CATHOLIC RELIEF BILL, ETC.
During this session Mr. Mitford moved for a committee of the whole house, to enable him to bring in “a bill to relieve, upon conditions, and under restrictions, persons called Protestant Catholic Dissenters, from certain penalties, to which Papists are by law subject.” A reform in the penal statutes was at this time peculiarly called for, since a large body of Catholic Dissenters had recently formally protested against the temporal power of the pope, and his right to excommunicate princes, or to absolve subjects from their oath of allegiance; and had likewise disavowed the lawfulness of breaking faith with heretics, and the power claimed by their priests, of exempting men from moral obligations. The principles of the bill were generally approved, and it passed both houses without opposition: the bishops themselves expressing sentiments in its favour. Encouraged by this liberality of parliament, the church of Scotland transmitted from the general assembly a petition praying for the relief of the Test Act, as far as it applied to that country; and subsequently Sir Gilbert Elliot made a motion on the subject, but it was rejected by a large majority.