The Sun.
London, England, 1829-02-28 00:00:00

IMPERIAL PARLIAMENT.

HOUSE OF LORDS.-(LAST NIGHT.)

The Loan CHANCELLOR entered the House at a few
minutes before Five o'clock.

Lord ROLLE presented a petition from Kingsbridge,
Devon, against Emancipation
The Marquis of TROMOND presented two petitions
from the county of Cork, against Emancipation.
Lord HARDWICKE presented a petition from the Sur-
geons of the county of Cambridge, praying that their Lord-
ships would revise the laws fur obtaining bodies for dis-
section.

The Bishop of CHICHESTER presented several peti-
tions against further concessions to the Catholics.

The Earl of WINCHELSEA presented petitions against
further concessions. The Noble Earl had alto a petition
to present from Sir Harcourt Lees, praying that their
Lordships would not grant further concessions until the
Catholics had renounced allegiance to any foreign Power.
The Earl of GUILFORD presented a petition from
Dover, agreed to at a public meeting, and signed by 1„560
persons, praying that their Lordships would grant no further
concessions to the Catholics, whose tenets they considered
irreconcileable with civil liberty. No petition fi um any town
could be more worthy the consideration of the House than
this. Not only on account of its commercial and local
importance, but also for its uniform attachment to the
just prerogative of the Crown. Previous to the
opening of the present Session, the petitioners had
abstained from all interference with the question ; and
it was the recommendation alone advised by Ministers
that had excited their apprehensions, and stimulated them
to the present measure. The Noble Lord had carefully
perused the petition, he knew nothing of the subject of it
till he had received the commission to present it to
their Lordships. In doing this he begged leave to
say that he concurred most heartily in the nature of its
contents. He would not bias their Lordships either one
way or the other, but would leave the petition to speak its
own sentiments. He trusted that it would have due weight
with their Lordships, and be the means of removing those
terrors under which the petitioners at present laboured.

The Earl of DARNLEY had understood the Noble
Lord to say that the petition was the unanimous voice of
Dover.

Lord GUILFORD observed that he had not said so.
Lord DARNLEY had misunderstood the Noble Lord
then. He himself had a petition from a number of free-
holders of that town, most numerously and respectably
signed, of an opposite nature. He must however beg to
say, that the petition presented by the Noble Lord (Guil-
ford) was any thing but the unanimous opinion of the in-
habitants of Dover.

Lord GUILFORD believed that the population of
Dover at the last census was estimated at 5000, only 2000
of whom were competent, he thought, to sign the petition.
Now the present petition, as he had before stated, was
signed by upwards of 1560 persons.
Lord KING believed the terrors which the Noble Lord
(Guilford), had adverted to, were unknown in this country
until the publication of a little work, called the Protestant
Almanack, in 1680, two years after Titus Oates established
the first Brunswick Club. That terror had been banded
down front one old woman to another, till it had
attained to that enormous height to which the Noble
Lord had alluded. He would entertain their Lordships
with re,.ding a story or two out of this notable work. His
Lordship then read the following passages :—" Sylvester
li. gave himself to the devil, and worshipped him that he
might have his will. By virtue of which contract, Ir oti.
taineel to be the infallible head of youv lioly Church. Jelin
XII. kept Reyneva ...tepharia (who was his father's con-
cubine, and her sister Joan, Anne, and divers others), be
turned his palace into stews, ravishing wives, widows, and
maids who came to Rome in pilgrimage ; he invocated the
devil at dice for success ; he drank a health to the devil ;
he ordained a Deacon in his stable, made a lc), iahol; ten
•
years &d, put out his grandfathey'a eyes, cut off his car&
sycri't lay what, said his Lordship—,, the nose
of another, and the hand of a third. He was killed by
the Devil, and died impenitent." Here my Lords, said his
Lordship, is another extract :—" Since Mrs. Gilbert, a
Dutch woman, in man's apparel, travelled to Athens, where
she made a shift to get as much Latin as woat4 serve to
make a dunce-mass Priest, ;t: azriy the Old"inumpsimus, she
crept 44 to be Ptipe, by the name of John VIII.
..*s she marched in pompous procession she was delivered of
a bastard, which she murdered, awl then went to her own
place. Its a pity she lived not to bring forth another
litter, that the Church of Rome might have had a pig Out
of her own sow." These and many similar stories were
in the Protestant Almanac, and he could recommend the
present opponents of the Roman Catholics to get a second
edition of the book printed, it would furnish excellent ma-