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it is stated that it was continued by adjournment during four days, and that its printed report occupies the compass of a moderate volume, it will scarcely be expected that we should fill our pages with an abridgment, especially when no argument on the main points was produced on either side which had not repeatedly been offered in the many previous discussions of the same subject; and what there was of novelty, referred to the conduct of the Roman Catholics in Ireland since their minds had been irritated by disappointment, and the circumstances of the late petitions. With respect to the latter, various remarks were made by the different speakers on the conspicuous part taken by the established clergy in opposition to the Catholic claims; which some represented as a renewal of that cry of danger to the church which had too often been raised at the instigation of bigotry and worldly policy; while others justified it as a reasonable measure of defence of the Protestant cause against hazards by no means imaginary. Some of the most temperate debaters were advocates for the present motion, on the ground that it was only redeeming a pledge given to the country by its representatives, that the Catholic question should undergo a full consideration in order to a final settlement. That, however, the alarms excited throughout the country by the Anti-catholic petitions, and their operation on the minds of individual members, had produced a considerable effect, appeared from the result of the division, compared with that of the preceding session on a similar motion. It took place at four

in the morning, after the debate of March 2nd, when there appeared, for Mr. Grattan's motion, 264; against it, 224; majority in its favour, 40.

This point being gained, though by a hard contest, Mr. Grattan, on March 9th, moved the order of the day for a committee of the whole House on the Catholic question. When this was formed, he rose, and after some preliminary observations, he said, that he intended to propose resolutions, 1st, that the Catholic disabilities should be removed; 2nd, that the establishments in church and state ought to be effectually secured: and he then should propose regulations for the ecclesiastical courts, and other matters, and an oath against foreign influence. He concluded with moving, "That with a view to such an adjustment as may be conducive to the peace and strength of the United Kingdom, to the security of the established church, and to the ultimate concord of all classes of his majesty's subjects, it is highly advisable to provide for the removal of the civil and military disqualifications under which his majesty's Roman Catholic subjects now labour, with such exceptions and under such regulations as may be found necessary for preserving unalterably the Protestant succession to the Crown, according to the act for the further limitation of the Crown and better securing the rights and liberties of the subject, and for maintaining inviolate the Protestant episcopal church of England and Ireland, and the doctrine, discipline, and government thereof; and the church of Scotland, and the doctrine, worship, discipline, and government

thereof, as the same are respectively by law established."

The Right Hon. Charles Abbott (the Speaker) then rose to take the earliest opportunity of entering his warning protest against the course hitherto pursued, and also against the measure now proposed. He said, three plans had been proposed relative to the object in question. The first was for unlimited and unconditional concession as urged by the Irish Roman Catholics in their petition; but this had found few advocates in the House, and had been abandoned by the right hon. mover of the question, as well as by his eloquent supporter, Mr. Plunkett. The second was for qualified concessions, with some legislative control over the Roman Catholic clergy; which was apparently that of the mover, and undoubtedly that of Mr. Canning: but this was resisted by the Roman Catholics themselves, who call it persecution, and inadmissible control. This plan is also acknowledged to involve a repeal of the Corporation and Test acts. The third, that of lord Castlereagh, was for bringing the Roman Čatholics within the reach of political power with safety to the Protestant establishment, by obtaining the concurrence of the head of the Roman Catholic church to such arrangements as shall be satisfactory to both parties. This, however, is admitted at the present time to be wholly impracticable. Having stated these plans, the right hon. member proceeded to object to the measure now proposed. It began, he said, with a sweeping repeal of all known securities, upon the faith of other securities as yet unknown. Some of

the suggested securities he then considered and objected to; and he spoke of the ill consequences that might result from a bill framed upon such grounds, even if lying over to another session, by exaggerating the hopes of the Roman Catholics, and dissatisfying the established church. He did not wish, however, that matters should remain on the present footing, and there were certain important changes to which he could agree. The first of these was the admission of Roman Catholic military officers to a larger share of the honours of their profession, which he would extend to all ranks of command, except the very highest at home. He would likewise give the Roman Catholic soldier a legal right to his own religious worship in England as well as in Ireland; he would take away the necessity of English Roman Catholics marrying in Protestant churches; and would give full protection to Catholic worship from disturbance. He then adverted to some other matters of regulation; and concluded with saying that he must give his decisive negative to the sweeping principles of the proposition now laid before them.

Mr. Ponsonby said, that the right hon. gentleman seemed entirely to have misunderstood the nature of the resolution, which proposed nothing subversive of the establishment, but coupled the measures for the relief of the Roman Catholics with others for its security; and in coming to the details, it would be in the power of any gentleman dissatisfied with such securities to superadd others. He made several remarks on thelast speaker's idea of giving honours to the Ros

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man Catholics, but granting them no political power, and affecting to make them concessions which at the same time it was rendered impossible for them to receive; and he regarded it as an absurdity to retard the measure in its progress, lest the plan should not ultimately prove acceptable to the Catholics.

Sir J. C. Hippisley entered into a detail of considerable length respecting the course of proceeding which he would recommend to the committee, and the objects which would be proper for their deliberation.

Several other members then gave their opinions on the subject, which, at the present state of the business, were rather anticipations of their intended line of conduct, than immediately called for; and on a division of the House there appeared, for the resolution, 186; against it, 119; majority, 67.

On April 30th, Mr. Grattan presented to the House his bill "to provide for the removal of the civil and military disqualifications under which his majesty's Roman Catholic subjects now labour," and moved that it should be read the first time and printed, which was agreed to. He then moved for the second reading of the bill on the 11th of May, which was also carried.

The following is an abridged view of the most important contents of this bill.

After a preamble declaring the inviolable establishment of the Protestant succession to the Crown, and the Protestant national churches of England, Ireland, and Scotland, and the expediency of communicating to his majesty's Roman Catholic subjects the bless

ings of our free constitution, in or der to put an end to all religious jealousies, and unite all the inhabitants of those islands in the de. fence of their common liberties and government, it enacts, that it shall be lawful for persons professing the Roman Catholic religion to sit and vote in either House of Parliament, upon taking the following declaration and oath instead of the oaths of allegiance, abjuration, and supremacy, and the declarations against transubstantiation and the invocation of saints. The oath, which is of great length, contains a promise of allegiance to the king; of supporting the Protestant succession to the Crown; a renunciation of belief in the temporal jurisdiction of the pope or any foreign potentate in these kingdoms, and of the validity of excommunication by the pope or council to depose princes; a declaration that no act in itself immoral can be justified on pretence that it is for the good of the church, or in obedience to any ecclesiastical power; and that no sin can be forgiven at the will of the pope or any priest without sincere repentance; a declaration that the infallibility of the pope is not an article of the Roman Catholic church; a disavowal of any intention to subvert or disturb the present church establishment; and a promise to make known all conspiracies, &c. for such a purpose; and, finally, an attestation that this oath is taken in the plain sense of the words, without equivocation or reservation, and that no power or authority can dispense with or annul it.

It is farther enacted, that on taking the above oath and declaration, it shall be lawful for Roman

Catholics to vote for members of parliament when duly qualified; also to hold and exercise all civil and military offices or places of trust or profit, with the following exceptions, namely, the offices of lord high chancellor, lord keeper or lord commissioner of the great seal of Great Britain, or lord lieutenant, lord deputy, or other chief governor or governors of Ireland; also, to be a member of any lay body corporate, and to hold any civil office or place of trust therein. A proviso is subjoined, that nothing in this act shall extend to the repeal of any laws in force for establishing the uniformity of public worship in the episcopal church of England and Ireland; or to make any change in the ecclesiastical judicature of the realm; or to enable a Roman Catholic to present to any ecclesiastical benefice whatsoever; or to make it lawful for him to advise the Crown as to the disposal of any preferment in the Protestant churches of England, Ireland, or Scotland.

It is further enacted, that every person now exercising, or who shall hereafter exercise, any spiritual function belonging to the Roman Catholic religion, besides the oath and declaration above-mentioned, shall take a specified oath, the tenor of which is that the person will never consent to the appointment of any bishop or vicarapostolic but such as he shall deem to be of unimpeachable loyalty and peaceable conduct; that he will have no correspondence or communication with the pope or see of Rome, or with any tribunal established by their authority, or with any person authorised by them, tending to disturb the estab

lished Protestant churches of these kingdoms; or any correspondence at all with such persons or tribunals, on any matter not purely ecclesiastical. A further enactment prohibits any person born out of the United Kingdom, except such as are born of British or Irish parents, from exercising any episcopal functions in it; and also requires a certain term of residence within the United Kingdom before such functions can be exercised.

We shall now proceed to give an uninterrupted, though necessarily very compendious, view of the further parliamentary proceedings relative to the Catholic question, during the remainder of the session.

On May 11th, the day appointed for the second reading of Mr. Grattan's bill, sir J. Cox Hippisley rose according to the notice he had given, to make a motion which he stated to be to the following purpose: "That a select committee be appointed to examine and report the state of the laws affecting his majesty's Roman Catholic subjects within the realm: the state and number of the Roman Catholic clergy, their religious institutions, and their intercourse with the see of Rome, or other foreign jurisdictions: the state of the laws and regulations affecting his majesty's Roman Catholic subjects in the several colonies of the United Kingdom: the regulations of foreign states as far as they can be substantiated by evidence, respecting the nomination, collation, or institution of the episcopal order of the Roman Catholic clergy, and the regulations of their intercourse with the see of Rome." If this were conceded, he should move

that the committee consist of twenty members, whom he named. The hon. member then made an elaborate speech, in which he entered into many particulars relative to the opinions of different Roman Catholic clergymen, as to oaths and tests required by government, and other circumstances tending to show the necessity of farther investigation, before the proposed concessions were made. He concluded with the motion above recited, which was seconded by Mr. Ryder.

Mr. Grattan then rose to object to the motion of his hon. friend, whose former good services to the cause he liberally acknowledged, on the ground of the long and indefinite protraction of the measures for the relief of the Roman Catholics, which, after a discussion that had already subsisted twenty years, it would occasion. He gave several reasons against the proposed investigation; and then took a summary view of his own bill, and replied to various objections to its provisions which had appeared in the newspapers as coming from the Roman Ca tholics, but which, he contended, had not proceeded from any public body, but were only thrown out by individuals. He concluded with moving, by way of amend ment, the order of the day.

Mr. Ryder asked what would satisfy the Protestants should this bill pass into a law? and he entered into some argumentation to prove the necessity of such a further inquiry as that proposed by the hon. baronet, whose motion he should support.

Mr. Canning, after expressing his surprise at the versatility of the

last speaker, in seconding a motion brought forward by a favourer of a cause which he had always opposed, made a speech full of wit and eloquence, in which he exposed to ridicule the idea of going into such a voluminous inquiry as the hon. baronet had suggested, and stated the necessity of proceeding without delay to an adjustment of the matter in question. He then went to the consideration of certain points relative to the bill, on which he had prepared amendments, and communicated them to Mr. Grattan. The first was, the ascertaining the loyalty of the Catholic hierarchy; the second, the prevention of foreign influence; the third, the finding some security that the concessions to the Catholics should be met by a corresponding spirit of conciliation on their parts. He touched upon the principle of his amendments, though the time was not yet come for their discussion.

Mr. Bathurst and the Earl of Desart having spoken in favour of the hon. baronet's motion, and lord Castlereagh against it, the House divided, For the amendment (the order of the day) 235; for the motion, 189: Majority against the motion, 48.

On May 13th, Mr. Grattan moved the second reading of his bill. An attack upon it was opened by Dr. Duigenan, who concluded his speech by moving, that the bill be read a second time on that day three months. Of the debate that ensued, it is unnecessary to give any particulars. Dr. Duigenan's motion was rejected on a di vision, 245 against 203, and the bill was read a second time, and committed for the following day.

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