especially temporary ones, on some imminent danger to the public from foreign invasion. The method which the statute law of Ireland has taken upon this delicate article is, to get rid of all the difficulties at once, by an universal prohibition to all persons, who are not protestants, at all times, and under all circumstances, to use or keep any kind of weapons whatsoever. In order to enforce this regulation, severe penalties, without any regard to proportion, are inflicted; new modes of inquisition are enjoined; the largest powers are vested in the lowest magistrates. Any justice of the peace, or any ma gistrate of a city or town corporate, with or without information, by themselves or by their warrant, at their discretion, whenever they think proper, at any hour of the day or night, are impowered forcibly to enter, and to search the house of any papist, or of any protestant whom they suspect to keep arms in trust for a papist. This, we say, they may do at their discretion; and it seems a pretty ample power to be vested in the hands of that class of magistrates.

Besides the discretionary and occasional search, the law has prescribed one that is general and periodical. It is to be made annually, under the warrants of justices of peace and magistrates of corporations, by the high and petty constables, or any others whom they choose to authorize, with all the powers, and with the same circumstances in every respect, which attend the discretionary and occasional search.

Not trusting, however, to the activity of the magistrates proceeding officially, the law has invited voluntary informers by the distribution of considerable rewards, and even pressed involuntary into the service, by the dread of very heavy pe nalties. With regard to the latter method, justices of the peace, and magistrates of corporations, are empowered to summon before them any person whatsoever, and to tender to him an oath, by which they oblige him to discover con. cerning all persons, without distinctions of propinquity or connexion, who have any arms concealed contrary to law, and even whether he himself has any. His refusal to appear, or appearing, his refusal to discover and inform, subjects him to fine and imprisonment, or such corporal punishment of pillory or whipping as the court shall in its discretion think proper. Thus all persons, peers and peeresses, protestants as well as papists, may be summoned to perform this hono

rable service, by the bailiff of a corporation of a few straggling cottages, and refusing to perform it, are liable to be fined and imprisoned, pilloried or whipped.-The punishment for the first offence in peers and peeresses, if not pilloried or whipped, is £300, and for the second offence the punishment is no less than the penalties of a person attainted in a præ. munire, that is, “the offender shall be out of the king's protection, and his or her lands and tenements, goods and chat. tels, forfeited to the king: and his or her body shall remain in prison at the king's pleasure."-The punishment for the first offence, in persons of an inferior order, if not pilloried or whipped, is (without any consideration of what their substance may be) £50, and one year's imprisonment, and for the second offence they are subject to the penalties of a person attainted of a præmunire.-So far as to involuntary, now as to voluntary informers. If the punishment of the offender be a fine, the law entitles them to one half of the same.

The only exception to this law is, a licence from the lord lieutenant and privy council to keep such arms as shall be particularly expressed in the licence. This possibility of a privilege is, by its own nature, so remote, on account of the difficulty of application in private cases to the supreme exe. cutive authority, that we do not believe there are ten persons now in the kingdom, who have been fortunate enough to obtain it.

EXERCISE OF RELIGION.-We will now say something concerning the exercise of religion.

All inhabitants of this realm must attend divine service, according to the established religion, at their parish church, upon Sunday and holiday, upon pain of ecclesiastical censures, and of forfeiting 12d. for every time of absence.

All superstitious meetings and assemblies of pilgrims at wells, and pretended sanctified places, are declared riots and unlawful assemblies, and punishable as such.

Magistrates are to demolish all crosses, pictures and inscriptions, that are any where publicly set up, and are the occasion of popish superstitions.

None shall bury in any suppressed monastery, abbey or convent, not used for divine service, or within the precincts thereof, upon pain of £10 from any person present, by order of a justice of peace.

Justices of peace are to suppress all monasteries, friaries, nunneries, or other popish fraternities or societies.

A popish secular ecclesiastic, who registers himself pursu. ant to the act for that purpose, and takes and subscribes the oath and declaration prescribed by the 13th and 14th Geo. 3. ch. 35, and also a popish regular ecclesiastic, if he be in the kingdom at the passing of the 21st and 22d Geo. 3. c. 24, and makes the oath and declaration aforesaid, and registers himself, pursuant to the act for that purpose, in six months after the passing the said act of the 21st and 22d Geo. 3. c. 24, are authorized to officiate, provided they do not officiate in any church or chapel with a steeple or a bell, or at any funeral in any church-yard, or exercise any of the rites or ceremonies of the popish religion, or wear the habits of their order, (save within their several places of worship or in private houses) or shall use any symbol or mark of ecclesiastical diguity or authority, or assume or take any ecclesiastical rank or title, or procure, incite or persuade any protestant to become a papist.

All popish regular and secular ecclesiastics, not qualifying as above, or offending against any of the aforementioned provisions, and all papists exercising ecclesiastical jurisdiction, are to be imprisoned till they be transported beyond seas, and if they should return from exile, they will thereby be guilty of high-treason, and suffer and forfeit as in case of high-treason-and whoever harbours them shall, for the first offence, forfeit £20; for the second offence £40; and for the third offence, all his lands of inheritance and freehold during his life, and all his goods and chattels.

Every popish priest who becomes a protestant, shall receive £40 yearly, from the county in which he last officiated as a Roman priest, during his residence in said county, until he shall be provided for by some ecclesiastical benéfice or licensed curacy of the same or greater value.

If any person shall seduce a protestant to renounce the protestant and profess the popish religion, the seducer and the seduced shall incur the præmunire mentioned in the 16th Rich. 2.: that is, they "shall be put out of the king's protection, their lands and goods forfeited to the king's use, and they shall be attached by their bodies to answer to the king and his council.

ENJOYMENT AND DISPOSITION OF PROPERTY.-The popery penal law, in respect to real estates and chattels real, has been in a great measure done away; and, at this day, papists, upon taking the oath and subscribing the declaration mentioned in the 13th and 14th Geo. 3. ch. 35, in the manner, and at the times and places prescribed by law, are qualified to enjoy and acquire real estates and chat. tels real nearly as fully and beneficially as other subjects may. However there are some disabilities still remaining.

Papists are disabled to buy or purchase any advowson.— And the right of presentation of a papist to any ecclesiastical benefice, is vested in the crown.

Papists, making as aforesaid the oath and declaration mentioned in the 13th and 14th Geo. 3. ch. 35, may take, hold and enjoy any lands, tenements or hereditaments, in any manor or borough, the freeholders or inhabitants whereof are entitled to vote for burgesses to represent such manor or borough in parliament, which shall descend from or be devised or transferred by a papist seized in fee or tail, in law or in equity, of the same, at the passing of the 17th and 18th Geo. 3. ch. 49, or persou deriving from a papist then so seized.

If any protestant is seised of any lands, tenements or hereditaments, in such manor or borough, no papist is capable of taking the same, by reason of any descent, devise, or gift, from such protestant; but the law vests the same, until his conformity, in the next protestant of the inheritable blood.

Papists, upon making as aforesaid the oath and declaration before-mentioned, are not disabled from taking any lease in lands, tenements or hereditaments, in any such manor or bo. rough, for any term of years not exceeding 999 years certain, or for any term of years determinable on any number of lives not exceeding five, with or without liberty of committing waste, and disposing of the same by will or otherwise, as fully and beneficially, to all intents and purposes, as any other his majesty's subjects may, save that upon every such lease a rent bonâ fide to be paid in money shall be reserved, and save that a maintenance and portion may be granted thereout to any child of a popish parent possessed of the same, upon a bill filed against such parent in chancery, pursuant to the 2d Anne, ch. 6. which enacts, "that upon a bill filed in chancery by a child of a popish parent, professing or

desirous to profess the protestant religion, against such parent, that court may make such order for the maintenance of such child, not maintained by such parent, suitable to the degree and ability of such parent and age of such child, and also for the portion of such child, to be paid at the death of such pa rent, as the court shall judge fit, suitable to the degree and ability of such parent."

But if any papist buys or purchases lands, tenements or hereditaments, in such manor or borough, from any pro testant, or any leases or terms thereof, other than for the be forementioned term of 999 years, or other number of years determinable on five lives, [a lease for a term of years is not a freehold, and does not confer the right of suffrage,] such lands, tenements and hereditaments, so conveyed or leased, and all collateral securities made or entered into to cover or make good the same, are discoverable, and may be sued for and recovered by a protestant discoverer.

This discoverer, so vested with this property, is enabled to find it out by every mode of inquisition, and to sue for it with every kind of privilege; not only the courts of law are open to him, but he may enter, and this is the usual method, into either of the courts of equity; he may bring bills against the parties, whom he suspects to be possessed of this forbidden property, against those whom he suspects to be their trustees, and against those whom he suspects to be privy to the transaction, and oblige them, upon oath, under the guilt and pe nalties of perjury, to disclose the exact nature, and just value, of their estates and trusts, in all the particulars, in order to effect their forfeiture.—In such suits, the informer is not liable to the delays, which the ordinary procedure of those courts throws into the way of the most equitable claimant; nor has the papist the indulgence, which they allow to the most fraudulent defendant, that of plea and demurrer; the defendant is obliged to answer the whole directly upon oath, and the old rule of "extending benefit and restraining penalty," is by this law struck out of the Irish jurisprudence, and the contrary rule is established, directing, that, upon all doubts, these penal laws should be construed in the largest and the most liberal sense against the defendant.

Until the 2d of May, 1782, papists were incapable to purchase from protestant or papist, any rents or profits out of,