Prior to the American Revolution, there had

been a steady tide of emigration from Ireland to America, it had not assumed anything like the proportions

which this century has witnessed. At different

times during the latter half of the seventeenth century

there were causes in operation which induced extensive

emino-ration to the various Catholic countries of the

Old World, and a few ship-loads of emigrants arrived at

Barbadoes. Under the Cromwcllian government, shiploads

of Irish men, women, and children had been dispatched

to the Colonies, including New England and

to the West Indies, under conditions which left them

little better than slaves. But with the restoration of

the Stuarts there came a suspension, not only of religious

persecution, but of the Navigation Laws, which formed a

leading feature of a policy for the repression of Irish

industries theretofore enforced by England. The expulsion

of James II., and the accession of William and Mary

to the throne was accompanied by a revival of discrimination against Irish manufactures, and a flood of

emigration to all parts of Christendom followed.