a larger sum than Ireland had ever voted, or than Strafford had conceived that she would vote, were eventually declared. It had been one man against a nation, one man of rude fiery vehemence, who knew his own mind thoroughly: and he conquered, as such men will.

Alas! the physical constitution was not equal to this iron soul. "Well, spoken it is, good or bad," wrote Strafford to Laud about this very speech, "I cannot tell whether; but whatever it was, I spake it not betwixt my teeth, but so loud and heartily that I protest it unto you that I was faint withal at the time, and the worse for it two or three days after." And all through the Irish letters, though there is no complaint, yet the ill health is a constant excuse for business which has been necessarily set aside. The stone, agonizing attacks of gout, agues, fainting-fits broke and tortured the body, but never tamed the indomitable mind.

Before Strafford set out for Ireland, Laud, then Bishop of London, had a long and secret interview with him at Fulham. They had been gradually draw together, not by affectionate natures-for though Strafford's was ardent and impulsive, Laud's was undeniably cold-but by the enthusiasm of a common purpose, and by what gives perhaps a still stronger footing for intimacy-a common

IDEALS OF STATE AND CHURCH.

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method. If two men have to work together the surest recipe for disintegrating their friendship is that their methods of work should jar; slovenliness and the want of pigeon-holing and docketing habits have marred more intimacies than gentleness and common admiration of high things have cemented. Jean Paul has shown us how love is slain, not so much by variance of temperament and aim, as by unseasonable bonnets and an untimely besom. Laud and Strafford worked on identical lines. They had both a fondness for detail that was perhaps extravagant: prosperity and increase expressed themselves for both in material outlines. If Ireland was at peace with itself it should have a flourishing fabric trade, and the Customs should make a handsome return to the king; if the Church was prospering, in Laud's view it should have its altars in the right places, the fabrics should be in repair, the service should be worthy of its Divine origin and end. And Strafford, too, beside the attraction which Laud's similarity of character had for him, found a reverential relief in acting with a great spiritual superior. Closely connected with the sacredness of royal power, was the inherent royalty of sacred persons. The Church came next to the king with Strafford, and they were indissolubly connected.

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THE SECRET CONFERENCE.

What was settled at this conclave we do not exactly know, but we can make a very fair guess. There were certain rampant abuses of patronage, and spoliation of the Church, in Ireland; this had all to be set to rights. This was the detail, the individual issue on which they came to terms; then Laud probably opened out his general policy, and received assurances from Strafford of his loyalty to the same cause. It is one of those memorable conjunctions of which one thinks with wonder: the two eager men-Laud fresh and plump, with sparkling eyes, pacing up and down as was his wont; Strafford sitting with his chin upon his hand, partly sunk down in a chair, as he was used to sit, feeling perhaps the first lassitude of ill health. And the keen scheming, on so noble, so hopeless, so mistaken a line, gives the occasion a pathos which is infinitely increased by the strange doom that overshadowed both, and of which, in their abundance of life and energy and importance, they so little dreamed. There is no recorded instance of their meeting again, or seeing each other's faces till they met in the Tower in the last sad act of the drama.

At all events, they then or afterwards invented a mysterious cipher, embracing their policy: some of this is clear and unmistakable; some has, I

think, never been interpreted. THOROUGH is too well known to require much elucidation. That was to be their watchword. From the highest down to the lowest all were to serve the king in singleness of heart. There were to be no back thoughts. All who held office under the king, who were his chosen ministers of government, were to be ever thus.

"Them that go thorough for our master's service."

"All able, and all hearty, and all running one way, and none caring for any ends so the king be served," is Laud's expression of the ideal Government (October 14, 1633).

The Lady Mora or Delay, to whom constant allusion is made, seems to embody the opposite principle, especially as exemplified in the Home Council. There Laud could not quite get his way. There were potent lords and councillors, such as Weston and Cottington, who worked on private motives, and still were influential with the king. could not be amended; but Ireland was a virgin block, to be carved to whatever Strafford would.

That

On one occasion (July 3, 1634), Laud speaks of "his cipher being packed up for Croydon, else he would tell him how little rest he was likely to have

But as far as we are concerned his cipher is packed up for many passages. I feel certain, after studying the letters, that many passages of seeming unimportance, where the two seem to be indulging in mere personal banter, contain secrets of State. I believe there is much to be extracted yet from the letters if only one could hold the key.

I venture to quote one of the many unintelligible passages. Can anything be made of it?

"In the next place you begin to be merry with your Heifer, and I wonder you have so little pity as not to let it rest when I have plowed with it. By St. Dunstan (if it were not for swearing), I see you guess unhappily that your friends can tell how to be merry as well as serious together, and you shall not need to intreat us to continue it, for we have no other purpose, only I am in ill case by it. For your Spaniard, and the gravity which he learnt there, while he went to buy Pigeons, has tempted my old friend the Secretary from me, and he is become his man."

These passages have no apparent allusion to anything that precedes or follows them; they seem to be perfectly isolated: and it must be concluded that they are a cipher of some kind. Again, there is an expression, "Peccatum ex te, Israel," which stood for some line of action, or the result