PETITIONS RELATING TO LIMERICK TAXATION. 17 PETITION FROM LIMERICK. To the Right Honourable and Honourable the Knights, Citizens and Burgesses, in Parliament assembled. The PETITION of the thereunder- signed Inhabitants of the City and Liberties of Limerick Respectfully Sheweth; THAT the city of Limerick is a city by prescription, as well as by charter, en- joying franchises, privileges and immunities, granted and confirmed bv their Majesties King John, King Edward the first, King Henry the fifth, Queen " Elizabeth, King James the first, and others, His present Majesty's royal predecessors. That under these grants and charters, estates and revenues of great value, are vested in the whole corporate body for the public uses of the city, and for the main- tenance of public works, establishments and charities, and are disposable by the consent of the citizens at large. - - That these revenues have been illegally diverted to other objects, and taxes imposed on your Petitioners to a great and oppressive extent, to make good this misapplication. That improper persons have been appointed to collect these taxes, and have been for years continued in office, though defaulters. That thereby great losses have accrued to your Petitioners, - as well as to the public, many thousand pounds remaining due to the consolidated fund, and totally unprovided for, unless by a re- assessment of your Petitioners, a measure which would produce the utmost pressure of distress. That your Petitioners prepared a petition during the late session of Parliament, which was presented to your honourable House, setting forth these and other grievances, to which they humbly beg leave to refer. That by the suppression and spoliation of the ancient corporate records, your Petitioners are deprived of the ordinary means of procuring redress. That in a Report of a Committee of the late Irish House of Commons, agreed to by the House itself, it is stated, that " the interposition of Parliament was absolutely necessary, for redressing the abuses of the corporation of Limerick, and for preventing their recurrence." That the continuance and magnitude of these abuses produced, in the present Parliament, a special Report, made to your honourable House, to which your Petitioners beg leave to refer. That your Petitioners relying on the late decisions of two Committees of your honourable House, did, several of them, regularly apply for the freedom of said city, in the different rights of birth, servitude, and marriage, and produced evidence to establish their several claims; but that they have been referred to a very distant day for an answer, whether or not such claims will be allowed. That your Petitioners humbly beg leave to represent these facts to your honourable House, and to pray an inquiry into the same; feeling every confidence that the Legislature will afford to a suffering population of nearly seventy thousand, such alleviation and relief as the justice of the case may require. That your Petitioners beg leave to assure your honourable House, that warmly attached " to the laws and institutions of their country, they seek not to infringe upon any chartered or vested right; but that, on the contrary, they seek to restore and uphold, not to destroy; and they rely on the wisdom and justice of Parliament, to afford them such remedy as to the House may seem expedient. [ Here follow the signatures of two hundred and fifty- eight persons.] 617. E