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 which the influence of the Vatican was making itself felt in English politics by pointing to the number of Catholics—­mostly Irishmen—­who held high posts in the British Diplomatic, Civil, Military, and Naval Services, the presence of whom, which he tried to indicate as a menace, but which most Englishmen view with equanimity, shows by contrast the extent to which a taboo is placed in Ireland on officials who adhere to the creed of the majority of their countrymen.