The Press.
London, England, 1856-09-27 00:00:00

The question now arises, have not the
Roman Catholics received an undue amount of
official patronage in Ireland ? Is it upon the
principle of mere numbers that patronage is
administered, or is it on the proper principle
(as enunciated by Mr. WOULFE) of the ratio
of superior property and intelligence to num-
bers counted by the gross? There is, unfor-
tunately, abundant evidence to show that a
most unfair and disproportionate influence
has been given to aspirants from the Roman
Catholic side.
Take the case of the Judieature. Since 1838,
a period of twenty years, the Roman Catholic
Bar in Ireland has received a Mastership of the
Rolls, a Chief Baronship, a Chief Justiceship
of the Common Pleas, two Puisne Judgeships,
several Assistant Barristerships—and at the
present time two out of the three Crown
Sergeants of Ireland are Roman Catholics.
As matters now stand, eight out of the twelve
Judges have been promoted from the " Liberal"
Bar, and four out of the whole number (in-
cluding two Chief Judges) have been exclu-
sively taken from the Roman Catholic Bar,
which, even in mere numbers, is greatly in-
ferior to the Protestant Bar.

Does the learning, and eloquence, and ability
of the Roman Catholic Bar, as it now stands,
entitle it to all those great appointments ?
We think not, and we can give reasons for our
opinion. When great cases are to be argued
before the courts or before juries, we observe
that it is from I he Protestant Bar that " special "
counsel are always selected. In the State
trials, Protestant counsel were retained
specially ; " and we believe that it would be
impossible to cite the case (since the days of
O'CONNELL and Sir MICHAEL O'LoOHLAN) when
a Roman Catholic practitioner was taken
" special." In the recent Mountgarrett Peerage
case, the " special counsel" were Mr. BREWSTER
at one side, and Mr. BUTT upon the other,
and so in several other important trials. In
Parliament, also, a glaring disproportion can
be seen between the eloquence and brilliancy
of the Irish Protestant barristers, and the
Roman Catholic lawyers returned by Ireland.

Let us now turn our attention in another
direction. The official influence given to the re-
presentatives of counties is very great, and here,
just as in the corporations, the Roman Catholic
electors have succeeded in returning a
disproportionate number of their body. There
are twenty-seven seats for Munster, and
there are only six Protestants returned
for that province ! There is only one
Roman Catholic (Lord liEtimARE) in the nobi-
lity of Munster, and only a couple of Roman
Catholic Baronets. In the county of Limerick,
two perverts to Roman Catholicism (Messrs.
MONSELL and DE VERE) have been elected,
though there are O'Gradys and Fitzgibbons
of rank and fortune in the " Liberal" Protes-
tants of that county. In Tipperary, the
claims of the SADLEIRS were preferred to
Protestants of untainted honour, although the
reputation of the SADLEIRS was never of a high
sort. And so on elsewhere.

But it may be said that the Liberal Cabinet
is not responsible for the choice of the repre-
sentatives of Ireland. We reply, that if Go-
vernment make it a good speculation for
persons of inferior social pretensions, for
attorneys and second-rate barristers, to go to
London as Members of Parliament, and take
up politics as a trade, in that case Govern-
ment is undoubtedly responsible. Before
the Act of 1829, the representation was nearly
equally divided between " anti-Catholics" and
"pro• Catholics." But, since 1829, the pri-
vileges gained by the Roman Catholics have
been used as weapons for assailing the Pro-
testant interest.

In 1822, and subsequently, the late Marquis
WELLESLEY was convinced that the county
Members of Ireland absorbed too much of the
official patronage of " the Castle," and that
great statesman boldly interfered, and made
appointments in the Law and Magistracy on
public considerations alone. This policy, more
or less, was followed for many years, but after
the " Lichfield-house Compact" the old system
was restored, and now " Ascendancy" in
Ireland threatens to be revived for the benefit
of Roman Catholic adventurers.
Recent appointments in various depart-
ments in Ireland have drawn much attention