practitioners of that class in the Irish Court of Common Pleas the ancient name of King's Sergeant was then disused, and the Prime and Second Sergeant became the accustomed distinction of title; the precedence of the former remained however untouched and both were considered circuit judges, for we find that about this time the Second Sergeant, Catelyn, died on circuit at Trim; Strafford immediately ordered the Prime Sergeant to finish in Catelyn's room, and this in opposition to the Chancellor's recommendation of another. It is true he did not slander the Prime Sergeant, (afterwards the well known Sir Maurice Eustace,) but merely said, that he had not necessaries to go, and the other gentleman lived near Trim: now Eustace's residence at Castle Martin was not thirty miles from that assize town. To such awkward shifts does a lust of patronage and appetite for jobbing reduce even an able man. Strafford persevered, and upon principles in which I heartily agree with him, as that sagacious statesman added, that Eustace was equipped with the indispensable necessaries of a circuit judge, learning and integrity. Thus that rank stood and was constantly filled by accomplished men. In the year 1682 the office of Third Sergeant was added. Strafford's Solicitor-General was an unprincipled native, who was obliged to act under an Englishman whom he had imported.
Richard Osbaldeston became Attorney-General of Ireland and died in that office. His successor, Thomas Tempest, succeeded in 1640. The son of the former, George Wentworth, a near relation of Strafford, and the heir of his favourite prelate Bramhall, were called to the bar under Cromwell's usurpation, concealing an hatred to the ruling powers, from attention to property or a prospect of personal promotion.
In each kingdom contending parties professed an attachment to the ancient constitution, but, pressing principles to extremes, they subverted that venerable fabrick. Providence permitted an obscure faction of selfish hypocrites and unprincipled fanatics to scourge an humbled community, and render servitude itself more galling by the mean instruments employed in its support. The usurper's criminal code was as little calculated to dispense
