JAMES IL's IRISH PARLIAMENT.
[TO THE EDITOR OF THE "SPECTATOR." J
Saa,—Irish " Catholics," as they choose to call themselves, must think the readers of the Spectator either very ignorant, or gifted with very short memories, when they deprecate the charge of intolerance founded on such an abomination as the Attainder Act of James H.'s Irish Parliament.
It is true that no mention of religion was made in that Act. Ostensibly, James II. and his Irish Parliament were as tolerant in Ireland as James himself had been in England. Issuing proclamations of universal tolerance, in defiance of the laws he had expelled the President and Fellows of Magdalen College simply for exercising their legal rights, and had put " Catholics " into their place, after taking care that the ex- pelled men should be unable to procure the means of sub- sistence.
Just so, only in worse measure, the Irish Parliament in question had confiscated the estates of two thousand persons, almost wholly Protestant, taking care that their victims should know nothing of the doom awaiting them or of the means of avoiding it, besides rendering them liable to the tremendous corporal punishment assigned to treason. No compensation whatever was offered to these persons for their forfeited estates. But because the tyrant and his vassals were not allowed by God's Providence to execute this treacherous com- pound of murder and robbery, Irish " Catholics " presume now to claim the attribute of tolerance for them !
Quite lately Archbishop Walsh said, as I remember reading in one of the daily papers, that the existence of a Protestant University on the site of an old " Catholic " convent was an insult to every Irish " Catholic." Ve viefis ! would be the motto of these tolerant gentlemen, if they get the upper hand.
P.S.—I had almost forgotten to notice Mr. Colthurst's assertion that the English and Scotch settlers who were not attainted were to be compensated for the confiscation of their lands by James II.'s Irish Parliament. They were—et la Parnell : they were to receive their orignal purchase-money, i.e., the prairie value of the land which their industry had turned from a desert into a garden !
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