GENERAL HISTORY. 



[61 



might be necessary with the holy 

 see ; it also appeared to stand 

 more favourably with respect to 

 the petitioners themselves. First, 

 they stated themselves to be will- 

 ing- to acquiesce iu the form of 

 the oath proposed to them in the 

 bill of 1813. Secondly, as to the 

 nomination of bishops, it was, in 

 his opinion, necessary to take away 

 from the Pope the virtual nomi- 

 nation of the Catholic bishops in 

 this kingdom ; and if this plan 

 were adopted, lie was not inclined 

 to forebode more danger to the 

 church establishment from hence, 

 than from the elections without 

 the interference of government in 

 the church of Scotland. There 

 was a third point not taken notice 

 of in the Catholic petitions, which 

 appeai'ed to him of importance 

 with regard to security ; which 

 was that of the regium exequatur, 

 or regium placitum, which ad- 

 mitted the right of all govern- 

 ments to inspect every bull, re- 

 script, or other document coming 

 from Rome, previous to publica- 

 tion, and of authorising it (except 

 in cases relating merely to points 

 of conscience) . in the same manner 

 as in all the other states of Eu- 

 rope, Catholic or Non- Catholic. 

 This, he supposed, would not be 

 objected to by any rational Roman 

 Catholic as a measure of security, 

 to which he, for one, looked for- 

 ward as au essential part of any 

 future arrangement. 



Sir Henry Parnell returned 

 (hanks to Mr. Vorke for his very 

 valuable, cordial, and conciliating 

 speech J and he hoped to be able 

 to satisfy him that the Catholics 

 were perfectly willing to do all 

 those things which the right hon. 

 gentleman required should be 



done. In order to understand 

 exactly the proposed plan of do- 

 mestic nomination of all future 

 bishops, it was necessary that the 

 House should know the pi'oceed- 

 ings which now tooV place for 

 filling a bishop's see when vacant. 

 The bishops of the province in 

 ■which he had been situated as- 

 sembled together, and having con- 

 sulted with the priest of the vacant 

 diocese, named ceitain persons as 

 fit to be chosen by the Pope for 

 the new bishop. It had been 

 nearly the constant practice of the 

 Pope to choose the person whose 

 name stoqd first on the list ; but 

 there was no law to compel him 

 to do so. It was to exclude the 

 possibility of any such proceed- 

 ing, and to render all future ap- 

 pointments entirely those of the 

 Catholic Irish priests and bishops, 

 that it was now proposed that the 

 Pope should issue a concordat by 

 which he should bind himself to 

 appoint no person to be a bishop 

 in Ireland, except such as should 

 be in the first place elected by the 

 Irish clergy themselves. It was 

 then proposed by the Catholic 

 bishops to have the following pro- 

 visions inserted in every bill. 

 [These were provisos stipulating 

 that no Roman Catholic clergy- 

 man shall be elected a bishop who 

 is not a native of his Majesty's 

 dominions, and who has not taken 

 an elective oath guarding church 

 and state from any future dan- 

 gers.] As the Pope had commu- 

 nicated his readiness to give his 

 consent to this plan of electing 

 the bishops by a larger number 

 of clergy than had hitherto been 

 concerned in the nomination, and 

 also to grant the necessary con- 

 cordatum to bind himself to give 

 [ E 2] institution 



