TO SIR GEORGE VILLIERS. 201 



will think it may be their case as well to be spared 

 as prosecuted : and this is the best advice that I can 

 give to his majesty in this strait; and of this opinion 

 seemed mv lord chancellor to be. 



J 



The second proposition is this : It may be his 

 majesty will be moved to reduce the number of his 

 council of Ireland, which is now almost fifty, to 

 twenty, or the like number; in respect the great 

 ness of the number doth both embase the authority 

 of the council, and divulge the business. Never 

 theless, I do hold this proposition to be rather 

 specious and solemn, than needful at this time ; for 

 certainly it will fill the state full of discontentment ; 

 which in a growing and unsettled estate ought not 

 to be. 



This I could wish ; that his majesty would 

 appoint a select number of counsellors there, which 

 might deal in the improvement of his revenue, being 

 a thing not fit to pass through too many hands, 

 and that the said selected number should have days 

 of sitting by themselves, at which the rest of the 

 council should not be present ; which being once 

 settled, then other principal business of state may be 

 handled at those sittings, and so the rest begin to be 

 disused, and yet retain their countenance without 

 murmur or disgrace. 



The third proposition, as it is wound up, seemeth 

 to be pretty, if it can keep promise ; for it is this, 

 that a means may be found to reinforce his majesty s 

 army there by 500 or 1000 men ; and that without 

 any penny increase of charge. And the means 



