Lord High Chancellor, or Keeper, or CHAP. IV. Stat. 2 Eliz ch. 1. Sect. 7. &c. 2 Anne ch. 6. 1 4 Sect. 15, 16. 10 Will.3.c. 13. 4 21 and 22. Geo. 3. ch. 48. Sect. 3. Barons of the Exchequer........ 4 31 Geo.3.c. 31. Attorney and Solicitor General............ ...... 33Geo. 3.c.21. 2 &c. &c. &c. 3 King's Serjeants at Law............. Chairman of Sessions for the County Recorders of Cities and Towns, about....60 sioners of Bankruptcy, and 31 Assistant Barris- of Bankruptcy ters, or Chairmen of County Sessions: for, al- Barristers 31. 25-Assistant CHAP. IV. though the Catholics are not, by the express Letter Cases of Inter- of the Law, disabled from holding these Offices, yet in practice they are excluded, with scarcely a single exception. diction. Temporal ju Ecclesiastical Case of Doctor M. Lynch, 3. There are, moreover, several other Offices of great power and effect in the Administration of the Laws-which, though commonly termed Ecclesiastical offices, are yet vested with extensive Jurisdiction, in temporal matters, over the persons and properties of the Catholics. Of this nature are those which decide upon questions of Wills of personal property; Marriage-Tythes, and other incidental subjects of moment. Such are the Offices of Vicars General of the 26 dioceses of Ireland, the Court of Delegates, Prerogative Court, Metropolitan Court, Consistorial Courts, &c. . From all offices in these courts, probably 50 in 1804 coram number, the Catholics are excluded--nay, they are prohibited from practising in them, as Advo Dr. Duigenan. Advocates. Proctors. Public Nota ries.. cates. The Proctors in these courts are, apparently, subject to the same regulation. Their number in Dublin amounts to nine-and, in the country, they may be estimated at forty. Public Notaries are marked by the like proscription, with one or two accidental exceptions. ries. John Callagh 1803-7. The exclusion of Catholics from this Office, or facul- CHAP. VI. ty, (notwithstanding the Statutes of 1792 and 1793) Public Nota was indirectly effected in the year 1800. Certain novel regulations for that purpose were framed, by the Case of Mr. procurement of Doctor Patrick Duigenan, (who, an, Chancery, as the chosen deputy of Doctor William Stuart, Archbishop of Armagh, and Primate of all Ireland,) holds the office of "Master of the Faculties," pursuant to the Statute of 25 Hen. 8At this day, no prudent Catholic calculates upon the chance of attaining permission for his son to practice this profession. The Public Notaries in Ireland amount to about 130 in number. Offices 4. The consequential operation of the Subordinate exclusion of Catholics, from these Offices reaches 1000. naturally and necessarily, to all the beneficial subordinate situations. Such are those of Registers to Judges, and to Vicars general: Secretaries, Deputies, Court-officers, Clerks of the Crown, Clerks of the Peace, Assistants in the various Law offices, Solicitors and Treasurers to numerous public Boards and . establishments, agents, clerks to great public officers, &c. Of all these subordinate, but lucrative, Offices we may reasonably estimate the actual number, as exceeding 1000. 1 2 1500 Offices in the Law. CHAP. IV. Thus there appears to be a total number of Total number nearly 1500 offices, connected with the profession and Administration of the Laws-which are interdicted to the Catholics, either by the express Letter, or by the necessary operation of the present Penal Code. Injury of this exclusion. 160 Offices, Of the Injury and degradation-which this interdiction inflicts upon the Catholic Body, we need not offer stronger evidence, than the fact of the interdiction itself. One hundred and interdicted to sixty legal offices, of honour and of emolument, are inaccessible to Catholic Barristers, and open to Protestants. Thirteen hundred other offices are reserved solely for the ruling class, to the exclusion of Catholic students, solicitors, attornies, clerks, &c.&c. Catholic Bar risters. Mischiefs of 5. Can it be doubted, that this exclusion must aggrieve the Catholic community at this exclusion. large ?-that it intercepts the fair rewards of diligence, and the earnings of cultivated talent-that it circumscribes the opportunities of providing for the children of Catholic families, abridges the means of subsistence, obstructs the paths of Catholic industry, and the hopes of occupation? That all this is unjustifiable, nay almost ridiculous, the soundest Statesmen have repeatedly pronounced. To Catholic families. We shall conclude this Article with the testi- CHAP.IV. mony of a Protestant political philosopher, Arch- Testimony of deacon Paley. 66 "It has been asserted," says he," that Arch-deacon dis- Mor,and Polit, Philos. vol. 2. men ch. 13. But 1804. cordancy of Religions is enough to render "unfit to act together, in public stations. 66 upon what argument, or upon wh at experience "is this assertion founded? I perceive no 66 reason, why men of different religious per"suasions may not sit upon the same Bench, deliberate in the same council, or fight in the same ranks, as well as men of various or "opposite opinions upon any topic of natural Philosophy, 66 "Ethics." 66 controverted History, or Paley's opinion Philos. vol.2. Why should not the Legislator direct his Mor.and Polit. "Test against the political principles which he ch. 2 "wishes to exclude, rather than encounter them through the medium of religious Tenets ? Why should a man, for example, be required " to renounce Transubstantiation, before he "is admitted to an Office in the State, when it might seem to be sufficient that he abjure the Pretender ? |