Mr. Sheilpresented a Petition from Preston, signed by 4,913 of the inhabitants. He said that the petition slated "that the petitioners saw with deep sorrow and apprehension that his Majesty's Ministers had 1087 commenced a desolating war upon their brethren in Ireland, in order to compel them to submit to that iniquitous and intolerable tithe system, under which petitioners themselves groaned, and without being delivered from which by a Reformed Parliament, the petitioners should deem the Reform Act of comparatively small value. The petitioners daily read of the sending of troops after troops to Ireland to carry on the above-mentioned unjust and unnatural war: that while his Majesty assures us of the prospect of lasting peace with foreign nations, petitioners saw the King's Ministers augmenting the standing army, as if engaged in most extended hostilities. This enormous expense is incurred, and petitioners are thereby heavily burthened, for the sole purpose of making a war of extermination upon their Irish fellow-subjects, in order to compel them to maintain a hierarchy, which has for ages been a curse of their country, and which they naturally and most justly abhor. The petitioners prayed that an end might at once be put to a scene so disgraceful, as that of Christian ministers maintained by collections made at the point of the bayonet; the petitioners deeming it the last degree of oppression and degradation, that they should be taxed, in order to afford the means of making a cruel and savage civil war upon their own fellow-subjects, who are only resisting the oppression of which they themselves so loudly and so justly complain. The petitioners further prayed the House to address his Majesty to remove from his councils that Member of the Cabinet under whose immediate control the desolating: measures above alluded to have been adopted—namely, the Hon. Edward G. Stanley, the petitioners being fully convinced that the spirit which dictated these measures, and the attempt to carry measures for the enforcing of the payment of tithes, for the registration of arms, and for giving a Reform Bill to Ireland much more restricted and inequitable than that for England, will, if not soon repressed, compel Ireland to resort to force to procure redress from its many oppressions." Such were the contents of the petition, and in presenting it to the House, he must say that he wished it had been couched in more moderate language.
§ Mr. Shawwould not object to the petition being laid on the Table, but would certainly oppose its being printed. Stat- 1088 ing that the hierarchy had been a curse to the country, was language that ought not to be countenanced.
Mr. Stanleysaid, that the language was no doubt very strong, but not so strong as to warrant the rejection of the petition.
§ The Petition was read and laid upon the Table.
§ Upon the Motion, that it be printed, the House divided—Ayes 30; Noes 21: Majority 9.
§ Petition to be printed.