Preface.


The evils arising from religious persecution, sectarian hatred,
ill government, and oppression were never more strongly
illustrated than by the fact that, for a century, Ireland, which
has since that time furnished us with a large proportion of our
best soldiers, should have been among our bitterest and most
formidable foes, and her sons fought in the ranks of our greatest
continental enemy. It was not because they were adherents of the
house of Stuart that Irishmen left their native country to take
service abroad, but because life in Ireland was rendered well-nigh
intolerable for Catholics, on account of the nature and severity
of the laws against them, and the bitterness with which those laws
were carried into effect.

An Irish Catholic had no prospects of employment or advancement at
home. He could hold no civil appointment of any kind. He could not
serve as an officer, nor even enlist as a private, in the army. He
could not hold land. He was subject to imprisonment, and even
death, on the most trifling and frivolous accusations brought
against him by the satellites of the Irish Government. Not only
could he not sit in the parliament of Dublin, but he could not
even vote at elections. It was because they believed that the
return of the Stuarts would mean relief, from at least some of
their disabilities, and liberty to carry out the offices of their
religion openly, and to dwell in peace, free from denunciation and