It is said it was carried through Parliament under a false title,
being called a Bill for Regulating, etc.; but it would have passed under
any title.
[55] The feelings of the Irish Catholics for these concessions are
curiously illustrated, by an inscription on the Carmelite Church in
Clarendon Street, Dublin, in which the year 1793 is called, "the first
year of restored liberty," and George the Third is proclaimed as the
"best of kings." Here is the full inscription:--
D. O. M. Sub invocatione B.V. Mariae. C. Primum hujus Ecclesiae lapidem
posuit Johannes Sweetman, Armiger. Memoriale hoc grati animi restitutae
Catholicae Libertatis Georgio tertio Regum optimo, annuente Parliamento
ac toto populo acclamante, Dedicat Patriae Pietas. Anno supradictae
Libertatis primo. Regni vigesimo tertio, ab Incarnatione 1793, die
Octobris tertio.
T. BEAHAN, Arch.
[56] Forty-shilling freeholders in Ireland and forty-shilling
freeholders in England were quite different classes. The latter, by the
statute, 8 Henry VI, cap. 7, passed in 1429, must be "people dwelling
and resident in the counties, who should have _free land_ or _tenement_
to the value of forty shillings by the year at least, above all
charges;" whilst in Ireland, every tenant having a lease for a life was
entitled to a Parliamentary vote, provided he swore that his farm was
worth forty shillings annual rent, more than the rent reserved in his
lease.
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