Commons Sitting of 8 February 1827

CATHOLIC EMANCIPATION— GENERAL PETITION OF THE CATHOLICS OF IRELAND.
Sir F. Burdettthen rose to present the general petition of the Catholics of Ireland. This duty, he said, he was anxious to lose not a moment in performing, but he would not avail himself of that opportunity to make any preliminary remarks with reference- to the general question. He would content himself, therefore, with shortly expressing his regret at the absence of the right lion. Secretary for Foreign Affairs. Had that right hon. gentleman been present, he should have been happy to have consulted with him as to the future steps to be taken, in furtherance of the important measure prayed for by the petitioners. He was sorry, he repeated, for the right hon. gentleman's absence, both on account of its
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cause, and for his own sake, as he was desirous, for his guidance in this great question, to have had some communication with that right hon. gentleman. It had become a matter of such pressing necessity—of such hourly growing importance—that no consideration should induce him to delay bringing it before the House at the earliest period that public convenience would permit. In saying this, however, he felt that he could not then undertake to name any precise day; though he would state, that the impression on his mind, as well as on the minds of the petitioners was, that no further delay should take place than was absolutely necessary.
The Petition was then brought up and read; setting forth,
"That the following is the case of the Petitioners: they are deprived of all participation whatsoever in the framing or amending of the laws by which their properties are regulated, and on which the security of their lives and characters depend; they are deprived of almost all share in the administration of the laws by which their properties are regulated, and on which the security of their lives and characters depend: they are totally deprived of all participation in the highest and most important functions in the administration of those laws: they are excluded from the office of sheriff, an office the importance of which in rendering the administration of justice impartial or unjust, pure or corrupt, the cause of blessings or the source of misery, cannot be exaggerated, and can scarcely be adequately described; they are totally excluded from all municipal offices in all the corporate towns and cities in Ireland; they are stigmatized by being excluded from the councils of their sovereign; and they are degraded in their native land, not only by the practical exclusion from many, and in truth nearly all, other offices, but much more so by the haughty and insolent superiority which is naturally excited in the minds of the unjustly-favoured few over the equally unjustly-excluded many: that the alarm created in the minds of the self-interested portion of the ascendancy in that country, lest their unjust monopoly should be destroyed by the humanity and wisdom of the legislature, has a natural tendency to produce, and is daily producing, an envenomed spirit of hostility, towards the Petitioners, threatening them even from the lips of those who ought to preach charity and

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good-will amongst men, with the lawless plunder of the Petitioners' property, and the sanguinary destruction of their lives; such is the case of the Petitioners, and from the situation to which they are thus reduced, they appeal for relief to the wisdom and the justice of the House; this the afflicting state of the Petitioners is an unmixed evil to the British Empire; the individual advantages which a few of the Protestants derive from it are perfectly undeserving of regard, when contrasted with the dangers which must necessarily menace the lives and properties of every class of his majesty's subjects, from the results of the present system of injustice, and with the insecurity to the Throne, and the instability of the Constitution, created by the long-stored and just discontent of the Irish nation: for, may it please the House to understand, that the Petitioners are discontented, deeply, universally discontented at being excluded and degraded in their native land, without there being any just or natural cause whatsoever for such degradation or exclusion, and without there being a plausible pretext, however slight, for continuing the present system: the Petitioners respectfully submit that they would be undeserving the attention of the high-minded and the good, if they were capable of suffering injustice without feeling discontent and indignation; and the Petitioners respectfully beg leave to state, that they would endure with uncomplaining submission, the evils attendant on their degradation in their native land, if they had merited that degradation by any crime, or if it were palliated by any natural or moral inferiority on their part: but the fact is otherwise; no crime can be imputed to the Petitioners, save the conscientious adherence to the pure and holy faith of their ancestors, and of the ancestors of the House; that faith which confessedly was the religion of all England for more than eight hundred years; a religion introduced to our Saxon ancestors by a Catholic monk, whose name stands high in our Calendar, Saint Austin, a religion which was so introduced by the command and under the directions of a pope, a man whose name has won universal esteem from all English scholars and divines, Saint Gregory the Great; a religion which was firmly believed and faithfully practised by the patriots and statesmen, who founded and framed the British constitution; a religion which was believed
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and practised by the heroes who first spread the renown of English valour throughout the universe; a religion which the Petitioners firmly believe to have been instituted by the Divine Redeemer of all mankind, and transmitted in unbroken succession to the present day, forbidding vice, crime, and immorality of every description, teaching all social and moral duties, inculcating all practical virtues, and sanctioning and commanding all domestic and private charities; the Petitioners respectfully, and in the spirit of perfect charity, state their conscientious conviction that this the religion of the ancestors of the House, and of the Petitioners, is the best form of Christian faith; but the Petitioners do not rest any part whatsoever of their claim to relief on such, to them, undoubted superiority; the Petitioners claim for relief is founded solely and exclusively on the principle of freedom of conscience, not as applicable to their particular case or creed, but as belonging of right equally to every sect and persuasion of Christians: the Petitioners respectfully call on the House to recognize that sacred principle, to leave conscience free and unfettered, to allow to man the right of worshipping God as to him may seem best, and not to interfere between conscientious man and his Creator; the principle of such interference cannot be admitted by any human institution, tribunal, or legislature, without affording a justification of the horrors of every religious inquisition, and of all the cruelties of the Pagan emperors to the primitive Christians: the Petitioners, therefore, most respectfully and humbly implore the House to establish at length that sacred principle, to do to others what they would wish to be done to themselves, and to grant to the Catholics of Ireland the opportunity of adhering to the faith of their fathers without suffering in consequence thereof, any pains, penalties, exclusion, or deprivation, whatsoever: the Petitioners further respectively show that, by acceding to the prayer of this their humble Petition, and granting them what they ask, namely, an equalization of civil rights with their Protestant fellow-subjects, the House will make an holy alliance with the inhabitants of that fertile but hitherto wretched island; the House will combine all classes of his majesty's subjects in the indissoluble bonds of mutual affection and mutual interest; the House will increase the strength of the govern-

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ment, they will add to the security of the throne, and give permanent stability to the British constitution. May it, therefore, please the House, in its justice, wisdom, and generosity, to grant to the Petitioners the restoration of their long withheld rights, by giving them an equalization of civil rights with their Protestant fellow-subjects, unfettered by any conditions, qualifications, or restrictions, whatsoever."
Ordered to lie on the table and to be printed.