§ The Marquess of Breadalbane, in presenting several petitions in favour of non-intrusion, said, that the number of signatures attached to petitions in favour of non-intrusion amounted to 166,734, while those to petitions in favour of intrusion amounted only to 4,161: from this their Lordships might gather what was the general feeling in Scotland on the subject.
§ The Earl of Aberdeensaid, that on this, as well as on several previous occasions, the noble Marquess had referred to the number of petitions and to the signatures which were affixed to them that had been presented in favour of what was called the principle of non-intrusion, and the noble Marquess had pointed to these petitions as a proof that the principle was universally adopted in Scotland. Now, he would endeavour to show the very fallacious testimony on which the noble Marquess 160 founded his opinion. It appeared to him that amongst the great improvements in manufactures by which late years was distinguished, no manufacture was more improved than the manufacture of petitions. And a most signal example of the perfection to which that manufacture was carried was to be found in one of the petitions to which the noble Marquess had referred. That petition, which was from Edinburgh, and of which he had heard some account, was described as being most numerously and respectably signed. On this matter, one or two gentlemen had written to him, but he would not trouble their Lordships with much that they said. It would appear, that in consequence of the improvement of the times, petitions were now carried about by the ladies—the younger and handsomer, he supposed, the better. The writer of the letter to which he alluded stated, "that the petition was brought to his house by two ladies. The parties inquired, was his wife at home? They were told that she was not. They then sent the petition up to the nursery, accompanied with a message that all in the house belonging to the Established Church were to sign it. It was accordingly signed by one servant and two children, without their knowing more about what they signed than what they had learned from the message of the ladies. The elder of the children was twelve years of age, the other ten." He had received other letters of a similar character. He did not object to the petitions of the people being fairly and fully laid before their Lordships; but he confessed, that he thought the unsophisticated article was rather better than the manufactured article which he had described. As to the assumption, that all those who petitioned in favour of non-intrusion were, therefore, to be set down as favourable to the monstrous pretensions set up by the Assembly, it was no such thing. There were various shades of difference amongst the non-intrusionists.
§ The Marquess of Breadalbanesaid, that notwithstanding the statement of the noble Earl as to the manufacture of petitions, he could assure their Lordships there was one general feeling throughout Scotland in favour of non-intrusion; and the very announcement of the noble Earl that these petitions were to be found in nurseries, and that ladies were engaged in procuring signatures, showed that that feeling existed in the inmost recesses of every domestic 161 establishment. In almost all petitions some legal remedy had been asked for, and yet the noble Earl took credit to himself that his bill made no alteration in the existing law.