J»AP 
is a toleration, under certain regulations, of 
tlie religious worship of the Catholics, qua- 
lifying in like manner, and of their schools 
for education; the fourth enacts, that no 
one shall be summoned to take the oath of 
supremacy prescribed by statutes 1 William 
and Mary, st. 1. c. 8. ; iGeorge I. st, 2. c. 13 ; 
or the declaration against transubstantiation 
required by statute 25 Charles II. c. 2 ; that 
the statute 1 William and Mary, st. 1. c. 9, 
for removing Papists, or reputed Papists, 
from the cities of London and Westminster, 
shall not extend to Roman Catholics taking 
the appointed oath ; and that no peer of 
Great Britain or Ireland, taking that oath, 
shall be liable to be prosecuted for coming 
into his Majesty’s presence, or into the 
court or house where his Majesty resides, 
under statute 30 Charles II. st. 2, c. 1. The 
fifth part of the act repeals the laws requir- 
ing the deeds and wills of Roman Catholics 
to be registered or inrolled ; the sixth excuses 
persons acting as counsellors at law, bar- 
risters, attornies, clerks, or notaries, from 
taking the oath of supremacy, or the decla- 
ration against transubstantiation. But it is 
adviseable to take the oath of 18 George III. 
30, to prevent all doubts, or ability to take 
by descent or purchase. 
As the statute 1 AVilliam and Mary, st. 1, 
c. 18, called the Toleration Act, does not 
apply to Catholics, or persons denying the 
Trinity, they cannot serve in corporations, 
and are liable to the test and corporation 
act. 1 hey cannot sit in the House of Com- 
mons, nor vote at elections, without taking 
the oath of supremacy ; and cannot present 
to advowsons, although Jews and Quakers 
may. But the person is only disabled from 
presenting, and still continues patron. It 
seems they may serve on juries, but Catholic 
ministers are exempted. They also are 
entitled to attend the British factories and 
their meetings abroad, and may hold offices 
to be wholly exercised abroad, and may also 
serve under the East India Company, or in 
the army abroad, and the sixtieth regiment 
is chiefly composed of persons who cannot 
serve in England, by reason of the officers 
being many of them Catholics. This ac- 
count of the state of the laws against Pa- 
pists is extracted from an able review of 
them given by Mr. Butler, a Roman Catho- 
lic, in his Notes upon Lord Coke’s Com- 
mentary on Littleton’s Tenures, and wjiich 
is to be found also in Tomlin’s Law Dic- 
tionary, last edition, title Papist. 
PAPPOPHORUM, in botany, a genus 
of the Triandria Digynia class and order, 
VOL. V. 
PAR 
Natural order of Gramina, or Grasses. Es- 
sential character; calyx two-valved, two- 
flowered ; corolla two-valved, many awned. 
There is but one species ; viz. P. alopecu- 
roideum, a native of Spanish Town in 
America. 
PAPPUS, in botany, thistle-down, a sort; 
of feathery or hairy crown, with which ma- 
ny seeds, particularly those of compound 
flowers, are furnished for the purpose of 
dissemination. A seed surmounted by its 
pappus re.sembles a shuttle cock, so that it 
is liaturally framed for flying, and for being 
transported by tlie wind to very consider- 
able distances from its parent plant. By 
this contrivance of nature, the dandelion, 
groundsel, &c. are disseminated far and 
wide. In some plants, as hawk-weed, the 
pappus adheres immediately to the seed ; 
in others, as lettuce, it is elevated upon a 
foot stalk, which connects it with the seeds. 
In the first case it called pappus sessilis ; in 
the second, pappus stipitatus ; the foot-stalk, 
or thread, upon which it is raised is termed 
“ stipes.” 
PAR, in commerce, signifies any two 
things equal in value ; and in money affairs, 
it is so much as a person must give of one 
kind of specie to render it just equivalent to 
a certain quantity of another. ' In the ex- 
change of money with foreign countries, 
the person to whom a bill is payable is sup- 
posed to receive the same value as wa& 
paid the drawer by the remitter; but this 
is not always the case, with respect to the 
intrinsic value of the coins of different 
countries, which is owing to the fluctua- 
tion in the prices of exchange amongst the 
several European countries, and the great 
trading cities. The par, therefore, differs 
fr om the course of exchange in this, that 
the par of exchange shews what other na- 
tions should allow in exchange, which is 
rendered certain and fixed by the intrinsic 
value of the several species to be exchang- 
ed : but the course shews what they will 
allow in exchange ; which is uncertain and 
contingent, sometimes more, and sometimes 
less ; and hence the exchange is sometimes 
above and sometimes under par. See Ex- 
change. 
PARABOLA, in geometry, a figure aris- 
ing from the section of a cone, when cut by 
a plane parallel to one of its sides. See 
Conic Sections. 
'Eo describe a parabola in piano, draw a 
right line A B (Plate Parabola, fig. 1) and 
assume a point C without it ; then in the 
same plane, with this line and point, place 
I 
