declaration professing themselves to be Christians and Protestants, and that they believe the Scriptures to contain the revealed will of God, and to be the rule of doctrine and practice.

By 52 Geo. III. c. 155, no assembly for religious worship of Protestants, at which more than twenty persons besides the family shall be present, shall be allowed, unless the place shall be certified to the bishop of the diocese or the archdeacon, or at the general quarter sessions of the peace within the district; and all such places shall be registered in the said bishop's or archdeacon's court, and recorded by the clerk of the peace at the sessions. All persons permitting such assembly in places occupied by them, until certified, are liable to a penalty of £20, and not less than 20s., at the discretion of the convicting justice.

By the same Act, persons officiating in, or resorting to, religious establishments, duly certified according to the provisions of this Act, or any other Acts, are as fully relieved from all pains and penalties relating to religious worship, as any person who has made the declaration and taken the oaths required by 1 Will. & M., or any Act amending it.

By the same Act, any person not having taken the oath and subscribed the declaration specified in 19 Geo. III. c. 44, may be required to do so by any one justice, and on refusal is prohibited from teaching or preaching in any place of religious worship until he shall have taken and subscribed the same, on pain of forfeiting for every offence any sum not exceeding £10, and not less than 10s.

By 9 Geo. IV. c. 17, such parts of the Corporation and Test Acts as require the persons therein described to receive the sacrament for the purposes therein expressed, are repealed.

And the Act further provides a form of declaration to be used in lieu of the sacramental test.

It also provides that the same, when made, shall be entered in a book kept for that purpose.

That if persons elected to any office within the act shall neglect to make such declaration, their election is to be void.

C

That persons admitted to any office under the crown, which heretofore required the taking of the sacrament, shall make the declaration within six months, or their appointment shall be void.

That this declaration shall be made in the Court of Chancery or King's Bench, or at the Quarter Sessions.

That naval and military officers, below the rank of realadmiral, major-general, or colonel in the militia, and also certain officers of the revenue, shall not be required to make the declaration.

The declaration is to this effect, that upon the true faith of a Christian the party will never exercise any power, authority, or influence, by virtue of the office, to injure, weaken, or disturb the English church, or its bishops and clergy.

By 18 Geo. III. c. 60; 31 Geo. III. c. 32; 43 Geo. III. c. 30, the restrictions and penalties theretofore imposed on Roman Catholics are removed on their qualifying by declaration, oath, &c. as in those statutes provided.

And by 10 Geo. IV. c. 7, called the Catholic Emancipation Act, all enactments requiring the declaration against Transubstantiation and the Invocation of Saints, and the Sacrifice of the Mass, as a qualification, are repealed.

And it is further provided,

That any person professing the Roman Catholic religion may sit and vote in either house of Parliament upon taking and subscribing, instead of the oaths of allegiance, supremacy, and abjuration, an oath prescribed by the act, which comprises, inter alia, the abjuration of any intention to subvert the church establishment.

That no person, however,,in holy orders in the Church of Rome shall be eligible into or sit in the House of Com

mons.

That upon taking and subscribing the said oath, persons professing the Roman Catholic religion may vote at elections for members.

That, (except the office of Guardian and Justice, or Regent of the United Kingdom, Lord High Chancellor,

Lord Keeper or Commissioner of the Great Seal of Great Britain or Ireland; Lord Lieutenant, Lord Deputy, or Chief Governor of Ireland; or High Commissioner to the General Assembly in Scotland,) any of his Majesty's subjects professing the Roman Catholic religion may hold all civil and military offices and places of trust or profit, and exercise any franchise or civil right, upon taking and subscribing the said oath instead of the oaths of allegiance, supremacy, and abjuration, and instead of such other oaths as heretofore by law required for that purpose from Roman Catholics.

That no such person, however, shall be thereby exempted from taking any other oath or declaration required by law. That persons professing the Roman Catholic religion may, on taking and subscribing the same oath, instead of the oaths of allegiance, supremacy, and abjuration, be members of lay corporations, except as to voting in ecclesiastical appointments.

That they shall not be thereby enabled to hold offices in the church, or ecclesiastical courts, universities, colleges, or schools, or present to benefices.

That no oath shall be required from them for holding real or personal property, and that the oath prescribed by the Act shall be in the place of, and as effectual as all other oaths and declarations for relieving them from disabilities and penalties.

That no person holding any judicial or civil office, or any mayor, &c. or corporate officer, shall be present at any place for religious worship, except the Church of the United Kingdom, with the insignia of his office, under penalty of £100.

That no Roman Catholic ecclesiastic shall officiate except in their usual places of worship, or private houses, under a penalty of £50.

That every Jesuit or member of religious order, &c. of Rome, bound by monastic or religious vows, in Great Britain, at the time of the passing of the Act, shall give notice to the clerk of the peace, &c. of his name and resi

dence, &c. under a penalty of £50 per month of residence without notice.

That every Jesuit, &c. coming into the realm after the Act, shall be guilty of a misdemeanor, and subject to banishment-that if a natural born subject, however, at the time of the commencement of the Act, he may come into the realm, but must give notice as above, under a penalty of £50 per month; and that a principal secretary of state, being a Protestant, may give license to Jesuits, &c. to come into the realm under certain restrictions.

That if any Jesuit, &c. shall admit any person into the order in the United Kingdom, he shall be guilty of a misdemeanor; and the person admitted shall be guilty in like manner, and banished.

But that the Act shall not affect religious orders of females.

4. Profane Swearing and Cursing.

By 19 Geo. II. c. 21, every labourer, sailor, or soldier, profanely cursing or swearing shall forfeit 1s., every other person under the degree of a gentleman, 2s., and every gentleman or person of superior rank, 5s. to the poor of the parish; and on a second conviction, double; and for every subsequent offence, treble the sum first forfeited, with all charges of conviction, and in default of payment shall be sent to the house of correction for ten days. Any justice of the peace may convict upon his own hearing on the testimony of one witness; and any constable or peace officer upon his own hearing may secure any offender and carry him before a justice, and there convict him. But the conviction must be within eight days after the offence. If the justice omits his duty, he is to forfeit £5, and the constable, in the like case, 40s.

By 3 Jac. I. c. 21, if in any stage play, interlude, or show, the name of the Holy Trinity, or any of the persons therein, be jestingly or profanely used, the offender shall forfeit £10; one moiety to the king, the other to the informer.

5. Religious Imposture.

Persons who pretend an extraordinary commission from Heaven, or terrify and abuse the people with false denunciations of judgments, are punishable with fine, imprisonment, and infamous corporal punishment. 4 Bl. C. 62.

By statute 9 Geo. II. c. 5, persons pretending to use witchcraft, tell fortunes, or discover stolen goods, by skill in the occult sciences, are guilty of a misdemeanor, and punishable with a year's imprisonment, and with the pillory; but the latter punishment is now not applicable in this case. See 56 Geo. III. c. 138.

By 5 Geo. IV. c. 8, s. 4, fortune-tellers and persons using any subtle craft, means, or devise, by palmistry or otherwise, to deceive and impose on any of his Majesty's subjects, are to be deemed rogues and vagabonds, and punished with imprisonment and hard labour.

6. Simony.

By 31 Eliz. c. 6, if any patron, for money or any other corrupt consideration or promise, directly or indirectly given, shall present, admit, institute, induct, install, or collate any person to ecclesiastical benefice or dignity, both the giver and taker shall forfeit two years' value of the benefice or dignity; one moiety to the king, and the other to the informer.

By the same statute, if persons shall corruptly resign or exchange their benefices, both the giver and taker shall forfeit double the value of the money or other corrupt consideration.

And persons who shall corruptly ordain or license any minister, or procure him to be ordained or licensed, shall forfeit £40, and the minister himself £10, and be disabled to hold any ecclesiastical preferment for seven years afterwards.

And corrupt resignations and elections in colleges, hos