HC Deb 17 July 1820 vol 2 cc496-7
Mr. Plunkett

said, he held two petitions in his hand, relative to the claims of his Roman Catholic fellow subjects, which he did not mean at present to lay before the House. He would not expatiate on the subject to which those petitions related, but would rather apply himself to explain why he did not now intend to bring them forward. One of those petitions was from the Ro- man Catholic inhabitants of certain parishes in Dublin. It was numerously and most respectably signed, and complained of the civil disabilities by which the Roman Catholics were affected. The other petition was generally signed on behalf of the whole Roman catholic population of Ireland. The signatures to it were extremely numerous; and he thought he did not state too much when he said that it spoke the general sentiments of the Roman Catholics of the sister country. He did not mean to make any motion on this subject in the present session. He had come to this determination, after giving the matter the best consideration in his power. He felt that, while the momentous question which was now before parliament and the public remained undisposed of, he should be wanting in the respect that was due to the throne, to the parliament, and to the country, if he were to distract their attention by introducing so important a question as the rights of the Roman Catholics of Ireland. The present crisis of the country was one, he conceived, of extreme embarrassment, big with great public calamity, and therefore requiring the undivided attention of every honest and conscientious man. Under such circumstances, he should ill discharge his duty, if he introduced any measure that could distract the attention of parliament from the great question to which he had alluded, or which could tend in any degree to disturb or agitate the public mind. He would not, therefore, bring forward, at present, the claims of the Roman Catholics. At the same time he must say, that the question connected with those petitions was one not only of such deep interest to the county, but of such pressing urgency, that it would not be proper to keep it back for any protracted period.