Without a protection from the government no member of the Church of Rome was safe; and the government would not grant a protection to any member of the Church of Rome who had a son in the Irish army.

[72] In spite of all precautions and severities, however, the Celt found many opportunities of taking a sly revenge.

Houses and barns were frequently burned; soldiers were frequently murdered; and it was scarcely possible to obtain evidence against the malefactors, who had with them the sympathies of the whole population.

On such occasions the government sometimes ventured on acts which seemed better suited to a Turkish than to an English administration.

One of these acts became a favourite theme of Jacobite pamphleteers, and was the subject of a serious parliamentary inquiry at Westminster.