Free Translator Free Translator
Translators Dictionaries Courses Other
Home
English Dictionary      examples: 'day', 'get rid of', 'New York Bay'




Petition   Listen
noun
Petition  n.  
1.
A prayer; a supplication; an imploration; an entreaty; especially, a request of a solemn or formal kind; a prayer to the Supreme Being, or to a person of superior power, rank, or authority; also, a single clause in such a prayer. "A house of prayer and petition for thy people." "This last petition heard of all her prayer."
2.
A formal written request addressed to an official person, or to an organized body, having power to grant it.
3.
Specifically: (Law), A request to government, in either of its branches, for the granting of a particular grace or right, or for the legislature to take a specific action; in distinction from a memorial, which calls certain facts to mind. The petition may be signed by one or any number of persons.
4.
The written document containing a petition (senses 1 or 2).
Petition of right (Law), a petition to obtain possession or restitution of property, either real or personal, from the Crown, which suggests such a title as controverts the title of the Crown, grounded on facts disclosed in the petition itself.
The Petition of Right (Eng. Hist.), the parliamentary declaration of the rights of the people, assented to by Charles I.






Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48








Advanced search
     Find words:
Starting with
Ending with
Containing
Matching a pattern  

Synonyms
Antonyms
Quotes
Words linked to  

only single words



Share |





"Petition" Quotes from Famous Books



... flung the windows open and began to pull the covers off the bird- cages; but I came in before the operation could be finished. In the interests of common morality I thought it best to eject him from the premises before he had time to frame a lie. About a week after this I received a petition, signed with his mark, recounting his faithful services, expressing his surprise and regret at the sudden and unprovoked manner in which I had dismissed him, and insinuating that some enemy or rival had poisoned my benevolent ...
— Behind the Bungalow • EHA

... voices, and hurried steps of the soldiers without, and the quick note of alarum, whose fearful summons could not be mistaken. These sounds, though long expected, struck heavily on her heart; and she uttered a fervent petition to the Virgin, to speed the wanderer on his doubtful way. She heard various reports of what had taken place, from her attendants; but she prudently waited for the storm of passion to subside, before she ventured into the presence of M. d'Aulney, conscious that the utmost effort ...
— The Rivals of Acadia - An Old Story of the New World • Harriet Vaughan Cheney

... an odd letter! It may require an immediate answer; or is some begging petition, perhaps. Get on with ...
— East Lynne • Mrs. Henry Wood

... stated that, while the government had no power whatever over slavery in the States, it had complete control over slavery in the District, which was a totally distinct affair. He urged a respectful treatment of the petitions, and defended the right of petition and the motives and characters of the petitioners. He spoke briefly, and, except when he was charged with placing himself at the head of the petitioners, coldly, and did not touch on the merits of the question, either ...
— Daniel Webster • Henry Cabot Lodge

... unto Esther on the second day at the banquet of wine What is thy petition, queen Esther? and it shall be granted thee: and what is thy request? and it shall be performed, even to the half of ...
— The Dore Gallery of Bible Illustrations, Complete • Anonymous

... writing, and 100 members of Parliament signed a request for a commutation of the sentence. After the most careful consideration, however, Fitzjames could entertain no reasonable doubt of the rightness of the verdict, and Mr. Matthews agreed with him. A petition from three jurors was sent in upon Sunday, the 21st, but did not alter the case. Finally, upon the same afternoon, Lipski confessed his guilt and the sentence was executed next day. 'I hope and believe ...
— The Life of Sir James Fitzjames Stephen, Bart., K.C.S.I. - A Judge of the High Court of Justice • Sir Leslie Stephen

... sentence. This frequently gives the translation an awkward appearance. Thus the final sentence above, which means literally "they shall never become blue instantly," signifies "Grant that they shall never become blue", i.e., shall never fail in their purpose, and grant our petition instantly. ...
— Seventh Annual Report • Various

... to be paid after 1553, in which year on May 26 Edward VI "of happy memory" was pleased to grant a Charter to the School and to endow it with property. This he did at the humble petition of John Nowell, vicar, Henry Tennant, gentleman, and other inhabitants of the town and parish of ...
— A History of Giggleswick School - From its Foundation 1499 to 1912 • Edward Allen Bell

... of the Spanish Moors, unable wholly to relinquish the hope of restoration to the delicious abodes of their ancestors, continued for many generations, and perhaps still continue, to put up a petition to that effect in their mosques every Friday. Pedraza, ...
— The History of the Reign of Ferdinand and Isabella The Catholic, V2 • William H. Prescott

... ruined by extravagance and luxury, forfeit pity in censure by imploring your assistance; no slaves of idleness, no dupes of ambition, invite reproof for neglected concerns in soliciting your liberality. The objects of this petition are reduced, indeed, from affluence to penury, but the change has been wrought through the exaltation of their souls, not through the depravity of their conduct. Whatever may be their calls upon our tenderness, their claims, to every thinking mind, are still higher to ...
— Brief Reflections relative to the Emigrant French Clergy (1793) • Frances Burney

... Court[139]. These men then put the decree into its final shape by means of the persons appointed to assist them[140] (men who could puzzle even the professors themselves in logical discussions), and endorsed it on the litigant's petition in characters which at once struck awe into the reader, and which seemed actually swollen with official importance[141]. The name and titles of the 'completing' officer ...
— The Letters of Cassiodorus - Being A Condensed Translation Of The Variae Epistolae Of - Magnus Aurelius Cassiodorus Senator • Cassiodorus (AKA Magnus Aurelius Cassiodorus Senator)

... of us signed a petition and had it sent to the governor himself. We didn't even get a reply. Vidac must have heard about it and told Winters and Bush to take it easy, because the next day we were allowed to eat again without having to sign over part of our profit ...
— The Space Pioneers • Carey Rockwell

... this petition to you, as I would have addressed it to our mother had she been here. If, in three weeks, I say to you, 'Susie, I am certain that I love him,' will you allow me to go to him, myself, quite alone, and ask him if he will have me for his wife? ...
— L'Abbe Constantin, Complete • Ludovic Halevy

... violated; that neither slavery nor involuntary servitude shall exist except as a punishment for crime; that no bill of attainder or ex-post-facto law shall be passed; that no law shall be passed abridging the freedom of speech or of the press, or the rights of the people to peaceably assemble and petition the Government for a redress of grievances; that no law shall be made respecting the establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof, and that the free exercise and enjoyment of religious profession and worship without discrimination ...
— The Philippines: Past and Present (vol. 1 of 2) • Dean C. Worcester

... 1775, it was learned that King George would not receive the petition asking for redress, and the idea of the Declaration of Independence was conceived. On May 15, 1776, the congress voted that all British authority ought to be suppressed. Thomas Jefferson, in December, drafted the Constitution, and it was adopted ...
— The World's Greatest Books, Vol XII. - Modern History • Arthur Mee

... called Anglo-Saxons. Nobody, save a priest possessed of the art of consulting ancient chronicles, can even guess how long it is since they came to the island of Britain, then distracted with civil war. They came, however, on the petition of the natives of the island, for the aid of the Angles was requested by the southern inhabitants. Provinces were granted in recompense of the aid thus liberally afforded, and the greater proportion of the island ...
— Waverley Volume XII • Sir Walter Scott

... Labrador. Lacey, John P. Laglaize, Leon. Lampson & Co., C.M. Lark, meadow, eaten as game. Laurentides Park. Law, making close seasons by petition; of Nature, an inexorable; prohibiting firearms to aliens; proposed for animal nuisances; proposed for Sunday gun. Lawmakers, work with. Lawrence, S.C. Laws, absolutely necessary to wild life; how to secure new; new, needed. Lawyer, George A. ...
— Our Vanishing Wild Life - Its Extermination and Preservation • William T. Hornaday

... believe (with Bayzawi) that they were three youths who were shut up in a grotto by a rock-slip. Each prayed for help through the merits of some good deed: when the first had adjured Allah the mountain cracked till light appeared; at the second petition it split so that they saw one another and after the third it opened. However that may be, Kitmir is one of the seven favoured animals: the others being the Hudhud (hoopoe) of Solomon (Koran xxii. 20); the she-camel of Salih (chaps. Ixxxvii.); ...
— The Book of the Thousand Nights and a Night, Volume 3 • Richard F. Burton

... petition for a holiday on Christmas day. Such holidays are deducted from the teacher's time, and it is customary for the boys to "turn out" the teacher who refuses to grant them, by barring him out of the school-house on Christmas and New Year's morning. ...
— The Hoosier Schoolmaster - A Story of Backwoods Life in Indiana • Edward Eggleston

... petitioned the duke for a vicar, a real vicar. "Ours cometh never nigh us," said they, "this six months past; our children they die unchristened, and our folk unburied, except by some chance comer." Giles' influence baffled this just complaint once; but a second petition was prepared, and he gave Margaret little hope that the present position could be ...
— The Cloister and the Hearth • Charles Reade

... passed March 3, 1887, to pay out of the Treasury to the persons entitled to receive the same the amounts due upon all prior mortgages upon the Eastern and Middle divisions of said railroad out of any money in the Treasury not otherwise appropriated, whereupon the Attorney-General prepared a petition to be presented to the court, offering to redeem said prior liens in such manner as the court might direct, and praying that thereupon the United States might be held to be subrogated to all the rights of said prior lien holders and that a receiver ...
— Compilation of the Messages and Papers of the Presidents • William McKinley

... have come to hand from Bishop Puginier regarding the martyrdom of the Chinese priest Cap. For three days he suffered excruciating torments. On the fourth day the mandarin asked him to translate the Lord's Prayer. When he came to the third petition, "Thy kingdom come," he was asked of what kingdom he spoke. He replied, "Of God's kingdom." The mandarin immediately ordered him to ...
— Donahoe's Magazine, Volume 15, No. 1, January 1886 • Various

... prisoner was sober enough, and he begged hard to be let off and allowed to go home. His friends, too, joined in his petition and promised to guarantee that he would not come back again during the term of court. But ...
— The Sheriffs Bluff - 1908 • Thomas Nelson Page

... ordered me to say to all Persons, and in all Companies, that he had allotted a Benefaction of 400 pounds for that Use. And when some of the principal Parishioners had fixed upon the Boundaries of their new intended Parish, and had presented a kind of Petition or Memorial to him, To have those limits specified in the intended Act of Parliament, they used the following expressions. "Whereas it hath been made known unto Us,—That your Lordship hath proposed to endeavour ...
— Some Remains (hitherto unpublished) of Joseph Butler, LL.D. • Joseph Butler

... ancient, portions. It was privileged as a place of sanctuary when Wyre Forest was infested by men who lived merry lives, and who did not refuse to shed their brothers' blood. It had the privilege of taxing traders upon the Severn, as appears from a petition presented by "the men of Bristowe and Gloucester" in the reign of Henry IV., praying for exemption. It obtained its charter of incorporation from Edward IV., and one granting the elective franchise ...
— Handbook to the Severn Valley Railway - Illustrative and Descriptive of Places along the Line from - Worcester to Shrewsbury • J. Randall

... English judicial system is that no court of appeal exists to which a sentence might be referred for review, so that the most unjust and unequal sentences are constantly passed from which there is no appeal but in the forlorn hope—rather, entire hopelessness—of a petition to the Home Secretary. I have often seen a man who had been sentenced to five years for murder working by the side of another whose sentence was twenty years for some crime against property. Such contrasts, of course, excite great discontent, and in some cases are the reason why men set up ...
— Bidwell's Travels, from Wall Street to London Prison - Fifteen Years in Solitude • Austin Biron Bidwell

... point which to Soames had never been in doubt. When they had obtained a decree to that effect they must wait to see if it was obeyed. If not, it would constitute legal desertion, and they should obtain evidence of misconduct and file their petition for divorce. All of which Soames knew perfectly well. They had marked him ten and one. This simplicity in his sister's case only made him the more desperate about the difficulty in his own. Everything, in fact, was driving him towards the simple solution of ...
— Forsyte Saga • John Galsworthy

... cousin, who seemed to think variety necessary to amuse, asked if we loved music, which being answered in the affirmative, she begged the other ladies to entertain us with one of their family concerts, and we joining in the petition, proper orders were given, and we adjourned into another room, which was well furnished with musical instruments. Over the door was a beautiful Saint Cecilia, painted in crayons by Miss Mancel, and a fine piece of carved work over the chimney, done by Miss Trentham, ...
— A Description of Millenium Hall • Sarah Scott

... instead of attending the Speaker to the other House. But as the members seemed very much inclined to act like schoolboys, the Secretary of State had to speak against time on the subject of baking. He analyzed the petition, which he said he would not read through, but the last ...
— Lord George Bentinck - A Political Biography • Benjamin Disraeli

... unreasonable persons. That several scholars would,, upon small pledges given in, borrow books . . . that were never restored. Polydore Virgil . . . borrowed many after such a way; but at length being denied, did upon petition made to the king obtain his license for the taking out of any MS. for his use (in order, I suppose, for the collecting materials for his English History or Chronicle of England), which being imitated by others, the library thereby suffered very great ...
— Old English Libraries, The Making, Collection, and Use of Books • Ernest A. Savage

... more than his own, was anxious that a petition should be presented to the king in his behalf; trusting, by this means, to excite for her his sympathy and indulgence. It was well known that the king was especially incensed against Lord Nithsdale, so that he is ...
— Fifty-Two Stories For Girls • Various

... proceeded Bryan, "that as you now know the true circumstances of the case, you'll be kind, enough to support my petition; I believe your brother, sir, is one of the Commissioners; you would sartinly be able to ...
— The Emigrants Of Ahadarra - The Works of William Carleton, Volume Two • William Carleton

... Fragment 90—Athenagoras [1758], Petition for the Christians, 29: Concerning Asclepius Hesiod says: 'And the father of men and gods was wrath, and from Olympus he smote the son of Leto with a lurid thunderbolt and killed him, ...
— Hesiod, The Homeric Hymns, and Homerica • Homer and Hesiod

... I may testify my gratitude by strenuous exertions, like a dog or a horse. Wherefore I, your humble servant, now beg for leave of absence on account of my ill-health, and respectfully present the petition in which my request is lucidly set forth, entreating with reverence that the sacred ...
— The Contemporary Review, Volume 36, September 1879 • Various

... have felt! The sword that hung in Marmion's belt Had drunk De Wilton's blood. Unwittingly, King James had given, As guard to Whitby's shades, The man most dreaded under heaven By these defenceless maids: Yet what petition could avail, Or who would listen to the tale Of woman, prisoner, and nun, 'Mid bustle of a war begun? They deemed it hopeless to avoid The convoy ...
— Marmion: A Tale of Flodden Field • Walter Scott

... bravery, nor consideration for the habits and feelings of their prisoners, influenced the British Government during that time of triumph. The mode in which those unfortunate captives were left in the utmost penury and necessity to petition for some provision, after their estates were escheated, plainly manifests how little there was of that sympathy with calamity which ...
— Memoirs of the Jacobites of 1715 and 1745 - Volume II. • Mrs. Thomson

... potency of written or spoken words, for the production of good or evil, has been characteristic of all historic epochs and nations. The exorcist of ancient Egypt relied on amulets and mysterious phrases for the cure of disease; and a metrical petition traced on a papyrus-leaf, or a formula of prayer opportunely repeated, "put to flight the serpents, who ...
— Primitive Psycho-Therapy and Quackery • Robert Means Lawrence

... within bounds; for the school was resenting upon him the stigma that had fallen upon Arthur. Not the whole school; but quite sufficient of it. Not that they openly attacked Tom; he could have repaid that in kind; but they were sending him to Coventry. Some said they would not sign a petition to the master headed by Tom Channing:—Tom, you remember, stood on the rolls next to Gaunt. They said that if Tom Channing were to succeed as senior of the school, the school would rise up in open rebellion. That this feeling ...
— The Channings • Mrs. Henry Wood

... supplications, would instantly have recited by heart "a prayer against the temptation to lead others into uttering untruths unconsciously," which would have met the situation adequately, for not once in the book, when appealed to, did she fail to produce a lengthy and elaborately worded petition, adapted to the most unexpected emergencies, and I feel confident that her moral armoury would have included a prayer against tendencies ...
— The Days Before Yesterday • Lord Frederick Hamilton

... Spain for new powers. Early in 1565 he stood again before Philip petition in hand. Besides his present dignities he would be Adelantado of Florida. Florida in Spanish eyes extended not only to St. Mary's or the Bay of Chesapeake, but even to Newfoundland, so as to embrace the whole northern continent west ...
— Thomas Hariot • Henry Stevens

... petitioned Linnaeus to return, and the man who headed the petition was the one who had driven him away and who came near being killed for his pains. Linnaeus and his wife went to Upsala, rich, ...
— Little Journeys to the Homes of the Great - Volume 12 - Little Journeys to the Homes of Great Scientists • Elbert Hubbard

... petition presented to Charles I. by the Commons in 1628, and that became law by the king's acceptance of it. It sought for and obtained the abolition of certain grievances which the country unconstitutionally suffered from, such ...
— The Nuttall Encyclopaedia - Being a Concise and Comprehensive Dictionary of General Knowledge • Edited by Rev. James Wood

... increasingly an object of imitation in all the rest, at one and the same session doubled the amount of the public money for the purpose of improving the education given in the common schools—which, to the praise of that state, be it said, are now free—and in reply to the petition of sundry persons, praying that all religious exercises and the use of the Bible might be prohibited in the public schools, decided by a vote of one hundred and twenty-one to ONE! that the request of the ...
— Popular Education - For the use of Parents and Teachers, and for Young Persons of Both Sexes • Ira Mayhew

... faithful in Jesus Christ, to fulfil both mine and your petition; in whom may ye be ...
— The Forbidden Gospels and Epistles, Complete • Archbishop Wake

... twenty years he was governor of Plymouth Colony. It contains letters from all men of note of that period,—Roger Williams, the Cottons, the Mathers, Gov. Winslow, a letter of King Charles II. to Gov. Josiah Winslow, Gov. Hinckley's address, and petition to James II.; also many personal letters to wife and daughters. Mr. Prince says "that on his grandfather's death he took these papers from his study, but while he was in Europe some of curiosity and value were unhappily lost." There ...
— The New England Magazine, Volume 1, No. 4, Bay State Monthly, Volume 4, No. 4, April, 1886 • Various

... Pleasure, and what you can well afford to support them in that Dignity they live in: 'Tis true, says he, they often for Form sake have a Pistol in their Hand, which is part of their riding Furniture; but that is only in the Nature of a Petition, to let you know they are Orphans of Providence just fallen under your Protection. In a Word, demanding Money upon the Road, is now so agreeably perform'd, that 'tis much the same with asking an Alms. The ...
— Memoirs of Major Alexander Ramkins (1718) • Daniel Defoe

... tears are dried, all is bright as before. William's tears were very bitter, but accustomed always to ask the divine blessing before retiring, he knelt down beside his little bed, and prayed that if he had done wrong in drawing without asking his father's leave, he might be forgiven. His childish petition, uttered in the full confidence that it would be heard, brought comfort, as the act of sincere prayer always does, and once more soothed and happy, in a few minutes the child sunk into so deep a slumber, that he was altogether ...
— Watch—Work—Wait - Or, The Orphan's Victory • Sarah A. Myers

... life centring in Lantern Yard, which had once been to him the altar-place of high dispensations. The whitewashed walls; the little pews where well-known figures entered with a subdued rustling, and where first one well-known voice and then another, pitched in a peculiar key of petition, uttered phrases at once occult and familiar, like the amulet worn on the heart; the pulpit where the minister delivered unquestioned doctrine, and swayed to and fro, and handled the book in a long accustomed manner; ...
— Silas Marner - The Weaver of Raveloe • George Eliot

... the representative of the Mohammedan King of Golconda, for an annual rent of Rs. 175, which ceased to be paid when the Golconda dynasty shortly afterwards came to an end. Later, in compliance with a petition by Governor Elihu Yale to the Emperor Aurangzeb, the Company received a free grant of 'Tandore (Tondiarpet), Persewacca (Pursewaukam), and Yegmore (Egmore).' Still later, in the reign of Aurangzeb's son and successor, the village of Lungambacca ...
— The Story of Madras • Glyn Barlow

... have the honour of sendin to you this morning with humble manner I was to the Honour D. Denney yesterday, about the trouble what I have, I was take work from the church-yard, and I finish it, the gentlemen I must made petition and I cannot tell who will go to please to help me from this trouble if I will get the money from the gentleman. Shew me the way for get the money by your Honour all the people what I hired I do not know how to do with myself—only you one I know because ...
— A Voyage Round the World, Vol. I (of ?) • James Holman

... After spreading these articles on the stump of a tree, he proceeded to ask a blessing on our food, an unexpected ceremony, and quite an impressive one at our woodland table, with the fountain gushing beside us and the bright sky glimmering through the boughs; nor did his brief petition affect me less because his embarrassment made his voice tremble. At the end of the meal he returned thanks ...
— Passages From a Relinquised Work (From "Mosses From An Old Manse") • Nathaniel Hawthorne

... "Sons of Liberty," were formed to resist the law. Delegates from nine of the colonies met at New York and framed a Declaration of Rights, and a petition to the king and Parliament. The 1st of November, appointed for the law to go into effect, was observed as a day of mourning. Bells were tolled, flags raised at ...
— A Brief History of the United States • Barnes & Co.

... seemed bursting its boundary with the violent palpitation of alarm, and other emotions which I could scarcely suppress; but I motioned to P—— to take his usual place, and instantly rising offered up the usual prayer, with a petition for the spirit of mutual compassion, forgiveness, and love. I ceased, all remained standing, and certainly it was a period of most fearful interest. I looked imploringly at the wounded boy; he hesitated a moment, then suddenly turned, and with an air of noble frankness, held out his ...
— Personal Recollections • Charlotte Elizabeth

... quite a work of supererogation to report how speedily the welcome news were made known, by billet-doux, to Henry Clements; but they rather smote his conscience, too, when he reflected that he had not yet made formal petition to the powers on his own account. To be sure, they (the lovers, to wit) were engaged only yesterday, quite in an unintended, though delightful, way: and, previously to that important tete-a-tete, however ...
— The Complete Prose Works of Martin Farquhar Tupper • Martin Farquhar Tupper

... tears sprang to his eyes, and he reproached himself for having suspected Anthony of having eloped with the money left in his charge. He knew what agony of mind his cousin must have endured before he could prevail upon himself to petition his relentless father for the loan of the sum he had imprudently lent to Godfrey. He only blamed him for the want of confidence which had hindered him from communicating his situation to his friend. Fearing that he had been induced to ...
— Mark Hurdlestone - Or, The Two Brothers • Susanna Moodie

... "The petition I have to make to you is this," continued Maggie: "that at school you will, for a time at least—say for the first month or so—be neutral. I want you and Cicely and Molly and Isabel to belong neither to Aneta's party nor to mine; and I want you to do ...
— The School Queens • L. T. Meade

... song, my soul, my life, my all, Why need I pray or make my plea, Since my petition cannot fall; For I 'm ...
— The Complete Poems of Paul Laurence Dunbar • Paul Laurence Dunbar

... that what is unjust and unmerciful, can never be expedient; yet men often write, talk, and act, as if they either forgot this truth, or doubted it. There is genuine wisdom in the following remark, extracted from the petition of Cambridge University to the Parliament of England, on the subject of slavery: "A firm belief in the Providence of a benevolent Creator assures us that no system, founded on the oppression of one part of mankind, ...
— An Appeal in Favor of that Class of Americans Called Africans • Lydia Maria Child

... senses are perfect, comes the desire for education in the higher world, where the senses are no more our Teachers; but the Maker of the senses. And that teaching, we cannot get by labour, but only by petition. ...
— Mornings in Florence • John Ruskin

... two friends had a long talk together Geoffrey learnt that Gerald Burke reached Italy without further adventure, and thence took ship to Bristol, and so crossed over to Ireland. On his petition, and solemn promise of good behaviour in future, he was pardoned and a small portion of his estate restored to him. He was now in London endeavouring to obtain a remission of ...
— By England's Aid • G. A. Henty

... you, Mr. Ferguson, now you are here," said the proprietor of the place, "to affix your signature to a petition to the Queen, praying for the separation of these districts from New ...
— Fern Vale (Volume 1) - or the Queensland Squatter • Colin Munro

... city. Brembre and Philipot were not his only enemies. Another alderman, Nicholas Exton, of Queenhithe Ward, had recently been removed from his aldermancy for opprobrious words used to Northampton during his first mayoralty. A petition had been laid before the Court of Common Council in August, 1382, when Exton himself being present, and seeing the turn affairs were taking, endeavoured to anticipate the judgment of the court, by himself asking to be exonerated from his office, declaring at the same ...
— London and the Kingdom - Volume I • Reginald R. Sharpe

... the Prince presented to the Bassa a memorial of the wrong which he had suffered, and a petition for redress. The Bassa threatened to punish the robbers, but did not attempt to catch them; nor indeed could any account or description be given by which ...
— Rasselas, Prince of Abyssinia • Samuel Johnson

... the throne of Italy, and May 26 following, in the cathedral at Milan, he placed upon his own head the iron crown of the old Lombard kings. The sovereign's step-son, Eugene Beauharnais, was designated regent. In June of the same year, in response to a petition which Napoleon himself had instigated, the Ligurian Republic was proclaimed an integral part of the French empire. The annexation of Parma and Piacenza ...
— The Governments of Europe • Frederic Austin Ogg

... interest. The state of things in London is best learned, however, from the satirical poem to which I have already alluded as having been written at the period referred to. This was entitled, "Terrible Tractoration!! A Poetical Petition against Galvanizing Trumpery and the Perkinistic Institution. Most respectfully addressed to the Royal College of Physicians, by Christopher Caustic, M. D., LL. D., A. S. S., Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians, Aberdeen, ...
— The Autocrat of the Breakfast-Table • Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr. (The Physician and Poet not the Jurist)

... playing and composing, and most so in intercourse with others), and you must be my companion. I have a conviction that good fortune will not forsake me, for to what may I not at present aspire? Since you were here I have written everything except operas and church music. You will not, I know, refuse my petition; you will help your friend to bear his burden and his calamity. I have also very much perfected my pianoforte playing, and I hope that a journey of this kind may possibly contribute to your own success in life, and you would thenceforth always remain with me. I duly received ...
— Beethoven's Letters 1790-1826, Volume 1 of 2 • Lady Wallace

... and act what thoughts she please. Tis much below me on his throne to sit; But when I do, you shall petition it. ...
— The Works of John Dryden, Vol. II • Edited by Walter Scott

... don Jose Felix Ribas, a relative of Bolivar, two very distinguished men. The meetings were sometimes held at the house of Ribas. It was not long before they were discovered. They determined to petition for the establishment of a junta in Caracas. The authorities ordered them to be put into prison; and in spite of their efforts, the Supreme Junta of Spain and her Colonies was recognized in January, 1809. The Junta Central declared in that same month that all the Spanish ...
— Simon Bolivar, the Liberator • Guillermo A. Sherwell

... Sherburne with great gravity, "but there is no mention of your promotion. I know it's an oversight, and we'll join in a general petition to Richmond that you be made a lieutenant-colonel ...
— The Star of Gettysburg - A Story of Southern High Tide • Joseph A. Altsheler

... the liberty of addressing you in behalf of an American prisoner of war now in the Stapleton depot, and I address you, sir, under the conviction that a petition in the cause of humanity will not be ...
— Samuel F. B. Morse, His Letters and Journals - In Two Volumes, Volume I. • Samuel F. B. Morse

... be interested and possibly shocked on learning that in March, 1836, a petition was being largely signed for the prevention of 'squatting, through which so much crime was daily occurring,' inasmuch as 'squatting' was but another term for sly grog selling, receiving stolen property, and harbouring bushrangers and assigned servants. ...
— A Dictionary of Austral English • Edward Morris

... issue a special commission upon her whole case. Mr. Blunt pretended that she was contracted to him for the sake, it is said, of gaining money thereby. There being no Bishop's Court at this time, there are legal difficulties in the way, and we never hear the result of the petition. Again, in February 1655, one Mr. Porter finds himself committed to Lambeth House for carrying away the Lady Anne Blunt, and endeavouring to marry ...
— The Love Letters of Dorothy Osborne to Sir William Temple, 1652-54 • Edward Abbott Parry

... delegate from the Assembly, and whose acts could not be considered binding on the government of the province. The matter was then referred to a select committee of the Assembly, who reported that the necessity for an agent appeared evident, each branch of the legislature having a right to petition the King, the Lords, and the Commons of England; that although the Governor could transmit such petitions to the foot of the throne, he could neither transmit nor support such petitions when transmitted before the House of Lords or before ...
— The Rise of Canada, from Barbarism to Wealth and Civilisation - Volume 1 • Charles Roger

... legislature to have his name changed to Beauchamp, his mother's family name. As an inducement for him to gratify her pride in this thing, Mrs. Linden had promised William, that, on the very day that the legislature granted the petition, she should transfer to him the whole amount of her property, with the exception of about twenty thousand dollars. Subsequently, Charles learned that the name of his brother had been changed; that the marriage had taken place; and that his mother had relinquished all her property, with a small ...
— Lessons in Life, For All Who Will Read Them • T. S. Arthur

... a petition was presented from the Irish Catholics by Mr. Grattan; but after a long and animated debate it was rejected by a large majority. A motion by Mr. Brande on the subject of parliamentary reform was also negatived by a large majority; as was likewise a resolution, moved in the upper house ...
— The History of England in Three Volumes, Vol.III. - From George III. to Victoria • E. Farr and E. H. Nolan

... this commotion of mind and speech, good Mr Cowie died. He had taken no particular interest in what was going on, nor even in the prophecies themselves. Ever since Annie's petition for counsel, he had been thinking, as he had never thought before, about his own relation to God; and had found this enough without the prophecies. Now he had carried his thoughts into another world. While ...
— Alec Forbes of Howglen • George MacDonald

... himself and state his business, after which he received notice of the time when he was to present himself. Of course it would be too late for to day, but she could be registered for the next audience, which would be given in a fortnight. She probably had her petition with her, she need merely give it to him, and he would attend to everything for her the friendly man said at the close ...
— How Women Love - (Soul Analysis) • Max Simon Nordau

... her. She asked the strangest questions about Julian Gray, and shook her head suspiciously when they told her that he was absent from the house. At intervals she hid her face in the bedclothes and murmured to herself piteously, "Oh, what shall I do? What shall I do?" At other times her one petition was to be left alone. "I want nobody in my room"—that was her sullen cry—"nobody in ...
— The New Magdalen • Wilkie Collins

... upon the fact that the King levied these taxes upon his own authority. "Ship-money, it was loudly declared," says Gardiner, "was undeniably a tax, and the ancient customs of the realm, recently embodied in the Petition of Right, had announced with no doubtful voice that no tax could be levied without consent of Parliament. Even this objection was not the full measure of the evil. If Charles could take this money without ...
— Browning's England - A Study in English Influences in Browning • Helen Archibald Clarke

... not like to try the experiment; for, in truth, mamma, you are the most unfading of evergreens and the freshest of matrons. It must then be on the plea of your son's delicate nerves and fragile constitution that I found a petition for our ...
— Villette • Charlotte Bronte

... officials are not proceeding with the business, I think my best plan will be to send a petition to Peking asking the Board of War to acquit me. But my difficulty is that I have no one whom I can send to look after ...
— Stories by English Authors: Orient • Various

... from a single tree well worthy of record. Mr. —— was called out this evening to listen to a complaint of over work, from a gang of pregnant women. I did not stay to listen to the details of their petition, for I am unable to command myself on such occasions, and Mr. —— seemed positively degraded in my eyes, as he stood enforcing upon these women the necessity of their fulfilling their appointed tasks. How honorable he would have appeared to me ...
— Journal of a Residence on a Georgian Plantation - 1838-1839 • Frances Anne Kemble

... They did petition. Also, they issued a Manifesto, whose very first note is a bugle-blast of loyalty: "We want the establishment of this ...
— Innocents abroad • Mark Twain

... other citizen who is not prepared for the change. When it comes to the point, it is found that everybody is perfectly prepared, and that the objections were merely traditional. Who has ever heard of so much as a petition to restore any of the unjust distinctions which ...
— The Atlantic Monthly, Volume 15, No. 91, May, 1865 • Various

... correct the rudeness of these peasants, appointed an "enlightened" man as a magistrate, who at once abolished the original penalty above mentioned. But this relaxation of punishment was so far from being welcome to the villagers that they presented a petition praying that a more energetic man might be given them as a magistrate, who would have the courage to punish according to law and justice, "as had been beforetime." And the magistrate who abolished incarceration ...
— The Essays of "George Eliot" - Complete • George Eliot

... never presented in vain; the petition may be refused, but the petitioner is always, I believe, ...
— The Pocket R.L.S. - Being Favourite Passages from the Works of Stevenson • Robert Louis Stevenson

... eyes of those who ask should be opened. And you must ask so that you will have a vision to help—help you go to the blessed immortality that awaits you. Ask, Oh, Nick, ask with me. Please, Lord Jesus, help us!" And as I uttered my few faltering words of petition I fell on ...
— The Heart's Kingdom • Maria Thompson Daviess

... that there was already a great political commotion in the metropolis. He had known that on Easter Monday and Tuesday there was to be a gathering of the people in favour of the ballot, and that on Wednesday there was to be a procession with a petition which Mr. Turnbull was to receive from the hands of the people on Primrose Hill. It had been at first intended that Mr. Turnbull should receive the petition at the door of Westminster Hall on the Thursday; but he had been requested by the Home Secretary to put aside this intention, and ...
— Phineas Finn - The Irish Member • Anthony Trollope

... was completed in less than a week. The rapidity of the completion of the petition was viewed as a criterion of the respective strength of the commissioner and of the mayor, whose supporters encountered considerable difficulty in obtaining signatures. It was three weeks before the mayor's petition could be got ready ...
— Spring Street - A Story of Los Angeles • James H. Richardson

... a sentiment of friendship for themselves instead of demonstrating the abstract superiority of their cause. They will make a haughty public demand, but will not scruple to support it with secret petition and appeal. They are adepts at playing upon the weakness and petty vanity of others; and they deal gently with the strong, but boldly with the weak. Both men and women possess an abundance of sexual jealousy, and have, in addition, the quick sensitiveness about rank, worldly possessions, and ...
— A Woman's Impression of the Philippines • Mary Helen Fee

... Then said Joseph to his mother, "It is convenient that you send back to the house of Mr. Interpreter to pray him to grant that Mr. Greatheart should be sent to us that he may be our conductor the rest of our way." "Good boy," said she, "I had almost forgot." So she drew up a petition and prayed Mr. Watchful the porter to send it by some fit man to her good friend, Mr. Interpreter; who, when it was come and he had seen the contents of the petition, said to the messenger, "Go, tell them that I will ...
— Bunyan Characters (Second Series) • Alexander Whyte

... a long, loud yawn, and added, "Oh God, I am awfully sleepy—you know the rest"—making thus, in her rude simplicity, a finely trustful and beautiful prayer. "Give us each day our daily bread," was the honest petition of a little fellow—who, however, recalling probably some recent violent experiences, immediately added—"but dinna let our Lizzie bake it." An elaborately-trained little fellow who had nightly to pray for blessings on "mamma, and papa, grandpapa, and grandmamma," and all ...
— Children's Rhymes, Children's Games, Children's Songs, Children's Stories - A Book for Bairns and Big Folk • Robert Ford

... here been preserved was most probably Lord Dacre, who, in his place in the House of Lords, presented more than one petition from the Queen. One also was presented by Lord Auckland. Another of the Queen's partisans in the other House appears to have entertained similar sentiments:—"Walked with Sir —— ——. He said he had no doubt that the Queen was guilty, but would ...
— Memoirs of the Court of George IV. 1820-1830 (Vol 1) - From the Original Family Documents • Duke of Buckingham and Chandos

... in 1548 the King granted to the mayor, bailiffs and corporation, on their petition, the church and its appurtenances in Free Burgage for ever on payment of 1d., per annum and gave them "all the rents, revenues and ...
— Bell's Cathedrals: The Churches of Coventry - A Short History of the City and Its Medieval Remains • Frederic W. Woodhouse

... limits. [10] The privilege of a voice in cortes, as it was called, came at length to be prized so highly by the favored cities, that when, in 1506, some of those which were excluded solicited the restitution of their ancient rights, their petition was opposed by the former on the impudent pretence, that "the right of deputation had been reserved by ancient law and usage to only eighteen cities of the realm." [11] In this short-sighted and most unhappy policy, we ...
— History of the Reign of Ferdinand and Isabella V1 • William H. Prescott

... Clute, suspecting that some plan was in operation that would deprive me of my possessions, advised me to have nothing to say on the subject to Mr. Brooks, till I had seen Esquire Clute, of Squawky Hill. Soon after this Thomas Clute saw Esq. Clute, who informed him that the petition for my naturalization would be presented to the Legislature of this State, instead of being sent to Congress; and that the object would succeed to his and my satisfaction. Mr. Clute then observed to ...
— A Narrative of the Life of Mrs. Mary Jemison • James E. Seaver

... but a worse king than his father, had none of his insight. When, after the Petition of Right, he governed without a parliament, the problem is whether he did it for the sake of power or for the sake of religion. It resembles the problem of the American Civil War, whether the confederates were fighting for State rights ...
— Lectures on Modern history • Baron John Emerich Edward Dalberg Acton

... which was at that time not simply a deliberative body, but also a court of most extensive and varied jurisdiction, in matters both civil and criminal. This was precisely the fact; the records show that in 1652 Mrs. Dorothy Pester presented to the General Court her petition for leave to marry again, giving as her reason the fact that her husband had sailed for England some ten years before, and had not been heard from since. The court decreed that liberty be granted her to marry, "when God in his providence shall afford her the opportunity." ...
— The Bay State Monthly, Volume 3, No. 1 • Various

... of Commerce petition and ask that the president may issue letters of marque. It is to be supposed, or rather to be admitted, that the Chambers of Commerce know what is the best for them, how our commerce is to be protected, how the rebel pirates swept from the oceans, and how England, treacherous ...
— Diary from November 12, 1862, to October 18, 1863 • Adam Gurowski

... the yard; Maudie licked herself on the ladder just out of the reach of Billy Bluff, who, tossing on his chain, greeted the girl with a volley of yelps, yaps, howls of triumph, petition, ...
— Boy Woodburn - A Story of the Sussex Downs • Alfred Ollivant

... cannot be supposed that such a trifle as the killing of a frowsy friar would be much resented, even had he not taken so bold a measure to obtain his pardon. His petition was granted, of course, as soon as asked; and so it would have been had the indictment drawn up by the Canterbury town-clerk, viz., "That he, the said Robert de Shurland, &c., had then and there, with several, to wit, one thousand pairs of boots, given sundry, to wit, two ...
— Half-Hours with Great Story-Tellers • Various

... harmony with his Heavenly Father. While calling most earnestly upon all others to repent, he stood in no need of conversion and regeneration, but simply of the regular harmonious unfolding of his moral powers. While directing all his followers, in the fourth petition of his model prayer, to ask daily for the forgiveness of their sins as well as their daily bread, he himself never asked God for pardon and forgiveness, except in behalf of others. While freely conversing with ...
— The Continental Monthly, Vol. 6, No. 6, December 1864 - Devoted To Literature And National Policy • Various

... meeting they intended to draw up a petition to the school trustees, humbly praying that a fence be put around the school grounds; and a plan was also to be discussed for planting a few ornamental trees by the church, if the funds of the society would permit of it . . . for, as Anne said, there ...
— Anne Of Avonlea • Lucy Maud Montgomery

... the free People of Colour of St. Domingo, many of whom were persons of large property and liberal education, petitioned the National Assembly, that they might enjoy the same political privileges as the Whites there. At length the subject of the petition was discussed, but not till the 8th of March 1790, when the Assembly agreed upon a decree concerning it. The decree, however, was worded so ambiguously, that the two parties in St. Domingo, the Whites and ...
— Thoughts On The Necessity Of Improving The Condition Of The Slaves • Thomas Clarkson

... that if we were all to sign a petition to the colonel, to ask him to overlook the matter, as Gordon has received a lesson that will certainly last his lifetime, he might ...
— Through Three Campaigns - A Story of Chitral, Tirah and Ashanti • G. A. Henty

... the object of my conversation," he said, calming himself with an effort. "Anna can, it depends on her.... Even to petition the Tsar for legitimization, a divorce is essential. And that depends on Anna. Her husband agreed to a divorce—at that time your husband had arranged it completely. And now, I know, he would not refuse it. It is only a matter of writing to him. He said plainly at that ...
— Anna Karenina • Leo Tolstoy

... those in any Convention held by men of that period. Angelina Grimke was appointed by this Convention to prepare an appeal for the slaves to the people of the free States, and a letter to John Quincy Adams thanking him for his services in defending the right of petition for women and slaves, qualified with the regret that by expressing himself "adverse to the abolition of slavery in the District of Columbia," he did not sustain the cause of freedom and of God. She ...
— History of Woman Suffrage, Volume I • Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Susan B. Anthony, and Matilda Joslyn Gage

... merchant, gave in his petition desiring him to be admitted free burgess and guild brother of this burgh, and having tried his conversation have thought him meet to be in their society, and for the sum of ten merks money paid by him ...
— The Celtic Magazine, Vol. 1, No. 2, December 1875 • Various

... day, the 20th of May, the fugitives sent a petition to the admiral, signed with all their names, in which, says Las Casas, they confessed all their misdeeds, and cruelties, and evil intentions, supplicating the admiral to have pity on them and pardon them for their rebellion, for which God had already ...
— The Life and Voyages of Christopher Columbus (Vol. II) • Washington Irving

... Monday a deputation waited on the Mayor of Birmingham, with the requisition requesting him to call a public meeting to petition the Queen to dismiss her present ministers. The requisition was signed by nearly one thousand merchants, manufacturers, and shopkeepers of the town. There was not the name of a working man attached to it. The mayor, however, declined calling the meeting, observing, that although he might ...
— The Economist - Volume 1, No. 3 • Various

... from a correspondent a copy of a petition signed by the principal Somali chiefs in Jubaland, praying that they may be allowed to fight for England. The terms of this interesting ...
— New York Times Current History: The European War, Vol 2, No. 1, April, 1915 - April-September, 1915 • Various

... the old church stood in a desert drear and wild, but still its chimes rang the old petition, ...
— Long Live the King • Mary Roberts Rinehart

... grounds, through the Lanier place farther back, and the southern end would touch the Darcy place, giving it some new fronts and available lots, and placing the house on the corner. There would be sufficient ground for the width of the street. A petition was ...
— Hope Mills - or Between Friend and Sweetheart • Amanda M. Douglas

... another, yearly or oftener, for more than twenty years. His satire is eminently poignant; he is of a strength and energy of thinking uncommonly masculine; and he compresses his meaning so as to give it every advantage. His imagination is full of coruscation and brilliancy. His petition to Cromwel, lord protector of England, when the poet was under confinement for his loyal principles, is a singular example of manly firmness, great independence of mind, and a happy choice of topics to awaken feelings of forbearance and clemency. It is unnecessary to ...
— Thoughts on Man - His Nature, Productions and Discoveries, Interspersed with - Some Particulars Respecting the Author • William Godwin

... delight in the companionship of Jane Austen, and who present this petition, are of English origin. Their ancestor held a high rank among the first emigrants to New England, and his name and character have been ably represented by his descendants in various public stations of trust and responsibility to the present time in the colony ...
— Memoir of Jane Austen • James Edward Austen-Leigh

... age of twelve Peregrine was sent to Winchester School. A clergyman named Jacob Jolter was engaged as tutor to superintend the boy's education, and Tom Pipes, at his own petition, put into livery, and appointed footman to the young squire. Mr. Pickle approved of the plan, though he durst not venture to see the boy; so much was he intimidated by his wife, whose aversion to her firstborn became every day more inveterate and unaccountable. Her ...
— The World's Greatest Books, Vol VIII • Arthur Mee and J.A. Hammerton, Eds.

... heart would break. "God send him home,—send him safe and soon home!" she implored; entreaty made for how many loved ones, by how many aching hearts, that speedily lost the need of saying amen to any such petition,—the prayer for the living lost in mourning for the dead. Heaven grant that no soul that reads this ever may have the like cause to offer ...
— What Answer? • Anna E. Dickinson

... go," said he to his family one morning, "to these castles, and solicit the pity of the spirits who inhabit them, for I know that they are the residence of some of the spirits of Kabiboonoka." He did so, and found that his petition was not disregarded. They told him to fill his mushkemoot, or sack, with the ice and snow, and pass on toward his lodge, without looking back, until he came to a certain hill. He must then drop it and leave it till morning, when ...
— The Myth of Hiawatha, and Other Oral Legends, Mythologic and Allegoric, of the North American Indians • Henry R. Schoolcraft

... humility in her suppressed voice which, had the speaker been another person, would have prepared Denzil for some mendicant petition of the politer kind. She spoke hurriedly, as ...
— Denzil Quarrier • George Gissing

... my life so consider it. This is merely an advisory body. We are here to devise an adjustment, and to lay it before Congress. We are exercising the right of petition, and that is a sacred right. Is this revolutionary? No, sir! You would insist that Congress should receive a petition, although that body had no right to act upon it. If so, how much more should our petition be received, when we seek ...
— A Report of the Debates and Proceedings in the Secret Sessions of the Conference Convention • Lucius Eugene Chittenden

... "No," replied I, "I'm not a poacher." "Well," remarked the Colonel, "I think you will do well; perhaps it's the best thing you ever did. But of these Sheffielders I have no high opinion; they're a bad sample of soldiers indeed, and if I had my way I would petition Government to have no Sheffielders at all in the Army." Then we retired from the Colonel's presence, the sergeant in charge being instructed to take us on the following morning before the regimental doctor for examination. Set at liberty for the time being, ...
— Adventures and Recollections • Bill o'th' Hoylus End

... most of their time near the centre of influence, in Paris or Versailles. Yet their opportunities for doing good or harm were almost unlimited. Their executive command was nearly uncontrolled; for where there were no provincial estates, the inhabitants could not send a petition to the king except through the hands of the intendant, and any complaint against that officer was referred to himself for an answer.[Footnote: For the intendants, see Necker, De l'administration, ii. 469, iii. 379. Ibid., Memoire ...
— The Eve of the French Revolution • Edward J. Lowell

... evoke, invite; convoke, assemble, muster, convene; entitle, name, designate, dub, denominate; invoke, petition, invocate. ...
— Putnam's Word Book • Louis A. Flemming

... at once in the form of "Gravamina" or lists of grievances drawn up at each Diet as a petition, and in part enacted into laws. In 1452 the Spiritual Electors demanded that the emperor proceed with reform on the basis of the decrees of Constance. In 1457 the clergy refused to be taxed for a crusade. In 1461 the princes appealed against the sale ...
— The Age of the Reformation • Preserved Smith

... to add my petition! Vereker will spare you to us awhile, I am sure!" said he. "To behold a goddess is to be blessed; to hear ...
— Peregrine's Progress • Jeffery Farnol

... opposes any lessening of the number of the countess's years, pinning its faith rather on one Hayman, who says that she presented herself at the English court at the age of one hundred and forty years, to petition for her jointure, which she lost by the attainder of the last earl; and it also prefers to have her fall from the historic cherry-tree that Sir Walter planted, rather than ...
— Penelope's Irish Experiences • Kate Douglas Wiggin

... the newspapers; to run his eye over all accounts of public meetings, all leading articles, and accounts of the proceedings of public bodies; and to make notes of anything which it appeared to him might be made a point of, in any little speech upon the question of some petition lying on the table, or anything of that ...
— The Life And Adventures Of Nicholas Nickleby • Charles Dickens

... might be desirable. The settlers, it was said, had done a noble work, making and sustaining their outposts of Zion against many difficulties, amid exposure and toil. It was advised that the settlers petition the Nevada Legislature for an abatement of back taxes and for a new county, but, "if the majority of the Saints in council determine that it is better to leave the State, whose burdens and laws are so oppressive, let it be so done." There was suggestion ...
— Mormon Settlement in Arizona • James H. McClintock

... cluster of cottages, not at all huddled together, but none the less a cluster if viewed from a distance upon the lake, and in this group of summer residences appeared to be almost sufficient excuse for the drawing up of a petition for incorporation as a village. But very few of the owners of these houses lived in them during the winter months. The main and centrally located group consisted of a hotel and a dozen or more cottages, known as "The Hemlocks," and so advertised in ...
— Campfire Girls at Twin Lakes - The Quest of a Summer Vacation • Stella M. Francis

... was a matter beyond Andy's ken. He could not even find a petition in his prayer-book suited to that occasion. Mr. Townsend had assured him that it would meet every emergency; but for once Mr. Townsend was at fault, for with the sound of Ethelyn's angry voice ringing in his ears, Andy lighted his tallow candle and creeping ...
— Ethelyn's Mistake • Mary Jane Holmes

... to magistrate an' mek petition. Say her fadder-mudder to ki' her husban'. Her fadder-mudder bofe vay indignant; but was putta ...
— Masterpieces of Mystery In Four Volumes - Mystic-Humorous Stories • Various

... or whatever else they might be doing, should walk according to the Gospel of Christ, and understand that this was their Law, supreme over all laws. He hoped once to see such a thing realized; and the Petition, Thy Kingdom come, no longer an empty word. He was sore grieved when he saw greedy, worldly Barons clutch hold of the Church's property; when he expostulated that it was not secular property, that it was spiritual property, and should be turned to ...
— The Great Events by Famous Historians, Vol. 1-20 • Various

... the deep-seated ills of the time. In such mood were many of the villagers when in the summer of 1786 they were overtaken by the craze for paper money. At the meeting of the legislature in May, a petition came in from Bristol County, praying for an issue of paper. The petitioners admitted that such money was sure to deteriorate in value, and they doubted the wisdom of trying to keep it up by forcing acts. Instead of this they would have ...
— The Critical Period of American History • John Fiske

... petition the Legislature," said Wad, "to have that spring moved up into our back yard; it's too far to go for water. There come the ...
— The Young Surveyor; - or Jack on the Prairies • J. T. Trowbridge

... the night after I had returned from D * * * *; sitting in Crossthwaite's little room, I had heard with mingled anxiety and delight the plans of my friends. They were about to present a monster petition in favour of the Charter; to accompany it en masse to the door of the House of Commons; and if it was refused admittance—why, then, ulterior measures were the only hope. "And they will refuse it," said Crossthwaite; "they're going, I hear, to revive ...
— Alton Locke, Tailor And Poet • Rev. Charles Kingsley et al

... zeal had been stirred by the Methodist movement—"endeared to the more serious inhabitants by warm zeal and a powerful talent for preaching extempore." The parishioners had made urgent appeal to the noble patron to appoint this man to the benefice, and the Duke's disregard of their petition had produced much bitterness in the parish. Then, again, in Crabbe there was a "lay" element, which had probably not been found in his predecessor, and he might occasionally be seen "at a concert, a ball, or even a play." ...
— Crabbe, (George) - English Men of Letters Series • Alfred Ainger

... they, together with certain members of the Council of the Geographical Society, set on foot another private subscription all over the country, while the same society at a later period headed a national subscription. By these means about L956 5s. was collected in all. I had further to petition the Norwegian Storthing for an additional sum of L4500, when our national assembly again gave proof of its sympathy with the undertaking by granting the amount ...
— Farthest North - Being the Record of a Voyage of Exploration of the Ship 'Fram' 1893-1896 • Fridtjof Nansen

... and grow fat is a matter of course, for consultations were often paid for in gold. To the wonder-working Rabbi travelled all those who had a petition to bring to the Throne of God—the old and decrepit who desired to defraud the grave of a few miserable years; the unfortunate who wished to improve his condition; the oppressed who yearned for relief from a tyrannical ...
— Rabbi and Priest - A Story • Milton Goldsmith

... therefore not calculated to elevate our estimation of the openness, honesty, and simplicity for which this king is praised, and to which his general course seems to entitle him, that as late as March, 1818, in reply to a petition from the city of Coblenz, that he would grant the promised constitution, he remarked that 'neither the order of May 22, 1815, nor article xiii. of the acts of the Confederacy had fixed the time of the grant, and that the determination of this time must be left to the ...
— The Continental Monthly, Vol. 6, No 3, September 1864 - Devoted To Literature And National Policy • Various

... letter written by Williams in his old age to his fellow-townsmen of Providence which points the whole moral of the terrible mistake made by the men who sought spiritual liberty in America for themselves, only to deny that same liberty to others. "I have only one motion and petition," begs this veteran pioneer who had forded many a swollen stream and built many a rude bridge in the Plantations: "it is this, that after you have got over the black brook of some soul bondage yourselves, you tear not ...
— The American Spirit in Literature, - A Chronicle of Great Interpreters, Volume 34 in The - Chronicles Of America Series • Bliss Perry

... formed the foundation of the Unionist Party." In 1892 the Unionist Government introduced, under the care of Mr. Arthur Balfour, a Bill purporting to redeem these pledges. By one clause, which became known as the "put them in the dock clause," on the petition of any twenty ratepayers a whole Council might be charged with "misconduct," and, after trial by two judges, was to be disbanded, the Lord Lieutenant being empowered to nominate, without any form of election, a Council which would succeed the members who were removed in this ...
— Ireland and the Home Rule Movement • Michael F. J. McDonnell

... I experienced from the chain upon my legs, which prevented me from sleeping, destroyed my health. Schiller wished me to petition, declaring that it was the duty of the physician to order it to be taken off. For some time I refused to listen to him, I then yielded, and informed the doctor that, in order to obtain a little sleep, I should be thankful to have the chain removed, ...
— My Ten Years' Imprisonment • Silvio Pellico

... eyes as he inspected his companion steadily. "I know How pretty well, and when someone intimates to me that he is a grand-stand player, or goes out of his way to pick a quarrel, or meddles with someone else's affairs—" Again the big man caught himself. The scrutiny became almost a petition. "I cut you off short about what went on here yesterday," he digressed. "I didn't want to hear. I guess I was afraid to hear. It's been foolish, I know, but I've depended a good deal upon the boy, and I'm afraid he's ...
— Where the Trail Divides • Will Lillibridge

... his anxiety to see him, proposed that they betake themselves to that advanced site, but his petition made the Chief and the others smile. Those open trenches within a hundred or fifty yards from the enemy, with no other defence but barbed wire and sacks of earth, were not for the visits of civilians. They were always filled with mud; the visitors would have to crawl around exposed to ...
— The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse • Vicente Blasco Ibanez

... peaceable and law-abiding, and must not be reckoned with the migratory hordes of anarchists, nihilists, and the wreckers of law and order that infest our Eastern and Western shores. In our schools, too, Negroes have learned that it is theirs to petition respectfully for the enjoyment of their rights, and the redress of grievances so often unjustly imposed upon them. In the last two decades the influence of the schools, colleges and industrial institutions and seminaries of all kinds has wrought wonderful changes in the home ...
— Twentieth Century Negro Literature - Or, A Cyclopedia of Thought on the Vital Topics Relating - to the American Negro • Various

... of three hundred or more may upon petition of two-thirds of its inhabitants, be incorporated as ...
— Citizenship - A Manual for Voters • Emma Guy Cromwell

... in the subject, and in 1844 gave it special prominence in his annual report, which led to a report as theretofore from the military committee. On March 5, 1846, a report was also made on a memorial of the officers of the army stationed at Fort Moultrie and the petition of officers of the Second United States Infantry, and later (on January 19, 1848) upon the memorial of the officers of the army then in Mexico. The committee in each case approved and recommended the passage of the bill ...
— General Scott • General Marcus J. Wright

... countenance greeted the return of the young Mortimers: and while Mr. Mortimer was engaged in conversation with the excellent pastor of the village, Mr. Wexford, the young people were introduced into the play-room of the little Wexfords. Mr. Wexford made a petition that the young people should spend the day together: but as it was the first of the Mortimers being at home, their father declined it for them, at the same time promising that they should have the indulgence in a short time: and also expressing a hope that the Wexfords would return ...
— Christmas, A Happy Time - A Tale, Calculated for the Amusement and Instruction of Young Persons • Miss Mant

... self-restraint to avoid bitterness toward the Government, but even when Congress refused his wife's petition for the restoration of the mementos of Washington, taken from her home in Arlington during the war, he refrained from making any public protest and his private comment showed how completely he subordinated his personal wishes to the ...
— On the Trail of Grant and Lee • Frederick Trevor Hill

... yet heard an Indian Christian man or woman offer a prayer in which I have not heard this petition, "Oh Father in Heaven bless all the white people who love us and send us these teachers to tell us of God's ways." Shall we not return their grateful thought, by loving prayers, generous and sympathetic interest and ...
— The American Missionary - Volume 50, No. 1, January, 1896 • Various

... any essence except the devil.' Indeed, his hatred even for that personage has in it so little of bitterness, that no man, we may be sure, would have joined more heartily in the Scotch minister's petition for 'the puir de'il'—a prayer conceived in the very spirit of his writings. A man so endowed—and it is not only from his explicit assertions, but from his unconscious self-revelation, that we ...
— Hours in a Library, Volume I. (of III.) • Leslie Stephen

... would seem that charity does not require us to love our enemies. For Augustine says (Enchiridion lxxiii) that "this great good," namely, the love of our enemies, is "not so universal in its application, as the object of our petition when we say: Forgive us our trespasses." Now no one is forgiven sin without he have charity, because, according to Prov. 10:12, "charity covereth all sins." Therefore charity does not require that ...
— Summa Theologica, Part II-II (Secunda Secundae) • Thomas Aquinas

... she got up, and, putting a hand on each of his shoulders, lifted up her face to be kissed. He embraced her in the manner proposed, and turned to leave her. But before he went she made to him one other petition, holding him by the arm as she did so. "Edouard, you can lend me twenty napoleons till I am at ...
— The Claverings • Anthony Trollope

... fellow actors at heart. Macklin infuriated with him and Clive disappointed in him, both refused to accept Garrick's decision, and hence became renegade. Macklin, uninvited back by Fleetwood, admired Olive's decision to have no part in signing a petition presented to her by her fellow defectors who understood that the refusal of a separate license dissolved their bond. Macklin writes in his Reply to Mr. Garrick's Answer (p. 27) that "it ought ...
— The Case of Mrs. Clive • Catherine Clive

... leather—of course he did. That was part of his plan to make people believe he was an honest man. Besides, if he hadn't, how could he have got rid of his stock as he did. Do you recollect," she proceeded with increasing asperity, as became a Cowfold matron, "as it was him as got up that petition for that Catchpool gal as was going to be hanged for putting her baby in ...
— Miriam's Schooling and Other Papers - Gideon; Samuel; Saul; Miriam's Schooling; and Michael Trevanion • Mark Rutherford

... Gospel. They were called together by their officers, and a more attentive congregation I never expect to address again. As soon as we began to sing there was weeping; and immediately on our kneeling to prayer they all knelt down, and here and there we heard the voice of 'Amen' to our petition for their salvation. I could not solve this till after the service. To my great surprise and mingled grief and joy, several brethren and acquaintances from Canada came and made themselves known unto us; they were militia in arms, and were ...
— Neville Trueman the Pioneer Preacher • William Henry Withrow



Words linked to "Petition" :   collection, application, deprecation, intercession, ingathering, orison, quest, bespeak, prayer wheel, call for, petitioner, asking, substance, blessing, collect, supplication, request, petitionary, grace, solicitation, invocation, supplicate, message, commination, prayer, content, benediction, postulation, requiescat, thanksgiving, appeal, subject matter, demand



Copyright © 2024 Free-Translator.com