CATHOLIC CLAIMS.
On the 3rd of May, after numerous petitions had been presented both for and against the claims of Roman Catholics, this great question of internal policy was again brought before the commons by the eloquent Grattan. The 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.