§ Mr. J. Smithsaid, he held in his hand a petition, to which he must beg to call the attention of the House. It was from the Catholic body in Ireland, in favour of the claims of the Protestant Dissenters of England. He was authorized to assure the House, that the individuals who had signed this petition, being three thousand in number, comprised within themselves nearly all the wealth, character, and respectability of Ireland. He confessed that, though he was aware of the liberal spirit which pervaded the Catholics of Ireland, he could not help feeling a little surprised at the truly generous manner in which they expressed themselves in this petition. The hon. member, after reading several parts of the petition, insisted upon the right of every man to worship God in whatever way he pleased. That sentiment was well expressed in the petition; it had been gaining ground every day; he was glad of it, and he regretted that its progress had been so slow, for the denial of it had caused torrents of blood and tears to flow. He had had occasion to state in that House, on presenting a petition to the same effect as this, that the Dissenters petitioned for themselves; that they were totally independent of the Catholics. The Dissenters presented their own case, in their own name. The present petition, he was also bound to say, did not originate in any league between the Catholics and the Protestant Dissenters it proceeded from the Catholics alone. It was the spontaneous assistance of the Catholics to the cause of the Protestant Dissenters, in whose disabilities they sympathized.
§ Mr. A. Dawsonsaid, the petition plainly showed, that whatever prejudices the Catholic church might once have entertained, they were now very rapidly abating, or rather they were totally extinct. The petitioners said, they rejoiced that the Pro- 360 testant Dissenters in Ireland enjoyed that civil and religious liberty which was denied to them in England. The Puritans of Ireland had, at one time, regarded the Catholics with jealousy and distrust; but ever since they had received these privileges, from the wisdom of the Irish parliament, fifty years ago, all jealousy and distrust had been put an end to. He thought the petition ought to circulate throughout the land, that it might tend to liberalize the whole Christain community. This would be a happy country, if it were a more liberal one. To grant the claims of the Dissenters could not endanger the established church in England; since it had not done any injury to the established church in Ireland. If all these disabilities were removed, the government would be saved a vast deal of trouble. They occasioned schisms in families; and, not only in families, but in the government itself. They would not have to run about in search of a chancellor of the Exchequer; nor to seek for a first lord of the Treasury in the army, if these distinctions were done away with.
§ Ordered to lie on the table.