lics who escaped massacre were sent to America, or driven into Connaught. "To Connaught or to Hell," such was the language used by these founders of Protestant "civilization."

Under the reign of William of Orange the Irish Catholics retained possession of no more than the tenth part of their soil.

From the downfall of the Stuarts the actual system of tyrannical oppression and cruelty was abandoned, to give place to the work of lawyers. Hypocrisy built up a monument of injustice which drew the following cry of indignation from the Protestant historian Gervinus ("Geschichte des XIXten Jahrhundert," vol. vii. p. 438):

"A system of oppression opposed to all that is natural was invented, the plan of which was to impoverish and barbarize the masses of the people, in exterminating either the Catholic Church or the actual Catholic population itself."

In the years 1663 and 1666 the Irish people were forbidden to export their cattle, because their agriculture was considered to be improving, and in 1699 the exportation of wool was prohibited, because these unfortunate people were beginning to rival the English in this branch of trade.

No "papist" could hold any office under the State,

or acquire landed property; no papist employer could have more than two apprentices, for fear that Irish industry should gain too much power.

The English government, in order to impoverish Ireland as much as possible, imposed upon Catholics the obligation of an equal division of property amongst the children—a system practised, since the revolution of 1798, in France and Belgium, but one that has never been admitted in England or the United States of America.

Burke declared that it was a system calculated to ruin the small families, without their possessing the means to recover themselves by industry and intellect, since they were prohibited from retaining any kind of property, and according to him the whole code of Protestant despotism was so well organized to oppress the people and disfigure even human nature itself, that nothing equal to it was ever invented by the most consummate hypocrisy.

Until the reign of George III. Catholics were forbidden to erect schools, and the parents of the great Daniel O'Connell were obliged to send their son to Liége and Douai in order to find a Catholic school in which instruction might be given to the future liberator of their country.

It was only in this reign that the law was abolished which prohibited an Irishman from keeping a horse exceeding the value of £5 in his possession.1

The entire body of the Protestant clergy opposed Catholic Emancipation with the greatest vigour.2

Although some partial concessions had been made to the Catholics by the Irish Parliament at the close of last century, the feeling was strong against admitting them to equal rights with their Protestant countrymen, which showed itself in the fact that the corporations of the principal cities of an essentially Catholic country were almost exclusively governed by Protestants. Mr. Lecky declares that for forty-seven years after Catholics had been made eligible, not one was elected into the corporation of Dublin.

Here we have enough to prove the paramount injustice of the criticisms of the modern liberals. Are we not right when we accuse them of allowing themselves to be carried away by religious prejudice, when they make the amazing statement that it was the Catholic Church that rendered Ireland miserable,

'See Lecky's "Leaders of Public Opinion in Ireland." Longmans, London.

2 Mullala's "Irish Affairs," vol. ii.

and that it was Protestantism that had made England great and powerful?

We cite the following page of history from “Le Français" of Paris as the testimony of an outsider to Protestant civilization in Ireland: 1

"In the year 1828 O'Connell considered the moment for action on the part of the Irish Catholics had arrived.

The question at stake was that of obtaining for Catholics the right of a seat in the House of Commons, and the right to occupy political and civil posts.

O'Connell determined to present himself to the electors of the County Clare, in order to force open the doors of that parliament which had hitherto been so obstinately kept closed.

At first sight it might appear that nothing would be easier than his return by the electors of the county, since the great majority of the people were Catholics, although the difficulty of admission into the House of Commons might be great; but it must be borne in mind that at that period only those who paid a certain fixed amount of taxes had the right of exercising a vote, and that nearly all persons of this class were Protestants.

The only Catholic electors were the tenants and small farmers, who were completely at the mercy of their Protestant landlords. The tenants had no natural inherent rights in the soil; the whim of the landlord, or rather of his agent (as the landlord in most cases did not reside in the country), was of itself sufficient for their eviction.

Eviction, be it clearly understood, implied ruin. The tenant received no indemnity for the improvements he made. He originally received a piece of bare ground, on which he had to build himself a house, and the day of his expulsion saw him,

1 "Le Français" of the 3rd August, 1875.

therefore, severed from his home. This was the work of the terrible crow-bar brigade.

Nothing is more heartrending or deplorable than the history of these evictions.

Irishmen and Irishwomen have more than once evinced in such cases a patience, the secret of which can alone be found in their strong religious faith.

Let us give an instance of what we mean. An old couple brutally driven away from their cabin were lamenting their forlorn condition.

'Ah !' said the old woman, 'here I am at the age of seventy-four years left without a shelter in the world; I who have never done anyone any ill, and who have often given hospitality to others. What have I done to be treated in this way?' 'Hold your peace,' said the old man. 'Hold your peace. Our blessed Lord suffered more than that in His Passion.'

Evictions were by no means isolated or extraordinary occur

rences.

In the space of ten years, from 1841 to 1851, 282,000 houses were in this way destroyed. In 1849 more than 50,000 families

were driven away.

It is impossible to travel over certain parts of Ireland without meeting at every step traces of ruins.

The excesses were so great that an Englishman and a Protestant (Mr. Bright) was able to say, 'It is impossible in travelling through certain districts of Ireland not to feel that enormous crimes have been committed by the various governments to which the country has been subjected?

It will be seen, then, how difficult was the situation of the Catholic electors in regard to their Protestant landlords.

Every vote for a Catholic (and the vote was not given secretly) brought with it eviction as an inevitable consequence; that is to say, ruin, and perhaps death.