44 RELIGION. 



greatly changed in the period of the refgns of Elizabeth and 

 James I. Still more under Cromwell, who parcelled out 

 an imrnenfe proportion of the kingdom to the officers of his 

 army, the ancestors of great numbers of the prefent poffef- 

 fors ; the colonels of his regiments left eftates which are now 

 eight and ten tfyoufand a year, and I know feveral gentlemen 

 of two and three thoufand pounds a year at prefent which 

 they inherited from captains in the fame fervice. The laft for- 

 feitures were incurred in that war which ftripped and banifhed 

 James II. Upon the whole nineteen-twentieths of the king- 

 dom changed hands from catholic to proteftant. The lineal 

 descendants of great families, once poffefled of vaft property, 

 are now to be found all over the kingdom in the loweft fitua- 

 tion, working as cottars for the great great grandfons of men, 

 many of whom were of no greater account in England than 

 thefe poor labourers are at prefent on that property which 

 was once their own. So entire an overthrow, and change of 

 landed pofFeflion, is within the period to be found in fcarce any 

 country in the world. In fuch great revolutions of property 

 the ruined proprietors have ufually been extirpated or banifh- 

 ed ; but in Ireland the cafe was otherwife : families were fo 

 numerous and fo united in elans, that the heir of an eftate 

 was always known } and it is a fadt that in moft parts of the 

 kingdom the defendants of the old land owners regularly 

 tranfmit by teftamentary deed the memorial of their right to 

 thofe eftates which once belonged to their families. From 

 hence it refults that the queftion of religion has always in Ire- 

 land been intimately connected with the right to and poflefllon 

 cf the landed property of the kingdom ; and has probably 

 received from this fource a degree of acrimony, not at all 

 vacting to influence the fuperftitious prejudices of the human 

 mind. 



Flufhed with fuccefs after the victory of the Boyne, and 

 animated with the recollection of recent injuries, it would not 

 have been furprizing if the triumphant party had exceeded the 

 bounds of moderation towards the catholic, but the amazing 

 circumftance is that the great category of perfecuting laws 

 was not framed during the life of that monarch who wifely 

 was a friend to toleration : if ever fuch a fvftem as would 

 crufh the minds of a conquered people into a flavifri fubmifli- 

 on was neceflary, it muft have been under that new, and in 

 many refpefts weak eftablimment, when the late confiidt might 

 fcave been an apparent juftification : but why fuch a fyftem 

 fhculd be embraced fix or feven years after the death of King 

 \Viliiani is not fo eafy to be accounted for. 



By the laws of difcovery as they are called : 



i . The whole body of Roman catholics are abfolutely dif- 

 ar tried. 



a. They are incapacitated from purchafing land. 



3. The entails of their eftates are broken, and they gave! 

 among the children. 



4- If 



