Page:Studies in Irish History, 1649-1775 (1903).djvu/340

After Limerick Popery," in the first instance the work of the English Privy Council. The reasons given for introducing this Bill were that too great leniency and moderation had been shown in executing the Penal Laws, and that emissaries from the Church of Rome were seducing Protestants from their faith. In consequence, one of the principles of the new Act was to make the seducing of a Protestant from his faith a crime both in the seducer and the seduced. Further, the Foreign Education Act was made more severe; Catholic parents were compelled by law to make proper provision for their Protestant children; it was laid down that no land which had ever been in the possession of a Protestant, or which should hereafter come into the possession of a Protestant, should ever be owned by a Papist. In the case of a Catholic possessing real or personal property, and all his children being Catholic, the estate was to be divided equally among all the children; but if the eldest son should conform within twelve months after the death of his father, or if under age, twelve months after coming of age, he might take the estate as heir at law. This Act was extended in 1709, and made rather more severe, and a proclamation ordered all registered priests to 328