Papists, however otherwise qualified, were not allowed to vote for a member of Parliament.

They were forbidden to found or endow any university, college, or school, for the education of their children; neither could they obtain degrees in the university of Dublin.

Such was the situation to which the Irish Roman Catholics were reduced, even before the generation of those who had fought for and obtained the treaty of Limerick had passed away. "Excluded from every trust, power, or emolument of the state, civil or military; excluded from all the benefits of the constitution in all its parts; excluded from all corporate rights and immunities; repelled from grand juries; restrained in petit juries; excluded from every direction, from every trust, from every incorporated society, from every establishment, occasional or fixed, instituted for public defence, public police, public morals, or public convenience, from the bench, from the bank, from the exchange, from the university, and from the college of physicians," can we wonder at their being dissatisfied, and at their turning at length on their oppressors ?

But, while I thus endeavour faithfully to depict the political degradation of the Roman Catholics, I would not have it supposed that I consider the Protestants as altogether inexcusable. When we consider the odious tyranny of the Stuarts, who had been so lately driven from the throne, and how much misery the country

From Simon Butler's "Digest of the Popish Laws."

had suffered on their account, we can hardly wonder that the Protestant party should do all in their power to crush those who, as a body, had so warmly espoused their cause; and, when we call to mind that society in general was at that time much less advanced in civilization than at the present day, we cannot be surprised that the Protestant party should consider themselves justified in endeavouring to put down their adversaries, without regard to the means by which they endeavoured to effect that end; nor that the Roman Catholics should use every exertion to throw off the intolerable yoke which so grievously oppressed them.

The death of Queen Anne, which took place in 1714, produced no amelioration in the affairs of the Roman Catholics. George I. had hardly ascended the throne, when he was called upon to defend his crown against the pretensions of the Chevalier de St. George, the son of James II. A dangerous rebellion was raised by the Chevalier's partisans in Scotland and the northwestern parts of England; but, instead of meeting with any sympathy among the Irish, where his friends were openly recruiting, the Pretender found that the general loyalty of the people held out no hopes of success in that quarter. Indeed, the Irish Parliament, convened in 1715, not only acknowledged his Majesty's title, but passed a bill of attainder against the Chevalier, and offered a reward. of 50,000l. for his seizure. The rebellion was soon entirely suppressed, and many of the leaders expiated their offence upon the scaffold.

Three years afterwards, when the Duke of Ormond

attempted an invasion of these kingdoms with a Spanish fleet and army, his efforts were directed to Scotland, and not to Ireland, where it would have been natural to expect that the great body of Catholics would have joined him in his endeavour to restore the exiled family.

Notwithstanding this display of zeal and loyalty, we find, in the following year, a bill passing the British Parliament, styled, "An Act for the better securing the Dependency of Ireland on the Crown of Great Britain," by which the Irish House of Lords was deprived of the right of judicature in appeals; and the British Parliament was declared to have full power and authority to make laws and statutes of sufficient force and validity to bind the people of the kingdom of Ireland.

Thus, while the Irish Parliament reduced the Roman Catholics to a political non-existence, the British Parliament reduced the whole nation to a state of weakness, very little, if at all, preferable.

In 1727 George I. died, and the very first act of his successor was to deprive the Catholics of the elective franchise altogether. The discouragement of trade and industry was also producing its natural fruits: the land lay uncultivated, and the people were reduced to such a state of wretchedness and poverty, that the celebrated dean of St. Patrick declared that he rejoiced at a mortality, as a blessing to individuals and to the public. In 1728, and the following year, the scarcity of corn, caused by ill-cultivated lands and failing seasons, especially in Ulster, created a famine

throughout that province; and, when it was attempted to export corn from the south for its supply, the dread of a similar visitation led to serious riots, especially in Cork and Limerick.

In 1738 a bill was passed, inflicting additional penalties on Papists keeping any kinds of arms, and ordering a regular annual search to be made for such arms in every city or town throughout the kingdom. Notwithstanding these continued vexatious proceedings, it is a remarkable fact that, when Charles Edward Stuart, the son of the Pretender, again attempted to regain possession of the crown of his ancestors, although thousands embraced his cause in Scotland and in England, the profoundest tranquillity reigned in Ireland, and not a single man joined his standard. Hardly, however, was the rebellion quelled, when a bill was passed, enacting, that from and after the 1st of May, 1746, every Irish freeholder, before he could give his vote at an election, might be called upon to swear, not only that he was not a Papist, but that he was not married to a Papist; unless he were a convert, in which case he was to swear that he had been educated in the Popish religion, that he had conformed to the Church of Ireland, as by law established, and that he had not, since his conformity, married a Popish wife.

About the year 1723 a party in opposition to the government had been formed, under the guidance, at first, of Dean Swift. This party, calling itself “ The Patriots," had gradually increased in strength, until, in 1753, we find it headed by James Fitzgerald, Earl of

Kildare. In that year a sum of 240,000l., which remained unappropriated in the Irish treasury, was withdrawn from the country, to the great detriment of the kingdom. That proceeding was immediately laid hold of by the Patriots; and, as it had already created general dissatisfaction, it was commented on in public and private meetings, till at length the mob became so riotous as to alarm the Viceroy for his personal safety, and to cause him to quit the country in all haste, under the protection of a military guard. In 1755 the Marquis of Hartington, afterwards created Duke of Devonshire, was appointed Lord Lieutenant, and an entire change took place in the government. Stone, the primate, was removed from the privy council; Boyle, the leader of the patriot party in the lower House, was created Earl of Shannon. Several others of the party were advanced to lucrative and influential stations; and most of those who had been displaced for favouring the popular cause were reinstated. But these concessions came too late: the poverty was so great, that the lower orders were discontented, and ripe for any excesses; and, as is usual in such cases, artful and designing men seized the opportunity of advancing their own interests, by fanning the slumbering embers into a flame. Reports were propagated, that Ireland was to be deprived of her Parliament and subjected to the same taxes as England, and that a union with Great Britain was projected. A riotous mob forced its way into the House of Lords, seated an old woman upon the throne, compelled such members as they could