The Sun.
London, England, 1824-06-04 00:00:00

SLAVE TRADE.

Mr. H. DAVIES presented a p;Ytitionfrom Bristol, against
the Slave Trade.—Oidered to be printed.
COUNTY COURTS BILL. _ _

Mr. SMITH presented a petition from Drogheda, praying
for the extension of the County Courts Bill to Ireland, which,
after a few words from Sir J. NEWPORT, was ordered to be
printed.
FREEDOM OF DISCUSSION OF RELIGIOUS
OPINIONS.
Mr. HUME presented a petition from Stokesley, in the North
Riding of Yorkshire, praying for the freedom of discussion and
•publication of religious opinions. The Hon. Member said,
that he concurred ehtirely in the prayer of the petition, and he
was sorry to observe, that since the Learned Attorney-General
had come into office, the inquisition for the suppression of re-
ligious opinions seemed to acquire new vigour. He regretted
to find, in the present enlightened age, such bigotry in public
officers.
Mr. M. A. TAYLOR was willing that every man should
worship God in his own way, but he would not consent to have
the Scriptures reviled by open professions of blasphemy, and
to leave the ignorant and illiterate people exposed to the de-
struction of every principle of religion. It was but a short time
ago that, passing down Fleet-street, he saw a shop announced
in large letters as the repository of the Deist and Republican.
Mr, HUME requested that the Hon. Member would give
a definition of blasphemy : it was a common term, and often
used by people who did not understand its meaning. He
thought his Hon. Friend had been making a speech on an
imaoinary case, with which the petition was in no wise con-
nected.
Mr. M.A. TAYLOR requested that the petition should be read
(which having been done by the Clerk)—he said, that he would
still maintain, that although the petition was cautiously worded
yet it struck at the very foundation of our religion, and at the
truths of the Gospel. He observed, that all the punishments
inflicted by the Court of King's Bench, were for the circulation
of opinions, and not for the opinions themselves. He remem-
bered well what Lord Mansfield had said on the subject, that
if the Devil came into Court, the Devil must have justice. He
denied that lie could be fairly accused of cant and hypocrisy,
which lie had been in the brilliant eloquence of his Hon.
Friend.—( Laughter.)
Mr. W. SMITH would say a few words in support of the
petition. He referred to the case of Galileo, in favour of the
argument for free discussion. He observed, that if laws were
to be made against the expression of opinion, there would be
no knowing where to stop. The cause of truth would be better
served by the banishment of all restriction.
After some further observations from Mr. HUME, Sir R.
WILSON, and Mr. WARRE, the petition was ordered to be
printed.
Mr. HUME presented a petition from a Quaker of the name
of Moline, against the continued imprisonment of R. Carlile
for blasphemy.
After some remarks from Mr. Hume, Mr. M. A. Taylor,
Mr. W. Smith, Sir T. Lethbridge, Sir It. Wilson, and Mr.
Alderman Bridges, the petition was laid on the table.
.111 R..-SMITH, THE MISSIONARY.
Mr. PORTMAN presented a petition from Chard, Dorset-
shire, praying for an investigation into the case of Mr. Smith.—
Ordered to be printed.
SCOTCH POOR LAWS.
The LORD ADVOCATE presented a petition from the
General Assembly of the Church of Scotland, against the Poor
Laws' Bill.

After a few words from Mr. KENNEDY, the petition was
ordered to be printed.
CATHOLIC CLERGY.
Mr. M. FITZGERALD presented a petition from Mr. Jas.
Devereux, one of • the five Deputies from the Catholics of Ire-
land to his late Majesty in 17
-• 93, with the Catholic petition, on
which the concessions then made were founded, and from 111 r.
Eneas INPDonell, a gentleman of considerable eminence and
talent, praying for a provision
for the Catholic Priesthood and
places of worship. The petition was as follows
To the Right Honourable and Honourable, the Knights
Citizens and Burgesses of the United Kingdom of Great
Britain and Ireland, in Parliament assembled,
" The humble petition of James Edward Devereau and
Enaes Macdonell, two of liis Illajesty's Irish Catholic
subjects ;
" Most humbly sheweth—
" That your petitioners have been informed of an application
being made to Parliament for providing places of worship for
certain classes of his Majesty's subjects.
" That a very large proportion of the Catholic population of
Ireland is destitute of convenient places of public worship, and
also of the means of providing them, at the same time that the
want thereof is grievously felt and lamented by them.
" That one of your petitioners having in the month of Octo-
ber last past, made particular inquiry into the state of the Ca-
tholic Archbishopric of Tuam, did thereupon ascertain (as
appears by the statement hitherto annexed) that of one hundred
and ten congregations, only four have commodious places of
worship; sixteen have unfinished slated chapels, sixty-six have
wretched thatched cabins, which they use as chapels, and there
are twenty-four of those congregations without any place of
worship whatever, and which are necessarily compelled to as-
semble on the Lord's-clay in.the open air, subject to all the vi
cissitudes of weather.
" That the whole of the Archbishoprick is perfectly free from
insurrection or disturbance.
" That such want of places of public worship prevails parti-
cularly in the southern and western districts of Ireland, and
is most prejudicial to the public weal and repose, as limiting
the diffusion of moral insquction among the peasantry, at the
same time that it keeps alive recollections in reference to the
causes thereof, which it must be the desire of Government to
obliterate.
" That it is a fact, gratefully attested by the most esteemed
British historians in ancient and modern times, as Venerable
Bede, William of • Malmsbory, Cambden, Lord Lyttleton,
Archbishop Nicholson; and also by Irish Protestants,' Primate
Uilier, and Sir James Ware ; and that the inhabitants of Great •
Britain are indebted to the Irish nation in a principal degree
for their civilization and conversion to Christianity; and that
some British Princes, and great numbers of the people, were
not only hospitably received and entertained, and gratuitously
educated, and provided with books in Ireland—but that after
their conversion had effected, the Irish Catholics founded
churches and colleges, and provided pastors and other religious
and literary instruction for them in different parts of Great
Britain.
" Your petitioners are unwilling to dwell upon the return
which Ireland has hitherto received for such contributions to
the civilization of Great Britain, but most humbly submit that
it is not unreasonable to suggest that some, onsideration should
even now, for the first time, be given to the claims which such
benefits and services naturally create.
" That a moderate provision for the erection of some places
of public worship for his Majesty's Catholic subjects in Ireland
would not be inconsistent with the most scrupulous regard for:
the maintenance of the Established Church ; and your petition-
ers humbly submit that they do not propose to obtain a.greatef
exercise of liberality towards the Catholic subjects of his Ma-
jesty, 'than is extended to the Protestant subjects of some Ca-
tholic States.. "

" In proof and illustration thereof, , your petitioners humbly
refer to the state of the Protestant subjects of his Most Christian
Majesty, Louis XVIII., and the aid given by the Catholic
(kovernment of that country tcTFds the support of their
gicos institutions; for your petitioners are enabled to.state, that
the Protestant subject* of his Most Christian Majesty are, not'