t the almost complete
devastation of wide tracts of country in Ireland. Historians and poets
tell the same sad story. Holinshed says that except in the cities or
towns the traveller might journey for miles without meeting man, woman,
child, or even beast. Edmund Spenser declared that the story of many
among the inhabitants, and the picture one could see of their miserable
state, was such that "any stony heart would rue the same." Mr. Froude
affirms that in Munster alone there had been so much devastation that
"the lowing of a cow or the sound of a ploughboy's whistle was not to be
heard from Valentia to the Rock of Cashel." It was made a boast by at
least one of those engaged in ruling Ireland on behalf of the Queen that
he had reduced some of the populations so deeply down that they preferred
slaughter in the field to death by starvation. When the supposed
pacification of Munster was accomplished, the province was divided into
separate settlements, to be held under the crown, at hardly more than a
nominal quit-rent, by any loyal settlers who were willing to hold the
land as vassals of the sovereign and fight for their lives. All these
lands were obtained by the confiscation of the estates of the rebellious
chieftains.

A new deputy, Sir John Perrot, convened a parliament in Ireland. There
was something farcical as well as grim in calling together a parliament
under such conditions, when the delegates were supposed to be convened
that they might give frank and sincere advice to the representative of
the sovereign. Some of the Irish chieftains who had given their
allegiance to the English sovereign not only accepted the Deputy's
invitation, but actually presented themselves in full English costume. In
former parliaments, when Irish chieftains were loyal enough to take part
in the sittings, they still wore the costume of their septs; but now,
after so many struggles, some of the Irish nobles thought they would do
better by making a complete submission to the conqueror, and inaugurating
the new season of peace and prosperity by adopting the costume of their
rulers.

This parliament naturally proved most obedient. Whatever the Deputy
wished, it promptly adopted. More estates were confiscated to the Crown,
and the land thus obtained was parcelled out on the cheapest terms of
holding to English nobles, and also to mere English adventurers, who
undertook to colonize it with workmen and traders from England. But it
was soon f