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James II corporations, it was the general rule that two thirds of the freemen should be Catholics. No exception was made even in the case of towns like Londonderry, where the population was almost exclusively Protestant. Among the sheriffs, deputy-lieutenants, and justices of the peace the Catholic majority was equally great. Of the Protestants who remained in office many were Quakers, who, having been treated with great harshness by both the Calvinistic and High Church parties, generally showed a strong disposition to make common cause with the Catholics. The rest were men of questionable character and broken fortunes, on whose subservience Tyrconnell could depend.

Nor was it in the civil government only that sweeping changes were made. It was not to be expected that the Irish people would, in the day of their emancipation, look with equanimity upon that wealthy and privileged establishment which ministered to the wants of a small minority of the nation and from which the majority had recently suffered atrocious persecution. A short time before the accession of James the Archbishop of Cashel had died, and it was now rumoured that the king intended to appoint a Catholic to the vacant see. This extreme step was not, indeed, taken, but the see was not filled, and 147