and also other commissioners nominated by her Majesty by the authority of the Parliament of Scotland, have met and agreed upon a treaty of Union of the said kingdoms; which treaty is now under the consideration of this present Parliament; And whereas the said treaty (with some alterations therein made) is ratified and approved by Act of Parliament in Scotland; and the said Act of ratification is by her Majesty's royal command, laid before the Parliament of this kingdom: And whereas it is reasonable and necessary, that the true Protestant religion professed and established by law in the Church of England, and the doctrine, worship, discipline, and government thereof, should be effectually and unalterably secured; be it enacted by the Queen's most excellent Majesty, by and with the advice of the Lords Spiritual and Temporal, and the Commons, in this present Parliament assembled, and by authority of the same, That an Act made in the thirteenth year of the reign of Queen Elizabeth, of famous memory, entitled, An Act for the Ministers of the Church to be of sound Religion; and also another Act made in the thirteenth year of the reign of the late King Charles the Second, entitled, An Act for the Uniformity of the Public Prayers and Administration of Sacraments, and other Rites and Ceremonies, and for establishing the form of making, ordaining, and consecrating Bishops, Priests and Deacons in the Church of England, (other than such clauses in the said Acts, or either of them, as have been repealed or altered by any subsequent Act or Acts of Parliament,) and all and singular other Acts of Parliament now in force for the establishment and preservation of the Church of England, and the doctrine, worship, discipline, and government thereof, shall remain and be in full force for ever.

VIII. (Providing that the Queen's successors are to take an oath to maintain the settlement of the Church of England.)

IX. (Providing that this Act is to be an essential part of any treaty between the kingdoms.)

X. (Providing that the Articles of Union, and the Act for the establishment of the Presbyterian Church Government, be ratified and confirmed.)

XI. (Declaring the Acts for settling the Church Governments in both kingdoms essential parts of the Union.)

XII. And whereas since the passing the said Act in the Parliament of Scotland, for ratifying the said articles of Union, one other Act, entitled, An Act settling the Manner of electing the Sixteen Peers, and Forty-five Members, to represent Scotland in the Parliament of Great Britain, hath likewise passed in the said Parliament of Scotland at Edinburgh, the fifth day of February, one thousand seven hundred and seven, the tenor whereof follows:

Our sovereign lady considering, That by the twenty-second articles of the treaty of Union, as the same is ratified by an Act passed in this session of Parliament, upon the sixteenth of January last, it is provided, That by virtue of the said treaty, of the Peers of Scotland, at the time of the Union, sixteen shall be of the number to sit and vote in the House of Lords, and forty-five the

number of the representatives of Scotland in the House of Commons of the Parliament of Great Britain; and that the said sixteen peers, and forty-five members in the House of Commons, be named and chosen in such manner as by a subsequent Act in this present session of the Parliament in Scotland, should be settled; which Act is thereby declared to be as valid, as if it were a part of, and engrossed in the said treaty: Therefore her Majesty, with the advice and consent of the estates of Parliament, statutes, enacts and ordains, That the said sixteen peers, who shall have right to sit in the House of Peers in the Parliament of Great Britain, on the part of Scotland, by virtue of this treaty, shall be named by the said peers of Scotland, whom they represent, their heirs or successors to their dignities and honours, out of their own number, and that by open election and plurality of voices of the peers present, and of the proxies for such as shall be absent, the said proxies being peers, and producing a mandate in writing duly signed before witnesses, and both the constituent and proxy being qualified according to law; declaring also, That such peers as are absent, being qualified as aforesaid, may send to all such meetings lists of the peers whom they judge fittest, validly signed by the said absent peers, which shall be reckoned in the same manner as if the parties had been present, and given in the said list; and in case of the death, or legal incapacity of any of the sixteen peers, that the aforesaid peers of Scotland shall nominate another of their own number, in place of the said peer or peers, in manner before and after-mentioned: And that of the said forty-five representatives of Scotland in the House of Commons in the Parliament of Great Britain, thirty shall be chosen by the Shires or Steuartries, and fifteen by the royal borrows, as follows: (The remainder of the Article provides for the methods of election, legal capacities, oaths to be administered to, etc., of those elected to the House of Commons.)

XIII. As by the said Act passed in Scotland, for settling the manner of electing the sixteen peers, and forty-five members, to represent Scotland in the Parliament of Great Britain, may appear; Be it therefore further enacted and declared by the authority aforesaid, That the said last-mentioned Act passed in Scotland for settling the manner of electing the sixteen peers, and forty-five members, to represent Scotland in the Parliament of Great Britain, as aforesaid, shall be, and the same is hereby declared to be as valid as if the same had been part of, and engrossed in the said articles of Union ratified and approved by the said Act of Parliament of Scotland, and by this Act, as aforesaid.

UNION BETWEEN GREAT BRITAIN AND IRELAND.

(JULY 2, 1800.)

An Act for the Union of Great Britain and Ireland.

(PREAMBLE.)

ARTICLE I.

That it be the first article of the Union of the kingdoms of Great Britain and Ireland, that the said kingdoms of Great Britain and Ireland shall, upon the first day of January which shall be in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and one, and for ever after, be united into one kingdom, by the name of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland; and that the royal style and titles appertaining to the imperial crown of the said united kingdom and its dependencies; and also the ensigns, armorial flags, and banners thereof, shall be such as his Majesty, by his royal proclamation under the great seal of the united kingdom, shall be pleased to appoint.

ARTICLE II.

That it be the second article of Union, that the succession to the imperial crown of the said united kingdom, and of the dominions thereunto belonging, shall continue limited and settled in the same manner as the succession to the imperial crown of the said kingdoms of Great Britain and Ireland now stands limited and settled, according to the existing laws, and to the terms of Union between England and Scotland.

ARTICLE III.

That it be the third article of Union, that the said united kingdom be represented in one and the same Parliament, to be styled The Parliament of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland.

ARTICLE IV.

That it be the fourth article of Union, that four Lords Spiritual of Ireland by rotations of sessions, and twenty-eight Lords Temporal of Ireland elected for life by the peers of Ireland, shall be the numbr to sit and vote on the part of Ireland in the House of Lords of the Parliament of the united kingdom; and one hundred commoners (two for each county of Ireland, two for the city of Dublin, two for the city of Cork, one for the university of Trinity College, and one for each of the thirty-one most considerable cities, towns, and boroughs) be the number to sit and vote on the part of Ireland in the House of Commons of the Parliament of the united kingdom:

That such Act as shall be passed in the Parliament of Ireland previous to the Union, to regulate the mode by which the Lords Spiritual and Temporal, and Commons, to serve in the Parliament of the united kingdom on the part of Ireland, shall be summoned and returned to the said Parliament shall be considered as forming part of the treaty of Union and shall be incorporated in the Act of the respective Parliaments by which the said Union shall be ratified and established:

That all questions touching the rotation or election of Lords Spiritual or Temporal of Ireland to sit in the Parliament of the united kingdom, shall be decided by the House of Lords thereof; and whenever, by reason of an equality of votes in the election of any such Lords Temporal, a complete election shall not be made according to the true intent of this article, the names of those peers for whom such equality of votes shall be so given, shall be written on pieces of paper of a similar form, and shall be put into a glass, by the Clerk of the Parliaments at the table of the House of Lords whilst the House is sitting; and the peer or peers whose name or names shall be first drawn out by the Clerk of the Parliaments, shall be deemed the peer or peers elected, as the case may

be:

That any person holding any peerage of Ireland now subsisting, or hereafter to be created, shall not thereby be disqualified from being elected to serve, if he shall so think fit, or from serving or continuing to serve, if he shall so think fit, for any county, city, or borough of Great Britain, in the House of Commons of the united kingdom, unless he shall have been previously elected as above, to sit in the House of Lords of the united kingdom; but that so long as such peer of Ireland shall so continue to be a member of the House of Commons, he shall not be entitled to the privilege of peerage, nor be capable of being elected to serve as a peer on the part of Ireland, or of voting at any such election; and that he shall be liable to be sued, indicted, proceeded against, and tried as a commoner, for any offence with which he may be charged:

That it shall be lawful for his Majesty, his heirs and successors, to create peers of that part of the united kingdom called Ireland, and to make promotions in the peerage thereof, after the Union; provided that no new creation of any such peers shall take place after the Union until three of the peerages of Ireland, which shall have been existing at the time of the Union, shall have become extinct; and upon such extinction of three peerages, that it shall be lawful for his Majesty, his heirs and successors, to create one peer of that part of the united kingdom called Ireland; and in like manner as often as three peerages of that part of the united kingdom called Ireland shall become extinct, it shall be lawful for his Majesty, his heirs and successors, to create one other peer of the said part of the united kingdom; and if it shall happen that the peers of that part of the united kingdom called Ireland shall, by extinction of peerages or otherwise, be reduced to the number of one hundred, exclusive of all such peers of that part of the united kingdom called Ireland, as shall hold any peerage of Great Britain subsisting at the time of the Union, or of the united

kingdom, created since the Union, by which such peers shall be entitled to an hereditary seat in the House of Lords of the united kingdom, then and in that case it shall and may be lawful for his Majesty, his heirs and successors, to create one peer of that part of the united kingdom called Ireland, as often as any one of such one hundred peerages shall fail by extinction, or as often as any one peer of that part of the united kingdom called Ireland shall become entitled, by descent or creation, to an hereditary seat in the House of Lords of the united kingdom; it being the true intent and meaning of this article, that at all times after the Union, it shall and may be lawful for his Majesty, his heirs and successors, to keep up the peerage of that part of the united kingdom called Ireland to the number of one hundred, over and above the number of such of the said peers as shall be entitled, by descent or creation, to an hereditary seat in the House of Lords of the united kingdom:

That if any peerage shall at any time be in abeyance, such peerage shall be deemed and taken as an existing peerage; and no peerage shall be deemed extinct, unless on default of claimants to the inheritance of such peerage for the space of one year from the death of the person who shall have been last possessed thereof; and if no claim shall be made to the inheritance of such peerage, in such form and manner as may from time to time be prescribed by the House of Lords of the united kingdom, before the expiration of the said period of a year, then and in that case such peerage shall be deemed extinct; provided that nothing herein shall exclude any person from afterwards putting in a claim to the peerage so deemed extinct; and if such claim shall be allowed as valid, by judgment of the House of Lords of the united kingdom, reported to his Majesty, such peerage shall be considered as revived; and in case any new creation of a peerage of that part of the united kingdom called Ireland, shall have taken place in the interval, in consequence of the supposed extinction of such peerage, then no new right of creation shall accrue to his Majesty, his heirs or successors, in consequence of the next extinction which shall take place of any peerage of that part of the united kingdom called Ireland:

That all questions touching the election of members to sit on the part of Ireland in the House of Commons of the united kingdom shall be heard and decided in the same manner as questions touching such elections in Great Britain now are, or at any time hereafter shall by law be heard and decided; subject nevertheless to such particular regulations in respect of Ireland as, from local circumstances, the Paliament of the united kingdom may from time to time deem expedient.

That the qualifications in respect of property of the members elected on the part of Ireland to sit in the House of Commons of the united kingdom, shall be respectively the same as are now provided by law in the cases of elections for counties and cities and boroughs respectively in that part of Great Britain called England, unless any other provision shall hereafter be made in that respect by Act of Parliament of the united kingdom.