letter that Sharp in London was to
receive from Baillie.[1]

[Footnote 1: Baillie, III. 234-335; with Mr. Laing's Life of
Baillie.]

IRELAND.

There had been little of novelty in Ireland for some time after the
proclamation of the Protectorate (Vol. IV. p. 551). Fleetwood, with
the full title of "Lord Deputy" since Sept. 1654, had conducted the
Government, as well as he could, with a Council of assessors,
consisting, after that date, of Miles Corbet, Robert Goodwin, Colonel
Matthew Tomlinson, and Colonel Robert Hammond. This last, so brought
into the Protector's service after long retirement, died at Dublin in
July 1655. Ludlow still kept aloof, disowning the Protectorate,
though remaining in Ireland with his old military commission. Left
very much to themselves, Fleetwood and his Council had carried out,
as far as possible, the Acts for the Settlement of the country passed
or proposed by the Rump in 1652, but not pushing too severely the
great business which the Rump had schemed out, of a general and
gradual cooping up of the Roman Catholics within the single province
of Connaught. In the nature of things, that business, or indeed any
actual prevention of the exercise of the Catholic Religion wherever
Roman Catholics abounded, was impracticable. It was enough, in the
Lord Protector's view, that the land lay quiet, the Roman Catholics
and their faithful priests not stirring too publicly, the English
soldiery keeping all under sufficient pressure, and English and
Scottish colonization shooting in here and there, with Protestant
preaching and Protestant farming in its track. On the whole,
Fleetwood's Lord-Deputyship, if not eventful, was far from unpopular.
[1]

[Footnote 1: Godwin, IV. 447-449.]

It had occurred to Cromwell, however, that more could be done in
Ireland, and that his son-in-law Fleetwood was perhaps not
sufficiently energetic, or sufficiently Oliverian, for the purpose.
Accordingly, about the same time that Fleetwood had been raised to
the Lord-Deputyship, Cromwell's second son, Henry, had been appointed
Major-General of the Irish Army. The good impression he had made in
his former mission to Ireland (Vol. IV. p. 551) justified the
appointment. Not till the middle of 1655, however, did he arrive in
Ireland. His reception then was enthusiastic, and was followed by the
sudden recall of Fleetwood to London, professedly for a visit only,
but really not to return. The title of Lord-Deputy of Ireland w