James II
of judges for political reasons must be regarded as a flagrant abuse of the prerogative. But it should be remembered that, even in England, until some years after the Revolution, and in Ireland until a much later period, those functionaries held their offices at pleasure,66 so that, in this respect at least, the conduct of the government was in strict conformity with law and custom. Nor does there appear to be any real ground for the contention that, in appointing Catholics to the vacant posts, the Lord Deputy was guilty of a positive breach of the law; for the Act of Supremacy, by which the Protestant monopoly had been hitherto secured, was so worded that "it did not exclude from office any person whom the government desired to promote."67 A similar plea may be urged in justification of the changes made in the magistracy and in the Privy Council; but the regulation of the corporations, which has been more generally censured than any other act of Tyrconnell's administration, must be defended upon different grounds. It was by these bodies that the great majority of the members of the next parliament would be returned; and, unless important alterations were made in their constitution, the task of compensating the despoiled would devolve upon the representatives of the despoilers. Even
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