The Sun.
London, England, 1813-03-10 00:00:00

cATtiouc CLAIMS.

-Soon atter our admission to the House, .
The LORD CHANCELLOR presented a Petition
front the Cities of London and Westminster, ,
which hiSlordship•othserredi was regttlarly signed
byttpwardS ot. 60,000 pcisOns. • ,
. The Petition , was stria.tly.read, and stated the
.4tntitnents of the lictitioners`to bc,, that, they re-
garded thedh which tt?held the Protestant (,on•-•
stitakion and Establishments of , the Realm to be
no less sacred, titan Magna Charta, the Habeas
Corpus Act, &c.
OR the question that the Petition do lie:oo:the

: •
Earl, Gitny observed, he could not avoist re-
marking the language and opinion expressed': by
the Petitioners, that they regarded the laws which
secured. the Protestant Establis*bnients' as fixed
nod' invariable as tilose.of Magna Charta, and the
other laws which were founded on great Consti-
tutional principles. For his part, ,he did not be-
that the ;aws advvrted to oy• the Petitioners,
did not stand npon the same grannds, nor djci.the
Legislature itself, because many of those laws.
were from time to tilue repealed, P4rliaps what
they meant was to petition against a farther re-
jnximtion of thelaWSriu question. Intl A of
The case, it may be Worthy of consideration, if
"the subscribers really untierstOod the utort. and
tenor of the Petition which they had signed : it
was Unfornitiktte, therefore, the Petitioners 'had,
not a fair and open 'opportunity of hearing. the
Petition discussed and explained r and h must say,
that when he heard of a Petition so inuiterousiy
signed, and coming ,from such a hotly, it \vottid
have cart ied more weight, With hiat ; at least,,
the Noine :.nd'lli.earned Lord was enabled to state,
Ciat it Lai bven. oiVePecl tor e.insimizion• a public
%Oleo.; the principles And .objects of the
Petition might have been regularly.explained and
diseG,,seA.

.rite: Loan Quo C.r.trort staid the, Noble Earl
Dna.: be entirely mistakeo,,from what .he said, as
to what the subscribers ;meant.' The Petitioners
prayed the House upon the principle that the laws
by which the Legtisittive and E,xecutive Authori-
tie„.i.of t .:is .Protestant country, should be admi-
nistered only by Protestants. Thii was expressly
the pr4yer .of the Petition. :With respect to what
the Stible Lacl said in regard to petitions of the
kind originaiMg at public meetings, he must ob-
serve he had long been a silent auditor of the ob-
jections which. had been made to twiny of themon
that ground; and from all that was stated with
respect to what passed at Such Meetings; he must •
be .allowed' to retain a reasonable doubt whether
public meetings are the exact ways by which the
real sense of. Petitions can be ascertained. The
Petition, then before their Lordships was signed
by more than (OMOO. people, among whoa were
included many of the mostrespectable inhabitants
of both-Cities: The mode in which the document
was signed was this ;7-papers which icontaisld
copy of the petitiOnwere circulated among the
different parishes through IVbitl the Minister or
.sonic other person respectively Informed the pa- .
rWiioners that such a petition was intended to be
presented to both Houses of: Parliament against ,
the. claims of the Catholics ; and that a fair .copy
was deposited at the yestries,.or 501114.1 other place,
for the signature of such of the inhabitants as
should think prpper. They had thus ai full oppor-
tunity of knowing the contents of the peti-
tion, and deliberately reflecting upon the im-
port : and he would go the length .f say-
ing, that such woo the most likely mode: 'of
collecting the real sense of the subscribers,• The
Petition was, without further remark, ordered to
lie oo the table,
Lord Viscount MeLviLte informed the Utilise
he had a Petition to, present, which in some tit:-
gree (lid not scent to tally with the sentimentsen-
tettained upon its subject. This he thOught. pro-
per to observe, that it may not be expected he
should eyenttially support the Petition to its lid!
c4tent. It prayed that their Lordships would re-
fuse to concur its inch a relaxation of the exiting
laWs, as was sought for by those who professed
the Roman Catholic faith. If it were believed-thati
:the Views of the Petitioners went us far as a wish
to preclude any alteration in the laws upoi the
subject to such an extent, be certainly did-not
agree with them. Thc Petition the Noble Vis.'
count described,' was front' the Presbytery or As-
sembly of the Church'of Scotland at Edinburgh,

and, signed in,the _usital way, by the person pre=
siding M -;lssen;bly,, w Allen the
`.‘:Moderator."' 'They had no seal, becaecte they
were no Corporate Body. Notwithstanding such
a document :was refifirdetf as%in anthoritative in-
. strurnent, as expressive Of ,the sense of the whole
Body, and received as such by the CoUrts of Law
in Scotland, and under these circumstances, he
hoped their Lordships would not refuse to receive
A conversation rnsued with respeet to correct-
ness, in point of necessary form; of the document
hi question, to entitle it to 'by considered by their
Lordships, as that which it purported to be,,name-
ly, expressive of the sense of the whole Body,
or winch ow" limits restrict us to a •very brief
• tk
. Earl GREY expressed vcvy considerable doubts
Upon the, point, and thought it wits proper to In-
'quire whether any precedent existed of receiving
a Petition upon a shnilar principle. Ile noticed,
that the Petition, though ugreeti to by the major
, i,art of- the Assembly in question, was far from
being carried unanimously, and that one very-re-
, Spectable Clergyman, Sir Henry Moncrietfe, en-
tered a strong protest.agninst it.
The )..;t-1.1 of LIVETtPooL was of opinion the
Petition should be received in the way and on the
grounds stated by the Noble Viscount;
Lord IrlocLarin • sUpported the objections of
Earl Grey ; nod noticed the case of a Petition.
having been rejected oti such grounds. • • •
The Loan CHANCBLLoR thought it Would be
preferable Wadjourn the of the point
to theilext day of their LordsbipS meeting.,
After some observations troth Lord ELLlt*po-
TiOUGH, and a few words in the way of explana-
tion from the Noble 'Viscount (,lluvissr,), and
some remarks in a' low tone of voice from the
Duke of ATHOL, it was agreed to defer the cow-
sideration of the point till Thursday,