52 



The lirst and second series of mapped townland surveys to which 

 I have called the attention of the Academy, conld not have been com- 

 piled without considerable cost ; and were I enabled, which I am 

 not, to lay my hands upon the public audited account of that cost, I 

 have no doubt that it would abundantly confirm the conclusions which 

 the evidence within, my power led me to form on the subject. The 

 amount, whatever it may have been, was not drawn out of the Irish 

 exchequer. The revenue of this kingdom was insufficient for the ordi- 

 nary demands upon it. The survey expenses, therefore, as well as those 

 incidental to quelling the rebellions out of which those surveys sprung, 

 were provided by, and accounted for, in England. And my object in 

 calling attention to this not animportant circumstance, is to suggest to 

 other inquirers the prudence of searching for the account records in the 

 proper London repositories ; and with this observation I pass on to a 

 third series of MS. mapped townland surveys. 



When King Charles I., at a time of comparative quiescence, ascended 

 the throne of England, the revenue of Ireland, although greatly in ad- 

 vance of what it had been, was barely ^sufficient to defray the very 

 limited civil and military expenditure charged against it. In the year 

 1632, and just when Lord Wentworth, a personal friend and most zeal- 

 ous promoter of the King's interests, was appointed Lord Deputy, the 

 aggregate amount of the revenue in round numbers was £53,300, and 

 the expenditure £54,000. Every one who has studied the history of 

 the period knows how assiduously, and with what a high hand, that 

 nobleman set about and succeeded in raising the resources of the country, 

 until in the year 1639 it reached £102, OOOj and certainly the increase, 

 as I could easily prove, was altogether attributable to his clear and com- 

 prehensive mind. 



One of his projects for the improvement of Irish finance was seizing 

 into the hands of the Crown, under pretence of defective titles, the 

 counties of Galway, Mayo, Sligo, and Eoscommon, in Connaught; of 

 Clare, Limerick, and part of Tipperary, in Munster; and of the BjTue's 

 Country, Cosha, and Eanelagh, in Wicklow, in Leinster; with the intent 

 of establishing and reaping therefrom the fruits of another, — a third 

 plantation. This scheme, however, was ultimately defeated, as appears 

 to me, through the great power and influence with the King of the then 

 Earl of Clanrickard and St. Alban's, who inherited from his ancestors 

 five baronies in the county of Galway alone. 



A modification of Wentworth's idea was submitted to; and the great 

 proprietors de facto, if not dejure, within the scopes of the proposed plan- 

 tation, as well as all others there, were permitted to come in before 

 commissioners appointed by the Crown for the remedy of defective titles, 

 and compound by money payments for new grants of their several 

 estates, rights, and interests, which swelled the revenue of the kingdom 

 very considerably at that time. The extent of these grants may be 

 estimated from the fact of the enrolments of them filling twenty-four 

 closely written volumes of foolscap size and proportionate thickness. 



