[Sidenote: He compares Tyrone favourably with the Pale.]
Shane proudly contrasted the state of his country with that of the Pale, and suggested that the Queen should send over two incorruptible men joined in commission with the mayor and aldermen of Dublin and Drogheda, 'which are worshipful and faithful subjects,' to judge which country was the better governed. They might hear the charges against him, and also the complaints of the families of the Pale, 'what intolerable burdens they endure of cess, taxes, and tallages both of corn, beefs, muttons, porks, and baks.' Not only did the soldiers live at free quarters, but they had 'their dogs and their concubines all the whole year along in the poor farmers' houses, paying in effect nothing for all the same.' Not less than 300 farmers had gone into Shane's county out of the Pale. These men were once rich, and had good houses, but they dared not so much as tell their griefs to the Queen, 'yet the birds of the air will at length declare it unto you.' Shane considered it 'a very evil sign that men shall forsake the Pale, and come and dwell among wild savage people.'
Besides his pretensions to the Earldom, or to the captaincy of Tyrone, Matthew Kelly also advanced a claim to the manor of Balgriffin, in the county of Dublin, which had been granted to Con O'Neill, with remainder to his son, Matthew O'Neill, and in default of him and his heirs, with remainder to the right heirs of Con. Shane had taken legal opinions, and was advised that he had a title to Balgriffin, because there was no Matthew O'Neill at the time of the grant. 'It follows plainly,' he argued, 'that I am my father's right heir, legitimate begotten, and although my said father accepted him as his son, by no law that ever was since the beginning, he could not take him from his own father and mother which were then in plain life.' Besides which he had inherited the land of 'his own natural father the smith.' If the premise that Matthew was Kelly and not an O'Neill be admitted, the reasoning is irrefragable.
Badly as he had been treated, Shane declared himself ready to make restitution wherever anything could be proved against him. His savagery, which he confessed again and again, he thought could best be eradicated by an English wife, 'some gentlewoman of some noble blood meet for my vocation, whereby I might have a friendship towards your Majesty.' This impossible she would indeed be much more than an intermediary between him and the Queen to declare his grief and those of his country. 'By her good civility and bringing up, the country,' he hoped, 'would become civil, and my generation so mixed, I and my posterity should ever after know their duties.' Some educated companion was necessary to him; for the men of the Pale would not even show him how to address his letters properly, and he feared to offend, whereas he desired nothing so much as her Majesty's approbation and favour. How Shane treated an accomplished woman when he had her in his power will appear hereafter.[19]