§ A Petition of the dean and canons of Windsor, was presented and read: setting forth,
§ "That the petitioners humbly beg leave to express their hope that they shall not be thought to merit the imputation of intolerance, if they pray the House not to grant the right of admission either to the highest offices of trust and power, or to the exercise of legislative functions, of late so importunately claimed by our fellow subjects the Roman Catholics of the United Kingdom; and that the petitioners presume to maintain, with confidence, that, in presenting this their humble Petition to the House, they prove themselves to be the friends and advocates of toleration in the only just and constitutional acceptation of the term, for they cannot forget that the bulwarks erected by our forefathers in defence of the Protestant faith, were designed as barriers against the ascendency of those whom experience had but too fatally shewn to be intolerant of any other religion than their own; and that these barriers and restrictions the petitioners humbly conceive to be essential to the integrity of the British constitution in Church and State, a constitution under which, ever since they were, imposed, a greater share of happiness has been enjoyed than ever fell to the lot of any other people, and which has consequently been the envy and admiration of the world; and that, to the possession of so great a blessing, as Englishmen, the pe- 351 titioners cannot wish to be thought insensible, but, as ministers of religion, they conceive that they should betray the trust committed to their charge, if they refrained from humbly imploring the House to frustrate all attempts to deprive them of the support and protection of those provisions and enactments to which, under God, they ascribe it, that the purity of the holy faith which they profess has been hitherto maintained."
§ A Petition of the archdeacons of Norwich and Norfolk, and of the clergy of the county of Norfolk, was also presented and read; setting forth,
§ "That the petitioners view, with increasing concern and alarm, the repeated and persevering efforts of the Roman Catholics of the United Kingdom to obtain from the legislature an elevation to a degree of political power, which, in the humble opinion of the petitioners, cannot be granted them without the most imminent danger to the constitution both in Church and State; and that the petitioners feel they should be guilty of a dereliction of duty were they longer to defer expressing, in the most unequivocal but respectful manner, not only that firm and zealous attachment to the Church of which they are ministers, springing from the belief that its doctrines are scriptural, and its ordinances apostolical, for which they claim credit from the House and their country, but also their full persuasion that, with the preservation of that Church, the best interests of true religion, as well as the stability of the monarchy, and consequent happiness and prosperity of the people, are most intimately, and indeed inseparably connected; but great as is their confidence in the purity of the Church as by law established, the petitioners contemplate, with unfeigned satisfaction, the complete and unrestrained exercise of their religion granted to all who separate from her communion; and they humbly conceive that Roman Catholics, in common with all Protestant dissenters, enjoy this toleration in the roost ample manner; and therefore the petitioners humbly and most earnestly implore the House not to relax those salutary regulations in the instance of persons professing the Roman Catholic religion, to which all Protestants are at this time compelled to submit, nor to remove those guards and fences which have been so wisely planted round the venerable fabric 352 of the United Church of England and Ireland, cemented in the blood of its martyrs, unless parliament shall in its wisdom provide other means of security, which the petitioners have never yet seen detailed, that may prove a support and defence equally permanent and solid."
§ A Petition of the mayor, aldermen, and burgesses of the town of Beverley, in the county of York, in common council assembled, was also presented and read; setting forth,
§ "That the petitioners have seen, with alarm and sorrow, the unceasing efforts of his Majesty's Roman Catholic subjects to be admitted into offices of the highest trust and power, and even to sit in the imperial parliament to legislate for a Protestant Church and State; and that the petitioners look, with satisfaction, at the degree of toleration which has been granted to his Majesty's Roman Catholic subjects, but at the same time they regard Protestant ascendency as essential to the safety and stability of the constitution, and dread any innovation which may endanger the civil and religious liberty which this kingdom has so long enjoyed, and which has raised it to its present state of pre-eminence among the nations of Europe; and praying, that the House will resist those claims of his Majesty's Roman Catholic subjects, and continue those safeguards by which our invaluable constitution in Church and State has hitherto been preserved."
§ Ordered to lie upon the table.