PETITION ( Lat. petitio. from peterr, to seek; connected with Gk. 7ireanat, priest/mi. Slot. pat, to fly). A supplication preferred to one capable of granting it. The right of a British subject to petition the sovereign or eithet House of Parliament for redress of grievances is a fun damental principle of the English Constitution and has been exercised from very early times. The right was so generally exercised in the time of Edward I. and Edward 11. that it became necessary to formulate rules and methods by which the task of bearing petitions could be facilitated. Those which could not be answered without special reference to the King formed a special branch of business, and it was from the share of the Chancellor in examining and report ing on petitions for clemency and favor that his equitable jurisdiction grew up in the fourteenth century. The nomination of 'receivers' and 'triers' of petitions became a part of the opening business of every Parliament, and proclamation was made inviting all persons to resort to the receivers. The receivers were clerks or masters in chancery; the triers were selected by the King from the Lords, spiritual and temporal, and from the justices. The triers could call to their as sistance the Chancellor, Treasurer, Steward, and Chamberlain. After examining into the nature of the grievances for which redress was sought, they referred the petitions to certain of the courts or to Parliament for further action.
In the time of Richard 11. the work of receiv ing and hearing petitions was divided into three parts; one part for the consideration of the King, one for the Council. and one for Parliament. The increasing power of the Commons over taxes and expenditures vastly augmented the importance of the right of petition to the Crown. In the four teenth century they began the policy of accom panying their grants with petitions for redress in the name of the whole community. Later the
petition for redress preceded the grant, and the latter was made conditional upon the promise of the King to provide the desired relief.
Since the revolution of 1688 the practice has been gradually introduced of petitioning Parlia ment. not so much for the redress of specific grievances as regarding general questions of pub lic policy. Petitions must be in proper form and respect ful in language; and there are cases where petitions to the House of Commons will only be received if recommended by the Crown. A peti tion must, in ordinary cases, he presented by a member of the House to which it is addressed; but petitions from the Corporation of London may be presented by the sheriffs or Lord Mayor. Peti tions from the Corporation of Dublin have also been allowed to he presented by the Lord Mayor of that city.
The practice of the House of Lords is to allow a petition to be made the subject of a debate when it is presented; and unless a debate has arisen on it.. no public record is kept of its substance. or the parties by whom it is signed. In the house of Commons petitions not relating to matters of urgency are referred to the Committee on Public Petitions, and in certain eases ordered to be printed.
The Constitution of the United States, like that of Great Britain, guarantees to every citizen the right of petition for a redress of grievances.
This eonstitutional right was practically nulli fied once in our history by the action of the National House of Representatives in the case of those petitions which related to the aboli tion of negro slavery. This was the so-called `gag' resolution of January, 1S40, which pro ided that no anti-slavery petition should be re ei.i%ed or heard by the House of Representatives.