The Statesman.
London, England, 1813-02-25 00:00:00

• • HOUSE. OF COMMONS.
• Colonel to WELL. said he had to present a Pe.:'
Won from great number of the Protestant Free- .
holdiii of the County of Tipperary, praying, that if _ •
the Clahni of the Catholics waregmutedS sncfiltea
cautions should be adopted as would sinecure the ex-
cellent Constitution under which they lived. Lest
he might be misunderstood in presenting this Pen-
Con, he should take, this opportunity of stating, that
he should vote for investigating. this great question
in whatever shape if might be brought forward. . •
The Petition having .been brought .cp,
General NIATHEW: objected to the Petition
being presented; as that of the County of Tipperary.
The Petition-14d beet smuggled—no meeting of tilt
county had been.callett-,--and fear Peers who had
signed the Petition, not oiie redded in the county,
•and, as he understood, they had not signed it, but
given their consent hy.letter. •
Colonel -BAGWELL; was net ttware whrthet:oe
no the signatures werii-genuine_;.buithe word smug. •.
gled was not with propriety' to: be applied:tilt. A
meeting was held, and most respectably attended;
and in a county where so many were Catholics, three
thousand Protestant Fieeholders must bet large pro.
portion of the whole: Of these three thousand
names, none were marksmen.—[The Ilitnourabte
Gentleman having explained, that by marksmen was
meant such as gave their assentby marks, a loud and
universal laugh %CRS produce-ill—He could not sit
down without expressing his reprobation of the
HonPurable General at the hustings in that county,
where he had advised the people net to come forward
any longer with Petitions to the Throne, but to de-
mand their rights, and that he (General Mathew)
would shed-his blocd in leading them on.
Gen. MATHEW never could get a sight of the
Petition, so great a secret was made of it : his Friend
and Colleague, however, once showed it film at a
private house in Cashel, antl-ttot an hour before
he had seen it in the hands of the High Sheriff; when
he found that it contained the names of many persona
who were absentees, being either in this country pr
in distant parts of Ireland. He was sorry to advert
to a toric introduced by the Hon. Colonel,-and con,
nected with what he had said elsewhere. He denied
that he had ever used the expressions imputed to him.
tie had, indeed, asserted the right of the• Roman
tholics to a participation of all the blessings of the
Constitution ; and in proof of that right it would be
necessary to go no farther back than to treaty of
Limerick. He had also expressed his opinion freely
of the present Ministers; he had expressed the same '
opinion in that House, and he had never altered it.
Ile thought them incapable of their situations, and
would, at alt times, do every thing in his power to
assist their doWnfal, and accelerate their overthrow.
Of the Prince Regent 'lie had never- expressed any
sentiments buethose of respect fer his Orion, .and
gratitude for the faiours conferred.
The SPEAKER asked, avhether the Iloa. Gene-
ral meant to state, of his own knowledge, that the
signatures to the Petiiiou were really not those of the
persons whose names were affixed to it ?
'Gen. 'MATHEW said, that he only spoke on the.
information of others. ,
The Petition was, therefore, ordered to be laid on
the table..
The Lord Mayor of Dublin was then admitted to
the house, and brought up a Petition against the East
India Company'i exclusive Charter. He.afterwarda
brought up the Petition artirrst (he' Roman Catholic -
Claims from the Makrartd Corporation of the City
or Dubliti.',
Lord .sAtur presented i Petition against' the
Catholic Clainis from'the Inhabitants of the county
of Kilkenny. He snitti-that the *wino: who had
signed it, were not, iolluense4 by • speculatias or
theOretieal reasonings., but by attest
perience„ • - , • •,•
Sir JOliN NEWPORT denied &it tbePetilien
presented .by time Noble 14prd expressed the sentiments
of the inhabitants of the county of Kilkenny. .The
great body of freeholdstcs, iu that county; and ',even in
,thAt meeting, were adverse lo the &misfit:a of site.i?c-
tirion
; and iewaa not Ulf the meeting wns dissolved
that the signatives which now,appetiied to it had been •
obtained. The High Sherif of -the county had le-
W. tnecti
Nus or to lend .the-Courtshouse
. .•