obey some law, and do not
live at will.]

"We think it expedient," he wrote, "that when ye shall call the lords
and other captains of that our land before you, as of good congruence ye
must needs do; ye, after and amongst other overtures by your wisdom then
to be made, shall declare unto them the great decay, ruin, and
desolation of that commodious and fertile land, for lack of politic
governance and good justice; which can never be brought in order unless
the unbridled sensualities of insolent folk be brought under the rule of
the laws. For realms without justice be but tyrannies and robberies,
more consonant to beastly appetites than to the laudable life of
reasonable creatures. And whereas wilfulness doth reign by strength
without law or justice, there is no distinction of propriety in
dominion; ne yet any man may say this is mine, but by strength the
weaker is subdued and oppressed, which is contrary to all laws, both of
God and man.... Howbeit, our mind is, not that ye shall impress on them
any opinion by fearful words, that we intend to expel them from their
lands and dominions lawfully possessed; ne yet that we be minded to
constrain them precisely to obey our laws, ministered by our justices
there; but under good manner to show unto them that of necessity it is
requisite that every reasonable creature be governed by a law. And
therefore, if they shall allege that our laws there used be too extreme
and rigorous; and that it should be very hard for them to observe the
same; then ye may further ensearch of them under what manners, and by
what laws, they will be ordered and governed, to the intent that if
their laws be good and reasonable, they may be approved; and the rigour
of our laws, if they shall think them too hard, be mitigated and brought
to such moderation as they may conveniently live under the same. By
which means ye shall finally induce them of necessity to conform their
order of living to the observance of some reasonable law, and not to
live at will as they have used heretofore."[303]

[Sidenote: Surrey greeted with instant rebellion,]

[Sidenote: instigated by Kildare.]

[Sidenote: Advice of Surrey to do all or nothing.]

So wrote Henry in 1520, being then twenty-eight years old, in his
inexperience of human nature, and especially of the Irish form of it. No
words could be truer, wiser, or more generous; but those only listen
effectively to words of wisdom and generosity, who themselves possess