He admits, however, that the tenants were sometimes cited to the ecclesiastical courts, and if they failed to appear there, they stood excommunicated; and he adds, 'possibly when a writ _de excommunicato capiendo_ is taken out, and they find they have 7 l.

or 8 l.

to pay, _they run away_, for the greatest part of the occupiers of the land here are so poor, that an extraordinary stroke of 8 l.

or 10 l.

falling on them is certain ruin to them.' He further states that, to his own knowledge, many of the clergy had chosen rather to lose their 'small dues' than to be at a certain great expense in getting them, 'and at an uncertainty whether the farmer would not at last _run away without paying anything_.' Such was the condition of the Protestants of Ulster during the era of the penal code; and it is a curious fact that it was the Presbyterians and not the Catholics that were forced by the exactions of the Protestant landlords and the clergy to run away from the country which their forefathers had been brought over to civilize.