§ Sir W. Curtispresented a petition from the London Clergy, incorporated by the title of the president and fellows of Sion College, within the city of London, setting forth, "That the petitioners have learnt that a bill has been for some time, and is now, depending in Parliament, for enabling his majesty to avail himself of the services of all his liege subjects in his naval and military forces, in the manner therein mentioned; and the petitioners feel it their duty to express their serious apprehensions of the dangers likely to arise from the said bill if carried into a law; and they conceive this measure to afford a most formidable precedent of departing, in a leading and important instance, from the principles of our constitution in church and state, as asserted in the ever-memorable Bill of Rights, 283 the basis of our laws and liberties; and that the oaths and declarations provided in that bill, and preceding and subsequent acts of parliament, are not more than sufficient for the preservation of the church establishment against the attempts of those, whose principles ever have been, and ever must remain, in direct hostility to it; and that the petitioners, instructed by all experience, apprehend that those who have ever abused power when they have possessed it, to the purposes of founding their own dominion on the destruction of the civil and religious liberties of mankind, and the true principles of Christian toleration, would be inclined, if circumstances permitted, to pursue the same conduct; and that placing military trusts and commands in the hands of persons so disposed, would enable them to extort any other concession they might be induced to demand, and furnish them with a powerful instrument to carry on their projects with effect, to the utter ruin of our happy constitution in church and state, which must stand or fall together; and therefore praying, that the above-mentioned bill may not pans into a law, and that the house, in its wisdom, will be pleased to maintain and preserve inviolate those laws, which experience has proved to be the best safeguards of our national happiness and security, and under Divine Providence, the firmest support of the title of our beloved monarch and his august family to the throne of this united kingdom."—Ordered to lie upon the table.— —Lord Folkestone presented a petition from Wm. Drake, setting forth, "That the petitioner, to his extreme grief and mortification, was declared by the house to have been guilty of wilful falsehood and gross prevarication in the evidence given by him before the house, on a Petition of James Paull, esq. relative to the Westminster election, and was ther upon by the order of the house, on the 18th of March, committed to Newgate, where he has ever since remained; and that it appears, from returns made to the house, that the petitioner for many years served in his majesty's navy, and was wounded in such service, so as to occasion the loss of his leg, and that the petitioner has a wife and child, altogether dependant on him for support, who, in consequence of his imprisonment, are in great distress; and the death of his father since his imprisonment has been productive of additional calamity to him; and that the petitioner is most sincerely sorry at having incurred the displeasure of the house, and 284 intreats the clemency of the house to be extended towards him and his family, who, if his imprisonment should be continued, will be in a state truly deplorable; and therefore praying, that the house will be pleased to take his situation into its consideration, and to order that he may be discharged from his confinement, or to grant to him such other relief as in its humanity it shall think fit."—The petition having been read, the Speaker said it was his duty to call the attention of the house to the substance of this petition. It had been hitherto customary when persons committed under such circumstances as those in which the petitioner stood, solicited from that house an exercise of its benevolence in their favour, by ordering their liberation, that they should at least confess the crime for which they stood committed, thereby acknowledging the justice of the sentence, and expressing their contrition, But the petition just now read contained no such acknowledgment—The petition was allowed to remain on the table, without any further observation.