Lord Dudley and Wardpresented a petition from the Roman Catholic inhabitants of Roscommon, praying to be relieved from those disqualifications under which they laboured. The petition, he observed, was signed by several thousands, and this circumstance might readily be credited, when it was considered, that the Roman Catholic religion was the religion of the great majority of the country, of which Roscommon formed a part, and which, until three hundred years ago, had been the religion of the whole of Europe. However erroneous that faith might be, the Roman Catholics had an excuse for not abandoning it; for too few steps had been taken to convince them of their error, either by the government or by the clergy. They had been told that their religion was one of superstition and idolatry; but not much, as far as he had yet heard, had been offered to them in the way of argument, to convince them of the justice of this reproach. They had formerly laboured under heavy pains and disqualifications. They had been released by the bounty and wisdom of parliament from all those penalties, and the greater part of those disqualifications, and they prayed to be exempt from the remainder. He was not disposed to violate that sort of tacit convention, by which it was understood this subject was to be allowed to rest undisturbed during the present session of parliament; and, if he had any influence with the Roman Catholics, he would advise them to refer their case to those persons who had so ably advanced their cause. The Roman Catholics, as far as parliament was concerned, were in 959 very good hands. They would do well to recollect the difficulties they had to encounter from the opinion—and he believed it to be a sincere opinion—which prevailed of the great danger that would attend the granting of their claims, both to the constitution and the state; and also to consider, that their best method of obtaining their object was, to remain tranquil under the trying, and he might say, provoked, state in which they were placed. With respect to the question itself, he adhered to the opinion he had before expressed in that House, and which had been supported by his vote in parliament on every occasion on which the question had been brought forward since he had a seat in the other House. That opinion had been confirmed by reflection and by the course of time; for this question was not a stationary one, it gained ground every year. It was impossible, however, to disguise the fact, that the state in which Ireland was placed by this question, constituted the weak side of this great, victorious, and he might otherwise call it almost invincible, nation; and, if a war were to break out, every person must look with anxiety towards that country where the people laboured under such unjust disqualifications.
§ Ordered to lie on the table.