The Defeat of the Patent

For three seasons now a cloud of ignorance lay over Dublin. The Irish leaders kept all their antennae out, trying to pick up the signals of English policy. But only faint and confusing noises came through. Carteret distracted the people in the best possible way, by his close attention to the government. He strove to be fair-minded and energetic, courteous and accessible, committing himself to no party. Above all, he looked into the accounts of the Irish treasury, with sensational results. Archbishop King said, ‘No Lord Lieutenant that I remember since Lord Essex seems to have laid to his heart the business of the kingdom so much as he doth or to have been more equal to it.’ ¹ Bishop Nicolson, in rare agreement, praised him as warmly. ²