THE CATHOLIC QUESTION.
During this session Mr. Grattan carried a motion for referring the Catholic claims to a committee of the whole house. On the 30th of April, he presented to the house a bill for the removal of the civil and military disqualifications under which his majesty’s Roman Catholic subjects laboured; but this bill, though read a second time, was lost on its passage through the committee, Mr. Abbott, the speaker, having divided the house on the clause by which Catholic members were to be admitted to a seat in Parliament. This was rejected by a majority of two hundred and fifty-one against two hundred and forty-seven, and then the bill was abandoned by its supporters.