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

the Parliament'. of the. United kingdom, providing
cases persons holding such offices ,hall be
declaral eligible to sit in Parliotnent, an to consi.
der in what caes per4ons • holding,. such offices or
mires shall he declared to be liable tri.such incapa.
city, hnd to report their opiniOp on rite same to the
House.

Mr. GREY wis‘led to heir the Right ElOn. Gen.
tlrman state the. objet} of his Motions
Art'. ADDIN TONS iJ,"that' by. the A rticles of
tition it was referred to a fitutie Parlin!nent to
termine wliarshouidhe the number ,of of ees
land held by Members of the Llni:e,l Parliament;
and which of them wLere consistent with a seat hi
that Howe ; and ;he most proper Mode of.iloing SDi
he considdred to be by referring it to ale Repyit Ut
a Select Committee.

The Committee was ,appolwed, tC tizinnM off' ti.e
Ca AN 11,1,Q attic Excx EQUEr., ATTORNEY
and SOLICITOR.GEIs:£ItAtt f.lsrs .FR ENC/OViL-
BERSORCE, .13kACCE;SUTTON, I.,,EKANIICK,,BA-
KER, M`NAUGHTENI=Pi3LHAM, BROWN;, Sir Roy
WERT _BUXTON, S;C:

the Workmen's Combination Dill was read a
third times pissed.
„.. n:cc and

The Scots Militia Bill Was committel—to
ported to.morrow.

TOOKE's ELECTION

Earl TEMPLE moved the Order of the Day for
the House to take into consideration the Ali!etes.'ef
Evidence re4pediog the eligibility •of Persons in
Holy Orders to sit in the Home of Commons.--Hilt
Lordship maid, that without wishing to. sake-up -thee
time of the House, he, should crave ehtiteindalgence
whilst he endeavoured, as concisely a5-postible, to
state some of those arguments which; preschredi
themselves to his mind, on a subjed.cifeonsiderable-
importance, as atrening.the Rights and Priviiegese
of the Huns:. of Commons. The -Conimittee to
whOm this subject was referred, had bestowed
siderable attention upon a subject of research, which
did' opt fall in the way of every -gentleman, and
had extended their line of inquiry bovand what was
precisely chalked out for them. It was a subject
which' required more 'than. ordinary -perseverance
and labour, .and which he "took upon-hint toesay,
the' Commit tee had bestoWed upon r. His :Lortish.ip
then entered; with consideraltle ability, liatOO long
and - minute historical 6iiediOn of fitts, with
respeCl to the Rights of the :Clergy, and their
Claim to sitting inTarliariient. He called the atten-
tion of the House to- that-prat-of -the English His:.
tory, when. Parliaments -were- sOreLy the
tirilfu ofethe Kinge`and' for special purposes only,
when the Memlters were chosen by the Penple..but
at the discretion of the King as to the persons" most
likely to -answer the purposes for whieh,Parliament
was called together. At no very remote period the
Clergy composed a fortnid,Re powerin this Coun-
try; at a time When another ranks were in a great
measure excluded from the various branches of lite,
rathre, .the authority of Kingly power was connected
with the influence of the Priesthood ; at that period
the Clergy claimed a kind of exclusive monopoly of
learning, and felt an interest in-keeping the rest of
the people in. ignorance. Tlte Clergy then claimed
the exclusive right of taxing • themselves'; there
was a clear Jine of distinction • drawn between the
Votes of Supply granted in :Parliomeor;.• and the
Subsidies voted by the Clergy in Con Vocation.
On the authority of Archbishop Wake's History
of the church., his Lordship observed 'that. this
privilege was first confined to the superior Cler-
gy, but was afterwards extended to the infe-
rior. Clergy who were summoned to Parliament.
The custom was for the Bishop, upon the receipt of
these Writs, to send orders to the Clergy to send
their Representatives; but though thus called, the
~privileges of the Proctors of the Clergy were very
distintt from that of the Lay Members of the Com.
mons. It was noticed in Henry's History of Great
Britain, that this distinCtion was kept up, that when
the Grants made by the Lords and Commons receiv-
ed the Royal Assent they passed into a Law ;
-whereas the
.Grants of the Clergy were distindly
obliged. to receive the Assent both of Commons and
,Lords before they coulA receive the Assent of the
King. The Brodors, of the Clergy in Parliament,
had also the distina privilege of send.ing Proxies in
their places, when they themselves could not attend,
thus laying down the fad, that they were the Re-
presentatives of a distind body, ~..and • not of the
Commons of the Realm'. in confirmation Of this,
it was to be obierved, that the Representatives of
the Clergy were stiled the Representatives of the
Spiritual Commons. At last the Cletgy found this
privilege to be a burden, anti that the only objed. of
The. King's calling them to Parliomeet, wets. to re.:
quire thein'to.Grant Subsidies. Proxies continued
to be ehoSeti by the Clergy till tiro Reign'ollienry
VIII. His Lordship said, that from every writer
on the subject, the laa waS clear that the Clergy
. were the Representatives- of the Churcleonly, and
in no case of the Commons of the Realm ; that thiey
were called together fir separate and 'distind
purposes, but that one specific objed alwayi was,
that of the King's obtaining greater Subsidies from
therri than he could have obtained from his Lay-
Commons, Without running too great a risk. 'lt
aIF,6 appeared that their 'powers varied, and 'al-
so their privileges in proportion to the objeds
for which they were called together. In the
reign 'of Henry 11. the Clergy, looking-I:von this
state of representation more as a disgrace 'than
a privilege, took every opportoniay of endeavonring
to ger rid of it; In the reign of Henry VIII. the
power of the Clergy was curtailed, but it was not
till the 25th -Henry VIII. that the power of calling
the Convocation of the Clergy,
,was vested in the
King, and When the Parliamentary Power of the
C.lergy received a blow completely destrUCtive to