Connaught Journal Printed and Published in Lower Cross-street by Barthw. O'FLAHERTY Galway, Ireland Thursday, April 30, 1840 Volume 89 Price 5D PROSECUTION OF A CATHOLIC CLERGYMAN (From the Dublin Register) If there be any doubt on the mind of our readers that the Irish people are not in the habit of receiving fair play at the hands of the imperial legislature, we beg to direct their attention to the following statement. The occurrence took place in the county of Roscommon. The facts may be relied on as strictly correct:- About seven years ago a woman, named Mary M'DONOUGH, residing on the property of a Mr. Guy LLOYD, a gentelman of the Lorton school, changed from the Catholic to the Protestant persuasion. A few months since, finding her death drawing near, she repented of the step she had taken; and so anxious was she to die in the faith in which she had lived, and in which it appears, she sincerely believed, that she dispatched two messengers, one for her parish priest, the Rev. Mr. M'SWEENY, and another for his curate, the Rev. Mr. HUGHES. She was attended by the former of these gentlemen, and died on the same night, after expressing a desire that she should be interred in a Roman Catholic church yard. These sad tidings reached the ears of Mr. LLOYD on the following morning, and he forthwith issued an order that she should be buried in the Protestant church-yard within an hour, and called upon the Protestant clergyman to officiate on the occasion. The funeral, consisting of some dozen persons who had been themselves seduced, or rather coerced into Protestantism, was met by the Rev. Mr. HUGHES, who at first civilly remonstrated with Mr. LLOYD and his clerical friends on the absurdity of their conduct; and finding his remonstrances disregarded, expressed his determination to discharge his duty to her who could now be regarded in no other light than as a deceased member of his flock. He accordingly read the funeral service over her remains; and for this offence he is now about to be prosecuted under a penal statute. This is a case which is particularly deserving of public attention-for, should this statute be enforced against Mr. HUGHES, under these circumstances, the clergy of the people are at this moment in a condition very little better than they were when penal laws were in full force. The statute in question forbids a Roman Catholic clergyman "to exercise any rite of his church in any place except a Roman Catholic place of worship or a private house." Is reciting a form of prayer exercising a right of the church? If so, a clergyman may be prosecuted for saying his office before his hall door on a summer evening. There was no Protestant church in or near the churchyard. Mr. HUGHES wore neither robe nor stole on the occasion; so that his offence in reality amounts to this,and no more that he recited a form of prayer in a place which was neither a Roman Catholic place of worship or a private house. If this is to be construed into an offence-in other words, if the Irish government are determined to satisfy the malignity of every bigot by raking up such laws as this from the oblivion in which they are permitted to remain even in the worst times of Tory domination, we do not know in what respect the Catholic people of Ireland are better off now than they were ten years ago-we do not know what the people have gained by all the sacrifices they have made to place Lord EBRINGTON where he is, and to keep him there. We do know, that unless his Excellency be what the Mail says he is, a Repealer in disguise, he will act most injudiciously by permitting the present vexatious proceeding to go on.