ppy times, we shall give a
quotation from the. Messrs. Chambers, of Edinburgh, themselves fair and
liberal men, and as impartial as they are able and well informed:

"Since the pacification of Limerick, Ireland had been ruled exclusively
by the Protestant party, who, under the influence of feelings arising
from local and religious antipathies, had visited the Catholics with
many severities. The oath which had excluded the Catholics from
office had been followed, in 1698, by an Act of the Irish Parliament,
commanding all Romish priests to leave the kingdom, under the penalty
of transportation, a return from which was to be punishable by death.
Another law decreed forfeiture of property and civil rights to all
who should send their children abroad to be educated in the Catholic
faith."*

* "History and Present State of the British Empire."
Edinburgh, W. and R. Chambers.

Can any reasonable person be in doubt for a moment that those laws were
laws of extermination? In the meantime, let us hear the Messrs. Chambers
further:

"After the death of William, who was much opposed to severities on
account of religion, Acts of still greater rigor were passed for
preventing the growth of Popery. Any child of a Roman Catholic who
should declare himself a Protestant was entitled to become the heir of
his estate, the father merely holding it for his lifetime, and having
no command over it. Catholics were made incapable of succeeding to
Protestants, and lands, passing over them, were to go to the next
Protestant heir. Catholic parents were prevented from being guardians,to
their own children; no Protestant possessing property was to be
permitted to marry a Catholic; and Catholics were rendered incapable
of purchasing landed property or enjoying long leases. These measures
naturally rendered the Catholics discontented I subjects, and led to
much turbulence. The common people of that persuasion, being denied all
access to justice, took it into their own hands, and acquired all those
lawless habits for which they have since been remarkable. Treachery,
cruelty, and all the lower passions, were called into vigorous exercise.
Even the Protestants, for their own sakes, were often obliged to connive
at the evasion of laws so extremely severe, and which introduced much
difficulty in their dealings with Catholics; but, when any Protestant
wished to be revenged upon a Catholic, or to extort money from him, he
found in these laws a r