at the very first in controlling this party and evading their demands. He was no less troubled, on the other hand, by the Catholics, who, recollecting his mother Mary, conceived that he would be inclined to make matters more easy to them in England. Upon the whole, there were such difficulties in the way, as, to have steered successfully through them, would have required a wiser instead of a weaker ruler than Elizabeth.
GUNPOWDER PLOT.
The disappointment of the Catholics on finding that the severe laws against them were not to be relaxed, led to a conspiracy on the part of a few gentlemen of that persuasion, of whom the chief was William Catesby, a person of dissolute habits. It was arranged that, on the day of the meeting of Parliament, November 5, 1605, the House of Lords should be blown up by gunpowder, at the moment when the King, Lords, and Commons were assembled in it, thus destroying as they thought, all their chief enemies at one blow, and making way for a new government which should be more favorable to them. Accordingly, thirty-four barrels of powder were deposited in the cellars beneath the House, and a person named Guy Fawkes was prepared to kindle it at the proper time. The plot was discovered, in consequence of the receipt of a letter by Lord Monteagle, warning him not to attend the meeting of Parliament. An investigation took place during the night between the 4th and 5th of November, when the gunpowder was discovered, and Fawkes taken into custody. He confessed his intentions; and the rest of the conspirators fled to the country, where most of them were cut to pieces in endeavoring to defend themselves. Notwithstanding the atrocious character of this plot, the king could never be induced to take advantage of it, as most of his subjects desired, for the purpose of increasing the persecution of the Catholic party. He probably feared that new severities might only give rise to other attempts against his life.
PLANTATIONS IN IRELAND.
The state in which the king found Ireland at his accession, afforded an opportunity for commencing a more generous policy in reference to that country, and introducing regulations favorable to internal improvement. Previously to this reign, the legislative authority of the English government was confined to the small district called the 'Pale,' while the rest was governed by native sovereigns or chiefs, whose connection with the king of England was merely that of feudal homage, which did not prevent them from making wars or alliances with each other. Subject to depredations from these powerful barons, the native Irish, from a very early period, petitioned for the benefit of the English laws; but the Irish Parliament, which was composed of the English barons, was never at a loss for the means of preventing this desirable measure from being effected. James was in reality the first king who extended the English law over the whole of Ireland, by making judicial appointments suited to the extent of the country. This he was enabled to do, by the recent wars having put the country more completely in his power than it had been in that of any former monarch. He began by extending favor to the Irish chiefs, not excepting
