to additional soldiers as he thinks
best _at his own cost_, and agrees to let him have
some cannon from the royal stores.--Acts of Privy
Council, 1416.]

The complaints, to answer which, among other objects, we have already
intimated an opinion that this memorial might possibly have been
partly prepared, were taken into consideration on the 28th of the
preceding February by the King himself in council, and are by no means
devoid of interest, though only a cursory allusion to them can be made
here. Among the grievances are certain "impositions outrageously
imposed upon them;" the seizure of the wheat and cattle belonging to
churchmen by the officers and soldiers of the Lieutenant, contrary to
the liberties of Holy Church; and the non-execution and non-observance
of the laws in consequence of the insufficiency of the officers. To
these complaints the King replies that, at the expiration of Lord
Furnival's lieutenancy, he would provide a remedy by the appointment
of good and sufficient officers. The terms of indenture, by which the
King and Lieutenant were then usually bound, probably presented (p. 240)
an obstacle to any immediate interference.

But the most interesting point in these complaints is the prayer with
which they close. It proves that, in the view of the complainants,
(and probably theirs was the general opinion,) absenteeism was then
very prevalent, and was held to be one of the greatest evils under
which Ireland was at that time suffering; it informs us also that
Irishmen born (that is, however, men of English extraction born in
Ireland,) were advanced to benefices in England; and it shows that
many such natives of Ireland were in the habit of coming to England
for the purposes of studying the law, and of residing in the
Universities. The complainants "require that through the realm of
England proclamation be made that all persons born in Ireland, being
in England, except persons of the church beneficed, and students and
others engaged in the departments of the law, and scholars studying in
the Universities, betake themselves to the parts of Ireland, for
defence of the same.

To this petition the King only replies, that "he grants it according
to the form of the statute made in that case."

The statute to which Henry here refers was made in the first year of
his reign. It bears incidental testimony to his mild and merciful
disposition, as compa