I assure myself that England, Scotland, and Ireland well united is such a trefoil as no prince except yourself (who are the worthiest) weareth in his crown; si potentia reducatur in actum. I know well that for me to beat my brains about these things, 1 Gib. Pap. VIII. fo. 281. they may be majora quam pro fortuna; but yet they be minora quam pro studio et voluntate. For as I do yet bear an extreme zeal to the memory of my old mistress Queen Elizabeth, to whom I was rather bound for her trust than for her favour; so I must acknowledge myself much more bounden to your Majesty, both for trust and favour; whereof I will never deceive the one, as I can never deserve the other. And so in all humbleness kissing your Majesty's sacred hands, I remain Your Majesty's most humble subject and devote servant, FR. BACON. The discourse which accompanied this letter was first published in the Resuscitatio in 1657, probably from a manuscript remaining among Bacon's own papers, which afterwards passing into the possession of Lord Oxford came with the rest of the Harleian Collection into the British Museum. It is a copy in one of the hands usually employed by Bacon at that time, but bears no traces of his own except on the title, where the words " Presented to his Majesty, 1606," appear to have been inserted by himself. They were added, probably, in looking through his papers long after, when it was easy to make a mistake of a year or two; for the manuscript, as it stood originally, had no date; and that there was some doubt about it is proved by the fact that 1605 had been written first. It happens however luckily that 1606 is an impossible date in this case; for the paper itself contains allusions to things which certainly occurred later; and the direct evidence being thus necessarily set aside as inadmissible, we need not hesitate to accept the date assigned by Mr. Gardiner-Jan. 1, 1608-9; the only date which fits with everything. Chief Justice Popham died on the 7th of June, 1607, and is therefore properly described as the "Lord Chief Justice deceased," which he could not have been in 1606. Bacon became SolicitorGeneral on the 25th of June, 1607, and then (but not till then) could speak of himself as serving in the place which Popham held when Munster was planted. That this discourse was presented to the King on a New Year's Day, we learn from the letter which accompanied it. Now on no New Year's Day before that of 1608-9 could it have been said that the project had been digested already for the County of Tyrone: on no New Year's Day after that of 1608-9 could the project have been mentioned as digested for that county only. I conceive therefore that (the evidence of Bacon's own handwriting notwithstanding,) the date here assigned to it must be accepted as unquestionably correct. The copy here given is from the manuscript, from which the copy in the Resuscitatio appears to have been taken, and only to vary by accident. CERTAIN CONSIDERATIONS TOUCHING THE PLANTATION IN IRELAND. TO THE KING, It seemeth God hath reserved to your Majesty's times two works, which amongst the acts of kings have the supreme preeminence; the union and the plantation of kingdoms. For although it be a great fortune for a king to deliver or recover his kingdom from long continued calamities; yet in the judgment of those that have distinguished of the degrees of sovereign honour, to be a founder of estates or kingdoms excelleth all the rest; for as in arts and sciences to be the first inventor is more than to illustrate or amplify; and as in the works of God the creation is greater than the preservation; and as in the works of nature the birth and nativity is more than the continuance; so in kingdoms the first foundation or plantation is of more noble dignity and merit than all that followeth. Of which foundations there being but two kinds, the first that maketh one of more, and the second that makes one of none, the latter resembling the creation of the world, which was de nihilo ad quid, and the former the edification of the Church, which was de multiplici ad simplex vel ad unum, it hath pleased the divine providence, in singular favour to your Majesty, to put both these kinds of foundations or regenerations into your hand the one in the union of the island of Britain, the other in the plantation of great and noble parts of the island of Ireland; which enterprises happily accomplished, then that which was uttered by one of the best orators in one of the worst verses, O fortunatam natam me consule Romam, may be far more truly and properly applied to your Majesty's acts; natam te rege Britanniam; natam Hiberniam. For he spake unproperly of deliverance and preservation; but in these acts of yours it may be verified more naturally. For indeed unions and plantations are the very nativities or birth-days of kingdoms. Wherein likewise 1 Harl. MSS. 6797, fo. 122. |