PETITION FROM THE ROMAN CATHOLICS OF TIPPERARY. (Hansard, 22 May 1811)

§ Mr. Montagu Mathew

presented a Petition from the freeholders and inhabitants of the county of Tipperary, comprising persons professing various religious persuasions, setting forth,

"That the petitioners, being actuated by sentiments of attachment to the true principles of the constitution, and sincerely desirous to promote the internal concord and general prosperity of the country by every measure of conciliation, good will, and justice towards all classes and descriptions of their fellow subjects, beg leave to represent to the House, that they view, with particular regret and disapprobation, the existing code of penal and disabling statutes, which aggrieve and degrades the Roman Catholics of these realms adhering to the faith of their fore-fathers; and that this obnoxious code, at all times unjust in its principle, and violating an ancient and solemn treaty, appears to us, at this critical period of national exigency, to be peculiarly ill-timed and unwise, and that, besides infringing the sacred rights of private conscience, and violating the first principles of legislation, it insults and depresses every individual of the Catholic community, stigmatizes them as unworthy of confidence, and proscribes them as aliens in their native land; and that thus disuniting the people, thus prolonging needless dissentions, and alienating the great majority of the Irish population from the state, this code is the certain source of national weakness and imminent public danger: without the zealous co-operation of the Catholic community, that right arm of Ireland, no reflecting man can confidently reckon upon an effectual resistance to the common foe in the trying hour of peril; and it is but natural to presume that such co-operation will be best ensured by augmenting their interest in the maintenance of the constitution, by extending to them its full benefits without reserve or restriction, by acts of substantial justice, and even of marked kindness, towards this faithful and well-deserving people, from whom, perhaps, within a very short period, the most arduous services, and of inestimable value, will be necessarily and anxiously demanded; and that the petitioners are of opinion, therefore, that no other measure can so effectually tend to the firm defence and 272 preservation of these islands, to internal union and general security, as a full and complete restoration of all the rights and benefits of the constitution to the Catholic people; justice no less than sound policy demands the immediate adoption of this measure; liberty of conscience, and the unfettered exercise of private judgment in the choice of religion, are the inalienable birthright of every man, and cannot be invaded by human power without disrespect to that merciful Deity who tolerates all religions, and graciously accepts from all men the genuine worship of the heart in whatsoever language, and under every form; and that the experience of nation" has also shown that intolerance can never be practised with impunity; in its gloomy train are ever to be found national discord, disgrace, decay, and finally desolation of the most disastrous nature: may the Almighty avert such dire calamities from this empire; and that, as members of various religious communities, Protestants as well as Catholics, the petitioners disclaim all coercive laws concerning religious subjects, and they solemnly protest against the prolongation of a code founded in such coercion; and, however different their respective mode of faith, yet they cordially concur in earnestly praying) as the first and choicest blessing to Ireland, that those odious laws which inflict discord upon our country, and have long been reprobated by all humane and liberal men, may be altogether abandoned, and give place to such healing and conciliatory measures as shall restore to us the benefits of domestic union and tranquillity, efface even the remembrance of religious intolerance, and suffer not a vestige of it to remain in these islands; and that the petitioners, therefore, seriously beseech the House, to repeal all and every the penal disabling and exclusive laws which aggrieve and injure the Roman Catholics of these realms, and to reinstate them effectually in the full participation of all the rights and benefits of the laws and constitution of this empire, equally and in common with their fellow subjects, without any distinction of religious communion."