tained in it should be construed to bind down the King and Queen, their Heirs and Successors, not to give the Royal Assent to any Bill for qualifying the Act of Uniformity so far as to render it palatable to Protestant Dissenters, and the Clause was negatived upon a division. This leads to the implication that the Coronation Oath was understood at the Revolution to bind the Crown not to assent to any Repeal of any of the existing Laws at the Revolution, or which were then enacted, for the maintenance and defence of the Protestant Religion as by Law established.

If the Oath was understood to bind the Crown not to assent to the Repeal of the Act of Uniformity in favour of Protestant Dissenters, it would seem to bind the Crown full as strongly not to assent to the Repeal of the Act of Supremacy, or the Test Act, in favour of Roman Catholics.

Another question arises from the provisions of the Act limiting the Succession to the Crown, by which a forfeiture of the Crown is expressly enacted, if the King upon the Throne should hold communication, or be reconciled to the Church of Rome. May not the Repeal of the Act of Supremacy and the establishing the Popish Religion in any of the Hereditary Do

minions, be construed as amounting to a reconciliation with the Church of Rome?

Would not the Chancellor of England incur some risk in affixing the Great Seal to a Bill for giving the Pope a concurrent Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction with the King?

By the Articles of Union with Scotland it is declared to be an essential and fundamental Article, that the King of Great Britain shall maintain the Church of England as by Law established, in England, Ireland, and Berwick upon Tweed.

The Bargain made by England in 1782, by Yelverton's Act, gives rise to the Question, whether the Repeal of any of the English Statutes adopted by that Act would not be a direct violation of the compact made by the Parliament of Ireland with Great Britain.

No. 3.

ANSWER to Nos. 1 and 2.

LORD KENYON received your Majesty's commands when he was in the Country. He came immediately to town, and incloses what has occurred to him upon the Question. He has conferred with the Attorney General, and believes there is not any difference in opinion between them.

They are neither of them apprised, what was the extent of the alteration meditated to be made in Ireland.

Your Majesty's most obliged

and dutiful Subject,

KENYON,

11th March, 1795.,

Enclosed in No. 3.

The Act for the Union of England and Scotland has made the Church Establishments in the two Countries essential and fundamental parts of the Union, and has declared that the Acts of the two Countries for securing the re

spective Church Government shall be and continue at all times coming part of the Terms of the Union-that I understand to be the necessary construction of the words of the 11th* Section of the Act.

The Coronation Oath enacted in 1 W. & M. requires the King to maintain the Protestant reformed Religion established by Law.

The 8th Section of the Act of Union shows that by Religion established by Law, is meant

* 5 Anne, c. 8. s. 11. "And it is hereby further enacted, that the said Act passed in this present Session of Parliament, intituled An Act for securing the Church of England as by Law established,' &c. and also the Act of Parliament of Scotland, intituled An Act for securing the Protestant Religion, and Presbyterian Church Government,' &c. be, and shall for ever be, held and adjudged to be and observed as fundamental and essential Conditions of the said Union, &c. &c. and the said Act passed in this present Session of Parliament, &c. and also the said Act passed in the Parliament of Scotland, &c. are hereby enacted and ordained to be and continue in all times coming the compleat and entire Union of the two Kingdoms of England and Scotland."

+ S. 8. "And be it further enacted, that for ever hereafter every King or Queen succeeding and coming to the Royal Government of the Kingdom of Great Britain, at his or her Coronation, shall, in the presence of all persons who shall be attending, &c. take and subscribe an Oath to maintain and preserve inviolably the said Settlement of the Church of England, and the Doctrine, Worship, Discipline, and Government thereof, as by Law established within the Kingdoms of England and Ireland, the Dominion of Wales, and Town of Berwick upon Tweed, and the Territories thereunto belonging."

The seventh section recites part of the Act intituled “ An Act for securing the Church of England, as by Law established," of which the following is an Extract: That an Act

the Doctrine, Worship, Discipline, and Government of the Church. This includes the King's Supremacy and the various orders of Ministers, and the provision which the State makes for the decent support of the Clergy. The doctrine and discipline are regulated (inter alia) by the Acts of Uniformity, and the Liturgy as it stands enacted by the Statute of 13 and 14 Car. II.

To overthrow any part of the Church Establishment, as I have now stated it, would, as it seems, militate against the Coronation Oath, as settled in the Stat. 1 W. & M. and the Act of Union, and contravene an essential and fundamental part of the Act of Union.

In order to preserve the Established Church, several Laws have been enacted, subjecting those who dissented from the Established Church to penalties or disabilities, and these have pressed sometimes upon one denomination of Sectarists, and sometimes upon another, as

made in the 13th Year of the Reign of Queen Elizabeth of famous memory, intituled An Act for the Ministers of the Church to be of sound Religion;' and also another Act made in the 13th Year of the late King Charles II. intituled 'An Act for the Uniformity of the Public Prayers,' &c. 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."