§ Sir Edward O'Brien presented a Petition from his Majesty's loyal and dutiful subjects the Protestant gentry and freeholders of the county of Clare, setting forth,
§ "That the Petitioners, the gentry and freeholders of the county of Clare, members of the Established Church, beg leave to approach the House with the most cordial assurances of their inflexible loyalty to his Majesty's sacred person, family and government, and of their unalterable attachment to the genuine principles of our happy constitution; actuated by such loyalty and attachment, they deem it their duty respectfully to call the particular attention of the House to the situation of exclusion and inferiority in which their 461 Roman Catholic Brethren are placed, and they are deeply impressed with the conviction, that the removal of the restraints, privations and penalties under which they labour must effectually and immediately operate to combine the strength and consolidate the resources of the Empire; they do especially claim the attention of the House at the present awful and momentous crisis, when it is the interest and the duty of every faithful subject of these realms to promote and maintain an enthusiastic spirit of loyalty among his Majesty's subjects of every sect, and of every religious denomination; and, from the opportunity their country affords them of frequent intercourse with their Catholic fellow subjects, they can most solemnly assure the House there is nothing in their principles or conduct to justify or to palliate any system of exclusion or reserve towards them; and they are convinced, that to restore them to the full enjoyment of the constitution, is a debt due to justice and good policy, and they do not hesitate to declare, that such restoration is calculated, above all other measures, to support the independence, integrity and security of the empire, to promote harmony among fellow subjects, and charity among fellow Christians, and to combine every heart and hand in defence of our revered sovereign and of the only free constitution in the European world; and praying the House to relieve the Roman Catholics of Ireland from those laws by which they are at present afflicted,.* and, by so doing, to give all classes of his Majesty's subjects an equal interest maintaining the security and independence of their common country."
§ Ordered, That the said Petition do lie upon the table.