children were Catholics, he was obliged to divide
the land equally between them. This was the English
plan for eliminating the Catholic tenure of the land
and letting it slip out of their hands. Then,
if any of the children, during their father’s
life, concluded to become Protestants, in such case
they took the whole estate; or, indeed, they might
compel the father to put his estate in trust for their
benefit. So, if the Catholic wife would not go
to an Episcopalian church once a month—which
she deemed it a sin to do—she forfeited
her dower. But if she went regularly, she could
have all the estate. If a Catholic had a lease,
and it rose one-quarter in value, any Protestant could
take it from him by bringing that fact to the notice
of a justice of the peace. Three justices of the
peace might summon any Catholic before them, and oblige
him to give up his faith, or quit the realm.
Four justices could oblige him to abjure his faith
or sell his estates. If a Protestant paid one
dollar tax, the Catholic paid two. If a Protestant
lost a ship, when at war with a Catholic power—and
at the time there was only one Protestant power
in Europe, besides Great Britain; that was Holland:
so that the chances were nine to one that, in case
of war, Great Britain would be at war with a Catholic
power—in such a case, if a Protestant lost
a ship, he went home and assessed the value on his
Catholic neighbors, and was reimbursed. So, of
education. We fret a great deal on account of
a class of Irishmen who come to our shores and are
lacking in education, in culture, and refinement.
But you must remember the bad laws, you must remember
the malignant legislation, that sentenced them to
a life of ignorance, and made education a felony in
Catholic Ireland. If an Irishman sent his child
to a Protestant schoolmaster, all right; but if the
parent would not do so, and sent him to a Catholic
school, the father was fined ten pounds a week; and
the schoolmaster was fined five pounds a week; and
for the third offense he was hung! But, if the
father determined that his child should be educated,
and sent him across the Channel to France, the boy
forfeited his citizenship and became an alien; and,
if discovered, the father was fined one hundred pounds;
and anybody, except the father, who harbored him,
forfeited all civil rights—that is, he
could not sue in a court of law, nor could he vote.
Indeed, a Catholic could not marry! If he married
a Protestant, the marriage was void; the children
were illegitimate. And, if one Catholic married
another, it required the presence of a priest, and
if a priest landed in Ireland for twenty minutes,
it was death! To this ferocious ‘Code’,
Sir Robert Peel, in our own day, added the climax,
that no Catholic should quit his dwelling between the
hours of sunset and sunrise, an exaggeration of the
‘Curfew Law’ of William the Conqueror.
Now, you will hardly believe that this was enacted
as a law. But Mr. Froude alludes to this code.