shall be annexed to that part thereof remaining of record in the Crown Office of Ireland; and the clerk of the crown shall forthwith after the return day of the writs, cause to be published in the London and Dublin Gazettes, a notice of the name of the person chosen by the majority of votes, and the peer so chosen shall, during his life, be one of the peers to sit and vote on the part of Ireland in the House of Lords of the United Kingdom; and in case the votes shall be equal, the names of such persons who have an equal number of votes in their favour, shall be written on pieces of paper of a similar form, and shall be put into a glass by the clerk of the Parliament of the United Kingdom, at the table of the House of Lords whilst the House is sitting; and the peer whose name shall be first drawn out by the clerk of the Parliament shall be deemed the peer elected.

VI. And be it enacted, That in case any Lord spiritual being a temporal peer of the United Kingdom, or being a temporal peer of that part of the United Kingdom called Ireland, shall be chosen by the Lords temporal to be one of the representatives of the Lords temporal, in every such case, during the life of such spiritual peer, being a temporal peer of the United Kingdom, or being a temporal peer of that part of the United Kingdom called Ireland, so chosen to represent the Lords temporal, the rotation of representation of the spiritual Lords shall proceed to the next spiritual Lord, without regard to such spiritual Lord so chosen a temporal peer, that is to say, if such spiritual Lord shall be an archbishop, then the rotation shall proceed to the archbishop whose see is next in rotation, and if such spiritual Lord shall be a suffragan bishop, then the rotation shall proceed to the suffragan bishop whose see is next in rotation.

VII. And whereas by the said fourth article of Union, it is agreed, that if His Majesty shall, on or before the first day of January next, declare under the great seal of Great Britain, that it is expedient that the Lords and Commons of the present Parliament of Great Britain should be the members of the respective Houses of the first Parliament of the United Kingdom on the part of Great Britain, then the Lords and Commons of the present Parliament of Great Britain shall accordingly be the members of the respective Houses of the first Parliament of the United Kingdom on the part of Great Britain; be it enacted, for and in that case only, that the present members of the thirty-two counties of Ireland, and the two members for the city of Dublin, and the two members for the city of Cork, shall be, and they are hereby declared to be, by virtue of this act, members for the said counties and cities in the first Parliament of the United Kingdom, and that on a day and hour to be appointed by His Majesty, under the great seal of Ireland, previous to the said first day of January, one thousand eight hundred and one, the members then serving for the College of the Holy Trinity of Dublin, and for each of the following cities or boroughs, that is to say, the city of Waterford, city of Limerick, borough of Belfast, county and town of Drogheda, county and town of Carrickfergus, borough of Newry, city

of Kilkenny, city of Londonderry, town of Galway, borough of Clonmel, town of Wexford, town of Youghal, town of Bandon Bridge, borough of Armagh, borough of Dundalk, town of Kinsale, borough of Lisburn, borough of Sligo, borough of Catherlough, borough of Ennis, borough of Dungarvan, borough of Downpatrick, borough of Coleraine, town of Mallow, borough of Athlone, town of New Ross, borough of Tralee, city of Cashel, borough of Dungannon, borough of Portarlington, and borough of Enniskillen, or any five or more of them, shall meet in the now usual place of meeting of the House of Commons of Ireland, and the names of the members then serving for the said places and boroughs shall be written on separate pieces of paper, and the said papers, being folded up, shall be placed in a glass or glasses, and shall successively be drawn thereout by the clerk of the crown, or his deputy, who shall then and there attend for that purpose, and the first drawn name of a member of each of the aforesaid places or boroughs, shall be taken as the name of the member to serve for the said place or borough in the first Parliament of the United Kingdom, and a return of the said names shall be made by the clerk of the crown, or his deputy, to the House of Commons of the first Parliament of the United Kingdom, and a certificate thereof shall be given respectively by the said clerk of the crown or his deputy, to each of the members whose name shall have been so drawn; provided always, that it may be allowed to any member of any of the said places or boroughs, by personal application to be then and there made by him to the clerk of the crown or his deputy, or by declaration in writing under his hand, to be transmitted by him to the clerk of the crown, previous to the said day so appointed as above, to withdraw his name previous to the drawing of the names by lot, in which case, or in that of a vacancy by death or otherwise of one of the members of any of the said places or boroughs at the time of so drawing the names, the name of the other member shall be returned as aforesaid, as the name of the member to serve for such place in the first Parliament of the United Kingdom; or if both members for any such place or borough shall so withdraw their names, or if there shall be a vacancy of both members at the time aforesaid, the clerk of the crown shall certify the same to the House of Commons of the first Parliament of the United Kingdom, and shall also express in such return whether any writ shall then have issued for the election of a member or members to supply such vacancy, and if a writ shall so have issued for the election of one member only, such writ shall be superseded, and any election to be thereafter made thereupon, shall be null and of no effect; and if such writ shall have issued for the election of two members, the said two members shall be chosen accordingly, and their names being returned by the clerk of the crown to the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom, one of the said names shall then be drawn by lot in such manner and time as the said House of Commons shall direct, and the person whose name shall be so drawn, shall be deemed to be the member to sit for such

place in the first Parliament of the United Kingdom; but if at the time aforesaid no writ shall have issued to supply such vacancy, none shall thereafter issue until the same be ordered by resolution of the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom, as in the case of any other vacancy of a seat in the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom.

VIII. And be it enacted, That whenever His Majesty, his heirs and successors, shall by proclamation under the great seal of the United Kingdom, summon a new Parliament of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, the chancellor, keeper, or commissioners of the great seal of Ireland, shall cause writs to be issued to the several counties, cities, the College of the Holy Trinity of Dublin, and boroughs in that part of the United Kingdom called Ireland, specified in this act, for the election of members to serve in the Parliament of the United Kingdom according to the numbers hereinbefore set forth; and whenever any vacancy of a seat in the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom for any of the said counties, cities, or boroughs, or for the said College of the Holy Trinity of Dublin, shall arise by death or otherwise, the chancellor, keeper, or commissioners of the great seal, upon such vacancy being certified to them respectively by the proper warrant, shall forthwith cause a writ to issue for the election of a person to fill up such vacancy, and such writs, and the returns thereon respectively being returned into the Crown Office in that part of the United Kingdom called Ireland, shall from thence be transmitted to the Crown Office in that part of the United Kingdom called England, and be certified to the House of Commons in the same manner as the like returns have been usually, or shall hereafter be certified; and copies of the said writs and returns, attested by the chancellor, keeper, or commissioners of the great seal of Ireland for the time being, shall be preserved in the Crown Office of Ireland, and shall be evidence of such writs and returns, in case the original writs and returns shall be lost.

IX. Be it enacted, that the said bill so herein recited be taken as a part of this act, and be deemed to all intents and purposes incorporated within the same; provided always, that the said herein recited bill shall receive the royal assent, and be passed into a law previous to the first day of January, which shall be in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and one; and provided also, that if the said herein recited bill shall not receive the royal assent, and be passed into a law, previous to the said first day of January, which shall be in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and one, this act and every part thereof shall be of no force or validity whatsoever.

X. And be it enacted, that the great seal of Ireland may, if His Majesty shall so think fit, after the Union, be used in like manner as before the Union, except where it is otherwise provided by the foregoing articles, within that part of the United Kingdom called Ireland, and that His Majesty may, so long as he shall think fit, continue the privy council of Ireland, to be his privy council for that part of the United Kingdom called Ireland.

IMPERIAL PARLIAMENT.

ROMAN CATHOLICS.

MR. FOX MOVES FOR A COMMITTEE ON THE ROMAN CATHOLIC PETITION.

May 13. 1805.

IN the month of April, Mr. Grattan was returned for Malton, a Yorkshire borough, and in the ensuing month he took his seat for the first time in the Imperial Parliament. Much curiosity was naturally excited to hear a speaker of whom so much had been said, and who, in his own country, had acted so conspicuous a part in obtaining for her a constitution, and in defending it at the period of its extinction; an opportunity soon presented itself, on the subject of the Roman Catholic Petition, which had been entrusted to Mr. Fox, and which, on the 25th of March, he presented to the House. It was read and laid upon the table. The 10th of May was named as the day on which he meant to bring forward a motion upon the subject, this was altered to the 13th, when, after a long and able speech, in which he reviewed the policy of Great Britain towards Ireland, set forth the disabilities under which the Roman Catholics laboured, and the fidelity with which they had adhered to the fortunes of Great Britain, he concluded by moving, "That the petition be referred to the consideration of a committee of the whole House:" this was opposed by Dr. Duigenan, who entered into a long and violent invective against the Roman Catholics; he quoted several obsolete decrees of Rome, and acts of various councils, and declared that the Catholics were hostile to the connection with Great Britain, and that any bill in favour of their liberties, would be a violation of His Majesty's coronation oath: after he had concluded,

Mr. GRATTAN rose, he said, to avoid the example of the member who had just sat down, and instead of calumniating either party, to defend both.

The past troubles of Ireland, the rebellion of 1611, and the wars which followed, (said the honourable gentleman,) I do not wholly forget, but I only remember them to deprecate the example and renounce the animosity. The penal code which went before, and followed those times, I remember also, but only enough to know, that the causes and reasons for that code have totally expired; and as on one side the

Protestant should relinquish his animosity on account of the rebellions, so should the Catholics relinquish their animosity on account of the laws. The question is not stated by the member; it is not whether you will keep in a state of disqualification a few Irish Catholics, but whether you will keep in a state of languor and neutrality a fifth of the empire; before you impose such a sentence on yourself, you will require better arguments than those which the member has advanced; he has substantially told you that the Irish Catholic church, which is, in fact, more independent than the Catholic church here, is the worst in Europe; that the Irish Catholics, our own kindred, are the worst of papists; that the distinction, a distinction made by the law, propounded by ourselves, and essential to the state, between temporal and spiritual power, is a vain discrimination, and that the people of Ireland, to be good Catholics, must be bad subjects and finally, he has emphatically said, "that an Irish Catholic never is, never was, never will be, a faithful subject to a British Protestant king' his words are, they hate all Protestants and all Englishmen.' Thus has he pronounced against his country three curses: eternal war with one another, eternal war with England, and eternal peace with France; so strongly does he inculcate this, that if a Catholic printer were, in the time of invasion, to publish his speech, that printer might be indicted for treason, as the publisher of a composition administering to the Catholics a stimulative to rise, and advancing the authority of their religion for rebellion. His speech consists of four parts; 1st, an invective uttered against the religion of the Catholics; 2d, an invective uttered against the present generation; 3d, an invective against the past; and 4th, an invective against the future: here the limits of creation interposed, and stopped the member. It is to defend those different generations, and their religion, I rise; to rescue the Catholic from his attack, and the Protestants from his defence.

The civil interference of the Pope, his assumed power of deposition, together with the supposed doctrine, that no faith was to be kept with heretics, were the great objections to the claims of the Catholics; to convict them, the learned doctor has gone forth with a sinister zeal to collect his offensive materials, and behold he returns laden with much disputed comment, much doubtful text, much of executive decrees, and of such things as are become obsolete, because useless, and are little attended to, because very dull and very uninteresting, and wherein the learned gentleman may, for that reason, take many little liberties in the way of misquotation,