ossession of his farm. If any Catholic had
secretly purchased either his old forfeited estate, or any other land,
any Protestant who informed against him might become the proprietor. The
few Catholic landowners who remained were deprived of the right which
all other classes possessed of bequeathing their lands as they pleased.
If their sons continued Catholics, it was divided equally between them.
If, however, the eldest son consented to apostatize, the estate was
settled upon him, the father from that hour became only a life-tenant,
and lost all power of selling, mortgaging, or otherwise disposing of it.
If the wife of a Catholic abandoned the religion of her husband, she was
immediately free from his control, and the Chancellor was empowered to
assign to her a certain proportion of her husband's property. If any
child, however young, professed itself a Protestant, it was at once
taken from the father's care, and the Chancellor could oblige the father
to declare upon oath the value of his property, both real and personal,
and could assign for the present maintenance and future portion of the
converted child such proportion of that property as the court might
decree. No Catholic could be guardian either to his own children or to
those of another person; and therefore a Catholic who died while his
children were minors had the bitterness of reflecting upon his death-bed
that they must pass into the care of Protestants. An annuity of from
twenty to forty pounds was provided as a bribe for every priest who
would become a Protestant. To convert a Protestant to Catholicism was a
capital offence. In every walk of life the Catholic was pursued by
persecution or restriction. Except in the linen trade, he could not have
more than two apprentices. He could not possess a horse of the value of
more than five pounds, and any Protestant, on giving him five pounds,
could take his horse. He was compelled to pay double to the militia. He
was forbidden, except under particular conditions, to live in Galway or
Limerick. In case of war with a Catholic power, the Catholics were
obliged to reimburse the damage done by the enemy's privateers. The
Legislature, it is true, did not venture absolutely to suppress their
worship, but it existed only by a doubtful connivance--stigmatized as if
it were a species of licensed prostitution, and subject to conditions
which, if they had been enforced, would have rendered its continuance
impossible. An old la