A second message[c] informed him that it was
genuine, but ought to be considered of no force, as far as it concerned
Ireland, because it had been issued without the advice of the Irish privy
council.[1] This communication encouraged
[Footnote 1: Carte's letters, i. 391. Charles's counsellors at Breda had
instilled into him principles which he seems afterwards to have cherished
through life: "that honour and conscience were bugbears, and that the
king ought to govern himself rather by the rules of prudence and
necessity."--Ibid. Nicholas to Ormond, 435. At first Charles agreed to find
some way "how he might with honour and justice break the peace with the
Irish, if a free parliament in Scotland should think it fitting" afterwards
"to break it, but on condition that it should not be published till he had
acquainted Ormond and his friends, secured them, and been instructed how
with honour and justice he might break it in regard of the breach on their
part" (p. 396, 397). Yet a little before he had resolutely declared that no
consideration should induce him to violate the same peace (p. 374, 379).
On his application afterwards for aid to the pope, he excused it, saying,
"fuisse vim manifestam: jam enim statuerant Scoti presbyterani personam
suam parliamento Anglicano tradere, si illam declarationem ab ipsis factam
non approbasset.
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