BOOK II. 1715 had roused themselves to more vigorous resolution, the magistrates had learnt by experience, that negligence was less dangerous to them than promptitude. In a common-place book of some responsible person, perhaps one of the judges, there is a passage on the subject which is curiously explicit. 'The Papists,' says this writer, by law are allowed a priest in every parish, which are registered in pursuance of an act of Parliament made ten years ago. All bishops, regulars, and other priests, not registered, are banished, and none allowed to come into the kingdom under severe penalties. The design was, that there should be no succession, and many of those then registered are since dead. Yet, for want of due execution of the laws, many are come in from foreign parts, and there are in the country Popish bishops concealed that ordain many. Little enquiry of late has been made into these matters. As to the Roman Catholics I think it impossible, while they continue such, to reconcile them to his majesty's interest; and, therefore, all means ought to be used to prevent their doing mischief. Our laws are already too severe against them, but meet with no execution, and the management towards them has been so uncertain for fifty years last past, in truth ever since the Reformation, that none dare trust the Government so far as to exert themselves in earnest against them; for such an act, in a few years, it is imputed to him as a crime.'1 1 As in later times, an Ecclesiastical Titles Bill passed through Parliament with acclamation, yet, from the first day that it received the consent of the Crown, was treated with ostentatious contempt, so these seemingly barbarous statutes against the Irish Catholic 1 MSS. Ireland. Record Office, vol. cccxxxix. III. Those priests who 1715 clergy were but as unshotted cannon, loud sounding CHAP. and conspicuously impotent. went through the form of registering themselves and taking the oaths were treated as poor creatures, and were removed from their cures to make way for bolder spirits.' In 1721, in Dublin itself, under the very shadow of the Castle, the Catholic Primate resided, ordained clergy, and exercised jurisdiction without attempt at concealment. A bishop of Meath and a body of Capuchins found shelter under the roof of an officer in the service of the Crown; and there were other establishments of Augustinians, Franciscans, Carmelites, and Dominicans, whose existence was perfectly well known to the authorities. The bishops lived in quasi retirement for a few years after the passing of the Act, but they emerged as they found themselves unmolested, and their assistance soon came to be made use of in the Government of the country. English administrations, one after the other, thinking of nothing but the convenience of the moment, saw the Catholic Irish doubling and trebling their numbers, and took no heed of a phenomenon which would not ripen in their time to mischief. The Catholics were 1 The priests take the Oath of Abjuration, but confess it as a sin to other priests, and receive absolution. It is a melancholy reflection of living among men whom neither oath can bind, nor justice and lenity oblige to fidelity to our Established Church. We receive daily information of multitudes coming lately into this kingdom, and their superiors turning out the registered priests as a dull inactive sort of people, and placing others in their stead, who 2 Todos estos frailes capuchi- BOOK II. 1715 a weapon in their hands to keep the Protestant gentry from being troublesome. They allowed the penal laws to stand, and the odium of them to rest on the Irish Parliament. But the success which would have been the justification of those laws, they took care to make impossible; thus ensuring their eventual repeal with the ignominy which necessarily attaches to tyranny which has failed. So cruel or so careless was the administration of Sir Robert Walpole, that he would not even make known his real wishes. If the Catholic clergy were not to be punished, they ought to have been recognized. A carefully considered plan was submitted to the crown, by which a supply of secular priests could be maintained and licensed, while the regular clergy should be removed.' But the Irish Parliament were still allowed to believe, that England sincerely wished that Popery should be extinguished. Viceroy after Viceroy was permitted to urge from the throne a more thorough execution of the law; and the Protestant gentry, conscious of the dangers to which they were increasingly exposed by the multiplication of the Catholics, in defiance of a law which it was inevitable that they must resent, were encouraged in their perplexity to invent fresh penalties of which the threat might perhaps prove a deterrent. Left to themselves they could have perhaps themselves removed a law which they could not carry out. Sir Robert Walpole preferred that they should stand over the Catholics with a brandished whip, and that he and England should earn the gratitude of the bishops and priests, by arresting the arm ere it could fall. 1 'Charles Hogg to the King, December 10, 1723. MSS. Record Office. SECTION IV. III. 1715 SINCE forcible conversion was tacitly abandoned, CHAP. the form of Protestantism which could hope to become the religion of Ireland, could be only that which showed spontaneous vitality. Congregations were willing to support Catholic priests; congregations were willing to support Presbyterian ministers. The clergy of the Anglo-Irish Church existed only on endowments. The Presbyterians made converts among the Catholics; the Church made none, or only such as she could have better spared, which were made for her by the Popery Act; while, for every reluctant or interested conformist, she lost ten, twenty, or thirty of the scattered Protestant peasantry in the southern provinces, to whom she forbade their own ministrations, and who, since they could not have what they desired, preferred the priest and the goodwill of their neighbours. Cruel and even blind as England was to Ireland's interests on so many sides, she at least perceived the absurdity of maintaining the Test clause. If the peasantry were not to be driven, there was still a chance that they might be won; and no sooner was George the First on the throne, and the Tory junta dismissed and scattered, than Wharton's policy was revived, and the removal of the Test, so unhappily and inadvertently imposed, became the most ardently desired object of the new ministers. When the rebellion began in Scotland, an insurrection in Ireland had been confi II. 1715 out. BOOK dently looked for.1 The militia were again called The Presbyterian leaders held a meeting at Belfast to consider how they should act; and, though strictly disqualified, they came to an honourable resolution, 'to risk everything for his majesty's service,' and trust to the clemency of the Government to screen them from prosecution. They communicated their intentions to Mr. Conolly, a distinguished member of the Irish Council. Conolly wrote to the Lords Justices guaranteeing their loyalty; and, at his request, commissions were issued to the Presbyterian gentlemen. The ranks of the regiments were immediately filled; and, over and above the regular troops, thirty thousand men were at once in arms, sufficient, if rebellion had been attempted, to crush it out on the instant. The lesson was not thrown away. Owing to the leaven of Jacobitism in the Establishment, the Presbyterian was the only body on whom England could thoroughly rely in a struggle with the Pretender. The Queen's death had dissolved the last Parliament. A new election, it was hoped, would give the Liberal party in the Lower House a sufficient majority to enable the Government to force the repeal of the Test clause upon the Peers. The Regium Donum, which had been discontinued for four years, was restored and increased. Sunderland, a tried friend to the Dissenting interest, was appointed Viceroy. Sunderland himself was unable to leave London; but he received a deputation from the Ulster Synod, and promised them all the aid in his power. The Duke of Grafton and Lord Galway came over as Lords Justices and by them Parliament was opened on the 14th of November. 1 Sir William Caulfield to Secretary Delafaye, August 1, 1715.' MSS. Record Office. |