Note 3 — NOTE.

It appeared almost impossible for Swift to see the injustice of this test clause. In reality, it had been the outcome of the legislation against the Irish Roman Catholics. In 1703 the Irish parliament had passed a bill by which it was enacted, "that all estates should be equally divided among the children of Roman Catholics, notwithstanding any settlements to the contrary, unless the persons to whom they were to descend, would qualify, by taking the oaths prescribed by government, and conform to the established church" (Crawford's "History of Ireland," 1783, vol. ii., p. 256). The bill was transmitted to England, for approval there, at a time when Anne was asking the Emperor for his indulgence towards the Protestants of his realms. This placed the Queen in an awkward position, since she could hardly expect indulgence from a Roman Catholic monarch towards Protestants when she, a Protestant monarch, was persecuting Roman Catholics. To obviate this dilemma, the Queen's ministers added a clause to the bill, "by which all persons in Ireland were rendered incapable of any employment under the crown, or, of being magistrates in any city, who, agreeably to the English test act, did not receive the sacrament as prescribed by the Church of England" (ibid.). Under this clause, of course, came all the Protestant Dissenters, including the Presbyterians "from the north." The bill so amended passed into law; but its iniquitous influence was a disgrace to the legislators of the day, and his advocacy of it, however much he was convinced of its expediency, proves Swift a shortsighted statesman wherever the enemies of the Church of England were concerned. [T. S.]