§ A Petition of the mayor, burgesses, and commonalty of the borough of Ripon, in the county of York, in common council assembled, was presented and read; setting forth,
§ "That the petitioners, being fully sensible of the many blessings and advantages which all ranks and degrees of his Majesty's subjects enjoy under the present wise and happy constitution of these kingdoms, as by law established, which allows to all sects and persuasions of men full and free toleration in the exercise of their religious duties; and that the petitioners cannot, without a considerable degree of regret and alarm, behold the attempts which are now making with so much intemperate zeal in a sister kingdom by some of his Majesty's Roman Catholic subjects to pull down those ancient barriers of our constitution, the Test Acts, which upwards of 120 years experience have proved and fully convinced the petitioners are the best and surest guards and security of both civil and religious liberty, and from which epoch they may, with great propriety, date our national freedom, prosperity, and happiness; and the petitioners, therefore, humbly hope and rely on the wisdom of parliament that those great pillars of our constitution will be permitted to stand firm and remain fixed on their present basis, without alteration, to latest posterity, and that the present claims of the Roman Catholics may not be granted."
§ Ordered to lie upon the table.