Commons Sitting of 16 February 1813

Preamble
Petitions respecting the renewal of the East India Company's Charter, were presented from the merchants, &c. of Bolton in the county of Lancaster; the provost, magistrates, and town council of the burgh of Burntisland; the provost, magistrates, town council, and deacons, of the royal burgh of Lanark; and the tillet manufacturers, and painters of London.—Ordered to lie upon the table.

PETITIONS AGAINST THE CLAIMS OF THE ROMAN CATHOLICS—FROM SEVERAL PARISHES IN THE CITY OF YORK—THE MAYOR &c. OF BERWICK UPON TWEED—THE MINISTERS, &c. OF MERSE AND TEVIOTDALE—THE MINISTER, &c. OF THE FRENCH PROTESTANT CHURCH—THE DEAN AND CHAPTER OF ELY—AND THE DEAN AND CHAPTER OF HEREFORD.
Eleven Petitions, of householders and inhabitants of several parishes in the city of York and the suburbs thereof, were presented; setting forth,
"That the petitioners are sincere friends of religious toleration, and rejoice that, in this happy country, all persons have perfect liberty to worship their Maker according to the dictates of their own consciences, but that they cannot contemplate without apprehensions truly painful, the psesent imperious claims of his Majesty's Roman Catholic subjects for access to political power; claims, which, if admitted, would, in the opinion of the petitioners, greatly endanger both our Protestant relilion and government, and tend also ultimately to the subversion of that very liberty of conscience which it is the avowed object of those claimants to secure; and praying, that the House will, in its wisdom, preserve unimpaired those bulwarks of our constitution of which we have so long happily found the advantage, and for the continuance of which the voice of our ancestors, the records of history, past experience, and present circumstances,
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strikingly concur in showing the necessity."
A Petition of the mayor, bailiffs, and burgesses of the borough of Berwick-upon-Tweed, in guild assembled; was also presented; setting forth,
"That the petitioners, in common with a large majority of the Protestant inhabitants of the United Kingdom, have to lament that the Roman Catholics of Ireland have determined, at this time, to bring forward their claims before both Houses of Parliament; and that the petitioners had hopes that gratitude for the numerous benefits which, during the mild and tolerant reign of his present Majesty, had been vouchsafed to the Roman Catholics, would not so soon have been superseded by any discontent, and that at the time when the nation is engaged in the present arduous conflict with its enemies, the attention of parliament and of the ministers of his royal highness the Prince Regent, would not have been distracted by a discussion that might better have been deferred to a season of general tranquillity; and that the petitioners are influenced by no illiberal or bigotted spirit of exclusion or oppression in opposing the Catholic Claims, but on the contrary, they have seen with pleasure that the legislature of the United Kingdom has recently, from motives of humanity, relaxed those restrictions which in former times, from dire necessity and for self-preservation, had been enacted to prevent and controul the operation of Romish principles and tenets, and thereby, in granting the full freedom of religious toleration and the right to the acquisition and enjoyment of property, hath secured to all who are of the communion of the Church of Rome, not only the free and uninterrupted exercise of their religion, but also their personal rights and civil privileges, and therefore the claims against which they now petition regard not religion, but the acquisition of temporal power and distinction, which acquisition few could avail themselves of in the communion of the Church of Rome, as few even in our own Communion, or in any nation whatever, can rise to power and distinction from the subordination necessary in all civil communities; and therefore, from motives by no means of hostile aversion, but of security and preservation to the great Protestant majority of these realms, the petitioners do earnestly implore the House to maintain inviolate such

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restrictions as the wisdom of parliament may deem proper, for the preservation of these realms from the influence of Popery and arbitrary power, so much dreaded and guarded against by the wisest of our ancestors, to guard these kingdoms from the domination of a foreign prelate now completely under the controul of our enemy, to preserve our established Church unpolluted by such influence as the noblest inheritance of our posterity, and under Divine Providence the great remaining bulwark of the Protestant faith; and praying, that the House will continue to afford their firm support to the wise cautions of that constitution under which the country has advanced in prosperity, and under which the people have preserved their freedom, and the Slate has maintained its independence."
A Petition of his Majesty's most loyal and dutiful subjects, the ministers and elders of the provincial synod of Merse and Teviotdale, convened at Kelso, was also presented and read; setting forth,
"That at different periods since the Reformation, and particularly about the time when, by the Act of Settlement, the succession to the crowns of Great Britain and Ireland, now happily united into one kingdom, devolved on the illustrious House of Hanover, it was found, by the wisdom of our ancestors, necessary for the protection of the Protestant religion, and for the safety and security of our laws and liberties, to impose certain pains and penalties on the persons who professed subjection to the Church of Rome; and that in the course of the present auspicious reign of our much respected and revered sovereign, whose severe indisposition the petitioners deeply deplore, and earnestly pray God speedily to recover, it has been deemed practicable and expedient to relieve the Catholics from all the before-mentioned pains and penalties, with the exception of their exclusion from particular offices in the law, in the army, &c.: in thus far relaxing the penal statutes against persons of the Catholic persuasion the petitioners apprehend that the government of this country, acting in conformity to the genuine spirit of our holy religion, and according to the liberal principles of the British constitution, have been amply justified by the happy change of circumstances that has taken place since the enactment of these statutes; but as the adherents of the Roman Catholic faith still
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avow their subjection to the authority of a chief or head, who is altogether independent of the British government, and whose person is at present in the possession and under the power of the enemies of our country; and as the influence of this, or any foreign authority, may be employed amongst the people, by whom it is acknowledged, to disturb the peace, and to weaken the security of this kingdom the petitioners are therefore humbly, but decidedly, of opinion, that this danger would be greatly increased were the Roman Catholics to be admitted to those offices of confidential trust and high responsibility from which they have hitherto been wisely excluded; and that these sentiments, on a subject so full of interest to all the faithful subjects of his Majesty, in justice to the petitioners, in justice to that part of the Protestant community under their charge, and from a sincere regard for the prosperity and perpetuity of our most excellent constitution in Church and State, they take the liberty, with the utmost respect, to express to the House, relying with confidence on the wisdom of parliament; and humbly praying, that no material change may be made in those fundamental laws, which have long been justly considered as the bulwark of our civil and religious liberties."
A Petition of the minister and elders of the episcopal French Protestant Church called Le Quarré, London, in vestry assembled, was also presented and read; setting forth,
"That at the same time the petitioners see, with heartfelt satisfaction, their fellow subjects and brethren in Christ of the Church of Rome enjoying, to the utmost extent, all the blessings of that religious toleration, of which the Divine Author of the Holy Gospel has given both the precept and the example; they see also, with an equal degree of alarm and anxiety, their unremitting endeavours to get possession of political power and legislative authority; that the petitioners, being descendants of those generous confessors of faith, who at the time of the revocation of the edict of Nantz, made the noblest sacrifices to their conscience, and fled from France to this country to avoid the persecution incensed by the Papists against the Protestants, and persuaded as they are, from constant experience and the principles of the Roman Catholic Religion, one of the tenets of which, established in the third

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and fourth councils of Lateran, enjoins its members "to persecute by sword, fire, and all means possible, the Protestants stiled Heretics, and to dethrone heretical sovereigns;" that if any power, military, civil, or legislative, were given them, they would and must use it to the extermination of Protestantism, and thereby of our glorious constitution as settled at the Revolution; and that the petitioners feel it their bounden duty as men, as Christians, and as subjects of these realms, most earnestly to implore the House stedfastly to reject all applications for the admission of the Roman Catholics to power or authority of any kind."
A Petition of the bishop, the dean and chapter, and clergy of the church and diocese of Ely, was also presented and read; setting forth,
"That the petitioners are informed that a Bill is intended shortly to be offered to the House for removing the restrictions which are by law imposed on those who profess the Roman Catholic religion in this kingdom; and that they are fully convinced that the controul of any foreign power implied in such a Bill, either in Church or State, over these realms, is not only contrary to our constitution as established at the Revolution, but also to the first principles of all civil government; and that the petitioners are the more seriously alarmed at the danger impending, by observing that the power of the Pope, however it appears of late years to have been diminished, is at this time become more dangerous than ever, by being itself brought under the controul of our most inveterate enemy; and that the concessions made by our legislature in favour of the Roman Catholics have not led to any relaxation in the principles or discipline of that Church, which remain as hostile as ever to the mild temper of Protestantism, particularly those tenets, the most obnoxious of all, which relate to the supremacy and independence of our own King; and that the petitioners are sincere well-wishers and advocates of toleration, as it becomes Protestants to be; but they cannot help distinguishing between the enjoyment of toleration and the claims which are now made to the acquisition of the most dangerous power; and praying the House to guard against any concessions which may thus endanger our security either in Church or State; and that no such Bill may pass into a law."
A Petition of the dean and chapter, and clergy, of the cathedral church and diocese of Hereford, was also presented and read; setting forth,
"That the petitioners notice, with serious attention, the claim preferred by our Christian brethren of the Roman Catholic communion to be admitted to the legislation and administration of the United Kingdom; and that they conceive that no subject of a sovereign independent state can equitably claim to be admitted to offices of authority therein, while he acknowledges a spiritual dependence on any foreign state or potentate, that such admission is contrary to the principles of national union and the policy of all nations, that it has generated disorder and calamity in this and other countries, and is carefully avoided as a dangerous solecism in the constitution of governments; and the petitioners think that other tenets of the Roman Catholic Church render the members there of unfit to be legislators and ministers under a king and over a nation professedly and legally Protestant, and engaged by constitutional stipulations and settled conviction so to continue; they are apprehensive that an admission to the counsels of the empire granted to the best of men, condemning as heretical and unsaving the established faith and worship of their country, hath a tendency to the insinuation of measures hostile to the ecclesiastical institutions of the United Kingdom, and to the civil polity with which they are inseparably interwoven, productive of disunion in the councils, and disorder in the state; and that our ancestors, at a distant period, felt the severe necessity of imposing on their Roman Catholic countrymen larger disabilities, which the petitioners rejoice to have seen removed by our fathers and contemporaries in later times, who by this their justice and liberal policy, have shown to the present age, and to posterity, that they viewed the restrictions which they permitted to remain as an essential safeguard to the Protestant religion throughout the empire, and to the constitution in Church and State; and that the petitioners do not perceive any alteration of circumstances which can affect the principle of their decision, and recommend a departure from their conduct; and praying, that the remaining restrictions may not be removed, relying on the wisdom of the House for the continuance of protection to the established faith and worship, and of

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toleration to all our fellow-subjects by whom they are not approved."
Ordered to lie upon the table.