pproved by the King and Council. This
Act obtained the name of "Poyning's Law." It became a serious grievance
when the whole of Ireland was brought under English government; but at
the time of its enactment it could only affect the inhabitants of the
Pale, who formed a very small portion of the population of that country;
and the colonists regarded it rather favourably, as a means of
protecting them against the legislative oppressions of the Viceroys.

The general object of the Act was nominally to reduce the people to
"whole and perfect obedience." The attempt to accomplish this desirable
end had been continued for rather more than two hundred years, and had
not yet been attained. The Parliament of Drogheda did not succeed,
although the Viceroy returned to England afterwards under the happy
conviction that he had perfectly accomplished his mission. Acts were
also passed that ordnance[375] should not be kept in fortresses without
the Viceregal licence; that the lords spiritual and temporal were to
appear in their robes in Parliament, for the English lords of Ireland
had, "through penuriousness, done away the said robes to their own great
dishonour, and the rebuke of all the whole land;" that the "many
damnable customs and uses," practised by the Anglo-Norman lords and
gentlemen, under the names of "coigne, livery, and pay," should be
reformed; that the inhabitants on the frontiers of the four shires
should forthwith build and maintain a double-ditch, raised six feet
above the ground on the side which "meared next unto the Irishmen," so
that the said Irishmen should be kept out; that all subjects were to
provide themselves with cuirasses and helmets, with English bows and
sheaves of arrows; that every parish should be provided with a pair of
butts,[376] and the constables were ordered to call the parishioners
before them on holidays, to shoot at least two or three games.

The Irish war-cries[377] which had been adopted by the English lords
were forbidden, and they were commanded to call upon St. George or the
King of England. The Statutes of Kilkenny were confirmed, with the
exception of the one which forbid the use of the Irish language. As
nearly all the English settlers had adopted it, such an enactment could
not possibly have been carried out. Three of the principal nobles of the
country were absent from this assembly: Maurice, Earl of Desmond, was in
arms on behalf of Warbeck; Gerald, Earl of Kildare, was charged wi