certain, and Mr. Dillon abandoned his notice. He, like many of the Catholics and some of their such neglect or refusal, disables every such person from thenceforth to sue any action, bill, plaint, or information in course of law, or to prosecute any suit in any court of equity, or to be guardian of any child, or Executor or Administrator of any person, or capable of any legacy or deed of gift, or to bear any office within the realm of England, dominion of Wales or town of Berwick upon Tweed, and subjects him to the forfeiture of the sum of 500l. to be recovered by him or them that shall sue for the same in manner therein mentioned; and also so much of an act passed in the 1st year of his late Majesty King George the first, intituled, an act for the further security of his Majesty's person and Government, and the succession of the Crown, in the heirs of the late Princess Sophia, being Protestants and for extinguishing the hopes of the pretended Prince of Wales and his open and secret abettors, as enjoins or requires all and every person or persons, as well Peers as Commoners, that shall bear any office or offices military, or shall receive any pay, salary, fee or wages, by reason of any patent or grant from his Majesty, or shall have command or place of trust from or under his Majesty's predecessors, or by his, her or their autho. rity, or by authority derived from him, her, or them within Great Britain, or in his Majesty's navy, or in the several Islands of Jersey or Guernsey, and all seamen and private soldiers to take the oaths of allegiance, supremacy and abjuration, at or within the times and in the manner thereby prescribed; and upon neglect or refusal thereof, subjects them to the like penalties, incapacities and disabilities, as the before mentioned act of the 25th of Charles the second, and also one other act passed in the said 1st year of the reign of his said late Majesty, King George the first, intituled; an act for the more effectual and exemplary punishment of such persons, as shall seduce soldiers to desert, or who, being papists, shall enlist themselves in his Majesty's service in Great Britain or Ireland, or in the islands of Jersey 1803. 1803, political friends anticipated in Mr. Pitt's recall to to the councils of his Majesty, the certain emanci and Guernsey, and every matter and thing therein contained; and also so much of an act of the late Parliament of Ireland, passed in the 33rd year of his present Majesty, intituled, an act for the relief of his Majesty's popish or Roman Catholic subjects of Ireland, as restrains or prevents any Roman Catholic subject having made the declaration and oath required by that act, from holding, exercising and enjoying the offices of Master and Lieutenant General of his Majesty's ordnance, Commander in-chief of his Majesty's forces or Generals on the staff, and also so much of every other act of Parliament of Great Britain and of the late Parliament of Ireland, as requires a declaration from every or any sea and land officer and seaman and soldier, that he is a protestant, and as confirms and sanctions or enjoins, requires or enacts any thing to be done in consequence of or with reference to the said acts hereby repealed either in part or in the whole, shall be and the same are hereby repealed, annulled and made absolutely void to all intents and purposes whatsoever as fully and effectually, as if each such act and parts of acts hereby repealed had been herein fully recited and expressly mentioned. Provided always and be it further enacted, by the authority aforesaid, that henceforth every sea and land officer, seaman and soldier, professing the Roman Catholic religion who shall have taken, made or subscribed, or who shall hereafter, take make or subscribe either the declaration and oath of allegiance and abjuration appointed to be taken, made and subscribed by persons professing the Roman Catholic religion, by the British statute, passed in the 31st year of the reign of his present Majesty; intituled, an act to relieve, upon conditions and under restrictions, the persons therein described from certain penalties and disabilities, to which papists, or persons professing the popish religion, are, by law, subject, or the declaration and oath appointed to be taken and subscribed by the persons meaning to be benefited by the said herein before ་ pation of the Irish Catholics. It required more than, Machiavelian sagacity to fathom the abyss of Mr. Pitt's deceit. He seldom proposed or carried a measure upon the real ground, or in the genuine views, from which the design had originated in his own ambitious mind. No intimacy, social or official, ever extracted from him the depth of his speculations. Although no man possessed, in so high a degree, as Mr. Pitt, the oratorical powers of blinding his followers to his own weakeness and the mentioned Irish statute, of the 33d 1803. 1805. strength of his enemy, yet Mr. Foster said truly of him, (in the gust of his ephemeral patriotism before the Union) that he scarcely condescended to disguise his tyrannical ascendancy under the forms of debate, END OF THE FIRST VOL. APPENDIX. MR. ARTHUR'S CASE. Francis Arthur was a merchant of eminence in the City of Limerick, possessed of considerable estates in land and houses built by himself, daily improving his native city and adding to its embelishments. His commercial concerns employed a considerable capital, and required extensive credit in the adjoining Counties of Limerick, Clare, Tipperary and Kerry, by which he was making a rapid augmentation to his fortune. His character and conduct had procured him a high degree of estimation among his neighbours. He was ever distinguished by his attachment to the constitution. In the year 1796, when the French forces were in the Shannon, he displayed the utmost activity in the service of Government, and among other exertions, raised, under the direction of General Smyth, then commanding in Limerick, a corps of yeomen artillery, of which the General obtained for him the command, with the rank of captain. This corps was trained by him with great assiduity, and at a considerable expense, till the 15th of May, 1798, when it was disbanded. There were nevertheless points in Mr. Arthurs character, which rendered him an object of jealousy, or of something stronger to some persons of authority in that district. He had been active in promoting that address of the Roman Catholics to the Crown, which induced his Majesty to recommend their case with such gracious efficacy to the Parliament, which granted important relief to that body. He had also the hardiness to decline, entering into a conspiracy, as it appeared to him, for reducing his native city, (Limerick) to the condition of a dependant borough. The ill will excited by this opposition of sentiment to the views of men in power, and their retainers had probably been long acquiring |