brethren, to come from ignorant persons who did not understand even the grounds of their dissent from the Established Church. Indeed, he had always supposed that Protestant Dissenters would be the last persons in the country who would wish to see severe punishments, or exclusions, enforced on account of religious opinions; and he concurred with the petitioners in thinking that the cause of religion was injured by such laws.

MAY 6.

A PETITION against the Catholic claims was presented by the Bishop of BATH and WELLS, from the Protestant Dissenters of Ebenezer Chapel, in the parish of St. Mary, Marlborough. In presenting the petition, the Bishop observed, that it was one which he had great pleasure in submitting to their lordships. It expressed the sentiments of a most respectable body of Dissenters, and the manner in which they spoke of the Establishment did great honour to the church and to them. The petition was remarkable for its good sense; but there were two points which he wished to notice-first, that there was a number of females among the petitioners; and secondly, that several of the names were not in the hand writing of the petitioners. He had asked the reason of so many names appearing in one hand, and was informed that it was a usual practice in the congregation for the deacon to sign the names of other persons, they being present and authorizing the signature. If there should be any objection to the petition on this account, he would present it as merely the petition of the persons who had signed

it. He wished the petition to be read at length, as the opinions it contained did honour to those from whom it came; and it was one of the best petitions in sentiment and language he ever had the honour to present in that house.

Lord KING had listened attentively to the reading of the petition, and thought the right reverend prelate must be rather singular as to his ideas of good sense, when he praised this petition so much. There appeared to be very little sense in it, and the little it contained was buried under a mass of words. He had a petition to present of a different purport. It came from the Unitarians of the town of Taunton. It expressed the sentiments of a numerous and respectable, and, what was more, a very honest body of Dissenters. Perhaps the presenting of it would give an opportunity for something to be said in the manner of a redoubtable doctor of Dublin, who fired off a double battery against the Catholics for believing too much, and the Unitarians for believng too little. The noble lord then pre

sented the petition, which was in favour of the Catholic claims.

The Bishop of BATH and WELLS and Lord KING interchanged a few words, which were not distinctly heard below the bar.

MAY 13.

The Marquis of LANSDOWN held in his hand petitions in favour of the Catholic Relief Bill now before the house, from Bridport, Plympton, and from the Dissenters of Chichester. With regard to the first of these, he stated, that he had been instructed to say that it would not have been presented had not a petition of a different tendency been got up signatures to the present petition were, however, far more numerous than those attached to that which opposed the bill.

The

Lord HOLLAND presented a petition to the same effect froin Stroud, in Gloucestershire. The petitioners were Dissenters, and the petition had been drawn up in consequence of a false notion having gone forth, that persons of the religious persuasion of the petitioners were hostile to the Catholic claims.

The Noble Lord also presented a petition in favour of the Catholics from New Ross, and from the ministers and elders of the Presbyterian Dissenters of Down and Antrim. The petitioners, in contradiction to the reports that the Presbyterians of the North of Ireland were unfavourable to the Catholic Claims, stated, that to the best of their belief the great body of Dissenters still adhered to the resolution which had been come to on that subject some years ago by the Synod of Ulster.

HOUSE OF COMMONS.
MAY 5.

Mr. DENMAN rose to present a petition, which, though signed by only three individuals, inhabitants of Derby, was every way worthy the attention of the House, since those individuals were of the highest respectability, and professed the most liberal principles. He believed the Honourable Member for Derbyshire would feel no hesitation in bearing testimony to the respectability of the parties who felt it their duty to approach the House on this occasion. They were respectively the ministers of congregations of the Presbyterian, Baptist and Independent deuomination, and their reason for petitioning the House was, because they had heard that a petition had been presented to Parliament on behalf of certain persons calling themselves Protestant Dissenters, of Derby, against the Bill for the relief of Roman Catholics,— a proceeding which they held to be not only illiberal in itself, but perfectly in

Sir F. BURDETT contended, that upon the principles laid down by his learned friend below him, and agreed to by the Right Hon. Secretary opposite, all prosecutions for religious opinions were inexpedient. It was agreed on all hands that religious opinions ought to be tolerated so long as they were expressed in temperate language; but it was now argued, that as soon as those opinions were so expressed as to disgust every honest mind, then they ought to be visited with punishment. It appeared to him, that under such circumstances they ought not to be noticed, because, if they were so poisonous as was represented, they carried along with them their own antidote. (Hear!) It was his opinion, that if Mr. Carlile had been left to him self, and had not been prosecuted by the Government, he would at this moment have been totally unheard of; whereas by prosecuting him, the Government had given him a notoriety which he could not otherwise have acquired, and had got themselves into a scrape from which they found some difliculty in getting extricated. He thought that the infliction of great severity on any man for his opinions, no matter how offensive they might be, was the most certain way not to wean him from, but to confirm him in, those obnoxious opinions.

Mr. W. SMITH and Lord BINNING Severally made a few observations-the one in favour, the other in condemnation of the prayer of the petition.

The petition was then laid upon the table.

Mr. BROUGHAM, in moving that it be printed, said, that he would take that opportunity of stating a fact which he had forgotten to state in presenting the petition. So far was the punishment inflicted on these petitioners from having put down publications of this obnoxious character, that if he was rightly informed, they were now sold openly in all parts of the town. (Hear.) It had been said, that if the discussion of religious truths were calmly conducted, it ought to be permitted. A wonderful admission truly! Why, where would be the use of the discussion of religion, if the argument was to be all on one side? (Hear.) He theu pointed out the glaring inconsistency of denying to the poor the right of reading any discussion upon the truths of Chris. tianity, and of allowing to the rich the privilege of having in their libraries the works of Gibbon, and all such writers.

Mr. HUME wished the Right Hon. Secretary opposite would answer him one question-Was not this country the only country in Europe where individuals were at present imprisoned for religious opinions? He recollected the time when

this country was filled with gladness and rejoicings because the inquisition was abolished in every country in Europe; but if our prisons continued to be filled as they were at present, with individuals suffering for religious opinions, England would succeed to the vacant post of inquisitor-general for Europe, than which he could conceive nothing more derogatory to its interests and honour. (Hear.)

Mr. PEEL declared it was quite ridiculous to talk of the prisons of the country being filled with sufferers for religious opinions, when it was notorious that there were not more than eleven persons confined for blasphemous publications; and of that number only five had been prosecuted since his accession to his present office. (Hear!)

The ATTORNEY-GENERAL defended the course which had been pursued by the law-officers of the Crown with regard to these petitioners. He contended that the prosecutions which had been instituted against them had been effectual in suppressing blasphemous publications, and argued that it was unfair to blame mimisters for keeping them in prison, when they were consigned to it by a sentence of the Court of King's Bench, arising out of those prosecutions. They were most of them imprisoned for selling Palmer's Principles of Nature, and he would say that a more horrible, blasphemous, and scurrilous libel, than that work, had never issued from the press of any country. The juries who had tried these petitioners were not more shocked by the work itself, thau by the manner in which the parties had ventured to defend it.

Mr. BROUGHAM did not blame the law-officers of the Crown for prosecuting these individuals, but rather for leaving them unprosecuted, till their offences had risen to such a height as to be thought fit ground for altering the old statute law of the country. He did not blame them for prosecuting Mr. Carlile; but he did blame them for bringing down six new acts upon the country, without trying the efficacy of those which previously were in existence. (Hear!) Long before those acts were passed, Benbow had kindly offered the throats of several individuals to the knife. Why had he escaped prosecution? If any man deserved prosecu tion it was that individual; but the Go. vernment abstained from indicting him and others, who were equally culpable with him, in order that they might repeat their offences, and so afford a pretext for innovating upon the constitution. (Hear!) It had been said that prosecutions were not instituted because juries would not convict. He had always said, that, though juries might not be inclined to convict for libels against the Govern

ment, they would be ready enough to convict for libels inciting to assassination. With regard to Palmer's Principles of Nature, a work which he had never read, he would undertake to say that it was not half so bad as any publication of either Hume or Gibbon. Voltaire's works were full of ribaldry and indecency, and yet he had never heard that they had been prosecuted for corrupting the morals

of the ladies and gentlemen at the west end of the town. (A laugh). If works of this description were to be prosecuted, he thought that the prosecutious should be directed to the works read by the rich, instead of being confined, as they now were, to works read exclusively by the poor.

The petition was then ordered to be printed.

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