The Earl of Donoughmoresaid, that the Petition of his Catholic countrymen, which had been again confided to him, he should then solicit their lordships permission to lay upon the table of that House. Upon its subject matter, which had already, and so often, engaged the attention of Parliament, it was equally unnecessary, and inconsistent with the present stage of the proceeding, that he should offer any observation. He thought it, however, not unfitting that he should apprize their lordships, that the signatures to that Petition were numerous and respectable; not that he should wish to attribute to that consideration any very particular degree of weight. It was not to the rank or number of the petitioners, but the grievances of which they complained, that their lordships attention would necessarily be directed. And where the disfranchisement of a large class of the community without any imputed civil offence, constituted the weighty ground of these renewed complaints, their lordships would not surely pause to count the number of those who might have thought it expedient to raise their voices up, at this particular crisis, against the general grievance. The sense of common exclusion must be considered to unite in pursuit of the same redress, naturally, and as a mat- 274 ter of course and of necessity, every member of the proscribed cast, of whatever description or degree, and how far soever those amongst them, the most distinguished for rank and property, for talent and discretion, had agreed in sentiment with each other, or may perhaps have differed in opinion, respecting the manner in which these appeals to Parliament had, or ought to have been, framed and conducted.
§ The Petition having been received and read, the noble lord appointed Thursday se'nnight, the 1st of June, for its consideration; and for which day the House was ordered to be summoned.