ost for which he applied, and the demands of
Catholics for a due share of position and of influence is denounced as a
claim for monopoly.

To show how much evidence there is to sustain the charge I will quote a
Protestant writer on this question of preferment--"Three-quarters of the
Irish people," she writes, "are Catholics. Of 23 Lords Lieutenant since
1832 not one has been a Catholic, nor ever by law can be a Catholic, and
only 3 have been Irishmen, tame Irish, as the word goes in Ireland of
the denationalised Irishman who has shaken off allegiance to his own
people. Of 30 Chief Secretaries, almost all English, not one has been a
Catholic. It is not necessary that the Chief Secretary or the Commander
of the Forces should be Protestant, but no Catholic has ever yet been
allowed to fill either of these exalted offices. Of the 173 Irish peers
only 14 (including Viscount Taafe of Austria) are Catholics, and the 28
representative peers in the House of Lords are all free from the taint
of the religion of the Irish people, and powerful to drive opinion
against it. Out of 60 Privy Councillors in Ireland 4 only are Catholics,
and 3 out of 17 judges. Eleven out of the 60 Sub-Commissioners are
Catholics; 7 out of the 21 County Court Judges. The head of the police
is a Protestant. One only of the 36 County Inspectors is a Catholic. Of
170 District Inspectors only 10 are of that faith, and of 65 Resident
Magistrates only 15 are Catholics. If we take the Valuation Offices, the
Registration Offices, the Inspectorship of Factories, the Board of
Works, the Woods and Forests, the Ordnance Survey, and any and every
public department, Protestants hold three places out of four, though
they are but one-quarter of the whole population. The extreme party, as
we have seen, have secured no less than seven offices in the Government,
and their followers and friends hold about 90 per cent. of the higher
salaried posts under the Crown in Ireland."[25]

The same writer attributes the glaring discrepancy between the figures
which have just been quoted and the ratio of Catholics and Protestants
in the population of Ireland to "a union of Protestant fanaticism and
place-hunting greed." That it is due to any lack of ability among Irish
Catholics I scarcely think anyone will urge, and in this connection an
amazing article, which I remember reading in an English paper, is of
interest. The writer, a Unionist from Ulster, strove to show the manner
in whic