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Untitled Article
an indirect monopoly of the exorcise of Various trades and arts , by the exclusion of such persons as have not served legal apprentice - ships . Now the number of catholic freemen in-Ireland is very inconsiderable , and , for various reasons ,
must continue so . When the Catholics , in 1727 , were deprived of their right of voting at elections of members of parliament for cities and towns corporate , and also at the elections of the civic magistrates , they were
stripped of one great inducement to seek the freedom of corporations , as wt ^ ll as of the chief recommendation for obtaining it . This disability , co-operating with the persecuting spirit of the times , gradually deterred them from soliciting even the imperfect franchise that remained . It also
became more difficult to obtain it . Partial prohibitions were " enacted , by express statutes , against taking Catholic apprentices . Consequently , freedom by service was ren . dered less attainable : and , the
number of Catholic freemen by service being thus circumscribed , those entitled by birth decreased in proportion ,- And , although the rights of voting , which they
lost by the statute of 1727 , wer £ nominally restored by the statute of 1 7 ^ 3 , yet the Catholics have not , in reality , derived any benefit from this restoratioii . 'For . ' the
long lapse of sixty-six years of in * , capacity having effected a complete exclusion of the Catholics fronl Corporations , they were obliged to resort to the third mode of
acquiring their freedom , namely , by jjttfotj or " gracG especial , " as it is termed . This power of
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granting freedom by * grace esrl pecial being , however , vested in the existing members of tbe corporations , the exercise of it in favour of Catholics remains suspend , ed by the hostile spirit of the penal laws ; except , perhaps in rare and occasional instances ,
where a Catholic , by the influence of private friendship or of money , contrives to be a favburite with the proprietor of the corporation , or with its leading interests .
Nay , even where a Catholic happens to be legally entitled to his freedom , either by birth or service , his admission is generally obstructed . His petition is not , indeed , directly refuseH ; for , in
that case , a mandamus might lie to compel a compliance with it , but no answer is returned ; and the consideration of the subject is adjourned < c sine- die * This is termed , « ' cushioning a petition . "
In the city of Dublin , for instance , the 24 Guilds or Fraternities , comprize , as is supposed , about 2 , 400 freemen . Probably not 100 of this number are Catholics ; and these , though free of their respective Guilds /^ and capa - ble of voting at elections of officers within those Guilds , ' are yet incapable of voting at elections of Members to serve ih Parliament
for the city j for they are uniformly " cushioned" when petitioning to be made free of the fcity at large . The like practice prevails throughout the other corporations of Ireland . >
Hence , although no express law prohibits Catholics from becoming freemen * of cities and towns corporate , yet somftny are the obstacles and discouragements in their way , that , in fact and
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54-4 Penal Laivs which aggrieve the Catholics' of Ireland .
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Sept. 2, 1812, page 544, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1752/page/12/
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