sweeping proscription was not enacted, under form of law,
at this period. The native Englishmen in the House were
extremely unpopular out of doors, and Hooker, one of
their number, who sat for the deserted borough of Athenry,
had to be escorted to his lodgings by a strong guard,
for fear of the Dublin mob. The chief acts of the first
session were a subsidy, for ten years, of 13 shillings
4 pence for every ploughland granted to the Queen; an
act suspending Poyning's act for the continuance of
_that_ Parliament; an act for the attainder of John
O'Neil; an act appropriating to her Majesty the lands of
the Knight of the Valley; an act authorizing the Lord
Deputy to present to vacant benefices in Munster and
Connaught for ten years; an act abolishing the title of
"Captain," or _ruler_ of counties or districts, unless
by special warrant under the great seal; an act for
reversing the attainder of the Earl of Kildare. In the
sittings of 1570 and '71, the chief acts were for the
erection of free schools, for the preservation of the
public records, for establishing an uniform measure in
the sale of corn, and for the attainder of the White
Knight, deceased. Though undoubtedly most of these statutes
strengthened Sidney's hands and favoured his policy, they
did not go the lengths which in his official correspondence
he advocated. For the last seven years of his connection
with Irish affairs, he was accordingly disposed to dispense
with the unmanageable machinery of a Parliament. Orders
in council were much more easily procured than acts of
legislation, even when every care had been taken to pack
the House of Commons with the dependents of the executive.