"cities and towns in Ireland, to obtain signatures to the petition of the Catholics of Ireland, and "Your petitioners do theo most humbly state, that they are excluded from many of the most important offices of trust, power and emolument in their country; whereby they are degraded below the condition of their fellow subjects, even of the meanest class, and stigmatized as aliens and strangers in their native land. That in the immediate effects of this exclusion, not less than four-fifths of the inhabitants of Ireland are involved, formed into a distinct people, and depressed in all their classes and gradations of rank, of opulence and industry; in every situation of life does this degrading inferiority exist, and its influence reaching to every profession, to even the peaceable pursuits of industry and commerce. "That the remote, but not less sensible consequences extend to the remaining population of the land, distracting his Majesty's people with inquietude and jealousy; and substituting an insidious system of monopoly on the one hand, and privation on the other, for the tried and established orders of society, and for the salutary practice and sound principle of the English consti tution. "And your petitioners further humbly submit, that from the prejudice generated and fostered by this discriminating system, the spirit of the laws outstripping the letter, no degree of rank, virtue of merit, can exempt an Irish Catholic from being considered an object of suspicion; and several of the most estimable privileges and advantages of a free government, to which they ought to consider themselves entitled, are rendered, with respect to them, inoperative. "In calling your attention to their situation, your petitioners beg leave to assure this honorable House, that they are actuated more as Irishmen, than as Catholics; and less influenced by a partial interest, as a religious description, than by an interest truly public and national, intimately connected with the welfare of this country, and the prosperity of the whole empire'; your petitioners being fully convinced, both from history and experience 1807. 1807. "to receive subscriptions to defray the expences attending the same. At another meeting of the Ca that however religious distinction may have supplied a pretext, a spirit of political monopoly has been the actuating principle of civil dissension, and of that unhappy national misunderstanding, which has so long injured the character and lessened the value of this island. "For your petitioners are strongly impressed with the conviction, that the continuance of the disqualifying laws is not only incompatible with the freedom and happiness of the great body of the Irish people, and detrimental to the resources of the state; but, as it is calculated to damp the ardor and divert the attention of the nation to partial interests and party dissensions, from measures of general security, may eventually prove inju rious to the strength and stability of the empire. "Your petitioners, with a deep sense of gratitude, acknowledge, that they are indebted to the wisdom and liberality of the Parlia ment of Ireland, and to the paternal interposition of his Majesty, for the removal of many of the disabilities and incapacities, under which they laboured; and they refer with confidence, in the justice of their cause, to the solemn and memorable declaration of the Irish legislature: "That from the uniform and peaceable be"hayiour of the ROMAN CATHOLICS of Ireland for a long series "of years, it appeared reasonable and expedient to relax the “disabilities and incapacities, under which they labour, and that "it must tend not only to the cultivation and improvement of "this kingdom but to the prosperity and strength of all his Ma"jesty's dominions, that his Majesty's subjects of all denominations should enjoy the blessings of a free constitution, and should be bound to each other by mutual interest and mutual "affection." And your petitioners most solemnly declare, that they do not seek or wish in any way to injure or encroach upon the rights, privileges, possessions or revenues appertaining to the bishops and clergy of the Protestant religion as by law established, or to the churches committed to their charge, or to any of them; the extent of their humble supplication being, that they may be governed by the same laws, and rendered capable of 61 tholic Committee, at the Star and Garter, Essexstreet,, on the 25th of February, 1807, the Earl of Fingall being in the chair; it was resolved: "That in pursuance of the resolution of the gene"ral meeting of the Catholics of Ireland, holden "on the 24th inst. the secretary should transmit "copies of the petition to the undernamed per sons for the purpose of obtaining signatures "thereto, and receiving subscriptions to defray "the expences of it, and also, that it appeared to "the Committee highly desirable to have the sig"natures of the Catholic bishops and clergy to "the petition, and that the Secretary should "wait on the Most Rev. Doctor Troy, and acquaint him with that resolution." The Catholic Committee met again on the 26th of February, 1807, the Earl of Fingall in the chair, and settled the form of a letter to be written by their Secretary to the several gentlemen concerned, in the different counties, and on the next day, the 27th of February, 1807, that form was adopted.* the same civil offices, franchises, rewards and honours, as their fellow subjects of every other religious denomination. May it therefore please this honorable House to take into its consideration the statutes, penal and restrictive, now affecting the Catholics of Ireland, and to admit them to the full enjoyment of those privileges,' which every Briton regards as his best inheritance and which your petitioners most humbly presume to seek, as the brethren of Englishmen and coheirs of the constitution. : "And your petitioners will ever pray, &c. The following is the form of that circular letter 1807. 1807. Twelve months had elapsed, since the coalesced Conduct of ministry had been in power; and although Ireland the minis ters and the oppo..tion. SIR, "Under the direction of the Catholic Committee, I herewith send you the resolutions passed at the last general meeting in Dublin; from those resolutions you will perceive, that it has been, determined to obtain signatures for the petition in every part of Ireland. This has been done under the persuasion, that nothing can contribute more essensially to the success of the present application to Parliament, than by shewing, that the concur rent and universal wish of the Catholic body goes with it; and however self-evident this may be, yet there is no way, by which it can be demonstrated so well, as by the number and respectability of the signaturės. 66 At the desire of the Committee, to whom it has been given in charge to nominate gentlemen in the counties, for the purposes expressed in the resolutions; I have most earnestly to request your co-operation and assistance, Of your zeal and acti vity they cannot doubt, feeling, as you must, in common with them, the magnitude and importance of the object to be attained. They do not undertake to suggest any plan to you, or the gentlemen, with whom you may act ; as, on this occasion, you must be governed by your local knowledge, and the circumstances, in which you are placed; but they beg leave to intimate, that the signatures should be obtained as speedily as possible, for they have just learned, that the present session of Parliament will come to a close much sooner, than they expected. 66 I have nothing to add, but to assure you of the esteem with which เC "I am, Sir, “Your most obedient humble servant, Dublin, 4, Capel-street, March 6th, 1807. "P. S. Through the apprehension, that the petition might, by some mischance, find its way into the public prints, a thing, that would be highly indecorous and embarrassing, no more than a で were little satisfied with their exertions in her fa 1807. vor, she was however deeply indebted to them for the general restoration to her civil liberty, by permitting the suspension of the habeas corpus act to run out. The Irish were not sufficiently sensible of the benefit of being no longer at the mercy or caprice of ministers and their corrupt underlings, as they had unfortunately been for a period of 12 melancholy years. But the inefficient or mock 1evision of the magistracy, and the laboured efforts to keep the great question of emancipation unconditionally at rest, left more soreness and suspicion upon the Catholic body, than the revival of the habeas corpus act infused joy and confidence. Upon the empire at large the ministers had the merit of having conferred great benefit, by the reform of official abuses in the management of the public money, and the abolition of the unchristian traffic for enslaving human beings. Each of these acts tended in a certain degree to weaken the system. It's abettors were therefore proportionably assiduous in counteracting them. The secret passages to the back of the throne were daily thronged by those, who had the pass word or private key. They vied with each other in representing the servants of the crown, as destroying the constitution and usurping the royal rights, and were therefore to be shunned and abhorred by a patriot King. They pressed upon the royal mind the most pernicious few copies have been sent to the different counties. In your county they are in the hands of the following gentlemen, to whom I beg leave to refer you." |