were convened into the Castle-Chamber, of whom nine of the chief were censured; six of the aldermen were fined each one hundred pounds; the other three, fifty pounds each: and were all committed prisoners to the castle, during the pleasure of the court. It was at the same time ordered, that none of the citizens should bear offices till they had conformed."129 With this fact before his eyes, derived from the best authority, Leland affords an example of the most unaccountable inaccuracy, to use no stronger language. He informs us, that the annual amount of fines imposed on recusants in the county of Dublin, during the administration of lord Chichester, did not exceed the sum of fourteen or fifteen pounds;130 whereas it appears that at one time nine persons paid seven hundred and fifty pounds sterling, in the city of Dublin alone: and we have every reason to presume, notwithstanding the silence of certain historians on the subject, that the law was enforced with equal rigour every where else. No reason can be assigned why, when the whole nation lay at the feet of those merciless oppressors, they would confine their rapacity to the precincts of Dublin. It is a well-known property of despotism, that its subordinate agents are always more arbitrary and oppressive than their principals; and it is therefore highly probable, as indeed is established by the testimony of

129 Harris, 322.

130 Leland, II. 515.

cotemporary Roman Catholic writers, that the rapacity of the administration was at least equalled in every other quarter of the island.*

"The Catholics of Ireland, on account of their greater number and opulence, had contributed more liberally to the above-mentioned, and all other supplies, than all the rest of his majesty's subjects of that kingdom; and the king, instead of redressing their present grievances, did, in a few months after the date of his letter of thanks above-mentioned, not only continue, but increase them, by giving particular instructions to Oliver St. John, then going over deputy, to put the statute of the 2d of Elizabeth, and all other penal statutes, in strict execution; instructions which Sir Oliver seemed very well inclined to pursue; for, at his entering on the government, he did indeed proceed with vigour in the execution of that statute, and caused presentments to be made of such as neglected coming to church in different parts of the kingdom. The effects of this rigour were dismal and extensive; the treasures of the rich were thereby soon exhausted; and the poor every where, not being able to pay this tax on their consciences, fled into dens, and caverns from the cruel collectors of it, whither they were sometimes pursued by the furious blood-hounds, set on and followed by a sheriff and his posse of disbanded soldiers, equally furious and unrelenting. Mr. Rooth, a cotemporary writer, informs us, that in the poor county of Cavan alone, not less than eight thousand pounds were levied in one year, by means of this tax. Ecclesiastical censures, on the same account, were severely executed in every part of the kingdom. Those who lay under them, when found abroad, were constantly thrown into jails; and great numbers of merchants and artificers, being thus confined at home, and hindered to transact business publicly, and in the way of open commerce, were suddenly reduced to poverty and distress. Even their dead bodies did not escape the cruelty of these censurers; for if they happened to die, while yet they lay under them, they were denied Christian burial, and their corpses thrown into

In these proceedings of the deputies, under the express direction of James I. there was a signal display of the base ingratitude that peculiarly characterized the wretched Stuart race, who, during the whole of their sway, were a curse and a scourge to Ireland. A short time previously, the Irish Parliament had unanimously voted that monarch uncommonly liberal supplies, for which he had, in his usual verbose style, ordered the deputy to return them his thanks. The Catholics were, as justly stated by Curry in the preceding note, as much more wealthy as they were more numerous than the Protestants; and of course were entitled, for their liberality, to some display of gratitude and lenity. But the only return made by the miserable king, was to issue orders, as we have seen, to the deputy, to enforce the execution of the unjust and wicked statutes against them.

Dr. Leland, discussing the oppressions and penalties which the Roman Catholics suffered, reasons with great sang froid on the folly of their subjecting themselves to such disadvantages, and appears to believe that there is no more difficulty in a change of religion, than in a change of the fashion of dress. He very philosophically states,

holes, dug in the highways, with every mark of ignominy that could be devised and inflicted by their bigoted judges."131 131 Curry, I. 101.

that "men whose religious principles expose them to grievous disadvantages in society, are particularly bound to examine those principles with care and accuracy, lest they sacrifice the interests of themselves and their posterity to an illusion."132

This is a miserable cant, which applies with equal force and propriety to the case of all persecutors, of all ages and every country. Dioclesian, Nero, or Mahomet, might with equal propriety have held the same language to the unhappy objects on whom they wreaked their vengeance, as the Irish government. They might have said, while they were preparing their stakes and their flames, "You ought to examine with care and accuracy those principles which expose you to grievous disadvantages, and not to sacrifice your own interests, and those of your posterity, to an illusion." The idea of a nation laying aside, as illusions, those religious opinions which they had imbibed in infancy, and those practices to which they were habituated through life, and which "grew with their growth," would never have entered into the mind of any man who was not temporarily a dotard; and whatever might have been the ordinary range of Dr. Leland's mind, he must at that moment have been in a state of dotage.

132 Leland, II. 517.

POINT III.

The Court of Wards.

A very large portion of the exercise of the energies, the talents, and the industry of mankind, results from that holy regard to offspring, which pervades all animated nature, not excepting the most ferocious tenants of the woods; which is among the most powerful of the impelling motives of man and beast; and is wisely implanted by our Creator for the best purposes. Men of genuine parental feelings labour, with at least as much zeal, to secure independence and happiness for their offspring, as for their own proper advantage. But as if nothing holy or sacred could escape the violence and virulence of the Irish administration, in its dire hostility to the Roman Catholics, an attempt was made to cut up by the roots this inherent and instinctive principle, by the establishment of the court of wards, whereby the heirs of the Irish nobility and gentry were, on the decease of their parents, placed under the care of some court parasite, or person who bribed the court, and thus purchased the guardianship. Lord Orrery remarks, that the objections to the court of wards were, that "no man would labour for a child, who, for aught he knows, may be sold like cattle in the market, even to those who will give most: for," adds he, COMMITTED by those who have enjoyed the

66 SUCH ABUSES HAVE BEEN TOO OFTEN