PETITION, a term meaning generally a prayerful request for redress by a person aggrieved. It may be made in Great Britain to the Crown or its officers, or to either house of parlia ment, or in certain cases to courts of justice.
The right of petitioning the Crown was recognized indirectly as early as Magna Carta in the famous clause, Nulli vendemus, nulli negabimus aut differemus, rectum vel justitiam (25 Edw. I. c. 29), and directly at various periods later, e.g., in the articles of the Commons assented to by Henry IV., by which the king was to assign two days in the week for petitions (Rot. Part 8 Hen. IV., p. 585). The case of the seven bishops in 1688 confirmed the right, and finally the Bill of Rights in 1689 declared "that it is the right of the subjects to petition the king, and all commitments and prosecutions for such petitioning are illegal." Petitions to the Crown appear to have been at first for the redress of private and local grievances, or for remedies which the courts of law could not grant (May, Parl. Pr., 11th ed., 522). As equity grew into a system, petitions of this kind not seeking legislative remedies tended to become superseded by bills in chancery. Statutes were originally drawn up by the judges at the close of the session of parliament from the petitions of the Commons and the answers of the Crown. Under this system of drafting it was found that the tenor of the petition and answer were not always stated cor rectly. To obviate this inconvenience demands for legislation came in the reign of Henry VI. to be drawn up in the form of bills which the Crown could accept or reject, but could not alter. (See Anson, Law and Custom of the Constitution.) In the same reign the words "by authority of parliament" were added to the words of enactment, and from the time of Henry VII. public legislation has been by bill and not by petition.
Petitions to either house of the legislature seem to have been later in origin than petitions to the Crown. They are not referred to in the Bill of Rights, but the right of petition is a convention of the constitution. Petitions to the Lords or the whole parlia ment can be traced back to Henry III. No petition to the Com mons has been found earlier than Richard II. ; but from the time of Henry IV. petitions to the Commons have been freely made.
The political importance of petitioning dates from about the reign of Charles I. The development of the practice of petitioning had proceeded so far in the reign of Charles II. as to lead to the passing in 1662 of an Act (13 Car. II. c. 5) against "tumultuous petitioning," which is still on the statute book. It provides that no petition or address shall be presented to the king or either house of parliament by more than ten persons; nor shall any one procure above 20 persons to consent or set their hands to any petition for alteration of matters established by law in church or State, unless with the previous order of three justices of the county, or the major part of the grand jury. And in 1817 (57 Geo. III. c. 19 s. 23) meetings within a mile from Westminster Hall for the purpose of considering a petition to both houses or either house of parliament while either house is sitting were declared to be unlawful assemblies. Up to 1688 petitions to either house usually dealt only with some specific grievance. From that time dates the present practice of petitioning with regard to general measures of public policy. Petitions to the Houses of Lords or Commons must be framed in the form prescribed by the standing orders, must be properly superscribed, and must conclude with a prayer.
Petitions to the Commons must be in writing, must contain none but genuine signatures, and must be free from disrespectful language or imputations upon any tribunal or constituted author ity. They must be presented by a member of the house, except petitions to the House of Commons from the corporation of Lon don, which may be presented at the bar by the sheriffs, and formerly from the corporation of Dublin, presented by the lord mayor. There is no means of compelling a member to present a petition. The rules as to petitions to the House of Lords are similar. Applications for leave to bring before either house bills for private or local and personal matters must under the standing orders of both houses be made by petition; and the same rule obtains as to applications for leave to be heard in opposition to such bills. (See PETITION OF RIGHT and PRIVY COUNCIL, JUDICIAL COMMITTEE OF.) See Clifford, History of Private Bill Legislation (1887).