tentive consideration of the different circumstances relating to the cause, a final decision of the business before them cannot take place in the course of the present ses sions and that not improbably the whole of the present parliament may be consumed in a tedious and expensive litigation." 66 Resolved, that from the necessary length of the proceeding, and from the approach of a general election, which must occur not later than Spring 1791, (nearly two years more) it promises to be fruitless, as far as it respects the representation of Westminster in the present parliament." "Resolved, that it be recommended to the petitioners to withdraw their petitions under the special circumstances of the case." "That (notwithstanding this extraordinary, and perhaps unparalleled, application from a court of justice to its suitors) lord Hood, and the other petitioners, having refused to withdraw their respective petitions, the proceedings of the committee continued till the 6th of July, 1789, when a very small comparative progress having been made, the petitioners, from a conviction of the impossibility of any decision by the committee, were compelled to abandon their petitions without any effect, or tendency towards effect, after a tedious and expensive litigation of three months and three days; and with an expence to the petitioning candidate of more than 14,000l. That under these circumstances, as the petitioner declined demanding a scrutiny before the returning officer, so is he compelled to disclaim all scrutiny before a commit. tee of the house of commons. For VOL. XXXIII. although that act (the 10th of George III.) by which the said committee is appointed, recites in its preamble, that "Whereas the present mode of decision upon petitions complaining of undue elections or returns of members to serve in parliament, frequently obstructs public business, occasions much expence, trouble, and delay to the parties, &c. for remedy thereof, &c." yet it would be less expensive and less ruinous to the petitioner to be impeached, even according to the present mode of conducting impeachments, and to be convicted too of real crimes, than to be guilty of attempting to obtain justice for himself, and the injured electors of Westminster, by the only mode of decision which the new remedial statute (the 10th of George III.) has appointed for that purpose, however well adapted that mode of decision may be to settle the disputed claims of the proprietors of small boroughs, for whose usurped and smuggled interest alone the framers of that bill, and of those bills which have been since built upon it, seem to have had any real concern. That by the 9th of Anne, chap. 5, the right of electors (before unlimited by qualification in the objects of their choice) to be restricted in cities and boroughs, is citizens and burgesses respectively having an estate, freehold, or copyhold, for their own respective lives, of the annual value of three hun. dred pounds above reprises. That thisvery moderate restriction, (however vicious in its principle) leaving all citizens and burgesses eligible possessing life estates, freehold or copyhold of the annual value of three hundred pounds, will G hence henceforth serve only as a snare to the candidate, and a mockery of the electors, if such candidate possessing a life estate of three hundred pounds a year, must expend fifty thousand pounds (and there is no probable appearance that a hundred thousand pounds would be sufficient) in attempting, by a tedious, expensive, and ineffectual litigation, to sustain the choice of his constituents, and to prove himself duly elected. "That though the petitioner complains (as he hereby does) of the undue election and return of lord Hood and the right honourable Charles Fox, to this present parliament, for the city and liberty of Westminster, yet is the petitioner, by a persecution and proscription of more than twenty years, disabled from making that pecuniary sacrifice, which by the present new mode of investigation is (and ought not to be) necessary effectually to prove such undue return: and yet the petitioner fully trusts, that notwithstanding a very great majority of the house of commons (for so it still continues to be styled) are not as they ought to be, elected by the commons of this realm, (in any honest meaning of the word, "Commons") and must therefore naturally and necessarily have a bias and interest against a fair and real representation of the people; yet the petitioner fully trusts, that he shall be able to lay before a com. mittee, "chosen and sworn to try and determine the matter of this petition," evidence of such a nature, as that the committee will, on their oaths, "think proper to report to the house some resolution or resolutions, other than the determination of the return, and that the house will make such order thereon as to them shall seem proper." And the petitioner doubts not, that as an elector at least, he shall in consequence receive such redress as will be much more important to him, and the electors of Westminster, than any determination of the return." Memorial presented by the English Roman Catholics. To the Right Honourable William Pitt, First Lord of the Treasury, and Chancellor of his Majesty's Court of Exchequer, &c. &c. The Memorial of his Majesty's English subjects, professing the Catholic Religion, Sheweth, THAT by the laws now in force against persons professing the catholic religion, your memorialists are deprived of many of the rights of English subjects, and the common rights of mankind. They are prohibited, under the most severe penalties, exercising any act of religion according to their own mode of worship. They are subject to heavy punishments for educating their children in their own religious principles at home, and they are also subject to heavy punishments for sending their children for educa tion abroad. They are made incapable of serving in his Majesty's armies and navies. They are restrained from prac tising the law as barristers, advocates, solicitors, attornies, or proctors. They are obliged, on every oc casion, to disclose the most secret transactions of their families, by reason of the expensive and perplexing obligation of inrolling their deeds. They are subjected, by annual acts acts of the legislature, to the igno minious fine of the double land tax. They are deprived of that constitutional right of English free holders, voting for county mem bers. They are not allowed to vote at the election of any other members. They are therefore ab. solutely unrepresented in parlia ment. They are excluded from all places, civil and military. They are disqualified from a seat in the house of commons. Their peers are deprived of their hereditary seat in parliament. And their clergy, for exercising their functions, are exposed to the heaviest penalties and punishments, and in some cases to death. That the laws which subject them to these disabilites, penalties, and punishments, were passed against them in times of intolerance, for crimes of which they are not guilty, and for principles which they do not profess. That if any motives of policy ever existed, which, in any point of view, or by the opinions of any set of men, could justify the gene ral necessity or expediency of those laws, they have long since entirely ceased to continue them; therefore must be unjust, as it withholds from so many subjects the first rights and comforts of society; unwise, as it produces disunion among the people; and impolitic, as it deprives the State of the labours and services of so many of its loyal subjects. That by the gracious and salutary act passed in the 20th year of his present majesty, that one particular law which most prevented their safety, and quietly enjoying their landed property, was formal ly repealed, and an oath prescribed to them by which, in the most solemn, most explicit, and most unequivocal terms, they disclaim the belief, that there exists in any foreign prince, prelate, state or potentate, either directly or indi rectly, any civil jurisdiction or power, superiority or pre-eminence whatsoever, within this realm; and by which, in terms equally expli cit and unequivocal, they avow their absolute and unreserved allegiance and fidelity to his majesty's person and government, the succession of the crown in his family, and the British constitution. That the English catholics have universally taken this oath. That their general conduct has been blameless and inoffensive. That they hold no principles which can be construed to extend to the subversion; disturbance, or disquiet of the civil or ecclesiastical government of this country. That they live in the completest harmony with their fellow-subjects, only separated from them by a difference of opinion in matters of religion, and only prevented from falling into the general mass of the community, by the distinctions produced and kept alive by the laws still remaining in force against them. That the British government and the nation at large, have long been sensible of this; and therefore (with an humanity for which the English catholics are truly grateful) have not permitted the laws against them to be extended in their utmost extent. Hence, for a considerable time, none of these laws which affect their lives, have been carried into execution; and there have not been many instances G 2 where henceforth serve only as a snare to the candidate, and a mockery of the electors, if such candidate possessing a life estate of three hundred pounds a year, must expend fifty thousand pounds (and there is no probable appearance that a hundred thousand pounds would be sufficient) in attempting, by a tedious, expensive, and ineffectual litigation, to sustain the choice of his constituents, and to prove himself duly elected. "That though the petitioner complains (as he hereby does) of the undue election and return of lord Hood and the right honourable Charles Fox, to this present parliament, for the city and liberty of Westminster, yet is the petitioner, by a persecution and proscription of more than twenty years, disabled from making that pecuniary sacrifice, which by the present new mode of investigation is (and ought not to be) necessary effectually to prove such undue return: and yet the petitioner fully trusts, that notwithstanding a very great majority of the house of commons (for so it still continues to be styled) are not as they ought to be, elected by the commons of this realm, (in any honest meaning of the word, "Commons") and must therefore naturally and necessarily have a bias and interest against a fair and real representation of the people; yet the petitioner fully trusts, that he shall be able to lay before a com. mittee, "chosen and sworn to try and determine the matter of this petition," evidence of such a nature, as that the committee will, on their oaths, "think proper to report to the house some resolution or resolutions, other than the determination of the return, and that the house will make such order thereon as to them shall seem proper." And the petitioner doubts not, that as an elector at least, he shall in consequence receive such redress as will be much more important to him, and the electors of Westminster, than any determination of the return." Memorial presented by the English Roman Catholics. To the Right Honourable William Pitt, First Lord of the Treasury, and Chancellor of his Majesty's Court of Exchequer, &c. &c. The Memorial of his Majesty's English subjects, professing the Catholic Religion, Sheweth, Tagainst persons professing the THAT by the laws now in force catholic religion, your memorialists are deprived of many of the rights of English subjects, and the common rights of mankind. They are prohibited, under the most severe penalties, exercising any act of religion according to their own mode of worship. They are subject to heavy punishments for educating their children in their own religious principles at home, and they are also subject to heavy punishments for sending their children for education abroad. They are made incapable of serying in his Majesty's armies and navies. They are restrained from prac tising the law as barristers, advocates, solicitors, attornies, or proctors. They are obliged, on every oc casion, to disclose the most secret transactions of their families, by reason of the expensive and perplexing obligation of inrolling their deeds. They are subjected, by annual acts acts of the legislature, to the igno minious fine of the double land tax. They are deprived of that constitutional right of English free holders, voting for county mem bers. They are not allowed to vote at the election of any other members. They are therefore ab. solutely unrepresented in parlia ment. They are excluded from all places, civil and military. They are disqualified from a seat in the house of commons. Their peers are deprived of their hereditary seat in parliament. And their clergy, for exercising their functions, are exposed to the heaviest penalties and punishments, and in some cases to death. That the laws which subject them to these disabilites, penalties, and punishments, were passed against them in times of intolerance, for crimes of which they are not guilty, and for principles which they do not profess. That if any motives of policy ever existed, which, in any point of view, or by the opinions of any set of men, could justify the gene ral necessity or expediency of those laws, they have long since entirely ceased to continue them; therefore must be unjust, as it withholds from so many subjects the first rights and comforts of society; unwise, as it produces disunion among the people; and impolitic, as it deprives the State of the labours and services of so many of its loyal subjects. That by the gracious and salutary act passed in the 20th year of his present majesty, that one particular law which most prevented their safety, and quietly enjoying their landed property, was formal ly repealed, and an oath prescribed to them by which, in the most solemn, most explicit, and most unequivocal terms, they disclaim the belief, that there exists in any foreign prince, prelate, state or potentate, either directly or indi rectly, any civil jurisdiction or power, superiority or pre-eminence whatsoever, within this realm; and by which, in terms equally expli cit and unequivocal, they avow their absolute and unreserved allegiance and fidelity to his majesty's person and government, the succession of the crown in his family, and the British constitution. That the English catholics have universally taken this oath. That their general conduct has been blameless and inoffensive. That they hold no principles which can be construed to extend to the subversion; disturbance, or disquiet of the civil or ecclesiastical government of this country. That they live in the completest harmony with their fellow-subjects, only separated from them by a difference of opinion in matters of religion, and only prevented from falling into the general mass of the community, by the distinctions produced and kept alive by the laws still remaining in force against them. That the British government and the nation at large, have long been sensible of this; and therefore (with an humanity for which the English catholics are truly grate ful) have not permitted the laws against them to be extended in their utmost extent. Hence, for a considerable time, none of these laws which affect their lives, have been carried into execution; and there have not been many instances G 2 where |