The Sun.
London, England, 1828-03-07 00:00:00

THE CATHOLIC QUESTION.

Sir FRANCIS BURDETT said that, in presenting the
petition of the Roman Catholics of Ireland, he felt himself
called on to deviate from hin usual role of not saying any-
thing on the presentation of a petition upon asubject likely
soon again to come under the consideration of the Ilonse.
This question, however, was one of such vast importance
that he could not refrain from expressing the opi-
nions which he, in unison with others felt, as to relief
which was due not more to the Roman Catholics than
to the country at large, and not more to the
country at large than to that Rouse—(hear, hear)—but he
was convinced that this House would not be much longer
employed in the consideration of that momentous question.
The public mind was now becoming so enlightened,that the
rights of the Catholics could not continue to he withheld
upon the absurd pretences and false charges that had been
urged against them. The hardships under which the Catho-
lics of England laboured, were thought by some not to press
so hardly on them as a practical grievance, but nothing could
surely be more galling to the feelings of any man than that
in his own country he should be a persecuted being, that
his religion should make him unworthy of trust, and that
by law, he should be incapacitated from receiving those
marks of honour to which he is entitled in common with
the rest of his fellow-subjects. The pretences on which
the disabilities were continued appeared to him to be
weakened every day ; and when he saw millions of people
calling for the repeal of those disabilities (for, putting to-
gether the Catholics of England and Ireland, they amounted
probably to not less, numerically, than one-half of the
population of the United Kingdom), then adding to them
the wishes of such members of the established church, and
the other Protestant churches in this country as were
favourable to the Catholics, he was entitled to say that
a large preponderating weight of public opinion was in
favour of granting the just claims of the Catholics. In
behalf of the Catholics of the United Kingdom, he denied
all the charges and imputations that had ever been thrown
out against them. He denied that it was true, that they owed
any divided allegiance, or that they had not a common inte-
rest with men of every religious persuasion in this country.
On the part of the Catholics be would declare, that rather
than be actuated by the feeling which were attributed to
them, they would forego the accomplishment of their just
claims, by the granting of the little that remained to be
conceded, and would willingly endure all the penalties from
which they had been relieved. In conclusion he trusted
that the petitioners would receive that attention which
their cause, connected as it was with the great interests of
the State, so eminently demanded.—(Hear.)
The petition having been read and ordered to be printed,
The Honourable Baronet then gave notice that, on Tues-
day the 29th of April, he would bring the consideration of
that petition before the House.
Mr. PEEL presented a petition from the University of
Oxford, against the Tithe Commutation Bill (in Eng-
land and Wales.) The Right Won. Gentleman said,
that the great objection to the present Bill was, that it
proposed to make the present agreement between the
rector and the landed proprietor, an unalterable
standard of the value of the tithes. Under the Irish Tithe
Commutation Bill, the agreement could only last for 21
years.—Ordered to be printed.