should not be up to the mark, James himself sent him special and minute instructions as to the manner in which he should handle the delicate subjects he had to bring before the Spanish sovereign.  There has been seldom a better illustration of the saying, that the use of speech is to conceal thought, than in the representations which the ambassador was instructed to make about Irish affairs.  Indeed Cornwallis had already shown that he scarcely needed to be tutored by his sovereign.  In a preliminary despatch he had sent an account of his conversation with Philip III.’s secretary of state about the fugitive earls.  He told him that though they had been guilty of rebellions and treasons they had not only been pardoned, but loaded with dignities such as few or none of the king’s ancestors had ever bestowed on any of the Irish nation.  He had conferred upon them an absolute and, ’in a manner, unlimited government in their own countries, nothing wanting to their ambitions but the name of kings, and neither crossed in anything concerning their civil government, nor so much as in act or imagination molested, or in any sort questioned with, for their consciences and religion.’  He thought therefore that they would never have fled in such a way, unless they had been drawn to Spain by large promises in the hope of serving some future turns.

The secretary listened to this insinuation with much impatience, and declared solemnly, laying his hand on his breast with an oath, that of the departure and intention of the earls there was no more knowledge given to the king or any of his state than to the ambassador himself.  He added that there had been much consumption of Spanish treasure by supporting strangers who had come from all parts.  In particular they had a bitter taste of those who had come from James’s dominions; and they would have suffered much more, ’if they had not made a resolute and determined stop to the running of that fountain and refused to give ear to many overtures.’  The ambassador expressed his satisfaction at this assurance, and then endeavoured to show how unworthy those Irish princes were of the least encouragement.  Their flight was the result of madness, they departed without any occasion of ’earthly distaste’ or offence given them by their sovereign, whose position towards the Irish was very different from that of the late queen.  Elizabeth had employed against their revolts and rebellions only her own subjects of England, who were not accustomed either to the diet of that savage country, or to the bogs, and other retreats which that wild people used.  But now, the king his master, being possessed of Scotland, had in that country, ’near adjoining to the north part of Ireland, a people of their own fashion, diet, and disposition, that could walk their bogs as well as themselves, live with their food, and were so well practised and accustomed in their own country to the like, that they were as apt to pull them out of their dens and