[550] Earn.—­One of the articles of the “violated Treaty” expressly provided that the poor Catholics should be allowed to exercise their trade.  An Act to prevent the further growth of Popery was passed afterwards, which made it forfeiture of goods and imprisonment for any Catholic to exercise a trade in Limerick or Galway, except seamen, fishermen, and day labourers, and they were to be licensed by the Governor, and not to exceed twenty.—­Com.  Jour. vol. iii. f. 133.

[551] Palatable.—­In his fourth letter he says:  “Our ancestors reduced this kingdom to the obedience of England, in return for which we have been rewarded with a worse climate, the privilege of being governed by laws to which we do not consent, a ruined trade, a house of peers without jurisdiction, almost an incapacity for all employments, and the dread of Wood’s halfpence.”

[552] Scheme.—­The very bills of some of the companies were so absurd, that it is marvellous how any rational person could have been deceived by them.  One was “for an undertaking which shall be in due time revealed.”  The undertaker was as good as his word.  He got L2,000 paid in on shares one morning, and in the afternoon the “undertaking” was revealed, for he had decamped with the money.  Some wag advertised a company “for the invention of melting down sawdust and chips, and casting them into clean deal boards, without cracks or knots.”

[553] Schomberg.—­He wrote to William of Orange, from before Dundalk, that the English nation made the worst soldiers he had ever seen, because they could not bear hardships; “yet,” he adds, “the Parliament and people have a prejudice, that an English new-raised soldier can beat above six of his enemies.”—­Dalrymple’s Memoirs, vol. ii. p. 178.  According to the records of the War Office in France, 450,000 Irishmen died in the service of that country from 1691 to 1745, and, in round numbers, as many more from 1745 to the Revolution.

[554] Vassals.—­Young’s Tour, vol. ii. pp. 41, 42.  It should be remembered that Mr. Young was an Englishman and a Protestant, and that he had no property in Ireland to blind him to the truth.

[555] Government,—­Curry’s Historical Review, vol. ii. p. 274, edition of 1786.  This work affords a very valuable and accurate account of the times, written from personal knowledge.

[556] Him.—­The ballad of Soggarth Aroon (priest, dear) was written by John Banim, in 1831.  It is a most true and vivid expression of the feelings of the Irish towards their priests.