Occult Theocracy p 386-387
"The priesthood and the nobles however stood solidly behind the English power ; but the social conditions imposed by England on its Irish-Catholic subjects rendered that country a fertile soil for the sowing of the Revolutionary seed. These disabilities are described by Lecky in the following article which appeared in Macmillan's Magazine, January, 1873. " To sum up briefly their provisions, they (the English) excluded the Catholics from the Parliament, from the magistracy, from the corporations, from the university, from the bench and from the bar, from the right of voting at parliamentary elections or at vestries of acting as constables, as sheriffs, or as jurymen, of serving in the army or navy, of becoming solicitors or even holding the position of gamekeeper or watchman. They prohibited them from becoming schoolmasters, ushers, or private tutors, or from sending their children abroad to receive the Catholic education they were refused at home. They offered an annuity to every priest who would forsake his creed, pronounced a sentence of exile against the whole hierarchy, and restricted the right of celebrating the mass to registered priests, whose number, according to the first intention of the Legislature, was not to be renewed. The Catholics could not buy land, or inherit or receive it as a gift from Protestants, or hold life annuities, or leases for more than thirty-one years, or any lease on such terms that the profits of the land exceeded one-third of the rent. A Catholic, except in the linen trade, could have no more than two apprentices. He could not have a horse of the value of more than £5, and any Protestant on giving him £5 might take his horse. He was compelled to pay double to the militia. In case of war with a Catholic Power, he was obliged to reimburse the damage done by the enemy's privateers. To convert a Protestant to Catholicism was a capital offence. No Catholic might marry a Protestant. Into his own family circle the elements of dissension were ingeniously introduced. A Catholic landowner might not bequeath his land as he pleased. It was divided equally among his children, unless the eldest son became a Protestant, in which case the parent became simply a life tenant, and lost all power either of selling or mortgaging it. If a Catholic s wife abandoned her husband's religion, she was immediately free from his control, and the Chancellor could assign her a certain proportion of her husband's property. If his child, however young, professed itself a Protestant, he was taken from his father's care, and the Chancellor could assign it a portion of its father's property. No Catholic could be guardian either to his own children or to those of another. "
***********************************
