HC Deb 16 April 1812 vol 22 cc401-7
MR. PARNELL

presented a Petition from the Roman Catholics of the Queen's County, in Ireland, setting forth,

"That the Petitioners beg leave respectfully, at this most important conjuncture to solicit the favourable attention of the House to the peculiar condition of the Roman Catholics of Ireland, under the severe penal laws now in force against them; and that, if they appear to the House to persevere with more than common earnestness in their humble solicitations for the abrogation of those laws, and for a free admission to the blessings and benefits of the civil constitution of their country, the Petitioners trust that their perseverance will be viewed rather as a proof of their just title to the liberty which they seek, and of their sincerity in its pursuit, than as the result of any sentiment hostile to the peace or true interests of this empire; and that the Petitioners should sincerely-dread lest their silence might be construed by a faithful but feeling people as an indication of despair, and they would not lightly abandon the pursuit of a laudable and most important object, strengthened as they are by the concurring support of their generous and enlightened fellow countrymen, as well as by the fullest approbation of their own conscientious feelings; they beg leave humbly to state to the House, that they have publicly and solemnly taken every oath of fidelity and allegiance which the jealous caution of the legislature has, from time to time, imposed as tests of their political and moral principles; and, although, they are still set apart (how wounding to every sentiment of honour!) as if unworthy of credit in these their sworn declarations, they can appeal confidently to the sacrifices which they and their forefathers have long made, and which they still make (rather than violate conscience by taking oaths of a spiritual import contrary to their belief), as decisive proofs of their profound reverence for the sacred obligation of an oath; and that, by those awful tests, they have bound themselves, in the presence of the all-seeing Deity, whom all classes of Christians adore, to be faithful and bear true allegiance to their most gracious sovereign lord king George the 3rd, and him to defend, to the utmost of their power, against all conspiracies and attempts whatsoever against his person crown, or dignity; to use their utmost endeavours to disclose and make known to his Majesty and his heirs, all treason and traitorous conspiracies which may be formed against him or them, and faithfully to maintain, support, and defend, to the utmost of their power, the succession to the crown in his Majesty's family against all persons whomsoever; and that, by those oaths, they have renounced and abjured obedience and allegiance unto any other person claiming or pretending a right to the crown of this realm; that they have rejected, as unchristian and impious to believe, the detestable doctrine, that it is lawful in any ways to injure any person or persons whomsoever, under pretence of their being heretics, and also that unchristian and impious principle, that no faith is to be kept with heretics, that it is no article of their faith; and they renounce, reject, and abjure the opinion, that princes, excommunicated by the Pope and council, or by any authority whatsoever, may be deposed or murdered by their subjects or by any person whatsoever; that they do not believe that the Pope of Rome, or any other foreign prince, prelate, state, or potentate, hath, or ought to have, any temporal or civil jurisdiction, power, superiority, or pre-eminence, within this realm; that they firmly believe, that no act, in itself unjust, immoral, or wicked, can ever be justified or excused by or under pretence or colour that it was done for the good of the Church, or in obedience to any ecclesiastical power whatsoever; and that it is not an Article of the Catholic Faith, neither are they thereby required to believe or profess, that the Pope is infallible, or that they are bound to any order, in its own nature immoral, though the Pope or any ecclesiastical power should issue or direct such order, but that, on the contrary, they hold that it would be sinful in them to pay any respect or obedience thereto; and that they do not believe that any sin whatsoever, committed by them, can be forgiven at the mere will of any Pope, or of any Priest, or of any person or persons whatsoever, but that any person who receives absolution, without a sincere sorrow for such sin, and a firm and sincere resolution to avoid future guilt, and to atone to God, so far from obtaining thereby any remission of his sin, incurs the additional guilt of violating a sacrament; and, by the same solemn obligations, they are bound and firmly pledged to defend, to the utmost of their power, the settlement and arrangement of property in Ireland, as established by the laws now in being; that they have declared, disavowed, and solemnly abjured, any intention to subvert the present Church establishment, for the purpose of substituting a Catholic establishment in its stead; and that they have solemnly sworn, that they will not exercise any privilege, to which they are or may become entitled, to disturb and weaken the Protestant religion or Protestant government in Ireland; and that they can, with perfect truth, assure the House, that the political and moral principles asserted by these solemn and special tests are not merely in unison with their fixed principles, but expressly inculcated by the religion which they profess; and they do most humbly trust, that, as professors of doctrines which permit such tests to be taken, they shall appear to the House to be entitled to the full enjoyment of religious freedom, under the happy constitution of these realms; and that frequently has the legislature of Ireland borne testimony to the uniform peaceable demeanour of the Irish Roman Catholics, to their acknowledged merits as good and loyal subjects, to the wisdom and sound policy of admitting them to all the blessings of a free constitution, and of thus binding together all classes of people by mutual interest and mutual affection; and that yet may they humbly represent to the House, and they do so at this perilous crisis, with sincere regret and deep solicitude, that the Roman Catholics of Ireland still remain subject to severe and humiliating laws, rigidly enforced, universally felt, and inflicting upon them divers injurious and vexatious disabilities incapacities privations and penalties, by reason of their conscientious adherence to the religious doctrines of their forefathers; and that, for nearly the entire period of the last twenty years, the progress of religious freedom has been obstructed, and, whilst other Christian nations have hastened to unbind the fetters imposed upon religious dissent, the Roman Catholics of Ireland have remained unrelieved; and that the laws, which unequivocally attest their innocence and their merits, continue to load them with the pains of guilt; their own consciences, the voice of mankind, acquit them of crime and offence; their Protestant fellow citizens press forward, with generous ardour and enlightened benevolence, to testify their earnest wishes for their relief; yet these penal laws, of which they humbly complain, cherish the spirit of hostility, and impede the cordial union of the people, which is at all times so desirable, and now so necessary and that these penal laws operate for no useful or meritorious purpose, affording no aid to the constitution in church or state; not attaching affection to either, they are efficient only for objects of disunion and disaffection; they separate the Protestant from the Catholic, and withdraw both from the public good; they irritate man against his fellow creature, alienate the subject from the state, and leave the Roman Catholic community but a precarious and imperfect protection, as the reward of fixed and unbroken allegiance; and that the Petitioners forbear to detail the numerous incapacities and inconveniences inflicted by those laws, directly or indirectly, upon the Roman Catholic community, or to dwell upon the humiliating and ignominious system of exclusion, reproach, and suspicion which they generate and keep alive; perhaps no other age or nation has ever witnessed severities more vexatious, or inflictions more taunting, than those which the Petitioners have long endured, and of which but too large a portion still remains; and that relief from these disabilities and penalties they have sought through every channel that has appeared to them to be legitimate and eligible; they have never consciously violated, or sought to violate, the known laws of the land, nor have they pursued their object in any other manner than such as has been usually adhered to, and apparently the best calculated to collect and communicate their united sentiments accurately, without tumult, and to obviate all pretext for asserting, that the Roman Catholic, community at large were indifferent to the pursuit of their freedom; and they can affirm, with perfect sincerity, that they have no latent views to realize, no secret or sinister objects to attain; any such imputation must be effectually repelled, as they humbly conceive, by the consideration of their numbers, their property, and their known principles and character; and that their object is avowed and direct, earnest yet natural; it extends to an equal participation of the civil rights of the constitution of their country equally with their fellow subjects of all other religious persuasions; it extends no further; and that they would cheerfully concede the enjoyment of civil and religious liberty to all mankind; they ask no more for themselves; they seek not the possession of offices, but mere eligibility to office, in common with their fellow citizens; not power or ascendancy over any class of people, but the bare permission to rise from their prostrate posture, and to stand erect in the empire; and that they have been taught that, according to the pure and practical principles of the British constitution, property is justly entitled to a proportionate share of power; and they humbly trust, that no reasonable apprehension can arise from that power which can only be obtained and exerciser through the constitution; and they are sensible, and they do not regret, that this equality of civil rights, which alone they humbly sue for, will leave a fair practical ascendancy wheresoever property shall predominate; but, whilst they acknowledge the wholesomeness of this great principle, they cannot admit the necessity of the unqualified disfranchisement of any part of the people in a constitution like that of these realms; and that they are gratified by the reflection that the attainment of this their constitutional object will prove as conducive to the welfare and security of this great empire, as to the complete relief of the Roman Catholic community; that it will secure the quiet and concord of their country, animate all classes of the people in the common defence, and form the most, stable protection against the dangers which heavily menace these islands; for the Petitioners most humbly presume to submit to the House, as their firm opinion, that an equal degree of enthusiasm cannot reasonably be expected from men, who feel themselves excluded from a fair participation of the blessings of a good constitution and government, as from those who fully partake of its advantages; that the enemies of this empire, who meditate its subjugation, found their best hope of success upon the effects of those penal laws, which, by depressing millions of the inhabitants of Ireland, may weaken their attachment to their country, and impair the means of its defence; and that the continued pressure of these laws in times of unexampled danger only spreads the general feeling of distrustful alarm, and augments the risks of common ruin; and that, to avert such evils, to preserve and promote the welfare and security of this empire, and to become thoroughly identified with their fellow subjects in interests and affection, are objects as precious in their eyes, upon every consideration of property, principle, and moral duty, as in those of any other description of the inhabitants of these realms; and that, if, in thus humbly submitting their depressed condition, and their earnest hopes, to the consideration of the House, they would dwell upon the great numbers, and the property of the Roman Catholics of Ireland, already so considerable and so rapidly encreasing, and to their consequent most important contributions to the exigencies of the state, they would do so not with a view of exciting unworthy motives for concession, but in the honest hope of suggesting legitimate and rational grounds of constitutional relief; and deeply indeed should they lament, if these very recommendations should serve only to hold them out as the objects of harsh suspicion at home, or of daring attempts upon their allegiance from abroad: may the Petitioners then, with hearts deeply interested in the fate of this their humble supplication, presume to appeal to the wisdom and benignity of the House on behalf of a very numerous, industrious, affectionate and faithful body of people, the Roman Catholics of Ireland, and to pray, that the House may be pleased to take into their favourable consideration the whole of their condition, their numbers, their services, their merits, and their sufferings; and that they may be restored to the rights and privileges of the constitution of their country, be freed from all penal and disabling laws in force against them, on account of their religious faith, and may thereby become more worthy, as well as more capable of promoting the service of the crown, and the substantial interests of this great empire."

Ordered to lie upon the table.