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support, and defend, to the utmost of my power, the succession of the crown, which succession, by an act, entitled, An Act for the further Limitation of the Crown, and better securing the Rights and Liberties of the Subject, is and stands limited to the princess Sophia, electress of Hanover, and the heirs of her body, being Protestants; hereby utterly renouncing and abjuring any obedience or allegiance unto any other person claiming or pretending a right to the crown of this realm: and I do further declare, that it is not an article of my faith, and that I do renounce, reject, and abjure the opinion, that princes excommunicated or deprived by the pope, or any other authority of the see of Rome, may be deposed or murdered by their subjects, or by any person whatsoever and I do declare, that I do not believe that the pope of Rome, or any other foreign prince, prelate, person, state, or potentate, hath or ought to have any temporal or civil jurisdiction, power, superiority, or preeminence, directly or indirectly, within this realm. I do swear, that I will defend to the utmost of my power the settlement of property within this realm, as established by the laws: and I do hereby disclaim, disavow, and solemnly abjure any intention to subvert the present church establishment, as settled by law within this realm: and I do solemnly swear, that I will never exercise any privilege to which I am or may become entitled, to disturb or weaken the Protestant religion or Protestant government in the united kingdom: and I do solemnly, in the presence of God, profess, testify, and declare, that I do make this declaration, and every part thereof, in the plain and ordinary sense of the words of this oath, without any evasion, equivocation, or mental reservation whatsoever.

So help me God.'

III. And be it further enacted, that wherever, in the oath here appointed and set forth, the name of His present Majesty is expressed or referred to, the name of the sovereign of this kingdom for the time being, by virtue of the act for the further limitation of the crown and better securing the right and liberties of the subject, shall be substituted from time to time, with proper words of reference thereto.

IV. Provided always, and be it further enacted, that no peer professing the Roman Catholic religion, and no person professing the Roman Catholic religion, who shall be returned a member of the house of commons after the commencement of this act, shall be capable of sitting or voting in either house of parliament respectively, unless he shall first take and subscribe the oath hereinbefore appointed and set forth, before the same persons, at

the same times and places, and in the same manner as the oaths and the declaration now required by law are respectively directed to be taken, made, and subscribed; and that any such person professing the Roman Catholic religion, who shall sit or vote in either house of parliament, without having first taken and subscribed, in the manner aforesaid, the oath in this act appointed and set forth, shall be subject to the same penalties, forfeitures, and disabilities, and the offence of so sitting or voting shall be followed and attended by and with the same consequences, as are by law enacted and provided in the case of persons sitting or voting in either house of parliament respectively, without the taking, making, and subscribing the oaths and the declaration now required by law.

V. And be it further enacted, that it shall be lawful for persons professing the Roman Catholic religion to vote at elections of members to serve in parliament for England and for Ireland, and also to vote at the elections of representative peers of Scotland and of Ireland, and to be elected such representative peers, being in all other respects duly qualified, upon taking and subscribing the oath hereinbefore appointed and set forth, instead of the oaths of allegiance, supremacy, and abjuration, and instead of the declaration now by law required, and instead also of such other oath or oaths as are now by law required to be taken by any of His Majesty's subjects professing the Roman Catholic religion, and upon taking also such other oath or oaths as may now be lawfully tendered to any persons offering to vote at such elections.

VI, VII. [The administration of the oath.]

VIII. [Allowing Roman Catholics to vote and be elected in Scotland.1

IX. And be it further enacted, that no person in holy orders in the Church of Rome shall be capable of being elected to serve in parliament as a member of the house of commons; and if any such person shall be elected to serve in parliament as aforesaid, such election shall be void; and if any person, being elected to serve in parliament as a member of the house of commons, shall, after his election, take or receive holy orders in the Church of Rome, the seat of such person shall immediately become void; and if any such person shall, in any of the cases aforesaid, presume to sit or vote as a member of the house of commons, he shall be subject to the same penalties, forfeitures, and disabili

ties as are enacted by an act passed in the forty-first year of the reign of King George the Third, entitled An Act to remove Doubts respecting the Eligibility of Persons in Holy Orders to sit in the House of Commons; and proof of the celebration of any religious service by such person, according to the rites of the Church of Rome, shall be deemed and taken to be primâ facie evidence of the fact of such person being in holy orders, within the intent and meaning of this act.

X. And be it enacted, that it shall be lawful for any of His Majesty's subjects professing the Roman Catholic religion to hold, exercise, and enjoy all civil and military offices and places of trust or profit under His Majesty, his heirs or successors, and to exercise any other franchise or civil right, except as hereinafter excepted, upon taking and subscribing, at the times and in the manner hereinafter mentioned, the oath hereinbefore appointed and set forth, instead of the oaths of allegiance, supremacy, and abjuration, and instead of such oath or oaths as are or may be now by law required to be taken for the purpose aforesaid by any of His Majesty's subjects professing the Roman Catholic religion.

XI. Provided always, and be it enacted, that nothing herein contained shall be construed to exempt any person professing the Roman Catholic religion from the necessity of taking any oath or oaths, or making any declaration, not hereinbefore mentioned, which are or may be by law required to be taken or subscribed by any person on his admission into any such office or place of trust or profit as aforesaid.

XII. Provided also, and be it further enacted, that nothing herein contained shall extend or be construed to extend to enable any person or persons professing the Roman Catholic religion to hold or exercise the office of guardians and justices of the united kingdom, or of regent of the united kingdom, under whatever name, style, or title such office may be constituted; nor to enable any person, otherwise than as he is now by law enabled, to hold or enjoy the office of lord high chancellor, lord keeper or lord commissioner of the great seal of Great Britain or Ireland; or the office of lord lieutenant, or lord deputy, or other chief governor or governors of Ireland; or His Majesty's high commissioner to the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland.

WHI

263. Reform Act of 1832 *

(1832, June 7. 2 William IV, c. 45.)

THEREAS it is expedient to take effectual measures for correcting divers abuses that have long prevailed in the choice, of members to serve in the commons house of parliament, to deprive many inconsiderable places of the right of returning members, to grant such privilege to large, populous, and wealthy towns, to increase the number of knights of the shire, to extend the elective franchise to many of His Majesty's subjects who have not heretofore enjoyed the same, and to diminish the expense of elections: Be it therefore enacted by the king's most excellent Majesty, by and with the advice and consent of the lords spiritual and temporal, and commons, in this present parliament assembled, and by the authority of the same, that each of the boroughs enumerated in the Schedule marked A (56 in all) shall from and after the end of this present parliament cease to return any member or members to serve in parliament.

II. [Boroughs enumerated in Schedule B (30 in all) to return one member only.]

III. [Places named in Schedule C (22 in all) made boroughs to return two members to parliament.]

IV. [Places named in Schedule D (20 in all) made boroughs to return one member to parliament.]

V. [Four boroughs to include adjacent districts.]

VI. [Weymouth and Melcombe Regis to return two members instead of four; Penryn to include Falmouth, and Sandwich to include Deal and Walmer.]

VII. Boundaries to be fixed.]

VIII, IX, X. [Dealing with Wales.]

XI. [Returning officers.]

XII. [Yorkshire to return six members.]

XIII. [Lincolnshire to return four members.]

XIV. [Counties enumerated in Schedule F (25 in all) to return

four members.]

XV. [Counties enumerated in Schedule F2 (7 in all) to return three members, and two members instead of one to be returned by three of the counties in Wales.]

XVI. [Isle of Wight to return one member, apart from Hampshire.]

XVII. [Towns, which are counties of themselves, to be included in adjoining counties.]

XVIII. That no person shall be entitled to vote in the election of a knight or knights of the shire to serve in any future parliament, or in the election of a member or members to serve in any future parliament for any city or town being a county of itself, in respect of any freehold lands or tenements whereof such person may be seised for his own life, or for the life of another, or for any lives whatsoever, except such person shall be in the actual and bona fide occupation of such lands or tenements, or except the same shall have come to such person by marriage, marriage settlement, devise, or promotion to any benefice or to any office, or except the same shall be of the clear yearly value of not less than 10 above all rents and charges payable out of or in respect of the same; any statute or usage to the contrary notwithstanding: provided always, that nothing in this act contained shall prevent any person now seised for his own life, or for the life of another, or for any lives whatsoever, of any freehold lands or tenements in respect of which he now has, or but for the passing of this act might acquire, the right of voting in such respective elections, from retaining or acquiring, so long as he shall be so seised of the same lands or tenements, such right of voting in respect thereof, if duly registered according to the respective provisions hereinafter contained.

XIX. That every male person of full age, and not subject to any legal incapacity, who shall be seised at law or in equity of any land or tenements of copyhold or any other tenure whatever except freehold, for his own life, or for the life of another, or for any lives whatsoever, or for any larger estate, of the clear yearly value of not less than 10 over and above all rents and charges payable out of or in respect of the same, shall be entitled to vote in the election of a knight or knights of the shire to serve in any future parliament for the county, or for the riding, parts, or division of the county, in which such lands or tenements shall be respectively situate.

XX. That every male person of full age, and not subject to any legal incapacity, who shall be entitled, either as lessee or assignee, to any lands or tenements, whether of freehold or of any other tenure whatever, for the unexpired residue, whatever it may be, of any term originally created for a period of not less than sixty years, (whether determinable on a life or lives, or not,) of the clear yearly value of not less than 10 over and above all rents and charges payable out of or in respect of the

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