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    Bridport , Feb . 23 , 1812 . My Lord , I acknowledge myself deficient in not giving you a more particular description of the persons who affixed their names to the petition , which I

    had the honour of sending your Lordship . It was signed by some of the principal inhabitants , chiefly manufacturers of the town of Bridport , respectable for their information , their character and their property . In this number are included the two bailiffs

    and the other members of the corporation . These are Protestant Dissenters belonging to the Unitarian Chapel iti this place , of which I am the stated minister . Besides those of our society , three or four of the Established Church , a few of the

    Independents or Calvinistic Dissenters , and five or six worthy Quakers in creditable situations of life , sanctioned the petition by their signatures . In

    addition to these , some of the lower classes among us signed their names , but none of them , I believe , except those of good characters , and who being led to understand , highly approved the object of the petition .

    My motive for requesting your Lordship to state it to the House as * ' the petition of individual Christians of different denominations , " was , that it might not appear as the petition of

    the inhabitants at large of Bridport ; for this would have jbeen incorrect , none of them being applied to , but those only whom we supposed favourable to the liberal sentiments therein

    contained . Similar petitions , I apprehend , my Lord , will be sent from many other places , to be presented to both Houses of Parliament during this session . I am just informed by a friend of Mr . Wy vill , that petitions of ttiis kind are

    prepared at Hull with six hundred signatures , and in Ndrtiiumberland and Durham , with not less than live thousand names affixed , and that Lord Grey has accepted in the handsomest terms the proposal to present them . My correspondent tells me ,

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    that many Catholics of the first respectability in the Ndrth have signed our petition , as well as many members of the Established Church , with some of the clergy . When I received a printed copy of this petition , with the request that if

    approved of by myself and my friends at Bridport , we would have it transcribed on parchment , and get signatures to it , no recommendation was given us respecting the peer , of whom we were to beg the favour to present it to the House of Lords . Our

    attention , however , was directed to your Lordship as the well-known friend and eloquent advocate of the civil and religious rights of men , and more especially on account of your liberality in presenting so many petitions in behalf of the Protestant Dissenters

    against Lord Sidmouth's Bill , in the last Session of Parliament . Should the above statement prove perfectly satisfactory to your Lord ^ ship , you will have the goodness to accede to the request of the subscribers ; if , however , ray Lord , you feel

    the least objection , we cannot think for a moment of pressing it on your Lordship . In that case , you will do us the favour to return the petition to me immediately . I have the honour to be , my Lord , in the name of the petitioners , your Lordship ' s most obedient and humble servant , THOMAS HOWE .

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    Correspondence between the . Rev . T . Howe and Lord Ershzne . 411

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    the petition useful to the important cause which it supports . I am , Sir , Your most obedient Servant , ERSKINE . Mr . Thomas Howe , Bridport .

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    2 , Upper Grosvenor Street , Sir , Feb . 25 , 1812 . I am favoured with your obliging and satisfactory letter , and beg' you will be yourself assured and assure

    all the other subscribers to the petition , that nothing was or is farther from my thoughts , than to decline presenting it . On the contrary , I observe with pleasure that it embraces the claims of Christians of

    every denomination , a liberality and justice which , I am sorry to say , has not always marked the language and conduct of Protestants , but . which I now hope to see universal , and which

    must sooner or later ( and at no very distant period ) be successful . You are already possessed of my reason for writing to you , which not only the forms of the House of Lords , but also the reason of the thing rendered

• Citation
  • Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), July 2, 1824, page 411, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2526/page/27/