any suppressed convent, abbey, or monastery,' where rested the remains of their ancestors! In order to secure impartial justice, in England, foreigners, accused of petit treason, murder, or felony, are tried by a jury composed of an equal number of natives and foreigners; and juries are thus constituted in civil actions between denizens and foreigners. But, as if nothing were too sacred or holy to be trampled under foot, in Ireland, in all the cases arising under the laws "to prevent the growth of Popery," Catholics were expressly excluded from juries;† and their honour, their property, and their lives, were thus exposed to the mercy of their envenomed enemies. If a Catholic child were sent abroad without license, it was presumed by law that he was sent "None shall, from the said 29th of December, bury any dead, in any suppressed monastery, abbey, or convent, that is not made use of for celebrating divine service according to the liturgy of the church of Ireland by the law established, or within the precincts thereof, upon pain of ten pounds."576 "From the first of Michaelmas-Term, 1708, no Papist shall serve or be returned to serve on any grand jury in the Queen's Bench, or before justices of assize, oyer and terminer, or gaol delivery, or Quarter Sessions, unless it appear to the court that a sufficient number of Protestants cannot then be had for the service; and in all trials of issues, on any presentment, indictment, or information or action on any statute, for any offence committed by Papists, in breach of such laws, the plaintiff or prosecutor may challenge any Papist returned as juror, and assign as a cause that he is a Papist, which challenge shall be allowed of!!!97577 576 Robins, 452. 577 Idem, 459. to be educated in a foreign seminary; by which a forfeiture of his personal and of the income of his real estate was incurred. On his return, he might apply to court, and prove the cause of his absence to have been innocent: in which case, he was entitled to the future income of his real estate, but could not be restored to the proceeds during his absence, nor to any part of his personal estate!”* "If any of the king's subjects of this realm, at any time after this session of Parliament, shall pass or go, or shall convey or send, or cause to be conveyed or sent, any child or other person, into any parts beyond the seas, out of the king's obedience, to the intent to enter into, or be resident, or trained up, in any priory, abbey, nunnery, Popish university, college, or school, or house of Jesuits or priests, or in any Popish private family there; and shall be by any Popish person instructed, persuaded or strengthened in the Popish religion, in any sort to profess the same; or shall send or convey, or cause to be conveyed or sent, any money or other thing towards the maintenance of any child or other person already sent, or that shall hereafter go or be sent, to be trained up and instructed as aforesaid; or (under the name or colour of charity) towards the relief of any religious houses whatsoever; every such offender, being thereof lawfully convicted, or upon any information, presentment or indictment for any the offences aforesaid, to be found by a jury of the county, city, or town corporate, where such offender shall have any estate of inheritance at the time of the offence committed, shall be for ever (after such finding) disabled to sue or prosecute any action, bill, plaint or information, in course of law, or to sue in any court of equity, or to be guardian or executor, or administrator to any person, or capable of any legacy or deed of gift, or to bear any office within this realm, and shall forfeit all their goods and chattels, and also all their lands, tenements and hereditaments, rents, Roman Catholics were prohibited from acting as guardians. An infraction of this law subjected the party to a penalty of five hundred pounds. * annuities, offices and estate of freehold, during their natural lives."578 "And if any person be convicted of being sent beyond the seas, contrary to this act, by the conviction of the person sending or conveying him only, such person, upon his return into this kingdom, shall, at any time within twelve months after, or within twelve months after attaining the age of twenty-one years, upon prayer, by motion to the king's bench in this kingdom, be admitted to his trial; and the judges of the said court, upon such prayer, shall cause an information to be exhibited against him, to which he shall plead; and the court shall proceed to trial thereupon, by a jury of the county where the said court shall then sit; and the defendant, at the trial, shall be obliged to prove to what intent he was sent or conveyed beyond the seas, and unless he makes it appear that he was not sent or conveyed contrary to this act, it shall be taken for granted that he was sent to the contrary, as though the same had been fully proved. And in case, upon trial, the party shall be acquitted, then he shall be discharged of all the disabilities, penalties and forfeitures in this act, except his goods and chattels, and the profits of his lands incurred, received before such acquittal. "And every such person, sent or conveyed as aforesaid, that shall, within six months after his return into this kingdom, in the chancery or king's bench, in the term time, between the hours of eight and twelve in the morning, take the oaths," &c. "shall from thenceforth be discharged of all the disabilities aforesaid; and shall from such time be restored to the receipt of the future growing rents, and profits of his said real estate only, BUT SHALL NEVERTHELESS LOSE ALL THOSE PAST, and "No Papist shall be guardian unto, or have the tuition or custody of, any orphan or child under the age of twenty-one 579 Idem, 186. 578 Robins, 185. Roman Catholic house-keepers were obliged to find fit Protestant substitutes for militia duty; and, in case of neglect or refusal, to pay double the fine imposed on Protestants ;* and likewise to pay, towards the support of the militia, double what the Protestants paid.† No Catholics were allowed to purchase any part of the forfeited estates; nor to inherit, take, make title to, by descent, purchase, limitation, devise, or other conveyance, or to have, hold, or enjoy any such estates. They were even prohi years but the same (where the person intituled to, or having the guardianship of, such child, is or shall be a Papist) shall be disposed of by chancery to some near relation of such orphan, &c. being a Protestant, to whom the estate cannot descend. "If any Papist shall take upon him the guardianship or tuition of any orphan or child, contrary to this act, he shall forfeit 500l. to be recovered by action of debt."580 *"The lieutenants, &c. or the major part of them, may cause to be raised upon the Popish inhabitants, and upon every person who shall refuse to take the oath of abjuration, (which oath any justice of the peace may administer) double the sum they should have paid by virtue of this act, in case they had been Protestants."581 "In case such Papist shall neglect or refuse to find such sufficient man, he shall forfeit double the sum as a Protestant should forfeit, in case such Protestant should neglect to attend the service of the militia, when thereunto required, by beat of drum or sound of trumpet, as aforesaid."582 "Leases of the premises to be made to Protestants only, at the full improved rent, without any fine. Leases to or in trust for Papists, or assigned to them, to be void, and the lessor, as582 Idem, 407. 580 Robins, 454. 581 Idem, 409. bited from taking them on leases for lives or years. Roman Catholics were prohibited, in 1702, from buying or purchasing, in their own names, or in the names of others to their use, any lands, or rents and profits out of the same, other than for a term not exceeding thirty-one years.* No Roman Catholic could be elected mayor, bailiff, sovereign, portrieff, burgomaster, recorder, sheriff, treasurer, alderman, town-clerk, burgess, common council-man, within any city, walled town, or corporation; nor be nominated, appointed, presented, or sworn, as high constable, in any barony or half-barony; or as petty constable, in any manor, ward, parish, constablewick, or place within the kingdom: but was to be proportionably taxed to support the same.583 Some portions of this code appear so gratuitously wicked and profligate, that it is difficult even to conjecture what could have been the object of the miscreants by whom they were en signor, and lessee or assignee, accepting or occupying such lands, to forfeit treble the yearly value."584 *“Every Papist, after the time aforesaid, shall be disabled to purchase, either in his own name or in the name of any other, to his use or in trust for him, any manors, lands, hereditaments, or any rents or profits out of the same, or any leases or terms thereof, other than for a term of years not exceeding thirty-one years, whereon a rent, not less than two-thirds of the improved yearly value at the time of making such lease, shall be reserved and made payable during such term."585 583 2 Geo. I. xii. 584 Robins, 26. 585 Idem, 454. |