§ Earl Greyrose to submit to their lordships a bill to relieve Roman Catholics from taking the declaratory oaths against Tran-substantiation and the Invocation of Saints. He presumed that no obstacle would be opposed to the passing of this bill, as it did not in the least interfere with any securities which some noble lords though ought to be required of the Roman Catholics. It merely affected certain dogmatic opinions, and had no reference, whatever to any question of supremacy, 749 political or spiritual. Those who had most warmly opposed the motion of his noble friend near him (lord Donoughmore), had acknowledged the general good conduct of the Roman Catholics; and, confining their objections to the question of foreign supremacy, had expressed no disinclination to grant relief on any other point. He trusted therefore, that, consistently with the declarations made on that occasion, this bill would experience the general concurrence of their lordships. Its object, as he had said, was confined to points of faith, and touched in no way upon that question on which those who opposed the Catholic claims rested their objection. It tended only to relieve a respectable class of his majesty's subjects from the operation of laws, which, without even the pretence of necessity, cast an insulting stigma on their religious opinions. Their lordships were also aware, that in many instances Protestants had been very unwilling to take the oaths which it was his object to advocate. His lordship then presented a bill "for abrogating so much of the Acts of the 25th and 30th of Charles 2nd, as prescribes to all officers Civil and Military, and to Members of both Houses of Parliament, a Declaration against the' Doctrine of Transubstantiation, and the Invocation of Saints."
§ The Bill was read a first time.