, 1855-07-06

a uulNNloaAt GA-
ceptionless disqualification
In the courts Of law they could not gain
place on the bench, nor act as harrister,
attorney, or solicitor, nor he employed even
as hired clerk, nor sit on grand Jury,
or as justice of the peace, nor hold even
the lowest civil Office Of trust and profit,
nor have privilege in a town corporate,
nor be freeman Of such corporation, nor
vote at vestry.
A Catholic could not marry n Protest
ant-the priest who should celebrate such
a marriage was to he hanged nor could
Catholic be guardian to any child, nor
educate his own child if the mother declar-
ed herself Protestant, or even If his own
child, however young, should be Protest
ant
No Protestant in Ireland could instruct
q Papist.
No Papists could be admitted to the uni
yersities or colleges without taking various
test-oatlis.
Papists could not have schools, acade-
mics, or colleges Of their own.
For Catholic to teach u Protestant
was felony, punishable by Imprisonment,
exile, sr death.
They could not srnd their children abroad
to be educated for, by statute of King
William, TO be educated in any foreign
Catholic school was an unalterablc aud
perpetual outlawry."
The child sent abroad for education, no
matter how young and innocent, forfeited
all his goods and chattels, and all his lands.
Those who sent him abroad incurred the
same penalties.
The Irish Catholics could not worship
according to their own creed, except by
cOnnivance.
Their clergy, taken from the hnmblcr
classes, could not be taught at home, nor
sent abroad for education, nor could learn
cd ecclesiastics be invited from abroad
Such clergy as were permitted to remain
in Ireland were kept like prisoners at large,
within certain limits.
All those priests not registered, or not
in limits, were banished from Ireland, on
pain of being hanged, drawn, and quarter
cd, if they returned. .ag -.aa
The Catholic Irish have been plundered
Of six-sevcnths of their land by iniqutous
confscations, and every acre of the remain
ing seventh was grudged them by the Prot
estants. .l
No non-conforming Catholic could buy
land, or retain it by descent, demise, or
settlement, or lend money as the security,
or hold an interest in it through Protest
ant trustee, or take lease Of ground for
more than thirty years. If, under such q
lease, he made his farm produce more than
one-third beyond the rent, the first Prot
estant discoverer might sue for such a
lease, so that the Catholic>could not drain
his fields, nor enclose them, nor build solid
houses on them. .H..r0
Even if q Catholic owned horse worth
more than five pounds, any Protestant
might take it away,
Nor was natural affection or parental
authority respected. The son of Catholic
land-holder, however dssolute or yonng, if
he would but join the English church, could
revolt against his father, and turn his faith
er's estate in fec simple into tenantcy for
life, becoming himself the owner, and an
nulliug every agreement made by the faith
er, even before his sons conversion.
The Catholic father could not in any de-
gree disinhcrit his apostatizing son; but the
child, in declaring himself Protestant,
might compel his father to confess, upon
oath, the value of bis substance, real and
personal, on which the Protestant court
might out Of it award the son immediate
maintenance, and, after the fathers death,
any establishment it pleased
1t will be said, in reply to this rcproduc-
tion Of know-nothingism after the revolu-
ton Of 1888. that the present intolerants
and bigots do not go so far out of the way as
their British prototypes. Throwing out Of
the case death punshmcnts and other bodi-
ly suffcrings for opinions salss, we ask
wherein does the creed of the latter, SO far
as we know it, and so far as we may Judge
by existing manifestations and recent ont
RACES, so greatly differ from the model OF
the English bigots and law-givcrs 9a.-l
II the patriots who say only xeAmericans
shall rule America" do not by law keep
adopted citizens and Catholics out of office,
they do it against the spirit Of the law by
base and dishonest combinations.
20 Like the English oppressors, however,
they would prohibit an Irish Catholic, if
borpeaS I'd, from voting and if not born
abroad 4 BY would SO oppress him as to
render lis right of suffrage Of no value to
him.
Like the English oppressors, our know
nothings would push egery foreigner oat Of
-jury-box, and, as late experience has
shown, would deny to Catholic his rights
before our courts if one Of their own sworn
adherents were his adversary.
Who cannot say that the prescription Of
the know-nothings will enter into social and
into private life +? Who does not know
that in many cases it has done SO already,
and that in country where a particular
religion is made by base party a stain
and curse, those who oppose such relig.
ion could not, if they would, unite with
those who believe in it2 1t requires no
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