After numerous petitions had been presented to the House, both for and against the Concession to the Catholics,
Earl Grosvenorsaid, he would call their lordships' attention to the petition from Portland, which he had not an opportunity of doing sooner. That petition had been brought forward, as he was informed, by persons who had taken a great deal of trouble to procure petitions against the Catholics. It purported to speak the sentiments of the inhabitants of the island of Portland, but it did no such thing. The recorder of Weymouth, Mr. Bankes, had been exceedingly active in the business. The people were hastily summoned on a Saturday evening, and told that they must sign the petition immediately, in order that it might be forwarded. It was, however, signed but by a very small proportion of the inhabitants of the island; and some who had been frightened by the ghost of the bloody queen Mary to put their names to the petition, now very much regretted their weakness. Indeed, according to the information he had received, this petition might, with much more propriety, be regarded as the petition of the earl of Eldon and Mr. Bankes, than that of the inhabitants of Portland.
The Lord Chancellorsaid, that the course adopted with respect to the Catholic claims was not a little singular. Some time ago, because no petitions were presented, it was said that the people of this country took no interest in the question; but now, because not only the table was covered with petitions, but the repositories of the House filled with them, until it was almost impossible to tell how to dispose of them, it was asserted that they did not express the opinion of the public. Some noble lord every night repeated an account he had received of the manner in which some petition had been got up; but it generally proved, as he believed was the case in the present instance, that the information was incorrect. He had on a 374 former occasion stated, that he had been quite passive with regard to the present measure, and had in no way promoted petitions. This, he repeated, had been his conduct; and he could safely say that the petition from Portland might with just as much truth be called earl Grosvenor's as the earl of Eldon's. The account of the signing of the petition which he had received was, however, very different from that furnished to the noble lord. Mr. Bankes had informed him, that there was very little difference of opinion in the island as to the question. The petition, instead of being signed only by a few, had 400 names attached to it; which, he was informed, constituted nearly the whole number of the inhabitants. And here he must observe, with respect to this question, that, from first to last, he had always had the fullest conviction, that the sense of the people of this country was against the Catholic claims. In the course of the discussions which had taken place, he had heard nothing to induce him to alter his opinion, except the very strange reasoning, that, the greater the number of petitions against the Catholic claims, the less was the evidence of disapprobation. He had now stated his opinion with regard to the public feeling on this question; but he had not, whether he was right or wrong in doing so, stirred at all in procuring petitions.