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Petitions against the Claims of the Catholics. [352 titioners cannot wish to be thought insen- of the United Church of England and sible, but, as ministers of religion, they Ireland, cemented in the blood of its marconceive that they should betray the tyrs, unless parliament shall in its wisdom trust committed to their charge, if they provide other means of security, which refrained from humbly imploring the the petitioners have never yet seen deHouse to frustrate all attempts to deprive tailed, that may prove a support and dethem of the support and protection of fence equally permanent and solid." those provisions and enactments to which, under God, they ascribe it, that the purity of the holy faith which they profess has been hitherto maintained."

A Petition of the archdeacons of Nor wich and Norfolk, and of the clergy of the county of Norfolk, was also presented and read; setting forth,

"That the petitioners view, with increasing concern and alarm, the repeated and persevering efforts of the Roman Catholics of the United Kingdom to obtain from the legislature an elevation to a degree of political power, which, in the humble opinion of the petitioners, cannot be granted them without the most imminent danger to the constitution both in Church and State; and that the petitioners feel they should be guilty of a dereliction of duty were they longer to defer expressing, in the most unequivocal but respectful manner, not only that firm and zealous attachment to the Church of which they are ministers, springing from the belief that its doctrines are scriptural, and its ordinances apostolical, for which they claim credit from the House and their country, but also their full persuasion that, with the preservation of that Church, the best interests of true religion, as well as the stability of the monarchy, and consequent happiness and prosperity of the people, are most intimately, and indeed inseparably connected; but great as is their confidence in the purity of the Church as by law established, the petitioners contemplate, with unfeigned satisfaction, the complete and unrestrained exercise of their religion granted to all who separate from her communion; and they humbly conceive that Roman Catholics, in common with all Protestant dissenters, enjoy this toleration in the most ample manner; and therefore the petitioners humbly and most earnestly implore the House not to relax those salutary regulations in the instance of persons professing the Roman Catholic religion, to which all Protestants are at this time compelled to submit, nor to remove those guards and fences which have been so wisely planted round the venerable fabric

A Petition of the mayor, aldermen, and burgesses of the town of Beverley, in the county of York, in common council assembled, was also presented and read; setting forth,

"That the petitioners have seen, with alarm and sorrow, the unceasing efforts of his Majesty's Roman Catholic subjects to be admitted into offices of the highest trust and power, and even to sit in the imperial, parliament to legislate for a Protestant Church and State; and that the petitioners look, with satisfaction, at the degree of toleration which has been granted to his Majesty's Roman Catholic subjects, but at the same time they regard Protestant ascendency as essential to the safety and stability of the constitution, and dread any innovation which may endanger the civil and religious liberty which this kingdom has so long enjoyed, and which has raised it to its present state of pre-eminence among the nations of Europe; and praying, that the House will resist those claims of his Majesty's Roman Catholic subjects, and continue those safeguards by which our invaluable constitution in Church and State has hitherto been preserved."

Ordered to lie upon the table.

HOUSE OF LORDS.

Wednesday, February 3.

PETITIONS AGAINST THE CLAIMS OF THE ROMAN CATHOLICS.] The Bishop of Chichester presented a Petition from the archdeacon, clergy, and others, of Chichester, against the Catholic Claims.-He also presented a Petition from the bishop, dean, and chapter of Ely, against the Catholic Claims.-Earl Nelson presented a Petition from the archdeacons of Norwich and Norfolk, against the Catholic Claims.

The Bishop of Norwich observed, that the Petition was contrary to his sentiments, and he could not but give his public testimony against the propriety of the clergy interfering in this question-a question which nearly concerned the welfare of several thousands of his Majesty's loyal and faithful subjects, and which

devised, and by the most solemn appeal to God, denied that they entertained any such tenets.

ought to be left to the unbiassed decision of the legislature. He could not but lament that any part of the clergy should lead the way in contributing to raise the detestable cry of No Popery, which on a former occasion had produced so much mischief, and he deeply regretted that those illiberal and uncharitable sentiments which petitions of this nature upheld, and which had been banished from the rest of the world, should leave their last footsteps in the sanctuaries of our religion and our temples of literature.

The Petition having been read,

The Duke of Norfolk observed, that one expression in it, that the Catholics enjoyed the same privileges as the Protestant Dissenters, was not founded in fact, Protestant Dissenters being allowed to sit in parliament, whilst a part of the oaths tendered was levelled expressly at Catholics to prevent their sitting there.

The Bishop of Salisbury presented a Petition from the dean and chapter of Salisbury against the Catholic Claims.He also presented a Petition to the same effect from the archdeacon and clergy of Berks, and the dean, archdeacon, and clergy of Salisbury, and two other jurisdictions within the diocese of Salisbury. On one of these Petitions,

The Bishop of Salisbury also presented a Petition from the dean and chapter, the archdeacon and clergy of Exeter, against the Catholic Claims.-Viscount Sidmouth presented a Petition to the same effect from the mayor, aldermen and assistants of the borough of Leeds.-Ordered to lie upon the table.

EAST INDIA COMPANY'S CHARTER.] Viscount Melville presented Petitions from the chamber of commerce of Edinburgh, the convention of the royal burghs in Scotland, and the corporation of Stirling, assembled in guild, against the continuance of the monopoly of the East India Company.

HOUSE OF COMMONS.

Wednesday, February 3.

PETITIONS RESPECTING THE EAST INDIA COMPANY'S CHARTER FROM THE MERCHANTS, &c. of MANCHESTER-AND THE MAGISTRATES, &c. OF GLASGOW AND THE MERCHANTS OF BRISTOL.] A Petition of the merchants, and manufacturers of Manchester and Salford, was presented and read; setting forth,

"That many of the petitioners have been long and extensively engaged in commercial transactions, embracing chiefly the sale and exportation of the cotton manufactures of this kingdom, on which the numerous population of the town and neighbourhood of Manchester mainly depend for their support; and that the petitioners have entered fully into the various considerations which arise from the efforts of the East India Company to obtain a renewal of their expiring charter, and it appears to the petitioners capable of the most satisfactory proof, that the exclusive privileges hitherto en

The Duke of Norfolk observed, that it stated that the Catholics still believed in the infallibility of the Pope; and on another, that it charged the Catholics with still holding the tenet, that sovereigns might be excommunicated by the Pope. On the language of Petitions which were now lying for signature in every alehouse in Westminster, it would not be worth while to remark; but when a Petition came from a learned body, it was natural to expect that it would be correctly expressed. It was, therefore, with surprise, he found the Catholics still charged, in Petitions from learned persons, with holding the tenets of the infallibility of the Pope, and the excommunication of sove-joyed by the company, under the authoreigns; although, by the strongest oaths that could be put to man, they had absolutely denied that they entertained any such tenets. These Petitions, therefore, asserted that which was not the fact, and it was of importance that the misrepresentation should be contradicted.

Lord Holland thought the noble duke entitled to thanks for thus vindicating the Catholics from misrepresentation, it being notorious that all the Catholics of Ireland had, by the strongest oaths that could be ( VÕL. XXIV.)

rity in question, have been found highly
injurious to the general interests of the
country; and that, after the very ample
discussions the subject has received, and
the detrimental consequences which have
resulted from the system of monopoly so
universally complained of, the petitioners
here abstain from troubling the House
with the detailed grounds they are pre-
pared to prove, and on which they urge
the national injustice of prolonging these
evils; and that the serious pressure occa
(2A)

sioned by the unexampled measures of the enemy to effect the destruction of British commerce, and the natural results of the wars in which the nation is now unavoidably engaged, are circumstances which call loudly for every attention to new and legitimate sources of a more extended and permanent trade; and that, to establish an open commercial intercourse generally with the countries from which the existing charter excludes the British merchants, would not only afford the most effectual relief in the present situation of public affairs, but would, as the petitioners confidently submit, most essentially contribute to the lasting benefit and prosperity of the kingdom at large, for it cannot be doubted that the daily improvement and marked superiority of our machinery, the unrivalled skill and ingenuity of our artificers, and the great variety and perfection of our manufactures, would constantly ensure them the advantage of the markets alluded to; and that the petitioners therefore earnestly trust that the House will be pleased to adopt such measures as may, after the termination of the present charter, fully secure to all his Majesty's subjects the right of a free and unlimited trade with those countries beyond the Cape of Good Hope from whence they are now prohibited; and that with this view the petitioners humbly crave leave to be heard, by their counsel, against the expediency of renewing the Company's exclusive powers, and that, if necessary, they may be also allowed to give evidence on the subject at the bar of the House."

A Petition of the magistrates and common council of Glasgow, in council assembled, was also presented and read; setting forth,

"That, observing, from its recent resoJutions, that the House is to take into its early consideration what arrangement ought in future to be adopted for the regulation of the commerce of these kingdoms with the countries situated to the east of the Cape of Good Hope, and to the west of Cape Horn, the petitioners deem it their duty again to appeal on this most important subject to the justice, the wisdom, and the liberality of parliament; and that the petitioners have learned, with surprise, that it has been maintained the House is precluded, by the vested rights and privileges of the East India Company, from adopting such an arrange

ment as may be ascertained to be, upon the whole, the most just and expedient; and that the petitioners humbly conceive that, in point of justice, all his Majesty's subjects are equally entitled, as the united company of merchants trading to the East Indies, to hold commercial intercourse with all the quarters of the habi table globe: they apprehend that freedom of commerce is one of the birthrights of Britons, which nothing but state necessity, or strong and obvious national expediency, ought ever to induce the legislature to abridge or controul; and they submit that the present question is in reality not whether parliament ought to take from a trading corporation its vested rights and privileges, for these, being of an artificial and temporary nature, necessarily cease with the charter to which they owed their origin, but whether parliament can, in the discharge of its great and paramount duty, longer lend its sanction to an exclusive grant, which experience has proved to be highly inexpedient in general, and not even advantageous to the possessors, and by which the interests of the whole are obviously sacrificed to those of a part of the nation; and the petitioners cannot entertain a doubt that, by laying open to the capital, the skill, and the enterprize of British merchants, those vast regions from which they have been so long excluded, the manufactures of this country will be promoted, its commerce and navigation extended, and the financial and naval resources of the government thereby aug mented; and the opening of such a field is certainly at the present conjuncture peculiarly necessary, when the overgrown power of the tyrannical ruler of France excludes this nation from so large a portion of the European continent, and when the natural intercourse with the North American States is for a time interrupted; and that the petitioners are convinced that, under proper regulations, the import as well as the export trade with the countries beyond the Cape of Good Hope may be extended indiscriminately to the ports of the united kingdom, without any risk of the payment of the revenue derived by government from that source being evaded; and, if the latter object can be attained, the extension of the privilege to all his Majesty's subjects who are in a condition to avail themselves of it is cer tainly most consistent with the liberal policy of the British legislature; and that the petitioners are also firmly persuaded

that, under proper regulations, the mer- ture by the East India Company, for a rechants of Great Britain and Ireland may newal of their exclusive privilege of trade, be admitted to a free and unfettered com- and confident in the justice and wisdom mercial intercourse with the provinces of of the House, the natural and powerful India, without exciting any unfavourable guardians of the people's right, deem it disposition in the natives towards this their indispensable duty thus early to recountry, and without any danger what present to the House, that the full and freeever to the stability of the provincial go- right to trade to and with all countries and vernment; and, while they cannot but people in amity with their sovereign, and consider as extremely hard the existing more particularly with those countries and enactments, by which foreign nations settlements acquired and maintained by the have been admitted to the benefit of efforts and valour of the forces of his Mathis commercial intercourse, and Bri- jesty, is the undoubted birthright and intish subjects excluded, the petitioners heritance of the people of this empire; humbly suggest the propriety of making and that the exclusive privilege of the such arrangements as may in future secure E. I. Company is a manifest infringement to the British merchant trading to the of that right, from which many and great British possessions in Asia that protection evils have resulted; and that the petiand reception to which he is justly en- tioners further humbly submit to the titled; and that finally, the petitioners House, as a sound and incontrovertible own they cannot perceive that the expen- principle, that, in this enlightened age, diture incurred by the company in the commerce can neither be benefited nor exextension and in the government of the tended by monopoly; and that all ideas British possessions in the Indian peninsula of direct participation by the public treaaffords any sufficient ground, in justice or sury in behalf of the nation, in the profits expediency, for continuing to that corpo- of trade, as a compensation or purchase ration the monopoly of the trade to China; for such monopolised commerce, must and they have reason to believe that the trade ever will be vain and illusory; and the with China, although laid open to all his petitioners humbly adduce the disapMajesty's subjects, may be placed on pointed expectations of the nation and such a footing, and under such regula- the legislature, in regard to the E. I. Com. tions, as to prevent any risk of offence pany in complete illustration of this prinby individuals to the government or peo- ciple; and that the petitioners refer to the ple of that vast empire; and they are de- information before the House, to show cidedly of opinion, that admission to the that the trade carried on by the E. I. Com Chinese trade is indispensably necessary pany has decreased at the very time when, to enable the British merchant to carry on by British exertions, its field has been exthe trade with the British possessions in tended and itself protected from enemies Asia with advantage, and with success; and hostile rivalry; and that foreigners, and praying the House, in its wisdom, to by the advantages of free and unfettered refuse its sanction to any renewal of the exertions, have been at the same time sucexclusive commercial privileges of the cessfully competing with the E. I. ComE. I. Company, and to restore to his Ma- pany not only in the trade of the Comjesty's subjects in general their right to pany's own settlements, but also in the carry on, from as many of the ports of the trade to China to a vast amount, whilst united kingdom as the security of the such trades have been long and obstinaterevenue will permit, a free trade with they denied to the subjects of the United British possessions in Asia, and with the other countries situated to the east of the Cape of Good Hope, particularly the empire of China; and farther praying to be heard by counsel in support of this Petition."

A Petition of several merchants, traders, and other inhabitants of the city of Bristol, was also presented and read; setting forth,

"That the petitioners, in contemplation of an intended application to the legisla

Kingdom; and that the petitioners further humbly submit to the House, that the prospect of pecuniary participation held out to the country in 1793, not only has not been realised, but has been converted into repeated claims by the E. I. Company on the public purse and credit; and that further and still greater pecuniary assistance will be required to avert embarrassments in which the E. I. Company must otherwise soon be involved; and that the petitioners rely, with the utmost confidence that the House will disregard

any arguments that may be adduced in | favour of the E. I. Company's exclusive privilege, which would, if admitted, apply with equal force against the freedom of any and of every branch of British commerce, the whole of which might thus be paralized by monopoly, as this great arm of our strength has been, to the ruin of our naval greatness, and the consequent downfall of our independence; and that the petitioners beg leave humbly to submit to the House, that of all the effects of monopoly none is so injurious as its confinement of commerce to a particular port, and that the principal out ports of the United Kingdom have an undoubted right to equal privilege of trade with the port of London, bearing, as they do cheerfully, their full and common proportion of the burthens of the state, and the privations which the unexampled state of Europe has brought upon the trading and manufacturing classes of the community; and that trade, when confined to a single port of a great empire, must of necessity, from being cramped and narrowed, languish and decline; and that great and expensive improvements have, of late years, been made in most of the principal out ports, with a view to the extension of commerce, and to the accommodation of a larger class of ships; and that the known loyalty, integrity, and opulence of the merchants resident in the out-ports, afford ample security for their care of the vital interests of their country, in respect of its national revenue, which the petitioners, with deference assert, is as diligently and faithfully collected, and as cheerfully paid, in those out-ports as in the port of London; and that the petitioners, however, far from having a wish to deprive the E. I. Company of any right or claim they may have on the justice or liberality of parliament for indemnification, are most anxious that all such claims may be fairly examined and fully and liberally remunerated; but further humbly submit to the House, that the means of such remuneration should arise from a fair and equal impost on the trade in question, and should not be attempted by restrictions which can only serve to shackle and injure commerce, and to harass and perplex the merchant, without any solid benefit to the E. I. Company; and praying, that the House, taking the premises under their consideration, will refuse to comply with any application that may be made by the E. I. Comany for a renewal of their exclusive pri

vilege, and will leave the trade to India and China fully and freely open to the enterprize, skill, and capital of the merchants of the United Kingdom, subject only to such salutary laws for its regulation and protection as the legislature, in its wisdom and paternal care, may deem necessary; and that the petitioners may be allowed to be heard, by themselves their counsel and agents, at the bar of the House, in support of the objects of this Petition." Ordered to lie upon the table.

THE

PETITION FROM RIPON AGAINST CLAIMS OF THE ROMAN CATHOLICS.] A Petition of the mayor, burgesses, and commonalty of the borough of Ripon, in the county of York, in common council assembled, was presented and read; setting forth,

That the petitioners, being fully sensible of the many blessings and advantages which all ranks and degrees of his Majesty's subjects enjoy under the present wise and happy constitution of these kingdoms, as by law established, which allows to all sects and persuasions of men full and free toleration in the exercise of their religious duties; and that the petitioners cannot, without a considerable degree of regret and alarm, behold the attempts which are now making with so much intemperate zeal in a sister kingdom by some of his Majesty's Roman Catholic subjects to pull down those ancient barriers of our constitution, the Test Acts, which upwards of 120 years experience have proved and fully convinced the petitioners are the best and surest guards and security of both civil and religious liberty, and from which epoch they may, with great propriety, date our national freedom, prosperity, and happiness; and the petitioners, therefore, humbly hope and rely on the wisdom of parliament that those great pillars of our constitution will be permitted to stand firm and remain fixed on their present basis, without alteration, to latest posterity, and that the present claims of the Roman Catholics may not be granted."

Ordered to lie upon the table.

PETITION FROM THE PRISONERS OF WAR IN FRANCE.] Mr. Whitbread said, he held in his hand a Petition from the owners masters and mates in the merchant service, now prisoners of war in France, which though dated on the 15th of December, he had received but the day be

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