the time, and the manner of taking it, distinctly p The Hon. Member for Clare had indeed done ba part of the Act, and acknowledged its authority, for gone before the Lord Steward and taken those oats the Act declared to be necessary. For one, he should be happy to see the Honourable and Learned Gentleman 2 House; convinced as he was, from the temper and which he had that evening manifested, that he would be a valuable acquisition. For his conduct, under the circ of the case, he (Mr. Sugden) must pay him the tribe admiration; and he was quite persuaded, from his observ of that conduct, that the Honourable and Learned Get would be found ready to pay implicit deference to the and impartial decision of the House upon his case.

Sir James Scarlett followed; but the legal character speech, and the rapidity of his utterance, render it impe for us to give more than a very brief, and, we are sta imperfect sketch of the Honourable and Learned Gett observations. He began by declaring his entire e in the eulogy pronounced by his Honourable and Lear Friend who had immediately preceded him on the g and ingenuity which had marked the address to the He the Honourable and Learned Member for Clare. It certa would be a subject of great regret to him if the Hease s feel obliged, in the discharge of their duty, to vote the ex sion of so able a man. Notwithstanding that feeling, bowerst, he was bound to look at the subject, divested of all pers a feeling. It would, indeed, be most unbecoming to make 14 party question; and he was sure that no one would think of making it. He owned that he should be better pleased could be more completely satisfied with respect to the menta of the case; but he could not refrain from saying, that be doubted whether all the arguments of the Honourable and Learned Member for Clare had been met by his Hond and Learned Friend. At the same time, looking at the t case, he found it impossible to come to any other conclas than to agree to his Honourable and Learned Friend's ¡^~

position; although the steps by which they both arrived at that conclusion were not precisely the same. Were he to be compelled to decide the question on Parliamentary authority, on the Resolutions and practice of the House, which had great weight with him, he was aware that it would be a hopeless task to attempt to maintain that the Statutes requiring the oaths to be taken by Members of the House, before the Lord High Steward, had been repealed. At the same time, and with the concession which he had just made with respect to the practice of Parliament, if he were called upon to pronounce judicially on the question, he must say that in his opinion they were repealed. He would shortly state why. As his Honourable and Learned Friend had observed, the 1st of William and Mary, cap. 1, in the Convention Parliament, was framed with a view to remove doubts respecting their own legality; and to reconcile their existence with the antecedent law of the land. They could take no oath of allegiance to James the Second, because he had abdicated; nor could they all take the Oath of Supremacy. Many of those Members who had most warmly aided in the Revolution must have been excluded from Parliament, if the oath of Supremacy had been left in its original form. The history of the Act to which he alluded was this:—It was sent down from the House of Lords to the House of Commons on the 22d of February, and read a first time. A great discussion then arose upon it. It was well known, that in the Convention Parliament there was a large party adverse to the new order of things, and inclined to throw doubts on the legality of that Parliament. That party had just before addressed the King and Queen to dissolve the Parliament, and to issue new Writs, for the purpose of assembling a Parliament of a legitimate character. The subject was much discussed by the lawyers of that day; and he vas glad to say, that they all took the liberal side of the ques tion. The Bill having, as he had already observed, come down to the House of Commons from the House of Lords, and been read a first time, it was on the following day read a second

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The words of it were, that all persons, excepting those concerning whom other provisions were made, should, on entering on any office, take the new oaths. These was some of the circumstances which excited doubts in his mind. Had it not been for the usage of Parliament, all professional men would say that it was a case of repeal. It appeared, however, that in practice, the oaths taken before the Lord High Steward continued to exist-except in the case of Archdale, the Quaker, which occurred ten years after the passing of the Act. In 1698, the House directed Archdale to come to the Table and take the oaths, when they knew that he had not taken the oaths before the Lord High Steward. In many other cases, however, between the year 1698, and the Union, the House experienced great occasional inconvenience from the absence of the Lord High Steward from London; and had on several occasious been obliged to adjourn, because they had no means of adding to their number. This, he was obliged to admit, showed what the practice of the House had been. Bills of Indemnity had been passed in favour of certain individuals, who had violated that practice. That, however, only proved that there was doubt. It did not absolutely decide the subject. A Right Honourable Friend of his, and a Noble Lord, had been the subjects of Bills of Indemnity on this ground; but that did not imply that there was any fixed opinion on the subject, only that great doubts existed respecting it. He now came to the Act of Union with Ireland. He owned he was struck with the argument urged by the Hon. and Learned Member for Clare, that the omission in the Act. of Union with Ireland of any Penal Clause was a circumstance well worthy the consideration of the House. A Penal Act affecting any particular Parliament could not by construction be applied to another Parliament not in existence at the time it was passed. Accordingly, in the Act of Union with Scotland, the Act of the 30th of Charles II. and the other Acts containing Penal Clauses, were by name expressly re-enacted, There could be no doubt, therefore, that it was the intention in the Act of Union with Scotland to exclude Roman Catho

lics from Parliament for ever; or as long, at least, as the spirit in which that Act was framed should continue to exist. By this proceeding the Penal Statutes in question were rendered applicable to a Parliament not at the time in existence. That was not the case in the Act of Union with Ireland. The party by which the Union with Ireland was brought about, and of which Mr. Pitt was the principal leader, were evidently anxious to repeal the obnoxious oaths, and to let the Catholics into Parliament. And it must be admitted as not improbable that in framing the Act of Union with Ireland, they contemplated the repeal, at no distant period, of the penal clauses. Under such circumstances, it was not their policy to re-enact those clauses. They thought it sufficient to provide for only a general discretionary power on the part of Parliament to administer to all members the oaths as by law established. He could not agree with his Hon. and Learned Friend that what was applicable to each Parliament separately, was applicable to them both when united. The fact certainly was, that the penal clauses had not been re-enacted. Still, however, it appeared to him that the House was obliged to impose the oaths The Act of Parliament directed it, and it must be obeyed. Having a great admiration for the talents of the Hon. and Learned Member for Clare, and a great wish to see him in that House, he regretted being obliged to come to this conclusion. He now came to the last part of the argument. If he understood the Hon. Member for Clare rightly, he maintained that the Relief Bill, by the tenth section, provided for all cases whatever of civil right, and that the right of sitting and voting in Parliament was a civil right. There could be no question that it was so. His Hon. and Learned Friend had, however, contended that the tenth section was not to be looked upon in an isolated point of view, but must be considered with reference to what preceded it. He (Sir James Scarlett) confessed that he could not put the construction upon the tenth section which the Honourable Member for Clare had put upon it. [The Hon. and Learned Member argued this point at some length, but we were unable to follow him