84 ON THE STATE OF IRELAND. [BOOK I. 



Such a field for plunder attracted a large emigra- 

 tion from England, especially at the period of the 

 Revolution, in 1688, when the Protestants acquired 

 a power which they have preserved up to the pre- 

 sent day. 



Attention was now directed to the establishment 

 of Protestantism in Ireland, the more so as the Pro- 

 testants (according to their own showing) consti- 

 tuted one half of the population. Ireland, in con- 

 sequence, being divided into 32 dioceses and 1385 

 livings, the government named 32 bishops and 

 1385 rectors and vicars, etc. all Protestant, and 

 gave them the buildings, the glebe and the tithes, 

 which had not been previously confiscated. 



But as none of the Catholic bishops or curates 

 would apostatize, each diocese, from that period 

 to the present day, has had two bishops each 

 living, two clergymen : the one, a Protestant, 

 without a flock, who, being allowed to marry, 

 brings upon himself a family, and to maintain 

 which all the revenues of the Church have been 

 transferred to him ; the other, a Catholic, un- 

 married, who, fulfilling the increased duties of his 

 office, receives from the charity of the Catholics the 

 means of existence. 



From this period until the parliamentary reform 

 of 1833, no Catholic could be a magistrate or hold 

 any civil office ; and, as we have seen, it is only 



