[Sidenote: Miserable state of the North.]
Fitzwilliam had blamed Piers and Maltby for not lying in the fields during the winter, but in spite of the Queen's order he delayed his own journey to Ulster till the end of March. Tirlogh Luineach, who could not repress his pride of race, took the highest possible ground, styling himself prince, and declaring that he had only chastised those who were his own subjects. He expected soon to be at the head of 3,000 or 4,000 men, and the English companies were very weak. Fitzwilliam found he could trust no nominal muster, and resolved to count heads himself. A general hosting would be necessary, but for this it would be wiser to wait till Sidney came. So miserable were the arrangements that Fitzwilliam had to leave Carrickfergus for want of victuals. To hasten his departure he was told that his life was in danger, and the monstrous suggestion was made that Maltby, than whom the Queen had no better officer, was in the plot. And thus the early summer passed away, the Lord Justice suffering from dysentery, the soldiers half starving, the captains afraid to trust each other, and the Irish killing and plundering as if there had been no Queen in England. The chiefs who had hitherto remained faithful still protested their loyalty, but fled before Fitzwilliam, in the belief that he had come to spoil them. The local Commissioners had denied that he was coming. Finding themselves deceived, they had been forced to make a precipitous retreat in order to place their cattle in safety. The approach of the Governor was a signal for loyal subjects to conceal their property.[142]
[Sidenote: Schemes of reform. Weston and Sutton.]
The general course of government during Sidney's absence was not much more successful than that of the outlying provinces. The chief weight of it, especially when Fitzwilliam was in the North, fell upon the Lord Chancellor, an excellent man, and universally respected. His fee of 100_l._ was, as Cecil confessed, notoriously insufficient, and he was expected to eke it out by the revenues of the Deanery of St. Patrick's. His conscience rebelled against this, for no one knew better how little religion and education could afford to lose any part of their endowment. 'Attend at least,' he besought Cecil, 'to the perfectly obedient districts, the less they feel their degradation the more it moveth me to bewail and to name some remedy.' The Archbishop of Dublin had made some stir, but as yet any fruits of the reformation were confined to his cathedrals. Financial matters were in no better case. Vice-Treasurer Fitzwilliam's accounts had not been audited for more than nine years, and the unchecked balance amounted to near 400,000_l._ The soldiers' pay was in arrears, and means were wanting to pay even the most pressing creditors. The ignorance of the common and statute law was as great as that of the Gospel. The old complaints of family alliances among the lawyers were repeated. When we consider that there were no published Acts of Parliament, it is easy to understand how great may have been the power of this privileged class. It was said, and probably with truth, that the Irish nobility often had the judges practically in their pay; and there was little justice to be had by the Crown on the one hand, or by the poor subjects on the other.[143]