of the future totally misunderstood the principles which then governed human action; for controverted points of religion (such as belief in the Real Presence) had ceased to be a principle of human action.  He maintained that the cause of the Pope, as a political force, was as dead as that of the Stuarts; that priestcraft was a superannuated folly; and that in Ireland a new political religion had arisen, superseding all influence of priest and parson, and burying for ever theological discord in the love of civil and religious liberty.  Clare, who was not only a shrewder observer but a much more deeply read man, realized that in order to find out what would guide the Roman Catholic Church in the future one must look not at the passing opinions of laymen but at the constitution of the Church; he foresaw that if the artificial supports which maintained the Protestant ascendancy were removed, the mere force of numbers would bring about a Roman Catholic ascendancy; and in enumerating the results of that he even said that the time would come when the Church would decide on all questions as to marriage.

In order to show how far Lord Clare’s expectations have been verified, I will quote, not the words of an Orange speaker or writer, but of an eminent Roman Catholic, the Rev. J.T.  McNicholas, O.P., in his recently published book on “The New Marriage Legislation” which, being issued with an Imprimatur, will be received by all parties as a work of authority.  He says:—­

“Many Protestants may think the Church presumptuous in decreeing their marriages valid or invalid according as they have or have not complied with certain conditions.  As the Church cannot err, neither can she be presumptuous.  She alone is judge of the extent of her power.  Anyone validly baptised, either in the Church or among heretics, becomes thereby a subject of the Roman Catholic Church.”

But whilst politicians were amusing themselves with fervid but useless oratory in Parliament, stirring events were taking place elsewhere.  To trace in these pages even a bare outline of the main incidents of those terrible years is impossible; and yet without doing so it is not easy to obtain a correct view of the tangled skein of Irish politics at the time.  In studying any history of the period, we cannot but be struck by observing on the one hand how completely in some respects circumstances and ideas have changed since then; it is hard to realize that Ulster was for a time the scene of wild disorder—­assassination, arson, burglary and every form of outrage—­brought about mainly by a society which claimed to be, and to a certain extent was, formed by a union of the Presbyterian and Roman Catholic parties—­whilst the south and west remained fairly orderly and loyal.  And yet on the other hand we find many of the phenomena which have been characteristic of later periods of Irish political agitation, already flourishing.  Boycotting existed in fact, though the name was not