The Government Framework

 In Dublin a miniature Government, modelled on that of England, had its seat. There was a Viceroy, called the Lord Lieutenant or the Lord Deputy (the former title was held more honourable) and a council, consisting mainly of the chief officials and one or more of the Archbishops.

The defence of the people, whether from civil injustice or from the hostility of armed foes, was little attended to. The administration of justice was feeble and corrupt; the Viceroy held that, when he had made reprisals on the Irish who raided the Pale by counter expeditions into their territories, and had perhaps recaptured a few cows, he had done all that could reasonably be expected of him.

Round the Viceroy and his council was a crowd of officials and clerks, excessively numerous for the work that had to be done. There was a Treasurer, a Lord Chancellor, a Master of the Rolls, and Justices of the King’s Bench, as well as lesser judges.

The full rights of English law were for those of English blood alone. The mere Irish could not claim them, unless they had taken out ” papers of denization,” that is to say become what we should now call naturalised English subjects, or belonged to ” the five bloods “—five families held to be of the race of the ancient provincial Kings.

At this period, however, a ” mere Irishman ” residing within the Pale could no longer be slain by an Englishman with impunity, as had been the case in the earlier colony days.