§ Mr. Northrose to move for leave to bring in a Bill to extend to Protestants of the Established Church in Ireland the provisions of the Irish Statute of the 19th and 20th of George 3rd, cap. 6, permitting Protestant Dissenters to hold office without receiving the sacrament. The Act in question, the benefit of which he wished to extend to Protestants, was originally passed in the reign of Queen Anne, and was subse- 744 quently amended in that of George 3rd, to which he had alluded. The object of the first act was to exclude Protestant Dissenters from office, by establishing, as a test for the qualification of office, the necessity of receiving the sacrament of the Lord's Supper according to the forms of the Church of England. The Act of 1793 repealed that test, with respect to Dissenters in Ireland. The Act which passed two Sessions ago, for the relief of Dissenters, from the necessity of taking the sacrament as a qualification for office, took away that necessity from all classes; but the Act did not extend beyond England, it being understood that the Dissenters of Ireland were fully relieved by the Irish Act of 1793. So that, in fact, the Protestants belonging to the Established Church in Ireland were at this moment the only class of subjects of the United Kingdom who were still obliged to take the sacrament as a qualification, and who of course were liable to a penalty for taking office without such qualification. Thus, in the process of legislation, it happened that what was originally intended as a bar to Dissenters only, now remained on the Statutes as a bar to Protestants of the Established Church, whose exclusion was never intended. Under these circumstances, he thought the House would go with him in admitting the necessity of doing away with this as a form useless as a qualification for office. He would therefore, without further comment, move for leave to bring in his Bill.
Sir R. H. Inglisdid not object to the principle of the motion, but he doubted whether further legislation was necessary on a subject already so clearly expressed in the Act of 1793. That, he thought, was so clear as to be understood by every man, woman, and child who could read it, and he was not aware that any doubt had been raised on the subject in any Court of Law.
§ Mr. Northsaid, the hon. Baronet had not correctly understood him if he supposed no doubt existed. As to Protestant Dissenters the Act was clear enough, but it was not so with respect to Protestants of the Established Church, and those doubts had been alluded to in the 23rd of George 3rd.
§ Leave given to bring in the Bill.