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restrictions. This law, though lamentably rigorous, CHA P. was yet, if religious coercions are to be allowed, lamentably necessary from the enormous bigotry of the catholics, among whom, if any son should shew the least propensity to protestantism, he would be instantly rendered an outcast without means of subsistence. But the interdicting of catholics from education at home seemed most injudicious, as it promoted foreign attachments, and cherished ignorance, the shield of bigotry.

party.

One of the causes of severity against catholics Violence of was the violence of party, arising from the distinction of whig and tory, a distinction imported from England. As the catholics were not only tories, but also Jacobites, they were peculiarly the object of vengeance to the whigs, the party predominant during the greater part of the reign of queen Anne. Principles of toryism were however entertained by a considerable body of protestants in Ireland, in whom they were encouraged by the successive chief governors, Rochester and Ormond. Provoked at attempts made by men of those principles, to sow dissension, the house of commons in 1705 passed a resolution against such proceedings, declaring that to spread reports, by pamphlets or otherwise, of the church being in danger, was pernicious to her Majesty's government and the succession of the crown in the protestant line. The clergy of the established church, who were mostly regarded as tories, published from their convocation resolutions to wipe suspicion from themselves, particularly that the security

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CHAP. security of the church and nation depended, under God, wholly on the succession of the protestant line as settled by law; and that if any clergyman of their order should utter any opinion of a contrary nature, he should be regarded as an enemy to the constitution. Whatever might have been the sentiments of the main body of the clergy, those of the university were so attached to the principles of the revolution, that, for aspersions on the memory of king William, they degraded and expelled Edward Forbes, one of their members. In consequence of their loyalty, an application in their favour for five thousand pounds for the erection of a library, made by the parliament in 1709, through the viceroy, was favourably received by the queen. This viceroy was the earl of Wharton, successor to the earl of Pembroke, a whig in profession, but deistical in opinion, and profligate in manners, deputed for the repairing of a shattered fortune to Ireland, where he was said by Dean Swift to have gained in two years forty-five thousand pounds, half in the regular way and half in the prùdential.

The heat of faction increased in the latter part of the reign of Anne, and the clergy openly adopted the part of the tories, which was doubtless strengthened by the imprudent violence of the whigs. Browne, bishop of Cork, published a pamphlet to prove the drinking of toasts impious, as the glorious memory of king William was perpetually given, frequently to annoyance in mixed company. When, in 1713, an address to her Majesty was voted by the

commons

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commons for the removal of Sir Constantine Phipps, CHAP. lord chancellor, an active tory; and contrary resolutions were voted by the lords, among whom toryism had gained the ascendancy; the clergy seconded strenuously the latter, and waited on the duke of Shrewsbury, the chief goveruor, at the castle, with their representation. Here Sir Robert Molesworth was heard to say, "They who have turned the world upside down are come hither also." The clergy made complaint to the lords, who in consequence requested a conference with the commons. The latter treated the matter lightly; but the English ministry, composed now of tories, ordered his removal from the privy-council. Previously to this the city of Dublin had been thrown into a ferment by disputes about the choice of a lordmayor, and by a riot which had happened in the election of members for the house of commons. An enquiry concerning the latter at the meeting of parliament occasioned the address of the commons against Phipps the chancellor. The lord-mayor in office had been empowered by late regulations to nominate three aldermen, one of whom should be elected his successor, unless reasonable objections could be made to them all. In violation of this rule, in the absence of Sir Samuel Cook, the man then holding this authority, a violent tory, the aldermen chose for his successor a whig, named Pleasant. The privy-council annulled the election. Of the aldermen, when summoned to make a new choice, twenty objected to one of the three nominated

by

CHAP. by Cook; and, before the affair could be brought to a termination, the court was dismissed.

XXXV.

Interference

of the Eng

ment.

The violence of party added one to the many inlish parlia stances of unconstitutional interference of the English parliament in the affairs of Ireland. Some of these, which were frequent from the complete, establishment of William's authority in this kingdom, have been already incidentally hinted or mentioned ; and to notice two or three more may be here sufficient. The forfeiture, decreed in the reign of Charles the first, against the London society, of their lands in the county of Derry, had been reversed, and the proprietors repossessed, by the acts of settlement and explanation. In consequence of an act of the Irish parliament for a salvo in this case to the rights of the clergy, the bishop of Derry claimed the lands of his see, and obtained judgment in his favour on a trial before the Irish peers; but the society appealed to the English house of lords, in the January of 1708, who gave a contrary judgment. The dispute of property was terminated by the removal of the bishop, and a composition made by his successor with the society. Afterwards, in the recess of the Irish parliament, the earl and countess of Meath were, by an appeal to the English peers, dispossessed of some lands, which had been decreed. to be their property by an Irish court of judicature. In February 1703, the Irish lords entered into resolutions, declaring the judgment of their house to be final, not reversable by any court whatsoever : and that if any subject within this kingdom should afterward appeal from their jurisdiction, or execute

an

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an order from any other court contrary to their de- CHAP termination, he should be deemed a betrayer of her Majesty's prerogative, of the privileges of their house, and of the rights of the subjects of Ireland. The commons were also solicitous to maintain their privileges. A money bill, transmitted to England in 1709, and returned to them with alterations, was rejected in its present form by a large majority. But the privileges of both houses were indefensibly violated by an act of the English parliament, in 1714, to prevent the growth of schism, an act levelled by the queen's ministry against the presbyterians, as whigs, both in England and Ireland. This law was made to include Ireland as fully as any part of England, as the ministry knew that a bill to this purpose could not pass in the Irish house of commons, where the whigs had a small majority.

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