House will not, in this session of parliament, take into consideration any of the petitions presented to this House, complaining of au in parliament, which are appointed to be heard after the petition of the persons whose names are thereunto subscribed, having a right, and persons claiming a right to vote for members to serve in parliament for the city of Hereford, complaining of an undue election and return for the said city.

undue election or return of members to serve

28 Die Januarii, 1785.-A petition of John Barrington, esq. was read; setting forth, &c. (as above) Ordered, that the said petition be taken into consideration upon the 22nd of February next.

22 Die Februarii, 1785.-The hour appointed for taking into consideration the petition of John Barrington esq. complaining of an undue election and return for the Borough of Newport in the Isle of Wight being come, the House proceeded to the appointment of a select committee to try and determine the merits of the said petition. (Which committee was appointed accordingly.)

24 Die Feb. 1785.-Mr. Duncombe, from the select committee who were appointed to try and determine the merits of the petition of John Barrington, esq. complaining of an undue election and return for the borough of Newport in the Isle of Wight, informed the House, that the said select committee have determined, that Edward Rushworth, esq. is duly elected a burgess to serve in this present parliament for the borough of Newport in the Isle of Wight, and county of Southampton. And the said determination was ordered to be entered in the Journals of this House.

Debate on the Eligibility of Mr. Horne Tooke, being a Person in Holy Orders, to sit in the House.] May 4. Earl Temple moved the order of the day for the House to take into consideration the Report of the Select Committee appointed to inquire into the Eligibility of John Horne Tooke, esq. (being a person in holy orders) to a seat in that House. The minutes of the evidence taken at the bar being read over by the clerk,

Earl Temple rose, and said :-Mr. Speaker; in rising to lay before the House the motion with which it is my intention to close the proceedings on the important constitutional question of the eligibility of clergy to seats in the House of Commons, I trust the House will believe me, that it is my intention, as it is my wish, to take up as short a portion of its time as possible; at the same time I should very ill second the labours of your Committee, or do justice to the task I have undertaken, if I did not lay before the House, in as concise a form as I can,

the most prominent of the many arguments which present themselves on the subject. I have too often enjoyed the indulgence of this House, not to bear testimony to its readiness to accord it; but I trust that the cause I plead is of sufficient importance to constitute, in some degree, a claim to that intention, to which, in any other case, I feel I should have no title.-Sir, it has been the wish of your Committee to save as much as possible the time and labour of the House, by laying before it in its Report every thing which presented itself in the records which we have examined as in any way bearing upon the point in question; and we felt this still stronger to be our duty, as the object of our research was one, which in truth, did not immediately present itself to the view of every one, and which depended, for its fair and candid discussion, on careful and minute research into materials which every one has neither the opportunity of obtaining, nor inclination to attend to if he had. Under these circumstances, we thought it became us to depart from the precise line marked out to us by the order of the House, by which we were directed to search for precedents only in the case, which, as now appear, were to be comprised in a very small compass. To the unremitted attention and constant labour of the hon. and learned gentleman (Mr. Bragge), who was good enough to take the chair of the committee, the House owes every thing which the report affords, either of immediate precedent, or of illustration of argument; and in a research which required more than ordinary abilities to direct it, and more than ordinary perseverance and habit of business to arrange and digest it, the committee was most lucky in having for its chairman a gentleman in whom all those requisites were, in a peculiar degree, to be found.

Before we look to that part of the question which more immediately presses itself upon our notice, it will be necessary, Sir, for us to examine the situation and character of our clergy in the earlier periods of our history, as connected_with the history of our parliaments. I am aware that, in this research, we must not look too far back, as it would be needless to expect to receive constitutional information from times when our constitution was as yet but an infant in its cradle, or elucidation of parliamentary history from periods when parliaments, called at the

Those of the clergy required the assent of the Lords first, though granted in the Commons House, of the Commons afterwards, and then of the King.

As the privileges of the clergy were thus in some instances abridged in parliament, in others they were more extended than those of the Commons. The clerical representatives had the power, which it is needless to say those of the Commons had not, of sending others in their places, of their own authority, when they themselves could not at tend. The proctors of the clergy after a session was over, returned to their constituents the clergy, who sent them, gave an account to them of what had passed, and of what they had given their consent to; in short, establishing, beyond a shadow of doubt, this principle, that when they attended parliament, they attended as representatives of a distinct estate, and in no case of the commonalty of the realm. Sir, if any further facts were necessary to establish this principle, a reference to Dugdale's Summons will afford them. It there appears that the bishops, abbots, and priors, corresponded to the earls and barons, and were summoned in the same manner. The deans and archdeacons corresponded to the knights of the shire, and were summoned by the bishops, as the knights were by the sheriffs; and the representatives of the clergy, called the Spiritual Commons," corresponded with the burgesses and citizens. Thus, Sir, it should appear that the clergy were represented in parliament until the reign of Hen. 6th, when they began to look upon their privilege as a burthen, and, in some degree, as a disgrace upon them. They were well aware, that the chief reason for summoning them to parliament at all was, to induce them, by the presence of the lay lords and commons, to grant their subsidies with greater liberality. Indignant at this check, and feeling they could with equal facility, and greater satisfaction to themselves, grant their money in Convocation, and knowing well that their other parliamentary privileges were only blinds to cover the real and true object in calling them to parliament, they seem from this time to have discontinued their general attendance, and to have sought every opportunity of escaping from honours they looked upon as grievous and burthensome. The right however was not given up, and in many instances was in point of fact exercised.

By a reference to the records of the church of York, it appears that Proctors were chosen as far as the end of the reign of Hen. 8th; to those of the church of Norwich, that they were chosen till the reign of queen Elizabeth; of Litchfield, till the time of James 1st; and of Lincoln, as far as the year 1640.

Thus stood the representation of the clergy prior to the reign of Henry 8th. From every writer who has treated the subject, from every authority that can be collected, one fact remains clear, and cannot be disputed, that the clergy assembled as a distinct and separate body, for distinct and separate objects, but always for one main object, which our kings constantly kept in view, and followed with more or with less earnestness in proportion as the necessities of the crown were more or less pressing, the ob ject of levying a heavier contribution on the possessions of the church, than the king, with the assistance of his lay parliament, either thought it prudent to do, or could have done, without engaging in such a dispute with the clergy as would have made the risk to be run overbalance the advantage to be gained. It should appear, however, that the powers exercised by the clergy in parliament, varied at different periods of our history. Sometimes they seem to have consulted with the lay Commons on temporal affairs, and sometimes only to have assented to them with the bishops. It appears in the 21st of Richard 2nd, that in a particular bill not necessary to be detailed here," it is prayed by the Commons and the Lords Spiritual, and the proctors of the clergy did assent to it, upon which the king, by the assent of all the Lords and Commons, did enact it." And in the 12th of the same parliament, it is stated, that "the Lords Spiritual and Temporal, the proctors of the clergy and the Commons being severally examined, did consent to it." They sometimes appear to have had the sole control in spiritual matters, and at other times, though always contending for it, that control was contested and divided with them by the Commons. Archbishop Wake says, that the lower clergy came up to parliament but in small numbers, and were neither called over nor computed amongst the actual sitting members of it. In short their powers varied in proportion as the objects varied which were to be attained by granting them those powers; their pri

vileges varied in proportion as the price they were to pay for those privileges was more or less extended, in consequence of the pressure of the moment being more or less severe. In the reign of Henry 8th the powers of the clergy became still more confined. Though always summoned to parliament by the king, the clergy carefully reserved to themselves the power of summoning the Convocation. The Convocations were called to gether by the archbishops till the 25th Henry 8th, after which period that authority was vested in the king, by which means the sole and uncontrolled power was placed in the hands of the crown of calling the clergy together at all as a legislative or deliberative body; and in that reign the parliamentary powers of the church received a blow fatal to its interests, and completely destructive to its influence. I cannot describe this transaction better than in archbishop Wake's own words. Discussing the power of the clergy to send their proctors to parliament, he says, "How long the proctors of the clergy here in England continued to assert and enjoy this privilege I cannot tell; in Ireland they held it to the very latter end of king Henry 8th's reign, and were then divested of it, not by their own cession (as probably was the case of our proctors, who looked upon their parliamentary attendance as a burthensome imposition, and were never contented till they got rid of it), but by act of parliament, how justly I am not to inquire. King Henry 8th being resolved to cast off the pope's authority in that kingdom as he had done here in England, met with an opposition which our circumstances did not enable our clergy to give him. For their proctors having continued not only to be summoned, but to come to parliament, and claiming a right of assenting to such bills as were to pass in it, stiffly opposed whatever was to be done in derogation to the pope's jurisdiction, and insisted upon it, that, for the lack of their concurrence, no act could legally be made against it. To cut this knot, which was not easy to be untied, it was resolved at once by act of parliament to deprive them of this privilege, and, if we may depend upon the account which the act itself gives us of it, to reduce them to the state of the Convocation at that time in England. The words of the act are these; Forasmuch as at every parliament begun and holden within this land, two proctors

of every diocese within the same land have been used and accustomed to be summoned and warned to be at the same parliament, which were never, by the order of the law, usage, custom, or otherwise, any number or parcel of the whole body of the parliament, nor have had of right any voice or suffrage in the same, but only to be there as counsellors and assistants to the same, and upon such things of learning as shall happen in controversy to declare their opinions, much like as the convocation within the realm of England is commonly begun and holden by the king's highness's special licence, as his majesty's judges of his said realm of England, and divers others substantial and learned men having groundedly inquired and examined the root and establishment of the same, do clearly determine; and yet, by reason of this sufferance, and by the continuance of time, and for that most commonly the said proctors have been made privy to such matters as within this land at any time have been to be enacted and published, and their advice to be desired and taken to the same, they now, of their ambitious minds and presumptions inordinately desiring to have authority, and to intermeddle with every cause or matter without any just ground or cause reasonable to the same, do temerariously presume and usurpingly take upon themselves to be parcels of the body, in manner claiming, that, without their assent, nothing can be enacted at any parliament within this land, &c. Wherefore be it enacted, or dained, and established by authority of this present parliament, that the said proctors, nor any of them so summoned or warned to any parliament begun or holden, or to be begun or holden within this land, is nor shall be any member nor parcel of the body of the same parliament, nor shall give, nor have any voice, opi nion, assent, or agreement to any act, provision, or ordinance to be regarded nor enacted within this land, &c. And by the same authority, the said proctors, nor any of them, shall be accepted, reputed, deemed, or taken from the first day of this present parliament, as parcel or any member of the said parliament or any other parliament hereafter to be holden within this land, but only as coun. sellors and assistants to the same; any laws, usage, custom, prescription, or any other cause or matter, thing or things whatsoever, it or they be in anywise to