.jpg)
The Pamphlet Collection of Sir Robert Stout: Volume 51
Appendix III. — Petition form to the House of Commons
page break.gif)
Appendix III.
Petition form to the House of Commons.
The Petition of________humbly sheweth:—
| 1st. | That there is in Parliament a House of irresponsible lawmakers generally known as "Peers;" |
| 2nd. | That the members of the said House are mostly hereditary, succeeding each other by reason of pedigree, or mere animal succession; |
| 3rd. | That such qualification for the serious business of legislation renders Englishmen ridiculous in the eyes of rational persons all over the world; |
| 4th. | That the said anomalous House has for centuries grievously oppressed the People of these Islands by the framing of bad laws, and the rejection or mutilation of such as have been of the clearest public utility; |
| 5th. | That, during the happy period of the Commonwealth, your Honourable House wisely passed an Act abolishing hereditary legislators as "useless and dangerous," and that the Nation in consequence reaped the greatest moral and material advantages at home and abroad. |
May it therefore please your Honourable House forthwith to revive said Statute of Abolition, permitting such Peers as the People in their wisdom may duly elect to serve them in Parliament to take their seats in your Honourable House.
And your Petitioners will ever pray, &c.
(Signed,)
[Drawn up by the Author.]