Page:Chronicle of the law officers of Ireland.djvu/323

298 law to subvert their religion ; the Bench must therefore undergo a change, nearly as extensive as what was deemed necesary at the Restoration. The Chancellor was a Protestant prelate—such service could not, therefore, be expected from him; his mild manners and acknowledged integrity, far from securing him in office, rendered a removal the more necessary. The selection of a successor was not from the eminent men of either kingdom; the King appointed a loyal gentleman of agreeable and social manners, but equally destitute of legal talents or private fortune; the former defect it was thought must render him subject to the management of Popish Judges, and the latter necessity ensure an acquiescence in the most criminal measures; his integrity, however, proved superior to personal distress, and once more made him a poor and private man. His successor was a Roman Catholic, and a reliance was had thereon, coupled with a knowledge of his personal character.

A majority of the Popish Judges then appointed were eminent for legal knowledge and irreproachable in private character; had their duties been confined to the proper station it may be considered a proud æra in Irish jurisprudence, but their Sovereign exacted different services, whereby he tarnished their characters and ruined his own. His first attempt was to initiate them in Cabinet mysteries at home, and then degrade his policy by sending for them as ambassadors upon state affairs. Even the English populace shewed amidst the irregularity of riot the feelings and discernment of a free and enlightened people; they pursued the traitorous missionaries, and, fastening potatoes upon poles, exclaimed with merited derision, "Make way for the potato ambassadors." This lively ridicule increased in their progress from the Tower to Whitehall to the most settled abhorrence, so that it was with the utmost difficulty civil and military authority could protect them from national fury and hatred. Such was their success and merited popularity in the sister isle. In their judicial decisions no authenticated act of cruelty or corruption remains upon record: if additional evidence were necessary, the three principal Judges for rank or talents, Nugent