causes of disqualification, he observed, were of three
kinds--the combination of the Catholics, the clanger of a pretender,
and the power of the pope. Grattan asserted, that not only had all these
causes ceased, but that the consequences annexed to them were no more;
and he concluded by moving for a committee of the whole house to take
into consideration the laws by which oaths or declarations are required
to be taken or made as qualifications for the enjoyment of office, or
the exercise of civil functions so far as the Roman Catholics were
affected by them. This motion was lost by a majority of only two in a
full house; but a corresponding proposition made in the lords by Earl
Donoughmore was lost by a majority of one hundred and forty-seven
against one hundred and six. Subsequently another effort was made in the
lords by Earl Grey; but, as before, without effect. The bill Earl Grey
introduced was for abrogating so much of the acts of the 25th and
30th of Charles the Second, as prescribed to all officers, civil and
military, and to all members of both houses of parliament, a declaration
against the doctrines of transubstantiation, and the invocation of
saints. His motion was rejected by a majority of one hundred and
forty-two against eighty-two.

FOREIGN ENLISTMENT ACT.

On the 13th of May, in consequence of complaints made by the Spanish
ambassador that English officers were aiding the cause of independence
in South America, the attorney-general brought in a bill for prohibiting
the enlistment of British subjects into foreign service, and the
equipment of vessels of war without licence. The first of these objects,
he observed, had been in some measure provided for by the statutes of
George the Second, by which it was an offence, amounting to felony,
to enter the service of any foreign state. If neutrality were to be
observed, however, it was important that the penalty should be extended
to the act of serving unacknowledged as well as acknowledged powers;
and part of his intention therefore was to amend those statutes, by
introducing after the words, "king, prince, state, potentate,"
the words, "colony or district, which do assume the powers of a
government." It was his wish, he said, to give to this country the
right of preventing its subjects from breaking the neutrality towards
acknowledged states, and those assuming the power of states; and upon
a similar principle, he wished to prevent the fitting out of a