t a desire to devote themselves to the study of the
law had led many gentlemen to acknowledge a conversion to Protestantism,
a statute was actually passed to require them to prove their sincerity
by five years' adherence to their new form of religion before they could
be regarded as having washed off the defilement of their old heresy
sufficiently to be thought worthy to wear a gown in the Four Courts. No
Roman Catholic might keep a school; while a strange refinement of
intolerance had added a statute prohibiting parents from sending their
children to Roman Catholic Schools in a foreign country.

And the manner in which the government was carried on was, if possible,
worse even than the principle. The almost continual absence of the
Lord-lieutenant inevitably left the chief management of the details in
the hands of underlings, and the favor of the Castle was only to be
acquired by the lowest time-serving, of which those who could influence
elections, wealthy and high-born as they for the most part were, were
not more innocent than the representatives. No support to government
could be looked for from either peer or commoner unless it were
purchased by bribes more or less open, which it was equally
discreditable to ask and to grant; for one of the worst fruits of the
system which had so long reigned throughout the island was the general
demoralization of all classes. Mr. Fronde gives George III. himself the
credit of being the first person who resolutely desired to see a change
of the system, and to "try the experiment whether Ireland might not be
managed by open rectitude and real integrity."[128] But his first
efforts were baffled by the carelessness or incompetency of the
Viceroys, since it was difficult to find any man of ability who would
undertake the office. And for some years things went on with very little
change, great lords of different ranks having equally no object but that
of controlling the Castle and engrossing the patronage of the
government, and in not a few instances of also procuring large grants or
pensions for themselves, each seeking to build up an individual
influence which no Viceroy could ever have withstood, had they been
united instead of being separated by mutual jealousies, which enabled
him from time to time to play off one against the other.

But the war with the North American Colonies, which broke out in 1774,
by some of its indirect consequences brought about a great change in the
affa