of its refusal. A
Court of Wards was also established about this time, for the purpose of
having all heirs to estates brought up in the Protestant religion; and a
High Commission Court was instituted, which rivalled the exactions of
the Star Chamber in England.

In 1640 another appeal was made by the King for assistance, and
Wentworth headed the contribution with L20,000. He had devoted himself
with considerable ability to increasing the Irish revenue and the trade
of the country had improved, although the Irish woollen manufacture had
been completely crushed, as it threatened to interfere with English
commerce. The Lord Deputy now saw the advantage of procuring a standing
army in Ireland, and he proceeded to embody a force of 10,000 foot and
1,000 horse. These men were principally Irish and Catholics, as he knew
they would be most likely to stand by the King in an hour of trial,
notwithstanding the cruel persecutions to which they had been subjected.
But the Deputy's own career was nearer its termination than he had
anticipated. When he forsook the popular side in England, Pym had
remarked significantly: "Though you have left us, I will not leave you
while your head is on your shoulders." The Puritan faction never lost
sight of a quarry when once they had it in sight, and it scarcely needed
Stafford's haughtiness and devotion to the King to seal his doom. The
unhappy King was compelled to sign his death-warrant; and the victim was
executed on the 12th of May, 1641, redeeming in some manner, by the
nobleness of his death, the cruelties, injustices, and duplicity of
which he had been guilty during his life.

The kingdom of England was never in a more critical state than at this
period. The King was such only in name, and the ruling powers were the
Puritan party, who already looked to Cromwell as their head. The
resistance, which had begun in opposition to tyrannical enactments, and
to the arbitrary exercise of authority by the King and his High Church
prelates, was fast merging into, what it soon became, an open revolt
against the crown, and all religion which did not square with the very
peculiar and ill-defined tenets of the rebellious party. In 1641 the
Queen's confessor was sent to the Tower, and a resolution was passed by
both houses never to consent to the toleration of the Catholic worship
in Ireland, or in any other part of his Majesty's dominions. The country
party had determined to possess themselves of the co