Page:Chronicle of the law officers of Ireland.djvu/341

316 for a long abeyance by an interference on appeals more minute and particular than what distinguishes their British brethren.

After an exclusion from the revolution in 1688, Roman Catholic fellow-subjects were admitted to the rank of barristers in 1792. For better than a century, acts of state, or Castle Chamber decrees, excluded them, as the statute of Supremacy affected practitioners,—only by an indirect and possibly overstrained construction. Superadded impediments opposed their admission after the accession of King William; several gentlemen however occasionally qualified themselves for conveyancing  or chamber practice, and even became members of the Inns, whereby an instant accession of able and eminent men was added to the legal roll of each kingdom.

From the accession of James I., until the reign of George III., the three Chief Judges had equal salaries, with the exception of £100 additional to the Chief Justice of the King's Bench. There was no particular payment until the year 1656 or 60 for circuit, until which period their personal expenses and entertainments were borne by sheriffs and corporations. This became very burthensome to the latter, without being sufficiently convenient to the former. By an order from government the practice was discontinued and £50 each circuit given in lieu thereof, which was afterwards raised to £100 each circuit, and to £200 with equal conformity to the progressive value of the articles of life. On the introduction of circuits into this kingdom, sheriffs, from policy, vanity, or a sense of duty, went to an extraordinary expense in entertaining judges and their suite. The reader has seen the manner in which that abuse was mildly corrected in the reign of Charles II., much to the credit of that Monarch's good sense and the public spirit of his ministers. Irish history or custom, when faithfully related, appears like a transcript from an English record; with such close similitude do the inhabitants of each country act under equal circumstances. Let us, therefore, view how this matter stood in the sister kingdom.

The reader must know that the mischief grew to such a height