Arnold's vigour was limited by his powers.

The paymasters continued to cheat the Government by false returns.

The Government allowed the pay to run in arrear, the soldiers revenged themselves by oppressing and plundering the people; and 'so came to pass this wonderful phenomenon, that _in O'Neill's country_ alone in Ireland--defended as it was from attacks from without, and enriched with the plunder of the Pale--_were the peasantry prosperous, or life or property secure_.' This fact might suggest to the English historian that the evils of Ireland do not all proceed from blood or race; and that the Saxon may be placed in circumstances which make him as false, as dishonest, as lazy, as disordered, as worthless as the Celt, and that even men of 'gentle blood' may become as base as their most plebeian servants.

Nor did zeal for religious reformation redeem the defects of the Anglo-Irish rulers.

The Protestant bishops were chiefly agitated by the vestment controversy.