halfpence.  Even the servile Parliament was indignant, and protested against a scheme[552] which promised to flood Ireland with bad coin, and thus to add still more to its already impoverished condition.  There was reason for anxiety.  The South Sea Bubble had lately ruined thousands in England, and France was still suffering from the Mississippi Scheme.  Speculations of all kinds were afloat, and a temporary mania seemed to have deprived the soberest people of their ordinary judgment.  Dr. Hugh Boulter, an Englishman, was made Archbishop of Armagh, and sent over mainly to attend to the English interests in Ireland.  But he was unable to control popular feeling; and Swift’s letters accomplished what the Irish Parliament was powerless to effect.  Although it was well known that he was the author of these letters, and though a reward of L300 was offered for the discovery of the secret, he escaped unpunished.  In 1725 the patent was withdrawn, and Wood received L3,000 a year for twelve years as an indemnification—­an evidence that he must have given a very large bribe for the original permission, and that he expected to make more by it than could have been made honestly.  One of the subjects on which Swift wrote most pointedly and effectively, was that of absentees.  He employed both facts and ridicule; but each were equally in vain.  He describes the wretched state of the country; but his eloquence was unheeded.  He gave ludicrous illustrations of the extreme ignorance of those who governed in regard to those whom they governed.  Unfortunately the state of things which he described and denounced has continued, with few modifications, to the present day; but on this subject I have said sufficient elsewhere.

George I. died at Osnaburg, in Germany, on the 10th of June, 1727.  On the accession of his successor, the Catholics offered an address expressing their loyalty, but the Lords Justices took care that it should never reach England.  The next events of importance were the efforts made by Dr. Boulter, the Protestant Primate, to establish Charter Schools, where Catholic children might be educated; and his equally zealous efforts to prevent Catholics, who had conformed exteriorly to the State religion, from being admitted to practise at the Bar.  It may be observed in passing, that these men could scarcely have been as degraded in habits and intellect as some historians have been pleased to represent them, when they could at once become fit for forensic honours, and evinced such ability as to excite the fears of the Protestant party.  It should be remarked that their “conversion” was manifestly insincere, otherwise there would have been no cause for apprehension.