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the 25th Car. 2. ch. 2. (commonly called the Test Act), all officers, civil and military, are directed to take the oath, and make the declaration against transubstantiation, in the Court of King's Bench or Chancery, the next term, or at the next quarter sessions, or (by subsequent statutes) within six months after their admission, and also, within the same time, to receive the sacrament of the Lord's supper, according to the usage of the church of England, in some public church, immediately after divine service and sermon; and to deliver into court a certificate thereof, signed by the minister and churchwarden; and also to prove the same, by two credible witnesses, upon forfeiture of 5001. and disability to hold the office.

1. 6. With respect to the declaration against popery: The act past in the 30th year of Car. 2. st. 2. ch. 1. contains the declaration, and prescribes it to be made, by members of either house of parliament, before they take their seats. By it, they declare their disbelief of the doctrine of transubstantiation, and their belief, that the invocation of saints, and the sacrifice of the mass, are idolatrous.

I. 7. With respect to the laws affecting their landed property: -How this was affected by the laws against recusancy, has been already mentioned. By the 11 and 12 W. 3. ch. 4., it was enacted, that a person educated in the popish religion, or professing the same, who did not in six months, after the age of sixteen, take the oaths of allegiance and supremacy, and subscribe the declaration of the 30th Cha. 2., should, in respect of himself only, and not of his heirs or posterity, be disabled to inherit, or take lands by descent, devise, or limitation, in possession, reversion, or remainder: and that, during his life, till he took the oath, and subscribed the declaration against popery, his next of kin, who was a protestant, should enjoy the lands, without accounting for the profits; and should be incapable of purchasing; and that all estates, terms, interests, or profits out of lands made, done, or suffered to his use, or in trust for him, should be void, By 3 Jac. 1. ch. 5. 1 W. & M. c. 26. 12 Anne, st. 2. c. 14. and 11 Geo. 2. c. 17., papists, or persons professing the popish religion, were disabled from presenting to advowsons,

and other ecclesiastical benefices, and to hospitals and other charitable establishments. By annual acts of the legislature, papists being of the age of 18 years, and not having taken. the oaths of allegiance and supremacy, were subjected to the burden of the double land-tax, By a statute made in the second session of the 1st year of Geo. 1. ch. 55. they were required to register their names and estates in the manner, and under the penalties therein mentioned; and by the 3d Geo. I. c. 18. continued by several subsequent statutes, an obligation of enrolling their deeds and wills was imposed on them. Such were the principal penal laws against Roman catholics, immensus aliarum super alias acervatarum legum cumulus (Liv. 3. 34.), at the time of the accession of the house of Brunswick.

II.

With respect to the Laws which have been past, since the accession of the Brunswick family, for the relief of Roman Catholics:

II. 1. The only act of any importance, which, till the reign of his present Majesty, was past for their relief, (and that operated but in an indirect manner for their benefit), was the act of the 3d Geo. 1. c. 18. On the construction of the 11 and 12 Wm. 3. ch. 4. it had been held, that, as it expressly confined the disability of papists to take by descent to themselves only, and preserved their heirs and posterity from its operation, it was not to be construed as preventing the vesting of the freehold and inheritance in them, in cases of descent, or transmitting them to their posterity: but that the disability respected only the permanency of the profits, or beneficial property of the lands, of which it deprived them, during their non-conformity. Whether that part of the statute, which relates to their taking by purchase, should receive the same construction, was a frequent subject of discussion, the statute being, in that branch of it, without any limitation. To remedy this, the act, we are speaking of, was past. It enacts, that, no sale for a full and valuable consideration, by the owner or reputed owner of any lands, or of any interest therein, theretofore made, or thereafter to be

made, to a protestant purchaser, shall be impeached, by reason of any disability of such papist, or of any person under whom he claims, in consequence of the 11 & 12 W.3., unless the person taking advantage of this disability, shall have recovered before the sale, or given notice of his claim to the purchaser, or before the contract for sale, shall have entered his claim at the quarter sessions, and bona fide pursued his remedy. The act then recites the clauses of the 12 & 13 W. 3. disabling papists from purchasing; and afterwards enacts, that, these clauses shall not be thereby altered or repealed, but shall remain in full force. Thus the laws against the Roman Catholics stood, at the time of the accession of his present Majesty. During his reign, two or three acts, of great importance, have been past in their favour.

II. 2. By the 18th of his reign, ch. 60. it was enacted, that, so much of the 11 & 12 W. 3. as related to the prosecution of popish priests, and jesuits, and imprisoning for life papists, who keep schools, or to disable papists from taking by descent or purchase, should be repealed, as to all papists or persons professing the popish religion, claiming under titles not theretofore litigated, who, within six months after the act past, or their coming of age, should take the oath thereby prescribed.

II. 3. With respect to the act of the 31st of his present Majesty, cap. 32. That statute may be divided into six parts: The 1st, contains the declaration and oath afterwards referred to in the body of the act, and prescribes the method of taking it: The 2d, is a repeal of the statutes of recusancy, in favour of persons taking the oath thereby prescribed: The 3d, is a toleration, under certain regulations, of the re ligious worship of the Roman Catholics, qualifying in like manner, and of their schools for education: The 4th, enacts, that, in future no one shall be summoned to take the oath of supremacy prescribed by the 1st Wm. and Mary, sect. 1. c.8. and Ist Geo. 1. sect. 2. cap. 18. or the declaration against transubstantiation required by the 25th Ch. 2.;-that the 1st Wm. & Mary, sect. 1. ch. 9. for removing papists or reputed papists from the cities of London and Westminster, shall not extend to Roman Catholics, taking the appointed oath ;-and

that, no peer of Great Britain or Ireland, taking that oath, shall be liable to be prosecuted for coming into his Majesty's presence, or into the court or house where his Majesty resides, under the 30th Car. 2. stat. 2. ch. 1.: The 5th part of the act, repeals the laws, requiring the deeds and wills of Roman Catholics to be registered or enrolled: The 6th dispenses any person acting as a counsellor at law, barrister, attorney, clerk, or notary, from taking the oath of supremacy or the declaration against transubstantiation.-Then the double land tax being imposed on them by the annual land tax act, a repeal of it could not be effected by any prospective act but it was repealed by omitting from the annual land tax act, the clause imposing it.

II. 4. An alteration, which was made in the house of lords in the act of the 31st of his present Majesty, during its passage through that house, raised a doubt, whether to entitle a Roman Catholic, to the benefits of the act of the 18th of his present Majesty, it was not necessary that he should take the oath prescribed by that act, as well as the oath prescribed by the 31st of his present Majesty. To obviate this doubt, the act of the 43d of his present Majesty was past, which entitles persons taking the oath prescribed by that act to all the benefits of the act of the 18th of his Majesty.

III.

Some account of the Penal Laws, the effect of which is felt by Roman Catholics, but the effect of which is not felt by Protestant Dissenters :

: III. It has been already shewn, how the law stands on the corporation and test acts.-The statute of the 1st William and Mary, (commonly called the toleration act), exempts all dissenters, except papists, and such as deny the Trinity, from all penal laws relating to religion, provided they take the oaths, of allegiance and supremacy, and subscribe the declaration against popery, and repair to some congregation registered in the bishop's court, or at the sessions. But there is nothing in this act, which dispenses either with the test act or the corporation act, so far as they impose the obligation of receiving the sacrament of our Lord's supper on persons serv

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ing in offices, or elected to serve in corporations. With respect, therefore, to the test act and corporation act, these are the only acts which subject the Protestant dissenters to any penalties or disabilities. To these the Roman Catholics are subject equally with the Protestant dissenters. There is, therefore, no penalty or disability that affects the Protestant dissenters, to which Roman Catholics are not subject equally; but there still remain several penal laws, the effect of which is most severely felt by Roman Catholics, but the effect of which is not, in any manner, felt by Protestant dissenters.

III. 1. The first of these is the 30th Car. 2. st. 2. c. 1.It is remarkable, that, notwithstanding the change of the national religion, at the Reformation, and the contests and dissensions which succeeded it, Roman Catholic peers were admitted, equally with their fellow peers, to sit and vote in the House of Lords, and Roman Catholic commoners were eligible, equally with their fellow commoners, to a seat in the house of commons, till the lapse of a century and an half from the time of the Reformation. The statute of which we are now speaking, was then enacted. It was past, while the ferment of Oates's plot was at its highest; and provided, that no person should sit or vote in the house of peers, or be a member of, or sit or vote in the house of commons, till he had taken the oaths of allegiance and supremacy, and made and signed the declaration against popery. To this statute only, the exclusion of Roman Catholic peers from their hereditary seats in parliament, and the exclusion of Roman Catholic Commoners from the natural and laudable ambition of an English gentleman, a seat in the house of commons are owing.

III. 2. By the 7th and 8th of Wm. 3. ch. 27. those who refuse to take the oath of supremacy, tendered to them at the requisition of a candidate, are disabled from voting at elections.

III. 3. By several statutes, Roman Catholics are disabled from presenting to advowsons. This disability is peculiar to them; Quakers, and even Jews, having the full enjoyment of the right of presentation. It is to be observed, that, no person can be presented to a living, who has not been ordained according to the rites of the Church of England. Previously to his or

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