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lord lieutenant. The house of commons petitioned him for a further extension of the penal laws, which were brought to their extreme limit of severity, chiefly in the first years of the reign of queen Anne, and partly in the reign of George II. There was no reason for this additional legislation, for the Catholic people had been as a body quiet and submissive. The most important provisions of this "Popery act" as it was called, which became law in 1704, were these.

693. If the eldest son of a Roman Catholic father turned Protestant, he became the owner of his father's land, and the father became merely life tenant. If any other child became Protestant, a Protestant guardian was appointed, and the father had to pay for separate maintenance and education.

694. If the sons were all Catholics, the land was equally divided among them when the father died: this was for the purpose of gradually impoverishing and weakening the old Catholic families.

695. The previous codes contained provisions to prevent Catholics practising as lawyers (685). The present act increased the penalty; and a subsequent act in the reign of George II. prohibited anyone from practising as a solicitor who had not been a Protestant since fourteen years of age.

696. No Catholic could purchase land, or take a lease longer than 31 years. If land came by descent to a Catholic, or was given to him, or was left him by will, he could not accept it.

697. No person could vote at an election, or could hold any office civil or military, without taking the oaths of allegiance and abjuration (685), and receiving the sacrament according to the English rite on Sunday. This last applied to the Presbyterians and other dissenters as well as to Catholics: but they were induced to withdraw their opposition to it by a promise that it would never be turned against them a promise which was soon broken. The act requiring the reception of the sacrament according to the English rite is called the "Test act."

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698. No Catholic in future to come to live in Limerick or Galway those at present living in those cities were permitted to remain, but had to give security for good behaviour.

699. Rewards were offered for the discovery of Catholic bishops, Jesuits, unregistered priests or schoolmasters: the amount to be levied off the Catholics.

700. In the last year of queen Anne's reign the English parliament passed the Schism act, drawn up by St. John lord Bolingbroke it provided that no person could teach school without a license from the Protestant bishop, which could not be granted unless the applicant received the sacrament according to the rite of the established church; and this act was made to apply to Ireland.

701. In the reign of George II. (in 1727) an act was passed directly disfranchising all Roman Catholics-depriving them of votes at elections of every kind.

702. The Test and Schism acts were brought to bear against the Presbyterians of Ulster, who were now subjected to bitter persecution. They were expelled from Belfast and Derry, they were dismissed from the magistracy, prohibited from teaching school, their marriages were declared void, and the Regium Donum, an annual grant given by king William to their clergy, was stopped for the time. But these sturdy people never in the least yielded.

There were many other similar provisions in the "Popery act" and in the others.

703. The earl of Wharton, who came over as lord lieutenant in 1709, attempted to have the Test act repealed -the great grievance of the Presbyterians-so as to unite all denominations of Protestants against the Catholics; but he was not able to have this done.

704. Ever since the conclusion of the war the country swarmed with bands of young men belonging to the dispossessed families, who lived among the mountains and bogs and made plundering raids on the settlers at every opportunity. These were called rapparees and tories. Numerous privateers, manned by the same classes,

also hovered round the coasts with commissions from James II. and committed great havoc.

The rapparees and tories were outlawed; and in 1697 the Rapparee act was passed for their suppression. But it had little effect, and for many years the country continued to be unsettled and disturbed.

CHAPTER II.

RESTRICTIONS ON IRISH TRADE AND MANUFACTURE.

705. Ireland enjoys great natural advantages of soil and climate; and towards the end of the seventeenth century, in spite of wars and other troubles, several branches of manufacture, trade, and commerce were prospering.

But the English traders and merchants fancied that Irish prosperity was their loss, and in their short-sighted jealousy, persuaded the English parliament to ruin the trade of Ireland (except that in linen) by imposing restrictions.

706. This legislation was generally the work of the English parliament alone; but sometimes the Irish parliament followed in the same direction; and in obedience to orders from the other side, passed acts destroying their own trade. All this was the more to be wondered at, seeing that the blow fell almost exclusively on Irish Protestants; for at this time the Catholics were barely able to live, and could hardly attempt any industries.

707. The English "Navigation act" of 1660, as amended in 1663, prohibited all exports from Ireland to the colonies; and also, in the interest of English graziers, prohibited temporarily the import of Irish cattle into England. In 1666 this last prohibition was made to be permanent. These acts almost destroyed the Irish cattle and shipping trades; and the people, being unable to find a market for their horses and cattle, fell into great distress.

708. The Irish, driven from cattle rearing, applied themselves to other industries, especially that of wool, for which the country was well suited. We have seen that Wentworth crippled the trade (546): nevertheless it began to flourish again but this also was doomed. The English cloth dealers, fancying that it injured them, petitioned in 1698 to have it suppressed: and king William, in the speech from the throne, promised to discourage the Irish wool trade, to encourage the Irish linen trade, and to promote the trade of England.

709. Accordingly, in 1699, the Irish parliament, under directions from the other side, helped to ruin their own country by putting an export duty of four shillings in the lb. on fine woollen cloths, and two shillings on frieze and flannel. At the same time the English parliament passed an act prohibiting the Irish from exporting either wool or woollen goods to any ports in the world except Liverpool, Milford, Chester, and some ports on the Bristol Channel. Moreover no woollens were to be shipped to these from any Irish ports except Drogheda, Dublin, Waterford, Youghal, Cork, and Kinsale.

710. This was the most disastrous of all the restrictions on Irish trade. It accomplished all that the English merchants looked for: it ruined the Irish wool trade. It is stated that 40,000 of the Irish Protestants were immediately reduced to poverty by it; and 20,000 Puritans left Ireland for New England. Then began the emigration, from want of employment, that continues to this day. But the English parliament professed to encourage the linen trade; for this could do no harm to English manufacture.

711. As always happens when there are prohibitive tariffs, smuggling now increased enormously. Wool soon became a drug in the home markets: worth only five pence a lb.; while it would sell for two shillings and sixpence in France. This was an irresistible inducement to smuggle: and the smugglers brought, in return, contraband goodsbrandy, wine, and silk. No one cared to interfere with this illegal trade; thousands of the Irish of all classes profited

by it; and high and low, squires, clergy, and peasants, Protestants and Catholics, all were in active combination against the law.

712. The government were powerless to stop this contraband trade; and for generations it flourished all round the coasts. All this was the result of unjust and unwise legislation.

718. In subsequent times the parliament interfered with almost every branch of Irish trade and manufacture :beer, malt, hats, cotton, silk, gunpowder, iron and ironware, &c. And the embargo in the time of the American war (787) not only ruined the farmers, but ruined the trade in salted beef and other such commodities.

714. When, subsequently, these restrictions were removed and trade was partially relieved (792, 808), the remedy came too late. Some branches of manufacture and trade had been killed downright, and others permanently injured. A trade extinguished is not easily revived. The trade in wool, a chief staple of Ireland, which was kept down for nearly a century, never recovered its former state of prosperity.

715. The consequence of all this destructive legislation is that Ireland has at this day comparatively little manufacture and commerce; and the people have to depend for subsistence almost exclusively on land. And this again, by increasing the competition for land, has intensified the land troubles that we inherit from the older times of the plantations.

716. The king and his English parliament did not agree very well. He was tolerant; they were intolerant; and they took every opportunity to thwart and mortify him, which embittered his later life. The parliament passed an act in 1700 to take back all those estates he had granted (678); a measure which gave the king great annoyance.

A fall from his horse which broke his collar bone gave his shattered constitution such a shock that he sank and died on the 8th of March 1702. He was succeeded by queen Anne. George I. succeeded Anne in 1714.

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