528 Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy. 



any action of his own whicti might seem wanting in respect to the 

 sovereign.^ 



A third picture of the proceedings in Sydney's Parliament is 

 supplied in the State Papers'^ in a letter addressed to Sir William Cecil, 

 afterwards Lord Eurghley, by Sir Robert "Weston, already mentioned 

 as the Lord Chancellor of Ireland at this period. Weston had but 

 lately been raised to the Irish Woolsack, and he united with that 

 great office the eminent position of Dean of St. Patrick's, which wa& 

 bestowed upon him in order to eke out the inadequate salaiy which 

 then attached to the highest office in the law. Though a layman, 

 Weston was better qualified than some others of his contemporaries 

 who encroached in this curious fashion on the preserves of the Church 

 to support a clerical dignity. He was a great ecclesiastical lawyer, 

 and had held the office of the Dean of Arches in England ; and, if the 

 encomium passed upon him by Hooker be not greatly exaggerated, he 

 was not undeserving of his posthumous eminence in the topmost tier 

 of the Countess of Cork's tomb in St. Patrick's.^ 



As Speaker of the House of Lords, as well as a very important 

 member of the Irish Privy Council, Weston took a prominent part in 

 the business of Sydney's Parliament. In his letter to Cecil, which is 

 dated February 17, 1568-9, with a postscript written three days later, 

 he gives in very considerable detail an outline of the proceedings at 

 the opening of the Session. " The Lower House," he describes as 

 at first very disquiet and in contention, thi'ough challenge laid to 

 the English members," whose return was impugned for non-residence 

 in their constituencies, and consequently strangers and none of that 

 house." Weston's reference to the contention over Poynings' Act 

 has been already noticed ; but his narrative is also noteworthy for the 

 glimpse it gives us of the practice of the Irish House of Lords. " In 

 the Higher House," he tells us, " the consultation and treaty was^ 

 more calme and quyett : but yet there was some standinge and reason- 

 in ge touching the orders of the House, as, namely, whether the 

 Queenes Highness' learned counsaill were to be suffered in the house, 

 w'^''. at leingth was agreed of." Another formal question was^ 

 whether the gentleman usher attending on the cloth of estate, or 

 canopy, under which the Deputy sat when present in Parliament, 



^ HoHnshed, vi., pp. 342, 353 ; Stubbs's Constitutional History, vol. iii., p. 472. 

 2 State Papers {Ireland), vol. 27, No. 25, Feb. 17-20, 1568-9. 

 ■'' The Countess was Weston's granddaughter, through the marriage of her 

 mother, Katharine Weston, with Sir Geoffrey Fenton. 



