120] ANNUAL REGISTER, 1812. 



eloquence habitual to him ; but as 

 his path lay directly through all 

 those topics which had already so 

 often been brought forwards in the 

 former debates on the Catholic 

 question, it would be superfluous 

 prolixity to go through his train of 

 argument, and we shall only tran- 

 scribe the motion with which he 

 concluded. It was, " That this 

 house will, early in the next session 

 of parliament, take into its most 

 serious consideration the state of 

 the laws affecting his Majesty's 

 Roman Catholic subjects in Great 

 Britain and Ireland ; with a view 

 to such a fii>al and conciliatory ad- 

 justment, as may be conducive to 

 the peace and strength of the 

 united kingdom ; to the stability of 

 the protestant establishment ; and 

 to the general satisfaction and con- 

 cord of all classes of his Majesty's 

 subjects." 



General Matthew, who spoke 

 next, moved as an amendment, 

 " That the House should take the 

 Catholic claims into their early 

 and immediate consideration, and 

 go into a committee upon them on 

 Thursday next." 



Of the debate which followed, 

 we shall, for the reason above 

 assigned, decline giving a sketch. 

 One of the most observable cir- 

 cumstances was, that Lord Castle- 

 reagh made a liberal declaration in 

 favour of an inquiry into the Ca- 

 tholic claims. That the general 

 feeling of the House was similar 

 was proved on the division, when, 

 after the amendment of General 

 Matthew had been negatived, 

 the original motion was carried by 

 the decisive majority of 235 to 10(). 



In the House of Lords, on July 

 1, the Marquis Wellesley, after a 

 strong argumentat:ve sijeech, but 



of which the topics were such as 

 had been amply dwelt upon in 

 former debates, made a motion 

 precisely the same with that of Mr. 

 Canning. The previous question 

 was moved upon it by the Lord 

 Chancellor, and a number of lords 

 on each side declared their senti- 

 ments upon the subject, in the 

 arguments and observations already 

 so often repeated. The division 

 showed an extraordinary balance of 

 opinion in the members of that 

 house. On the motion of the pre- 

 vious question, the numbers were, 

 contents, present, 74, proxies, 52 ; 

 total, 126 : not-contents, present, 

 74, proxies, 51 ; total, 125. Majo- 

 rity, 1. Ministers, and their usual 

 supporters, were ranged on each 

 side ; and of the royal dukes, two 

 voted on one side, and three on 

 the other. Even the bench of 

 bishops was divided, though un- 

 equally, for 15 supported the pre- 

 vious question, and three alone 

 opposed it. 



Such was the state in which the 

 close of the session left the very 

 important question of Catholic 

 emancipation. 



In the debates concerning'Lord 

 Sidmouth's motion of last year to 

 make alterations in the act of tole- 

 ration, it had been stated, that 

 different decisions respecting the 

 meaning of certain clauses of that 

 act had been given by the justices 

 at the quarter sessions of different 

 counties. It was, therefore, a laud- 

 able purpose of government to in- 

 troduce a legal exposition of them 

 which might prevent any future 

 disagreement. 



On July 10. Lord Castlereagh 

 moved the bringing in of a bill to 

 repeal certain acts, and amend 

 other acts, relating to religious 



worship 



