The Sun.
London, England, 1819-03-23 00:00:00

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TUESDAY, MARCH 23, 1819

PARLIAMENT.

HOUSE OF LORDS, MARCH 22.

The oaths were admitristered to' the Duke of
Marlborough, the Earl of nmouth, the Earl
Grey, and Lord Cawdor.
The House proceeded in Halford's Divorce
Bill. Mr. Warren appeared as Counsel for the
petitioher. IVitnesses were examined, and the
further proceeding postponed.
A number of Petitions were presented, read,and
laid upon the table, respecting the Coal Duties,
the Insolvent Act, and the Criminal Li WS, pre-
sented by the Earl 'itzwilliatn, the Earl Grey.
the Earl of Abingdon, the Eat I of Lauderdale,
the Earl Digby, the Bishop of Hereford, Lord
Auckland, Lord Viscount Granville, &c.
The Royal Marine Mutiny Bill, and the In-.
denntity Bill, were read a third time arid- passed.
The documents were presented from the Crown
Office in Ireland, respecting the return of the
Earl of Carrick as a temporal Peer for Ireland,
in the room of Lord Viscount Northland, de-
ceased.
The Portugal Slave Trade Bill was brought up
hfrom the House of Commons by Mr. Brogden
land other Members, and read a first time.
A Message from the Commons, by Mr. l3rog-
den and others, brought up,turn Reports respect-
ing the Drainage of Bogs, in Ireland, requested
by the Lords, which -were ordered to be printed.
The Na,sau Salt 13111, the British Plantation
Wool Bill, and the East India Goods (Ireland)
Bill, were read a second time, and committed for
to-morrow.

ROMAN CATHOLIC CLAIMS.
The- Marquess of DowNsimm presented two
Petitions from Protestants of Dublin, in favour of
the Roman Catholic Claims ; one of them agreed
upon at a General Meeting of the Protestants of
the Lord Mayor of that City in the Chair.
The Petitions having been read, and ordered to
lie upon the table, his Lordship observed, that
they were signed by several Protestant Noblemen
and great landed proprietors of Ireland, by a
number of eminent merchants representing the
commerce of Ireland, and by a large proportion
of most respectable individuals. was not
present at the Protestant Meeting, but he could
state from the best information, that the best
spirit of harmony prevailed at it, and that the
object of the petitioners was to smooth, as far_as
missible, all differences of opinion, and to state
their purpose in the manner the most agreeable
purpose which had been met by the Catholics
in the true spirit of conciliation. He had no
doubt that the spirit thus evinced by the Pro-
testants of Dublin would spread generally
throughout Ireland, and this most important
question would thus come before their Lordships
tinder new and most auspicious circumstances.—
He trusted that these considerations would have
some weight with their Lordships, when this
great and important question came ou for dis-
cussion.

The Earl of ENNISKILLEN denied that a feeling
on the part of the Protestants of Ireland was by
ally means general in favour of the Roman Catho-
lic Claims. On the contrary, in the county with
which he was connected, and which was the most
Protestant part of Ireland, the opinion of the Pro-
testants in general was decidedly against the
Catholic Claims. He should IFive to present to
their Lordships, in the course of a tew days, a
Petition from Protestants of Ireland, very nu-
merously signed, against the claims of the Roman
Catholics.

The Marquess of LANSDOWNE, with reference
to the Petitions presented by his Noble Friend,
observed'upon their importance with a view to
the great question of the Catholic Claims, that
they had come from the Protestants of the capital
of Ireland, of that city widen was emphatically
called Protestant Dublin, and that these Peti-
tioners were willing to give up the monopoly of
exclusive privilege, which, in truth, was the great
source of weakness in the Government of Ireland,
and to concede a participation in those privileges
to their Catholic fellow-subjects that a Petition,
thus voluntarily agreed upon, was signet! by many
of the Protestant Noblemen, great landed pro-
prietors, eminent merchants, and others of the
greatest respectability, and that it was brought
forward and carried in every spirit of conciliation.
All these circumstances formed a subject of con-
gratulation to every one, who, like him, thought
that to concede the claims of the Roman Catholics
was the only true policy to allay discontent and
irritation, and consolidate the strength of the
Empire. Undoubtedly he did not mean to say
that persons might not conscientiously differ trout
him in opinion, that persons might not conscien-
tiously believe in the existence of danger front the
admission of a few persons of the Catholic per-
suasion into either House of Parliament, or from
the eventual admission of Catholics into office at

the pleasure of a Protestant Sovereign. He,
however, entertained no such apprehensions, nor
would he have hesitated for a moment in sign-
ing the Petition, as a landed proprietor of Ireland,
had it been within the scope of the petitioners.—
The chief purpose, indeed, of his now rising was
to account fur his name not appearing amongst
the signatures to the P.Atian, or rather that
no conclusion unfavourable to the object of the
petitioners might be drawn from that circum-

stance. Had the object been to have the signa-
tures of landed proprietors who were not resident
in Ireland, undoubtedly his should be placed at
the foot of the petition. As it was, however,
the petition catne.to their Lordships with double
force ; it was the petition of Protestants who
were in the constant' habits of intimacy with their
Catholic fellow-subjects, and who were in the
daily interchauge with them of, social and domes-

tic relations of life; they, thus situated,
who came forward and said, that their Catholic
fellow-subjects, whom they knew and appreciat-
ed, were entirely worthy of being relieved from
those remaining disabilities which still oppressed
them, and when in all the great contests and int...
portant conflicts that had occurred during the pro-
trac:ed hostilities we bad been engaged in, no
instance had occurred of a breach of faith on ac-
count of religion, it was surely not too much, to
ask that the Catholics of Ireland alone should
not be vigmarized as disposed on that account to
commit breaches of faith..

The Marquess of BUCKINGHAM rose for the
purpose of stating, that he also would have signed
the petition alluded to, as a landed proprietor of
Ireland, lied it been within► the scope of the pe-
titioners to have the signatures of landed pro-
prietors who were not resident in Ireland, and of
whom, nearly the whole were in favour of the pe-
tition, together with a large proportion of the re-
sident proprietors in that part of the United King-
dom. He hailed the petition which had been
presented with the greatest satisfaction, consider-
ing it as a great step gained in behalf of. that li-
beral spirit of conciliation which it was so emi- '
nently desirable should he extended to our Catho-
lic fellow-subjects.
The Marquess of DOWNSIIiRR, with reference
to what had been said by the Earl of Enniskillen,
observed, that he never meant to state that all
the. 'Protestants of Ireland concurred in the ob-
ject of the Petitions which he had presented, well
knowing, of course, that the Petition numerously
signed, which the Noble Earl was to present,
would express the opinion of those who signed it,
neither (lid he mean to say, that upon thi. q,►tes
Lion persons might not conscientiously differ in
opinion from himself ; on the contrary, be re,
sneered all such difference of opinion.
The Earl of DARNLRY stated, that he also
would have signed the Petition had it been the
object of the Petitioners to obtain the signatures
of non-resident landed proprietors.
The Mattress a DowNSHIRE presented a simi-
lar Petition from Belfast, which was also ordered
to lie upon the table.