LXXVII. 2.

The Proceedings in Parliament on the Act of the Eighteenth of his late Majesty.

"THE lateness of the season,-(say the writers "of the Annual Register of the year 1778),--did "not prevent sir George Saville from endeavouring "to profit of the lenient temper, and liberal spirit "of the times, in favour of a long oppressed body "of men, almost forgotten, in the patience and "silence with which, for many years, they endured "their grievances. However necessary the penal "laws against roman-catholics originally were, "whilst the constitution was yet struggling into reformation, and afterwards confirming itself in "that happy settlement, as the causes of perse"cution had long ceased to operate, men of hu"manity could not avoid lamenting, (as all true

policy forbad), the keeping up of such standing 66 memorials of civil rancour and discord; and per"petuating a line of division, by which one part "of the people, being cut off from the rights of "citizens, could scarcely be said to possess any "share in the common interest; and were rendered

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incapable of forming any part of the common "union of defence. Indeed, the laws seem cal"culated to compel a considerable body of people "to hold an hereditary enmity to government; "and even to wean them from all affection to their "country. On the 14th of May, 1778, sir George "Saville moved accordingly, for leave to bring in

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"a bill, for the repeal of certain penalties and "disabilities, provided in an act of the 10th and " 11th of William the third, intituled, an act to prevent the further growth of popery. He stated, "that one of his principal views, in proposing this repeal, was, to vindicate the honour, and to assert "the principles, of the protestant religion, to which "all persecution was, or ought to be, wholly ad"verse that this pure religion ought not to have "had an existence, if persecution had been lawful; " and it ill became us to practise that which we "reproached in others: that he did not meddle "with the vast body of that penal code; but "selected that act, on which he found most of the "prosecutions had been formed; and which gave "the greatest scope to the base views of interested "relations, and of informers for reward. The act

had not, indeed, been regularly put in execution; "but sometimes it had; and he understood, that "several lived under great terror, and some under "actual contribution, in consequence of the powers

given by it. As an inducement to the repeal of "those penalties, which were directed with such "a violence of severity against papists, he stated "the peaceable and loyal behaviour of that part "of the people, under a government, which, though "not rigorous in enforcing, yet suffered such in"tolerable penalties and disqualifications to stand against them on the statutes.

"A late loyal and excellent address, which they "had presented to the throne, stood high among "the instances which sir George pointed out, of

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"the safety and good consequences which were likely to attend this liberal procedure of parlia"ment. He observed, that, in the address, they "not only expressed their obedience to the go"vernment under which they lived, but their "attachment to the constitution, upon which the "civil rights of this country have been established by the revolution, and which placed the present family upon the throne of these kingdoms. As "a further guard and security, however, against any possible consequence of the measure, he proposed, that a sufficient test might be formed, by which they should bind themselves to the support of the civil government, by law established. "The motion was seconded by Mr. Dunning, "who, with his well known ability and knowledge "in such subjects, went into a legal discussion of "the principal objects, and past operation of the bill, which was intended to be repealed. The following he stated as the great and grievous "penalties ;--the punishment of popish priests or jesuits, who should be found to teach or officiate "in the services of that church; which acts were felony in foreigners, and high treason in the "natives of this kingdom;-the forfeitures of popish heirs, who had received their education abroad, and whose estates went to the next pro"testant heir:-the power given to the son, or "other nearest relation, being a protestant, to take possession of the father's or other relation's es"tate, during the life of the real proprietor:-and "the depriving of papists of the power of ac

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"quiring any legal property by purchase;-a word, which, in its legal meaning, carried a "much greater latitude than was understood, (and "that perhaps happily), in its ordinary accepta"tion; for it applied to all legal property, acquired 'by any other means than that of descent.

These, he said, were the objects of the proposed repeal. Some of the laws, he remarked, "had now ceased to be necessary; and others "6 were, at all times, a disgrace to humanity. The imprisonment of a popish priest, for life, for off"ciating in the service of his religion, was horrible "in its nature; and must, to an Englishman, be "worse than death. Such a law, in times of so great liberality as the present, and when so little was to be apprehended from these people, called loudly for appeal; and he begged to remind the "house, that even then, they would not be left at

liberty to exercisc their functions; but would "still, under the restriction of former laws, be "liable to a year's imprisonment, and to the pun"ishment of a heavy fine. And although, he ob

served, the mildness of government had hitherto "softened the rigour of the law in the practice, it was to be remembered, that the roman-catholic priests constantly lay at the mercy of the basest " and most abandoned of mankind, common in"formers; for, on the evidence of any of these "wretches, the magisterial and judicial powers, "were, of necessity, bound to enforce all the

"shameful penalties of the act.

Others of these

penalties held out the most powerful temptations

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"for the commission of acts of depravity, at the very thought of which our nature recoils with "horror. They seem calculated to loosen all the "bands of society; to dissolve all civil, moral, and religious obligations and duties; to poison the sources of domestic felicity; and to annihilate every principle of honour. The encouragement given to children to lay their hands upon the es"tates of their parents; and the restriction, which "debars any man from the honest acquisition of property, need, said he, only to be mentioned to "excite the utmost indignation of this house.

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"The motion was received with universal approbation; and a bill was accordingly brought "in. It passed both houses without a single ne"gative."

LXXVII. 3.

The legal Operation of the Act of the eighteenth of his late Majesty.

THE legal operation of the act of the 18th year of his late majesty was very limited. It repealed the clause of the 10th and 12th of William the third, which disabled the English-catholics from taking lands by descent; and some clauses in the same act, which related to the apprehending of bishops and priests, and which subjected them and catholics, who kept schools, to perpetual imprisonment. The other clauses of the act of king William, and every pain, penalty, and disability, inflicted by other acts, remained in all their force