§ A Petition of the clergy of the diocese of Gloucester, was presented; setting forth,
§ "That the petitioners, ministers of the established Church of England and Ireland united, whose principles have been ever favourable to the toleration of all persons who conscientiously dissent from them, can no longer with-hold from the House their expression of concern, that claims should have been repeatedly made on the liberality of parliament for an unqualified repeal of statutes, which prevent the admission of Roman Catholics to an equal, but, in the humble apprehension of the petitioners, a dangerous participation with their Protestant fellow-subjects in situations of legislative power and offices of high constitutional trust; and that the petitioners most respectfully suggest to the consideration of the House, that the antient and regular practice of all states has been, to entrust the important offices of government to those only who are sincerely attached to its fundamental laws, in full persuasion, no doubt, that those subjects who, from a conscientious principle, decline to unite in communion with the members of the established religion, will act inconsistently with that principle if they do not, when invested with power, attempt to substitute in its stead what appears to them to be the true religion, and the most acceptable mode of worship; and that the exclusive religious principle of those who profess the faith of the Church of Rome, together with that unchanged controul which a foreign power is known to maintain over their consciences, are so much at variance with the true principles of our established government, as to render Roman Catholics unfit to be entrusted with the administration of power, either legislative or executive; and that, impressed with a high veneration for those tried and approved securities of the religious and political interests of our country, the Rill of Rights and the Act of Settlement, the petitioners place the firmest reliance on the wisdom of parliament, that in its solemn deliberations on the very important question of Catholic Claims, it will not separate those interests from each other, or finally resolve to repeal those statutes which our ancestors, after a long and arduous struggle with the dangers of Popery, thought fit to enact, which have been repeatedly sanctioned by the highest authority in these 514 kingdoms, and which, by confining the crown itself to the communion of the Church of England, hath for more than a century, under the favour of Divine Providence, secured to every Briton the peace able enjoyment of his civil and religious' privileges; but should the legislature, urged by considerations which are not obvious to the petitioners, think it expedient to make any alteration in those statutes, which have been most justly stilled the great barriers of our constitution in Church arid State, the petitioners then humbly but earnestly entreat, that such alterations may most sacredly be guarded by every provision which to the united wisdom of parliament may appear to be best adapted for securing to us, and to our latest posterity, the blessings of a Protestant establishment, and of a Protestant succession to the crown of these kingdoms."
§ A Petition of the Protestant inhabitants of the city of Bristol, whose names are thereunto subscribed, was also presented; setting forth,
§ "That the petitioners are firm friends to religious toleration, being fully persuaded that no power on earth has any right to interfere with the dictates of conscience with respect either to doctrine or worship, except only in cases which affect the plain obligations of morality, or the peace and safety of society; and that the petitioners however cannot but consider the concessions already made to the Roman Catholics as entirely exempting them from all restriction whatever in the profession of their religious tenets, and the performance of their religious rites; that they already enjoy therefore the most perfect toleration, and that what they demand further is access to higher degrees of civil power and authority, their possession of which could scarcely fail to endanger the civil and religions rights of their fellow-subjects in this Protestant realm; and that the petitioners, with humble deference to the wisdom of parliament, consider the high privileges of the British constitution as held conditionally by those who enjoy them (the right of their enjoyment depending on conditions to be by them performed); and that, as their Roman Catholic fellow-subjects refuse, from religious scruples, to comply with those conditions, their claim to be admitted to offices of trust and influence is on the basis of equity inadmissible; and that the petitioners likewise recollect that a large 515 majority of their own number have lately taken, previously to the exercise of their elective franchise, the Oath of Supremacy, by which they solemnly declared, in the presence of the Almighty, "that no foreign prince, person, prelate, state, or potentate, hath or ought to have any power, jurisdiction, superiority, preeminence, or authority, ecclesiastical or spiritual, within this realm;" and that this oath was introduced after the Reformation with a special reference to the Papal authority; and the petitioners therefore feel it to be their duty to advert to so solemn a declaration thus recently made on a subject most intimately connected with the Roman Catholic Claims, not by themselves only, but by a very large portion of the population of the country; and that they cannot on the present occasion avoid looking back with horror to the effects which the intolerant spirit of the Roman Catholic religion produced in their native land during the æra of its dominancy therein; and, though the petitioners are fully aware of an assertion which has often been hazarded, that this religion has now totally changed its nature, yet they have not seen any solid and satisfactory ground for such an assertion, but, on the contrary, they fear its intolerant and persecuting character to be still unchanged, and in this they are confirmed by repeated declarations of the highest Roman Catholic authority in England, and that on these grounds, with which it would be tedious and unbecoming to trouble the House, the petitioners humbly pray, that the bulwarks of our Protestant constitution may still be preserved inviolate, and that, firmly adhering to those securities which our Protestant forefathers deemed necessary (in lieu of which no other adequate securities have yet been proposed, nor, as the petitioners do verily believe, can be proposed), the House will effectually guard against even a remote danger of infringement on our civil and religious liberties."
§ A Petition of the mayor, aldermen, and other inhabitants, of the borough of Penryn, in the county of Cornwall, was also presented and read; setting forth,
§ "That the petitioners, impressed with a deep sense of the blessings they have so long experienced under a Protestant establishment, and firmly believing such to be necessary to the enjoyment of their civil and religious liberties, earnestly hope, that the parliament of the United Kingdom 516 will not consent to an unconditional repeal of those statutes, which at present tend only to limit, the political power of their Roman Catholic fellow subjects; and that the petitioners, with a wish to see Christians of every denomination enjoy the free and unlimited exercise of their peculiar modes of worship, cannot but perceive, in the admission of Papists to the highest offices of the Slate, an abrogation of the fundamental laws of the empire and the destruction of the British constitution."
§ A Petition of the noblemen, and the humble Petition of the gentlemen freeholders and Protestant inhabitants of the county of Antrim, was also read; setting forth,
§ "That the petitioners have learned that numerous Petitions have been presented to the legislature from the Roman Catholics of Ireland, praying, as a matter of right, for an unconditional repeal of all those statutes which impose on them disabilities of any kind; and they have also learned that similar Petitions have been presented by certain Protestants of Ireland, and it has even been alleged that such is the universal sentiment of the Protestant body; and that the petitioners therefore feel it their duty to come forward lest their silence should be misconstrued, and to state respectfully to the House their deliberate opinion on this important subject, and to deny that any classes of his Majesty's subjects are entitled to demand, as a matter of right, an alteration in this vital part of the constitution; and that they entertain the strongest sentiments of personal kindness and regard for their Roman Catholic brethren, as subjects of the same government, as inhabitants of the same country, and as connected with many of them by the intimate ties of friendship and blood; but they can never lose sight of those higher considerations by which they are bound, as the Protestant subjects of a Protestant state, to preserve, unimpaired, their civil and religious institutions, and they regard with equal reverence and approbation, that caution with which the wisdom of their ancestors thought it necessary to guard the government and constitution against any foreign interference or influence whatsoever; and that the petitioners do not presume to point out the modes by which, at the present day, under new circumstances, an adequate security 517 against the occurrence of such danger may be obtained; but they beg leave humbly to express their hope that should any concessions be thought expedient for the relief and conciliation of the Roman Catholics of Ireland, they should be solemnly declared to be final and conclusive, and should not only be accompanied with such measures of salutary caution as should allay the apprehensions of the Protestant mind, but should also, by being made a fundamental law of the empire, adequately and permanently secure from all future encroachment the rights and privileges of Protestants, and all those existing establishments under which this empire has so long prospered, and its inhabitants of all classes have so long enjoyed a degree of civil and religious liberty unknown to any other nation."
§ A Petition of the mayor recorder aldermen and citizens of his Majesty's ancient city of Chichester, was also presented and read; setting forth,
§ "That the petitioners, impelled by a due sense of the sacred obligations they owe to their country, beg leave, with the utmost deference, to make a public declaration of their sentiments on a truly important subject, which will probably come under the discussion of parliament, namely, the expediency of adopting the Catholic Claims; and that incapable as the petitioners are of rancorous bigotry, and disdaining to be influenced by a narrow spirit of unjust exclusion, they nevertheless submit to the judgment of the House, that laws, which were enacted for the national peace and security, and interwoven as it were with the welfare of a Protestant state, ought to remain undisturbed, or at least to be touched with a gentle hand, and so as to offer no injurious encroachment on that venerable monument of British wisdom and patriotism, our unrivalled constitution; but after all, so wide is the difference between religious and civil privileges that the petitioners cannot help expressing their concern that their fellow subjects should complain of restrictions in the latter, while they enjoy all the benefits of toleration in the former; this it is apprehended is to urge that they are hardly treated, in being denied a transient good, while they possess, under legal sanctions, the supreme blessing of man; and that these few observations the petitioners entreat the liberty of suggesting, but with perfect liberality towards their 518 Christian brethren, and a firm reliance on that wisdom and impartiality which they doubt not will mark the progress of the deliberations of the House."
§ And the said Petitions were ordered to lie upon the table.