Star.
London, England, 1828-07-07 00:00:00

THE CLARE ELECTION.

The Dublin newspapets, and the letters from the game
city, received on Friday mien, lea us to state that Mr. Vesey
Fitzgerald bad resigned. This was not the ease; on the emnrary,
at the close. of the poll on Tuesday,. Mr. O'Connell stood indeed
at the head of the poll, but only siz above Mr. Fitzgerald, the
numbers bring for—
Mr. O'Connell . . 200
Mr. Fitzgerald . . . 194
Majority for Mr. O'Connell . --6
At the close of the poll on Wednesday, the numbers were for—
Mr. O'Connell . . . . . . 850

Air. Fitzgerald • • • • . 538
Majority for Mr. O'Connell —312
At the close of the Poll on Thursday, the gross amount was—
Fur Mr. O'Connell . . • . 1,813
Mr. Vesey Fitzgerald . • • 637
Majority for Mr. O'Connell , —976
But later accounts in the Freeman's Journal of Saturday state.
that the total majority amounted to 1,008; and the contest was
going on with unabated perseverance and continued success •n
the part of Mr. O'Connell. It was, however, imagined that the
majority of 'Thursday evening would induce Mr. Fitzgerald to
give in, and thus end this most clamorous and oratorical election.
The following is Mr. Butler's opinion on the question of Mr.
O'Connell's right, if be should be duly elected, to sit and vote in
Parliament:

lIIIIILTTES lIESTICTINO THR OATHS MID DICLARATIONS TO BR !ACM
ANT 51111SCSIRID IT IRISH MIDISIRS at rmiLuistum, IT CHARLES

BUTLIR, NS%
The sth of Elizabeth, chap. 1, sec. 16, enacts that " every person
elected or appointed Member of Parliament shall, before he shall
enter the Parliament House, or have any vote therein, pronounce
the Oath of Supremacy before the Lord High Steward or his De-
puty. under pain of his seat becoming void, and incurring such
pains and penalties as if he had entered wiahout election."
The 3oth of Charles 11. stat. 2. enacts that "no Peer shall vote,
ur make bis proxy, or sit in the House of Peers, and that no Com-
moner shall sit or vote in the House of Commons, till he shall take
the Oath' of Allegiance and S,:premacy, and sign the Declaration
against Transubstantiation therein mentioned, and under the penal-
ties thereby imposed."
The Act also directs that "each House of Parliament may re.
quire its Membets to take the same oaths, and make the same de-
clarations, and subjects those who ret,:-e to certain penalties."—
Neither of these Statutes extends to Ireland, except so far as it is
referred to in the Act of Union.

The Zd of William and Mary, ch. 2. we. 5, enacts that " no
Peer of Ireland shall vote or make his proxy in the House of Peers,
or sit there during any debate ; and that no Member of the House
of Commons shall be capable to vote in the House, or sit there,
unless he shall take the Oaths of Allegiance and Supremacy, and
sub.cribe the Declaration against Transubstantiation, under pain
of being disabled from holding office; and shall be disabled from
sitting or voting in either House of Parliament in Ireland, and
from suing in any Court of Law or Equity; and from being
guardian, executor, or administrator. and from taking any legacy,
and shall forfeit for every wilful effence the sum of 5001.—[This
statute was passed by the English Parliament ; it relates exclu-
sively to Ireland.]
The 6th of George I. ch 5. enacted that" the Kingdom of Ire-
land was subordinate to, and depended upon, the Imperial Crown
of Great Britain, and tbat his Majesty, with the consent of Lords
and Commons, might make laws to bind Ireland."--[This Act was
passed by the Fuigli,h Parliament].
By the 22c1 of George 111. ch. 53. the preceding Act of 6th of
George 111. was repealed. That repeal recognized the indepen-
dence of the kingdom of Ireland ; and thereupon all the Acts of the
English Legislature only ; and consequently the Aet of 6th Geo. I.
ch. 5, has from that time bten treated as null and void._

The ill st and 42d of George 111. ch. 48, of the Irish Parliament,
commonly called Yelverton's Act, enacted that " all Statutes made
in England or Great Britain, for the settling and assuring the for-
feited estates in Ireland, and also all private Statutes made in Eng-
land or Great Britain, under which any lands, tenements, or here-
ditament* in Ireland, or any estate or interest therein, are or is
holden or claimed: or which concern the title thereto, or any
evi-
dence gespecting the same ; and all such clauses and provisions con.
tatted in any Statutes made in England or Great Britain, concern-
ing commerce, as import to impose equal restraints on the subjects
of England or Ireland, or of Great Britain and Ireland, and to en-
title them to equal benefits ; and also all such clauses and previous
contained in any Statutes as aforesaid, as equally concerning the
seamen of England and Ireland, or of Great Britain and Ireland,
save so far as the same had been altered or repealed, should be ac-
cepted, used, and executed in Ireland according to the present
tettour thereof: provided always that all such Statutes, so far as
aforesaid, concerning commerce, should bind the subjects of Ire.
land onlz so long as they continued to bind the subjects of Great
Britain.

And it was further enacted, that " all such statutes made in Eng-
land or Great Britain, as concerned the stile or calendar; and also
all such clauses and provisions contained in any statutes made as
aforesaid, as relate to the taking any oath or oaths, or making or
subscribing any declaration or affirmation in this kingdom, or any
penalty or disability for omitting the same; or which relate to the
continuance of any office, civil or military, or of any commission,
or of any writ, process, or proceeding at law or in equity, or in any
court of delegacy or review, in case of a demise of the Crown,
should be accepted, used, and executed in Ireland, according to
the present tenor of the same respectively."
By the list Geo. 111. chap. 52, it was enacted that all persons
disabled from, or being incapable of being elected, sitting, and
voting in the House of Commons of Great Britain, should be dis.
abled from, and are incapable of being elected, or sitting and voting
in the House of Commons of the United Kingdom.
And that all persons disabled from, or incapable of being elected,
and sitting, and voting in the House of Commons of Ireland, should
be disabled from, and be incapable of being elected, or sitting, and
voting in the House of Commons of the United Kingdom.
Provided, that nothing in that Act, should be construed to enable
persons theretofore disabled by any Act of the Parliament of Great
Britain, from sitting and voting in the House of Commons of Great
Britain, to sit or vote in the House of Commons of the United
Kingdom, as knights, citizens, or burgesses for any county, city,
borough, town, or place in Ireland ; nor to enable persons there-
tofore disabled by any Act of the Parliament of Ireland, to sit or
vote in the House of Commons of the said United Kingdom, as
knights, citizens, or burgesses for any county; stewartry, city,
borough, cinque•port, town, or place, in Great Britain.
The 33d of Geo. 111. for the relief of Roman Catholics enacts,
that " the provisions of that Act shall not extend to the qualifica-
tie,' of Peers or Commoners for sitting in Parliament.
By the 39th and 40th of Geo. 111. chap. 67, the Act of Union
of England and Ireland, it was provided that " the Members of
either House should, until the Parliament of the United Kingdom
shall otherwise provide, take the oaths, and make the declarations
then by law enjoined to be taken, made, and subscribed by the
Lords and Commons of the Parliament of Great Britain."

It is observable that the Act of Union of England and Scotland
direct., that the persons not taking the oaths thereby prescribed,
shall be subject to the same penalties and disabilities as are imposed
by the statute prescribing them ; but there is no such provision in
the Act for the Union of England and Ireland.
On the construction of these Acts of Parliament, Mr. O'Connell's
tide to enter into, sit, and vote in the House of Commons of the
United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland may be thought to
depend.
To reach a proper conclusion upon this question, the following
observations may be found useful:

I. Taking into consideration the recognition of the independence
of Ireland by the British Parliament in 1782, it may be assumed
that, at the time of the passing of Yelvertun's Act, in the Irish Par-
liament in 1781,1752, there was no legislative Act in force, which
disabled an Irish Catholic from being electetrintu and sitting and
voting in the Irish Parliament. ''
New, what is the effect of Yelverton's Act ?—lt provides,
1. That all Statutes of the English Parliament for settling
and assuring the forfeited estates in Ireland under which
any property is held;
V. Or which concern the title thereto;
S. And all p►ivate Acts of Parliament;
4. And all Acts respecting commerce;
5. And all Acts which impose equal restraints on the rub.
jests of England and Ireland; and,
G. Or which concern seamen—Shall thenceforth be accepted,
used, and executed in Ireland.
_ _

But there are no statutes of the English Parliament respecting
the forfeited estates, or the title thereto ; or which are private Acts;
or which relate to commerce; or which impose equal restraints on
the subjects of England or Ireland ; or which concern seamen, that
disable Irish Catholics from sitting or voting in the Parliament of
lrelaqd; or require any oaths or declarations to be taken or sub-
scribed by them, as a qualification fur their se skiing and voting.
Therefore, Yelvenon's Act gives validity to no Acts of the Eng.
Halt Parliament, which directly or indirectly disabled Catholics
from entering into, sitting, or voting in Parliament.
It should, however, be observed, that Yelverton's Act contains a
proviso, referring to the oaths and disabilities in question ; but it is
expressly confined to statutes respecting the Calendar, and to the
statutes " made as aforesaid ; or in other words, the statutes
therembefore referred to; and therefore the proviso, however it
may limit, doe. not enlarge the operative part of the Act.
11. The Act passed for the relief of the Irish Roman Catholics,
in 1795, enacted, that nothing contained in that Act should enable
persons to sit in Parliament without taking the Oaths and subscrib-
ing the Declarations, then by law required. This evidently does

not impose the obligation of taking the Oaths and subscribing the
Declarations,but leaves those obligations as they then stood at late..
111. The Act of the 59th and 10th of George 111. for the Union
of England and Ireland, enacted, that unless Parliament should
osberwise provide, the Members of each House should take the
Oaths, and subscribe the Declarations then by law etipoined to be
' taken, made and subscribed by the Lords and Commons of the
Parliament of Great Britain. These were the oaths of Allegiance,
and Supremacy, and the Declaration agsinst Transubstantiation.
But the Act merely enjoins that these oaths should be taktn,
and that this declaration should be subscribed ; it does not prescribe
any penalty for not taking or subscribing them. Being an Act of
extreme severity, and creating a new offence, it must be construed
strictly ; a penalty must not he enacted by implication. ft tcab.
servable that the Act of the sth and Gth of Anne. for the (Jamul
England and Scotland, enacts that the Members of either Howe
shall take the oaths and make the declaration pre►cribed by the Act
of Charles 11. in the manner therein men:ioned, 4 upon the ma.
ties and disabilities in the said Act contained."

The words " upon the penalties and disabilities in the said Act
contained," are omitted in the Act for the Union of England aid
Ireland. From this it may be inferred that it was tsoz the intention
of the Act for the Union of England and lreland, to subject person,
not taking the oaths, and subscribing the declaration to the penalties
of the English statutes prescribing them._

To suppose that the, contrivers of the Union intended to subject
Cathcslics to any penalty to which they were not then subject, Would
Impute to them an enormity which they have always disclEin.ed,
and which their bitterest enemies have not charged upon then,.
The clause standing singly, the only penalty to which non-com...
pliance with its provisions in question will subject the patty has
indictment. To proceed against Mr. O'Connell by ionlicteuent
there must be a resolution of the House. It is doubtful whether the
House world pus such a resolution. By availing himself of flit
forms of the House, and enforcing its Standing Orders, Mr. O'Con-
nell might postpone the business through a whole Session by low.
minable discussions, and in the mean time retain his seat.

IV. Tlw Statute of 4 t George 111. (the last statute it is be-
lieved which affects the question) enacts,
1. That Persons disabled from sitting in the Bri.ish Houten!
Parliament shall be disabled front sitting in the United Parliament
for any place in Great Britain.

Thi; is completely answered by stating, that Mr. O'Connell's
election will not be for any place in Great WIWI,.
Q. It then enacts, that persons disabled from .itting in the Irish
Parliament should be disabled front sitting in the United Parlia-
ment for any place in Ireland.

This is completely answered, by stating, that we bays satisfac-
torily shown that no law of Ireland disabled Catholics from sitting
and voting in Parliament.
3. A provisio 'follows : That no person, disabled by British
Statutes front sitting and voting in Parliament, should, by that
Act (i. e. the Act now under consideration) be enabled to met
vote fur any place in Ireland ; and so vice vents.

To this it is satisfactorily replied, that Mr. O'Connell is not die
abled by any Act of the English, Irish, or United Parliament,
trom sitting for any place in Ireland.
V. It remains to consider the effect of the Annual Act of It.
demnity upon the question.
Upon this bead I shall only transcribe the following passage
from the substance of Mr. Croker's speech on the 4th of M,y.
1810, on the Roman Catholic Question, published by himself is
the same year, p. 55. If a Member, to evade the law and orders
of the House, should intentionally do what we all have know'
many Members do unintentionally, sit and vote wi:bout having
taken the oaths; and that actions for his *irk nee should tun be pre.
secuted to final judgment before the parsing of the Indemnity hal,
on the 25th of March in any year, he would, in my humble uyiniso,
be thereby—to use the very words of the Act—'•itsdemniftd,
freed, and discharged from oft penalties, forfeitures, incapacities,
and disabilities, incurred, or to be incurred, for or by reason of any
such neglect or omission ; and such person would be, and i. tally
and actually Teapot:Weed and restored to the sante state and eon•
dition in which he was before such neglect, and he shah he derturd
and adjudged to have duly guallfied himulf according to the itbovr-
sientiaaecl Acts, and every of them. And that ill the ekaium
of and acts dome, a• Abe done, by such person, shall be of the same
force and validity as if such person bed duly qualified himself ac.
cording to the said Acts, and any or every ut them."

DEPARTURE OF MT. STRATFORD CANNING.-Mr.
Canaan left town on Saturday evening for the purpose of proceed.
log on a special mission relpecting the Greeks. The Right Has.
Gentktnan had a conference with the Duke of WILLINGTON in the
afternoon, and afterwards had an interview with the Rid of Am.
Dm at the Foreign Office. Mr. CANNING is accompanied by Ur.
Maws's, one of the Clerks of the Foreign Office. The piace d
the Right Hon. Gentleman's destination in Italy is uuderstoodts
be Otranto.

The Spanish (special) Minister had a conference wi h
the Duke of Wemaxcrrou on Saturday, at the Treasury. His Ex-
cellency afterwards proceeded to the Foreign Office, and ha.int
interview with the Eatl of AII:RD/MN.

The Lords of the King's Most Honourable Privy
Council held a meeting on Saturday morning, at eleven o'clock, at
the Council Office, which was attended by the LORD Paetiocerof
the Council, the SIAM'S of the Rms.., Str Gamma Rose, and the
Right Hon. HUGH ELIOT. The appeal of Latastanerra v. Weston,
from the blauritias, was argued till three o'clock, when the Manta
of the hots pronounced the opinion of their Lordships to be a
confirmation of the decision of the Court in the blauntius, tack
party paying their own costs.

The Neapolitan Minister transacted business on S;
turdsy with the Eorl of Aniumax, at the office of the Secretuy of
State for Foteign Affoirs.

The Hon. JAMES STUART, Chairman of the Cmn•
missloners of Stamps, has been appointed to succeed Mr. HILL d
Assistant Scretary to the Treasury.
The Duke of CUMBIRLAND left town at an early
hnur yesterday morning for his residence at Kew. from whet
after making a short stay, his Royal Highness proceeded to the
!loyal Lodge, on a visit to the Kum

The Duke of CAMBRIDOP, attended by Capt. Mum
left the King's Palace, St. James's, about eight o'clock yesterday
morning, on a visit to bis Makassar, at the Royal Lodge.

The Dowager Marchioness of HERTFORD gate a
grand dinner on Saturday, at her mansion in Manchester•square,t+
the Duke of CUMBERLAND, Prince Laorot.o, and a elect paid
the Nobility and Gentry. The Duke of CAMBRIDGE and a name
roue party joined the company in the evening.

• The Duche,s of Kent honoured the performance
the Opera of Medea. at the Italian Opera House, on Saturday sees.
ing, with her presence.

The Earl.and Countess of JERSEY save a grand dine
ner on Saturday, at their residence in Berkeley.nuare, to the
Duke of Cam/ounce and.a very numerous party.
The Earl of CHESTERFIELD entettamed his Royal
Highnets the Duke of POIMALAND and a numerous Prrf
on Saturday, at Chesterfield House.
THAMESTUNNEL MLETING.— A numerous and highll
respectable Meeting of the friends of this useful undertaking, Wal
held at the Freemasons Tavern on Saturday. The Duke of MIL-
LINGTON was present, and not only made a forcible appeal in fowl
of the grand design, but gave a generous donation of 5001- The
Duke of CAMULJDGt also delivered himself oil the occasion in too
highly creditable to his Royal Highness, arid subscribed a sill
sum to that of the illustrious Wass.rsoross. Indeed, the Nreing
was altogether of the first order, and additional donations in t
considerable sum rare immediately subscribed. Under tke presto
auspices, and guided by such iuttlligence, the undertaking mita
now fail of complete 'success. Well and truly did Sir Joss Mil-
CIA tit observe on the occasion, that the Illustrious Premier had
succeeded in every enterprise he had ever undertaken; and Iv
trusted that the completion of the " Wellington Tunnel" (Or M
that name he thought it ought now to be distinguished) would lv
added to all his former glorious achievements. These just nNere
vations, and heart-gladdening truths, it is scarcely necessary to's,
were received with universal and rapturosas cheers by the who‘
Meeting. .

Fine.—List night, about ter. o'clock, a fire broke ot
in a house occupied by a foreign Gentleman, in Mute"
Crescent. The engines were soon on the spot, but eefr
withstanding the exertions of the firemen, aided by a Pier
tiful supply of water, the house was entirely destroyed.
The trial of the Rev. Peter Fenn, for the alleged at'
tering of a forged bill of exchange, which was to ha"
come on this morning, at the Old Bailey, was again pott'
poned to the first day of next Sessions, in comeclutnce
of the absence of a material witness on the pia cf (14
prisoner.
Friday evening a serious affray took place on Co&
mon Hard, Portsea, between a party of soldiers beiols;
ing to the 28th regiment, and several watermrn 3",
other persons; the former drew their bayonets and
several of the latter were stabbed, one in a dangeoul
manner. Five of the soldiers were taken into mend 1.
m
and are detained in this gaol for further examatioa•
The dispute arose about the payment of the fates.--1
llampahire Telegraph.