of popish priests and Jesuits, the punishment of perpetual imprisonment for keeping a school, and the disabilities as to holding real property, was that of 1778, 18 Geo. III. c. 60. The Roman Catholic Relief Act of 1791, 31 Geo. III. c. 32, went further, and relieved Roman Catholics taking the prescribed oath from all liability to prosecution for the exercise of their religion, and from the disability to practise the professions of counsellor-at-law, barrister, attorney, solicitor, and notary.

The Emancipation Act of 1829, 10 Geo. IV. c. 7, extended to Roman Catholics the right to sit and vote in Parliament, the right to vote in parliamentary elections, and the right to hold all civil and military offices under the Crown, and exercise any other franchise or civil right with certain exceptions mentioned below, but always conditionally upon their taking the form of oath prescribed by the Act. In theory, at least, Roman Catholics who abstained from taking the special oath provided for their benefit, remained subject to the penalties of recusancy till the year 1846, when such penalties were repealed by the Act 9 & 10 Vict. c. 59. In 1867, a short uniform oath for all subjects of the Crown was substituted by 30 & 31 Vict. c. 75, s. 5, and in the following year the present uniform oaths were settled by 31 & 32 Vict. c. 72. Finally, in 1871, the provisions as to the Roman Catholic oath were expressly repealed by 33 & 34 Vict. c. 48.

EXISTING DISABILITIES.

The Relief Acts have left certain special disabilities affecting— (A) Roman Catholics in general, (B) the clergy and religious orders.

(A) (1) The Crown.-Under the Bill of Rights, 1 Will. & Mary, sess. 2, c. 2, and the Act of Settlement, 12 & 13 Will. III. c. 2, s. 2, every person professing the popish religion or marrying a papist, is excluded from inheriting or possessing the Crown.

(2) Certain high Offices of State.-Under 10 Geo. IV. c. 7, s. 12, it is provided that nothing in the Act is to enable any person professing the Roman Catholic religion to be capable of holding the office of guardians and justices of the United Kingdom, or of regent of the United Kingdom, under whatever name, style, or title such office may be constituted. The section continues as follows:-"Nor to enable any person otherwise than he is now by law enabled, to hold or enjoy the office of Lord High Chancellor, Lord Keeper, Lord Commissioner of the Great Seal of Great Britain and Ireland, or the office of Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, or His Majesty's High Commissioner to the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland." The office of Lord Chancellor of Ireland was expressly thrown open to all the Queen's subjects by Act of 1867, 30 & 31 Vict. c. 75. Doubts have arisen as to whether Roman Catholics are now legally capable of holding the offices of Lord Chancellor of England and Lord Lieutenant of Ireland. It is only possible here to indicate what is believed on the strength of eminent authority to be a correct view of this question. Prior to the Emancipation Act, Roman Catholics were excluded from all important offices by the existence of certain tests, namely, the oaths of allegiance, abjuration, and supremacy, and the declaration against transubstantiation. The Emancipation Act substituted for these tests a modified form of oath to be taken by Roman Catholics in the case of public offices generally, but expressly reserved the old tests as regards the high offices in question. In 1858, as before mentioned, the oaths of allegiance, etc., were consolidated into one form of oath

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by 21 & 22 Vict. c. 48; but as the new oath retained the declaration that no foreign prince or prelate had or ought to have any jurisdiction, ecclesiastical or spiritual, within the realm, it was one which persons professing the Roman Catholic religion could not conscientiously take. In 1868, however, by 31 & 32 Vict. c. 72, there was substituted the present form of oath, to which no Roman Catholic can object. So far, therefore, as the oath is concerned, there is clearly no longer any obstacle to the tenure of these offices by Roman Catholics. In 1867, an Act (30 & 31 Vict. c. 62) was passed, entitled "an Act to abolish a certain declaration, commonly called the Declaration against Transubstantiation, the Invocation of the Saints, and the sacrifice of the Mass, as practised in the Church of Rome, and to render it unnecessary to take, make, or subscribe the same as a qualification for the exercise or enjoyment of any civil office, franchise, or right." This Act consisted of two clauses, whereof the first repealed such parts of certain Acts as required the said declaration to be taken, and provided that it should not be obligatory for any person to take the said declaration as a qualification for any office, and the second enacted as follows:-"Nothing in this Act contained shall be construed to enable any person professing the Roman Catholic religion to exercise or enjoy any civil office, franchise, or right, for the exercise or enjoyment of which, making, taking, or subscribing the declaration by this Act abolished, is now by law a necessary qualification, or any other civil office, franchise, or right, from which he is now by law excluded." Thus the effect of the Act would appear to be that whilst it abolished the declaration as regards PROTESTANTS, it expressly retained it as against Roman Catholics. This is the view taken by Sir John (afterwards Lord) Coleridge in an elaborate opinion delivered by him as Attorney-General in answer to a question in the House of Commons (Hansard's Debates, vol. 211, 3rd Series, pp. 280-283, May 6, 1872, H. C.). On this view, Roman Catholics remained legally excluded from the reserved offices till the passing of the Promissory Oaths Act, 1871, 34 & 35 Vict. c. 48. This Act repealed without reservation the last remaining statutes imposing the declaration, and so, in Sir John Coleridge's opinion, removed the last legal obstacle to the eligibility of Roman Catholics for the offices in question. Notwithstanding this weighty official opinion, however, a Bill for getting rid of doubts and removing the supposed disability was introduced in the House of Commons in 1891, but the second reading was rejected by 256 to 223 votes. For a full discussion of this topic, see A Manual of the Law affecting Catholics, by W. S. Lilly and J. P. Wallis, pp. 36-43.

(3) Ecclesiastical Patronage of the Established Church.-A Roman Catholic may be the legal patron of a benefice of the Established Church, and as such may sell the advowson or the next presentation; but he may not himself present or nominate. This disability is derived from 3 Jac. I. c. 5, ss. 18-25, and 1 Will. & Mary, c. 26 (an Act to vest in the two universities the presentation of benefices belonging to papists). By 13 Anne, c. 13, "every papist or person making profession of the popish religion, and every mortgagee, trustee, or person any ways entrusted by or for such papist," is declared "incapable to present, collate, or nominate to any benefice, prebend, or ecclesiastical living, school, hospital, or donative," and every such presentation, etc., was declared to be void (cp. Boyer v. Bishop of Norwich, [1892] P. 41; [1892] A. C. 417). And by 11 Geo. II. c. 17, it was further enacted that "all grants made by any papist, or by any mortgagee or trustee on his

behalf, secret or avowed, etc.," should be void, "excepting all bond-fide grants for a full and valuable consideration to Protestant purchasers, and only for the benefit of such purchaser."

The Roman Catholic Emancipation Act, 1829, added certain further provisions with regard to ecclesiastical patronage. Sec. 15 provides that nothing in the Act shall authorise any Roman Catholic being a member of any lay body corporate to give any vote at, or in any manner join in, the election, presentation, or appointment of any person to any ecclesiastical benefice, or any office or place in the United Church of England and Ireland. Sec. 17 provides that where the right of presentation to any benefice belongs to an office in the gift of the Crown, and the holder is a Roman Catholic, the right of presentation for the time being shall devolve upon the Archbishop of Canterbury. However, when in 1886 a Roman Catholic, Mr. Matthews, was appointed Home Secretary, it was arranged that during his tenure the ecclesiastical patronage of the office should be exercised by the First Lord of the Treasury. Sec. 18 makes it a high misdemeanor, punishable by perpetual disability to hold office, for any Roman Catholic to advise the Crown concerning ecclesiastical patronage.

(4) Offices in Established Church, etc.-Under sec. 16, Roman Catholics are debarred from holding any office in the United Churches of England and Ireland, or the Church of Scotland; in the ecclesiastical Courts of judicature, or any Court of Appeal therefrom; in any Cathedral or collegiate or ecclesiastical establishment or foundation; in any of the universities of the realm; or in the colleges of Eton, Westminster, or Winchester, or any college or school within the realm. With reference to the words italicised, so much of the Act as relates to any of the universities of Oxford, Cambridge, and Durham, or any college therein, is repealed by 34 & 35 Vict. c. 26, s. 8.

A Roman Catholic may be appointed a churchwarden, but may execute the office by deputy (Roman Catholic Relief Act, 1791, 31 Geo. III. c. 32, s. 7). As to priests, see post; cp. article CHURCHWARDEN.

(5) Ecclesiastical Titles.-Sec. 24 of the Roman Catholic Emancipation Act imposes a penalty upon any person other than the person authorised by law, who shall assume the title of any archbishop, bishop, or dean in England or Ireland. The establishment by papal authority in 1850 of a Roman Catholic hierarchy for England with territorial titles, occasioned the passing of the Ecclesiastical Titles Act, 1851, 14 & 15 Vict. c. 50, whereby the assumption of such titles was forbidden under heavy penalties; but the Act was never actually put in force, and was repealed in 1871 by 34 & 35 Vict. c. 53.

(B) (6) Religious Orders of Men. Members of religious orders of men had been entitled to avail themselves of the protection afforded by the Relief Act of 1791, on the same terms as other Roman Catholic subjects, but by the Roman Catholic Emancipation Act, 1829, they were subjected to new and special disabilities. The Act contains (ss. 28-36) a series of provisions "for the gradual suppression and final prohibition of "Jesuits and members of other religious orders or societies of the Church of Rome, bound by monastic or religious vows" (s. 28), including, under various pains and penalties, provision for the registration of all Jesuits and other male regulars (s. 28); prohibition against any Jesuit or other male regular coming into the kingdom (s. 29); provision for the granting of licences to such persons by the Secretary of State for periods of not more than six months (s. 31); and provisions against the

admission of a new member of any order (ss. 33, 44). [Sec. 34 provides that any person who, after the commencement of the Act, is admitted or becomes a Jesuit or brother or member of any other such religiousorder, community or society, is to be deemed to be guilty of misdemeanor, and on conviction is to be ordered to be banished from the United Kingdom for the term of his natural life. As to this section, see R. v. Kennedy, infra.] Sec. 37 provides that nothing in the Act shall be construed to extend to any religious order, community, or establishment consisting of females bound by religious or monastic vows. Lastly, sec. 38 enacts that all penalties imposed by the Act are to be recovered as a debt due to His Majesty by information to be filed in the name of the Attorney-General. [In 1902 an attempt was made, but unsuccessfully, to put in force these penal provisions (see R. v. Kennedy, 1902, 86 L. T. 753). In that case it was held, upon a rule nisi for a mandamus directed to a Metropolitan police magistrate, requiring him to hear and determine an application for a summons for an offence under sec. 34 of the Act of 1829, that, though the information disclosed a prima facie case that an offence had been committed, the magistrate was entitled, in the exercise of his discretion, to refuse to issue a summons, and that the Court had no jurisdiction to compel him to review his decision unless the discretion was exercised on improper and extraneous grounds. It was further held that the fact that there never had been any prosecutions under the section, and that the magistrate was of opinion that if any prosecutions under it were now to be commenced they should be initiated by the Crown, were not improper or extraneous grounds in considering an application by a private person for a summons under the section. It was laid down, however, that there is nothing in the Act to prevent private persons initiating proceedings under sec. 34.]

(7) Ecclesiastics generally.-Persons in holy orders of the Church of Rome cannot be members of the House of Commons (Roman Catholic Emancipation Act, s. 9), a disability which is shared by clergymen of the Established Church. By sec. 26 of the same Act, Roman Catholic ecclesiastics are forbidden to exercise any of the rites or ceremonies of their religion, or wear the habits of their order, save within the usual places of worship of the Roman Catholic religion, or in private houses, under a penalty of £50; but this, of course, like the other penalties before referred to, can only be recovered at the instance of the AttorneyGeneral. On the other hand, ministers of any Roman Catholic congregation are exempt from serving on juries, or from being "chosen or appointed to bear the office of churchwarden, overseer of the poor, or any other parochial or ward office, or other office in any hundred of any shire, city, town, parish, division, or wapentake” (31 Geo. III. c. 32, s. 8).

PLACES OF WORSHIP.

The Roman Catholic Relief Act, 1791, 31 Geo III. c. 32, s. 5, required Roman Catholic places of worship to be registered at Quarter Sessions, but in 1832 the 2 & 3 Will. IV. c. 115 placed Roman Catholics in this respect on the same footing as the Protestant dissenters in England then were. This brought Roman Catholics within the scope of 52 Geo. III. c. 155, which required dissenting places of worship to be certified to the bishop, archdeacon, and Quarter Sessions. In 1852, 14 & 15 Vict. c. 36, applying only to Protestant dissenters, permitted

registration by the registrar of births, deaths, and marriages; and in 1855 this Act was repealed by 18 & 19 Vict. c. 81, which provides that every place of meeting for religious worship of Protestant dissenters and persons professing the Roman Catholic religion, may be certified in writing to the registrar of births, deaths, and marriages. This Act left the compulsory registration of Roman Catholic places of worship untouched; but by a subsequent Act of the same session (c. 86) it was enacted that the provisions before mentioned of 2 & 3 Will. IV. c. 115, should "be read as applicable to the laws to which Protestant dissenters in England are liable for the time being after the passing of this Act."

MARRIAGES AND BURIALS.

Practically the chief necessity for the registration of places of worship lies in the circumstance that marriages can only be solemnised in places of worship registered in accordance with the requirements of 18 & 19 Vict. c. 81, and 6 & 7 Will. IV. c. 85, relating to the solemnisation of marriages in places of worship other than those belonging to the Church of England. The law as to the solemnisation of marriages is the same for Roman Catholics as for Protestant dissenters (see NONCONFORMIST). So also as to BURIALS; but as to the subject of mortuary inscriptions asking for prayers for the dead, see article PRAYERS FOR THE DEAD.

PAUPERS.

There are no provisions in the Poor Law special to Roman Catholics, whose rights with respect to the creed register, religious instruction and ministration, and the establishment of Certified Poor Law Schools, stand upon precisely the same footing as those of other religious persuasions (see article POOR LAW). One or two points may here be noted for the sake of convenience. (1) As effecting the practical utility of registering Roman Catholic places of worship, it is to be observed that ministers of registered places of worship may inspect the creed register and visit and instruct the inmates of a workhouse. Under the Poor Law General Order, July 24, 1847, art. 122, any "licensed minister" may visit and instruct; and the term "licensed minister" is construed to include Roman Catholic priest (Glen's Poor Law Orders, 11th ed., p. 320), (31 & 32 Vict. c. 122, ss. 19 and 20). (2) The guardians may properly appoint a Roman Catholic priest as a salaried religious instructor (R. v. Haslehurst, 1884, 13 Q. B. D. 253). (3) Liberty for such an instructor to distribute religious books to the inmates under his spiritual care is dependent upon arrangement with the guardians (see R. v. The Guardians of St. Luke's, Chelsea, 1861, at p. 320 of Glen's Poor Law Orders, 11th ed.; A Manual of the Law affecting Catholics, by Lilly and Wallis, pp. 88-101).

CRIMINALS.

Roman Catholic ministers to prisons are appointed by the Home Secretary. The religious rights of Roman Catholic and other prisoners differing from the Established Church are secured by the Prison Ministers Act, 1863, 26 & 27 Vict. c. 79, and Prisons Act, 1865, 28 & 29 Vict. c. 126, Sched. I. Regulations 47, 48. With regard to