name was not in the government books, could report such a person, and receive a reward, which the Catholics were forced to pay. The "sport of priest-hunting" became very popular with the dregs of the population, Portuguese Jews being employed as trackers.

227. Enforcement of the Penal Code. There were certainly sufficiently severe provisions in these penal laws to destroy Irish Catholics and Catholicism together, had they been rigidly carried out. This was, however, impossible, since the party which upheld them was a very small minority, though armed with the full powers of the civil law. It should be said, also, that Not always the bulk of the Protestants protested against strict. these laws, and did much, in a quiet way, to lighten them for their oppressed Catholic fellow-countrymen, protecting their property and children from the injustice of the officials. This was in part due to the fact that Protestant Nonconformists were also under the ban of the law, but in larger part to the inherent kindness of human nature.

Spread of

cism.

But there were periods of awful severity and oppression, especially just after the passing of a new restrictive act, when for a time the Penal Code was carried out to the letter. The worst suffering was Catholiendured during Queen Anne's reign, and again under George II, and yet, in spite of it all, we find the Irish Parliament complaining to England of the continued growth of Irish Catholicism. Ulster Presbyterians and other Nonconformists who also suffered under the Test and Schism Acts emigrated by thousands to America.

Emigration.

In considering this legislation, it must be borne in mind that a similar state of affairs existed in other lands at the same time. Only in Ireland, however, did a small

countries.

minority try to suppress the religion of a whole nation, Conditions on whose confiscated lands they lived, and in Ireland whose revenues they enjoyed. What stamps compared with other the Irish penal laws as particularly infamous is, that they represented not only religious bigotry, oppression, and cruelty, but also a broken promise, a violation of the solemn pledges of the treaty of Limerick, under whose provisions the Irish leaders had consented to end the war, and had dismissed the army of relief which had already reached Limerick from Catholic France.

228. Manufactures and trade prosperous. The only occupations left open to the Catholics by the penal laws were commerce and trade. The large seaports and towns had been gradually filled with energetic merchants, mostly Protestants, who, in spite of the wars and other disturbances, were building up large factories and other business enterprises. The English England. began to fear successful rivalry, with the result that repressive laws were directed against trade and commerce, injuring all Irishmen alike, of whatever race and creed, and ruining the only activity left to the Catholics.

Jealousy of

Severe

These laws were passed in the same period which saw the growth of the penal laws. They were particularly the work of the Parliament of England, and trade laws are thus distinguished from the penal laws, passed. the chief responsibility for which must be borne by the Anglican Church in Ireland. The Irish Protestants suffered more than the Catholics under the trade laws, as they were more largely engaged in commerce.

229. Parliament prohibits exportation. Ireland had always exported a great variety of products, such as cattle, sheep, pork, beef, mutton, cheese, and butter, her

chief markets being England and the English colonies in America. After 1663, the English Parliament began to pass a series of acts prohibiting trade relations between Ireland and all external ports, with the exception of a very few cities in England, so that this large trade, which had been the means of subsistence of masses of the people, was deliberately killed. It is easy to conceive the misery which was thus spread, first through the ports which sent forth these articles of trade, and then to all the farms of the land, which sent their produce to the ports.

Poverty results.

230. Destruction of the wool trade. Ireland's best single commodity was wool, the trade in which was wholly in the hands of Protestant colonists. Irish wool was famed all over Europe, finding a large market, and bringing high prices. In the reign of Charles I, Wentworth had done his best to destroy this trade (see section 162), but it had again struggled to life and vigor. Now the English merchants demanded its complete destruction, on the ground that it was ruining the wool trade of England. The result was that, in 1699, the cowardly Irish Parliament obeyed orders from England to put an exorbitant export duty on wool, which was followed by an act prohibiting the export of wool or woollen goods from Ireland to any part of the world, outside a few English ports, where the English merchants could buy them cheap, and sell them dear, as English products. Forty thousand people were thus thrown out misery and of employment. There was nothing for them emigration. to do but starve or leave the country. Great numbers of them, especially Presbyterians and Nonconformists, found their way to New England.

Causes

231. Growth of smuggling. Smuggling was naturally resorted to, as a means of evading the unjust re

strictions on trade. All classes were involved in it, and the authorities were powerless to prevent it. The merchants carried their cloth to France, and returned with brandy, wine, silks, and other foreign commodities. These smuggled goods were landed in the sheltered coves and inlets of the southern coast, well out of sight of the customs officials. Many Catholic youths went with the outgoing ships, eager to seek their fortunes as soldiers or citizens in foreign lands.

232. Ruin of the minor trades. Not satisfied with the destruction of the wool trade, the English Parliament also passed laws to restrict the manufacture and sale of such products as beer, malt, gunpowder, hats, sail-cloth, and ironware. Money was debased till there was no longer silver enough in the country to meet the most pressing needs of trade; and workmen were often compelled in consequence to take their wages in the goods which they were manufacturing, and could only sell at a great loss. The scandal of "copper halfpence we shall have occasion to speak of later on, in connection with Dean Swift. (See section 240.) The poverty and misery caused by the destruction of all these trades brought famine and pestilence in their wake. Famine and During the eighteenth century, the peasantry pestilence. of Ireland, the most wretched in all Europe, were reduced to a state of misery from which they have not fully recovered to-day. The industries were so completely ruined that, in many cases, they could not be revived.

233. Rent and tithe grievances. Another evil of the times was the treatment the peasantry received "Middleat the hands of the "middlemen." These men." middlemen took tracts of land from the landlords who preferred to remain in Engand, and then sublet them to