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merit , property , talents , and education . * ; Hje a 4 one tfeels skJd )| x > si sesses the right and the legal capacity to be a legislator , and this consciousness is actual power .
\ lx \ 1727 , the Catholics of Ireland were deprived of tfie elective franchise , or right of voting at the election of members of Parliament , by act of Parliament . And thus they remained during 66 years * In 1793 , it was enacted ,
in substance , " That every * Catholic should be qualified to vote at such elections , upon his producing
to the returning officer a certificate of his having taken and subscribed Certain oaths and declarations required by that Act . "—But , by a subsequent statute of 17979 commonly termed the Election Act , it was declared , that Catholics , who
qualify previous to the teste of the writ of election , shall be deemed to have qualified within the
meaning of those statutes of 179 $ and 1797 > in order to entitle them to vote at such elections . Upon these two statutes a question has arisen , which imposes new difficulties upon the Catholic franchtse .
' £ Si « ce , this Statement went to pfess , ' a valuable statute lias been passed in 1811 , 51 Geo . iii . ch . 77 * which removes the difficulty
stated in p . 84 , and facilitates the CathoHc qualification for ex . ercising the elective franchise / . This statute , obviating the contradictions between the statutes of
If 9 $ fcnd 1797 , enables the Catholics to qualify during the tlcttion . In other particulars , it so tf eHrty atod widely ^ tablishes thefce ^ eVAiexejeise of thfe elective
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4 » 8 S Penal Laws which aggrieve XkciCalholies of Ireland .
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f ^" m ^ n f w ^ pii " , bal ¦ . otj-ection * , 4 nal ¦ 3 to £ m */? . jktei haps be termed the most salutary statute for the Irish public , that has beerr enacted during the last twenty years . } . - :- ^ The Catholics are liable to
pecubar restraints-as to the elective franchise , in cities arid towns corporate . Such Catholics as ai * e entitfed to their freedom of the
corporation , by birth ot service , are rarely admitted to it . They are scarcely ever made Free ; by grant ; and thus they are ^ denied ' equal means of acquiring the « elective franchise with those which
the Protestants enjoy ; , In cities and corporate town 3 , the elective franchise , as apper . taining to freemen , rs almost solely '
confined to Protestants , who are ^ in the ratio of at least fifty to one of the Catholic freemen , owing , to , the watchful jeak > u $ y with * which the freedom is , withheld *
from Catholics . This ffcOnfcfJdly , therefore , occasions a d ^ cide ^ though unnatural , preponderance of Protestant voter * , at elections of members fox such places ; corti trory to the professed prineiple o ^ granting equal qualification Fdi ^ voting to persons of ft \\ rfiligiom ^ Moreover , in all elections of
members , whether for counties ^ cities ^ r tow ns ^ ^ everf * ' Oithdlic freeholder is liable to' rejection , for sorn ^ alled ^ ed jcrrpr , i , ijJps ) C # rtificate of Catholic qwalifirafio ^ whether as tQ the 4 ate or , wording
of . ( l ^ e certificate , fjlwe / fyw tisrt ^ pf quaUficatipn , or , otbergrpupd of t ^ cjin icai ply ^ c ^ O 4 &UH % » W * ti ( M fproa oM ^ ia qqalifi ^^ o ^ < -,-, « i > * r 'f > 1 . _ Ik . _ «~* / V -f .
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Aug. 2, 1812, page 488, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1751/page/12/
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