pon the parties, and those whom he suspects
to be their trustees, upon oath, and under the penalties of perjury, to
discover against themselves the exact nature and value of their estates
in every particular, in order to induce their forfeiture on the
discovery. In such suits the informer is not liable to those delays
which the ordinary procedure of those courts throws into the way of the
justest claimant; nor has the Papist the indulgence which he [it?]
allows to the most fraudulent defendant, that of plea and demurrer; but
the defendant is obliged to answer the whole directly upon oath. The
rule of _favores ampliandi,_ &c., is reversed by this act, lest any
favor should be shown, or the force and operation of the law in any part
of its progress be enervated. All issues to be tried on this act are to
be tried by none but known Protestants.

It is here necessary to state as a part of this law what has been for
some time generally understood as a certain consequence of it. The act
had expressly provided that a Papist could possess no sort of estate
which might affect land (except as before excepted). On this a
difficulty did, not unnaturally, arise. It is generally known, a
judgment being obtained or acknowledged for any debt, since the statute
of Westm. 2, 13 Ed. I. c. 18, one half of the debtor's land is to be
delivered unto the creditor until the obligation is satisfied, under a
writ called _Elegit_, and this writ has been ever since the ordinary
assurance of the land, and the great foundation of general credit in the
nation. Although the species of holding under this writ is not specified
in the statute, the received opinion, though not juridically delivered,
has been, that, if they attempt to avail themselves of that security,
because it may create an estate, however precarious, in land, their
whole debt or charge is forfeited, and becomes the property of the
Protestant informer. Thus you observe, first, that by the express words
of the law all possibility of acquiring any species of valuable
property, in any sort connected with land, is taken away; and, secondly,
by the construction all security for money is also cut off. No security
is left, except what is merely personal, and which, therefore, most
people who lend money would, I believe, consider as none at all.

Under this head of the acquisition of property, the law meets them in
every road of industry, and in its direct and consequential provisions
throws alm