§ The Earl of Coventrypresented a Petition from the Noblemen, Gentry, Clergy, and Freeholders of the county of Worcester. The petition was signed by several noblemen, and by persons of the greatest wealth and respectability in the county. The petitioners, after expressing their approbation of their Lordships' conduct on a late occasion, prayed that House to pass no Reform Bill which had not for its object the preservation of the constitution in Church and State. The petition was not confined to the higher and aristocratical classes. It had been submitted for signature to the middle classes, and he was happy to say, that there was attached to it the names of many honest and industrious freeholders and tradesmen, who possessed property and wished to maintain it. These respectable persons fully concurred with those of higher rank, and were anxious to attach their names to a petition which called upon their Lordships for such a measure of conciliation as would promote the stability of the Constitution, and the safety and security of the country. He hoped their Lordships would follow this advice, and adopt a measure of conciliation, as due to themselves on both sides of the House, and such as would ensure the well-being of the whole community. He would remind them of the fable in Æsop, where, during the quarrel of two claimants to a property, the property itself was abstracted by a looker-on of the dispute; and he hoped, when the Reform Bill came before the House, it would be such as would admit of a general union of sentiments.
§ Petition laid on the Table.