The Sun.
London, England, 1801-05-05 00:00:00

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old date. The gtottnds or ineligibility Stated in
two of them are, apt the persons :acre or might
,be'
.Members of .the House of.Convq..eation; in the third
only, the ground stated is, that the person was in •
Holy. (Moss. But in drawing. up this,Report the
Committee seem to have _entirely overlooked a
Canon of the .same date with dint :declaring the
ineligibility of persons in Holy Orders to sit in.
the House, if not the subsequent part of the same
Canon, in whichit is declared that Rectors, Vicars,
&c.. shall not have, any
:vote for Knights of the
,Shire .to serve in Parliament.. And in his opinion
this-declaration was right and proper, for if the
right of eligibility is taken away, the right of
cieetion ought_ to accompany,..it .he conceived

that the right of cligibilitm' and of election,
except separated by express
...Statute, must always

go !land in . But the Tight of voting.
fok the eleaion of Knights
.of the Shire has been

confirmed. to the Clergy. by two separate Ads of
Parliament, one of 'Queen Ann, and the other of
George the Second; and if ,they have now the
right of voting at eledions, he would contend
that thesame Aels give them a right to be eleeted,
except express Statutes can Ise adduced to the con.
trary. ,At all events; the Noble Lord lied made
him pay dearly. for his seat during the shore tune
he had enjoyed it, by the trouble belted given him.
To take off-the weight of Sir Edward Coke's 'au-
thority, as, quoted by the Neble Lord, .he :would
beg .leave to quote part of a Letter written by him
to the Vice-Chancellor of The lieiversity of Cam-
bridge, just at the time 'when the rights of sending
Representatives to Parliament. was conferred on the
thnversities. 'This Letter is to, be foundiin the
archives of the TioiverSiry, and in it Sir, Edward
Coke realinmenda to the University not to return
aTersonin Holy' Orders, ore Member of the House
of Convocation. The reason of this recommends_
Lion merely is not that such persons ,haee been de,
'ermined by ;he House to be ineligible, but than
doubts have existed as to their eligibility. The
Learned Gentleman (the Attorney-General) seems
entertained with this authority. 14e supposed that he
'would soon deliver his opinion, and then perhaps he
would •be entertained in his turn. He wished
much to hear the opinion of the LeareedGeeileman,
and of the other high Law,Offi..lers of- the Crown.
' He wished much to hear their opinions, and he
would listen to
-them with respect; but if they 'hail
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nt .
any In•eton of ploying any tricks upon hiin, they
would find that he was not a Person so easily to be
duped. Now, as to the: reason of the question, he
would find it .necessary to say but a few words. It
knows to lie no uncommon thing for Gentlemen
of fortune to endeavour to previde for their younger
' the Church. Suppose a Gentleman procures,
or perhaps himeell confers upoie. a seCeed son a
living, ie. are Church of cool. a year, no matter
whether mine or less. Ey the death of his elder
brother, this second soe succeeds to a fortune of
eight, nay,, perhaps,: eighty thousand a year. He
would ask the Noble-Lord, if this Getoleman was
efterwards returned a IVlenther -of Parliemenr, if he
woold come forward and move •his ineligibility to
sit in the House, oe the ground of his having been
in Holy Orders ? He Would ask the Noble Lord, if
he would have the boldness to move she House to
declare that such a Freeholder as- this, possessing atl
annual Income of eighty thou;and pounds, was an
unfit- person to. represent the Con eons of (ireat
Britain in Parliarnenr?. This instance wits of it-
self sufficient: •to shew' how -unreasonable is the
doctrine- held by the Noble Lord.. As to hiS
awn case, ho conceived that nothing had been
proved except that forty years ago he had an excel-
lent charaaer. e It •was ntee no part of hie wish to
overturn 'any established superstitions, or to destroy
those which people.may have imbibed from their
nurse Or their maniple. But without entettaieing
this wish, he might have strong and cogent reasons
fur resigning his Clerical chaeader. Had he pro-
fessed Popery, the argument against him would have
had much greater weight, for according to the dee-
trines of Popery,. Ordination' is a sacrament, and
when once -ordair:ed,- lie could not have laid aside
the charade: conferred upon Wet by this Rite. But
according to the dectrine of the Church of
.Fetglend,
Ordination is oniv a simple Rite, unmixed with any
superstition. According to the .principles of Popery
-the Priests cannot marry ; rat
-. the doetrines of the
Church of England recognise no such- silpersiiiiOn,
and Priests had shewn that they arc as fit- for per-
fOrming the duties of Trnz:rriape as any other class
of men. Even the Church of Sieeleud then acknow-
ledges, in praCtice, the prooreety• of ReCotol on
established principle:, -and h.-:iniabc see sc.:wtiiing
IA the doasine;7s of dint Clintil in his opinion
ntight require reform, and .Nel,%ich might ipduce
him to lay Witiwut ev , - his cha-
eaten in that•Churche Ile -wished earnestly, to
caution the House how they leedsile. with his
Seat, after the manlier in which he
,has been
treated. by. it. In consequence of a decision of
the House respeaing a Petition which he had pre-
sentesl to it, he had been put to an expeoee Which
was very buttleesome to him. But that Petition
was pot rejeCied because, he was an ineligible person
to serve in Parliament, but was merely declared
frivolous and vexatious, so that the House itself, by
its decision, had left
_him in the opinion that he
was eligible, so that he had been induced to stand
a Candidate for a Seer, Median after Eledion. He
would be much better off had he been aTapist ;.had
he been a Jew, Heathen, Mahonietare Jesuit, Ana-
baptist, otePresbytetiane-there would have been no
objection he supposed to his eligibility. Had Popery
been the Religion of the Cooredy, and be been a
Clergyman of the Church, he might. have- been ab-
solved frorp his vow of celibacy, and the other.cle-
rical distinctions, by the Pope. But according to
the' doctrine.. his night laid down,. he. having
.once
been in orders in the Church of England, he has no
such resource. The House has been told that aecord-
ing to the Canon Law, a. person who V011141t7. yha
aside his clerical clotreder is subje(9ed te :emit
cation, but that this exconirtwi:c ,!; ,
poive him of his clerical charaate
vested of this cherneter, he stye.
commit seine crime winch would subje
deposition ; for instenee, imitete the e
the Rev. Gentleman who was a
convicted, of adultery. By 'cern.e;:
a person who is in Holy Orders may
to a 'seat in the House-; but exconlinuniulion,

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