The immunities were, that,
for the first seven years after the bog was reclaimed, the tenant should
be free from all tithes, cesses, or applotment; the restrictions were:
(1) that no bog should be deemed unprofitable, unless it were at least
four feet from the surface to the bottom of it, when reclaimed--the Act
having been especially passed for the reclaiming of _unprofitable_ bogs;
(2) that no person should be entitled to the benefit of the Act, unless
he reclaimed ten plantation acres; (3) that half whatever quantity was
leased, should be reclaimed in twenty-one years; (4) that such bog
should be at least one mile from any city or market-town. Alas, how
utterly prostrate the Catholics must have been, when this was regarded
as a concession to them! Yet it was, and one of such importance, that
"in times of less liberality it had been repeatedly thrown out of
Parliament, as tending to encourage Popery, to the detriment of the
Protestant religion;" and to counter-balance it, the pension allotted to
apostate priests in Anne's reign was, in the very same Session of
Parliament, raised from L30 to L40 per annum, by the Viceroy, Lord
Townsend.[52] The wretched serfs were of course glad to get any hold
upon the soil, even though it was unprofitable bog, and largely availed
themselves of the provisions of the Act.
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