The Sun.
London, England, 1807-08-25 00:00:00

CHZLTENHAM, AuCeUST e 4.

We are all alive at this place, as the Prince of
Wmeas.arrived here late on Saturday night. As
soon as the arrival of his Royal Highness was
known, the bells set up a merry peal, and the whole
town was in a bustle.—There was a general wish ,
for an. illumination, but thin testimony of welcome
was omitted by desire of the Prince himself.—. The
Prince occupies Falconberg House, in the vicinity
,of this place. We are full of visitors, and are in ap-
prehension of more, for the improvementi in the
town and neighbourhood seem likely to render it the
favourite haunt of Fashion in 4te-suturner.—Mrs.
Briuswotir.is here, but we hire, no hope that she
will warble in public.—Mrs. SWOONS is gone, and
the certainty that she this season takes leave of alt
Provincial Stages, gave an increased interest to liar
performances, though it could not add to the attrac-
tion of her great talents. She is succeeded by her ~
brother STEPHEN 11.1M1111.43, and that , interesting
.adress, his wife. They commence their operations
to-morrow in The Merchant Voice, and are an-
nounced for late and Yarico, Henry the Fourth, and
The Weathercock. We, wipe& to have all the
fashionable people within many miles round to visit
us while our fortunate spot is honoured by the smile ,
of Royalty.

'Friday evening the Doke of GLOUCRIPPER arrived.
at York-house, Bath, being the first visit which His
Highness has paid to that City since his most youth-
ful days,, On Saturday morning the Mayor, and'
part of the Body Corporate, waited on the Duke,
when his Worship concisely addressed him in nearly
the following words':—
.• we, the Al.iror, Aldermen, and Common Council of
Bath, are happy to wait on your Highness, and to welcome.
your arrival in this City. Humbly and loyally attached to,
our gracious and Tenecrble Sovereign, it is with the sincerest'
feelings of pleasure that we thus have the honour to coogta.l
tulate a personage so nearly allied to his august lameiy.'
His Highness received the- Gentlemen of the liody
with the greatest affability, and thanked the 1114tior
lbr his expreisions'of attachment to the lloy.At,
'I4IIT, and particularly those to His MAJESTY.

Died, du Sunday morning, after a short, but se-
vere illness, which the bore with Chrktiap
tilde, Mrs. 1-lAussoNp, of Young-street, Kenstng-
trin, in the 66th year of her age, much eh,teetned
and lamented by all beer •

11?1S11 C.,4THO LICS,

•
The following is an accurate Copy of the Petition
finally agreed to by the Catholics of Ireland, and in-
tended to be presented to Parliament next Session r

PtTITION.

TO THE RIGHT IlpH. AND HON. THE COMMONS OF
THE. UNITED KINGDOSI- OF GREAT BRITAIN AND
IRELAND, IN PARLIAMENT ASSEMBLED.
The humble Petition of the Roman Catholics of Ireland,
Whose N4MC4 are hereunto sub,icribed, on behalf of diem•
selves, and of others,'His -Majesty's Subjedis professing the
Roman Cat holic
STIEWETH,

That your PetitionerS; asis set forth in their burn-
ble Petition presented to thii Honourable House, on
the 25th of' March, 1805, • are by, divers Statutes,
still of force within this realm, rendered liable to many
'incapacities and .restrie-tions not imposed upon wily
other description of his Majesty's Subjec-ts '
That your Petitioners with confidence assert, and
they aresupported by the testimony of ,manyof the
ablest Senators and. wisest Statesmen Which. the Em-
pire could ever boast, that there is nothing in their,
condud as. Subjects, or tenets as Christians, which
ought to disqualify- them from enjoying equal privi-
leges with bii .Majesty's Other Subjects; • and they
beg leave to state, that they do not yield to any class
'of perscips in 'affectionate attachment to his sacred
person and family, in due obedience to the laws,
and just predilection for the British Constitution.
That at the present period, which requires all the
energies of the State, and the exertions of an united
people, your Petitioners conceive that they.cannot
offer a stronger proof of their loyalty, thatrby hurn_
bly representing to this iHoneurable House their ear-
nest wish to ho altogether committed With their
Ountry, and reinstated in a lull and complete en-,
joyment of the English Government and laws.
• Your Petitioners beg leave respectfully to sUbmit•
to this Hon. House,- that the Constitution of Eng-
land is the great charter of this Land, and the in-
heritance of the dutiful and faithful Subjects of His
Majesty ; the condition which the ancestors of some
' of us 'accepted, when they submitted to the Crown,
and on the faith of which, the ancestors of others
passed over and effeded their settlement in Ireland— •
was, that they should participate in the laws ind li-
berties of England many concessions of His Majes-
ty's Royal Progenitors, and repeated Mis of Parlia-
ment, confirmed the 'invaluable blessing; it. has had
thesanaion of an establishment of six hundred years;
• whilst- the privations, of which we complain, are
but the innovation of a century ; from that in-
••nOvation 'we appeal in this enlightened .age, to the
wisdom and justice of those august bodies, in whose
hands are the fate and f)rtunes of the .Empire; we.
appeal against li&s, repugnant: to the sense and
habits of Englishmen, and to thegenius of the English
Constitution; against precedents not entitled from
the circumstances in which they were fcirnaed, to be
immortal. We were excluded from our franchises,
. when the tumult of civil wars had scarcely been ap-
peased ; whilst the animosities they produced were
recent ; and at the close of the convulsion incidental
to a widely extended revolution of property, We
were excluded at a moment., when the settlement
was precarious and new, upOn which time and ha-
bit, the extinClion of all other claims, common prin-
ciples of obedience, and common interests,havz now
conferred all the solidity of unquestioned and immu-
table establisluoent.

Your Petitioners further beg leave to recall to the
attention of thiS 'Honourable House, that we do not
pay the penalty, neither is 'the blame imputed td us,
of au innovating or capricious temper. We have not
revolted from any institutions Which challenged our
obedienee. We have adhered to the tradition of our
• Fathers, the immemorial usage of the land. We
profess 'a religion compatible with the forth of
I Guverne,ient under which we .are placed ; accom-
modated to the spirit; and dear to the feelings of
the great and growing majority of our Country; a
religion which the existing Incapacities do not" seem
Oflculated,' and aro piobably not expaEt.eo, tp sup 7
'egs fbr it has been deemed, in a considerable.*
gtti,,, to inerit'Phblie 'encokiragerneut and proteetion.
Your Petitioners do then most humbly state, that
thi,ty are excluded from many of the most itnpori,
anCoffices of trust, poWer, and emolument in their
country ; Whereby they area degraded- below the
condition of their fellow-subje&s, .even of the meati-
est class, and stigmatised. as aliens •and strangers in
theit native land. . •
That in the immediate -efts of this exclusion,
nOless time foUr-lifilta of the Inhabitants of Ireland
and involved, formed into adistincit people, and de-
pressed in all their classes and gradations of rank, of.
opulence, and industry ; in every situation of life
,does this depuliog interiority exist, and its influence
'reaching to every; profosion, to even the peaceable
points ef industry and commerce.
• That the remote but nut less Sensible Consequences
extend to the remaining population of the land, dis-.
trgting his Majesty's people with disquietude and
jealousy; and substituting an insidious system of
' tappet)* on the Otin hand, and privation nn the
other, for the tried and established orders of society,
and for the salutary practice and sound principles of
the English Constitution.
And your Petitioners further humbly submit, that
from, the prejudice generated and 'fostered • by this
diseriennatiug System, the Spirit of the Laws out-
stripping the Letter, no degree of rank, virtue or
merit, can exempt an Irish Catholic froth' being con-
sidered'an object Of Suspicion :and several of the
most estimable privileges and advantages, of a free
Grovernment;• to which they ought to consider
themselves entitled, are rendered, with 'reipeet to
,
tnem, inoperative.
iu calling your attention to' their situation, your
Petitioners beg leave to • assure this Hon, House,
that they are actuated more as Irishmen than as
Catholics; and less influenced by a partial 'interest,
as'a religious description, than by ae interest truly;
public Alia national, intimately connected' with., the
welfare or this Country, and. the prosperity nt the
whole Empire; your PetitiOners being fully con-
vinCed, both from history and experience, that how-
ever religions distinelions may have supplied a pre-
' text; a, spirit of political mOnopoly has been the
aatustitig principle of civil disiention, and 'of that
unhappy national misuaderstanding which has so
lexig injured the charaCter and lessened the value of
this 151 and.

- For your Petitioners aro strongly impressvd with
the eonvittion, that did chntihuance of the clisquali-
flingl4wl IS not ,only incompatible with the free.

Alcrit and happiness of the great body of the trioh,
People, and detrimental to the resources of tha elate ;
'but; as it is calculated to damp the ardour pied divert
the attention of the nation to partial interests and
patty ilissenoOns, from measures of genefai seeuriiy,
Arlay eventually 'mho injurious to the strength and
stability of the Empire.,
Your Petitioners, with a deep sense of gratoncle,
aciinowledge that they are. indebted to the wisdom
and liberality of the Parliament of Ireland, and to
the psifernaLinterposition. of his Majesty, for the re-
moval of many of the disabilities and ineapacities
tinder Which they laboured ; and they refer with
confidence, in the justice of their cause, to the so-
lemn and memorable declaration of the. Irish j,,c-
-gislature--" That from the uniform and_ pcace.olo.,
behaviour of the Roman Catholics of Irelattd fora
long series, of years, it appeared reasonable and ex-
pedient to relax the disabilities and incapacities
der which _they labour; and that, it cmust tend not'
only to the cultivation and improven)ept of this.
Kingdom, .but to the prosperity 'and strength qf, all
his Majesty's dominions, that. his Majesty'
,4phjeas,:
of. all denominations should enjoy the blessings of sk,
free Constitution, and should be bound tp each other.;
by mutual interest and mutual affeeition.'

And your Petitioners MOO soleinnly declare, that
they do not seek sot- wish in tiny wayto iejntreor eta'
croach von- the rights, privileges, posleiliorii, or r,•-
venues, appertaining to. the Bishops and Clergly;of tilor
Protestant Religion as by litW established, Ithe
Churches'committed to • their. charge, or to any4fL
them ; the extent of their hnmbleApplicatititi,beinge,
that they may be governed by the same lOW an&
rendered capable of the same civil °tikes,' franchises 4;
and honours, as their fellow-subje4i of every other
religious denomination:.

May it therefore please this Hotwatable House to:
take into its consideration the Statutes, penal and re,'
stri6iYe, now attlAing the Catholics Of Ireland, and
to admit them to the full enjoyment of those -privie
loges which every Briton regards as his best inner i 6:
taut*; and which your Petitioners mci,.t humbly
presume to seek, as the brethren of Englishmen, and.
co-heirs of the Constitution. - •

And your Petitioners yin ever pray, &c.