Folios 263-268. Letter from the Earl of Buckingham to Lord Viscount Weymouth reporting...

Folios 263-268. Letter from the Earl of Buckingham to Lord Viscount Weymouth reporting on the passing of the heads of the Bill for the Relief of His Majesty's Roman Catholic Subjects in Ireland in the House of Commons. The original heads of bill were debated for no less than three days, and each day for very long hours, and the bill passed was varied quite significantly as a result: (i) regarding the original proposal for Roman Catholics to be able to purchase Estates of Inheritance and for such estates to descend without gavelling, an amendment was passed by 111 to 108 that in lieu of an inheritance, Roman Catholics should be allowed to take leases for 999 years; (ii) it was agreed that the Estates now in the possession of Roman Catholics should descend without gavell; (iii) it was agreed to a repeal of that part of the law enabling the son and heir of a Roman Catholic parent to render his father tenant for life, vesting in himself a reversion in fee; (iv) a motion to introduce a clause for the relief of the 'Protestant Dissenters', with a view to a repeal of the Test Act, proved impossible to resist, with Lords Shannon and Ely arguing strenuously for the passing of the clause as a 'clogg upon the whole of the bill' and others arguing for an adjournment or for it to be addressed in a separate bill. Dated at Dublin Castle.