The Earl of Mountcashelpresented a petition from a barony in Tipperary, signed by thirteen magistrates, and most of the respectable inhabitants, against granting any further concessions to the Catholics. The noble earl, in presenting the petition, complained of the influence exerted by the Catholic priests over their flocks. The people, he said, were indifferent to the subject of Catholic emancipation. There would be many more petitions, such as that which he now presented, if the people did not live under apprehension for their safety. He had known instances where individuals were prevented from speaking out by their fears.
§ Viscount Clifdenwished to say a word about the Catholic priests. He had heard from an assistant barrister, who was in the county of Waterford at the time of the election, that there was no ground of complaint against the Catholic priests. They had exerted their interest in favour of their own party. And why not? Did not the Protestant clergy interfere at Reading and in Surrey; and was it to be tolerated in them, and treated as a crime in the Catholics? As to the Protestants being ready to petition against the catholics if they dared, it was his firm conviction, that the vast majority of the Protestant landed proprietors of Ireland were in favour of Catholic emancipation, from a conviction that their security depended on its being carried. The Catholics had suffered from many abuses; and it was not surprising that they should be exasperated. He begged their lordships to reflect seriously on the state of Ireland, and ask themselves how all these things could end? For himself, he would express his conviction, that until the question was settled in favour of the Catholics, there would be neither peace nor tranquillity in that country.
§ Ordered to lie on the table.