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Petition   Listen
verb
Petition  v. t.  (past & past part. petitioned; pres. part. petitioning)  To make a prayer or request to; to ask from; to solicit; to entreat; especially, to make a formal written supplication, or application to, as to any branch of the government; as, to petition the court; to petition the governor. "You have... petitioned all the gods for my prosperity."






Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48








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"Petition" Quotes from Famous Books



... Departments Dismission of Sawyer Williams Solicitor General Second Declaration of Indulgence; the Clergy ordered to read it They hesitate; Patriotism of the Protestant Nonconformists of London Consultation of the London Clergy Consultation at Lambeth Palace Petition of the Seven Bishops presented to the King The London Clergy disobey the Royal Order Hesitation of the Government It is determined to prosecute the Bishops for a Libel They are examined by the Privy Council They are committed to the Tower Birth of the Pretender He is generally believed ...
— The History of England from the Accession of James II. - Volume 2 (of 5) • Thomas Babington Macaulay

... next, at the annual March meeting, petitioned the King to remove the troops. This petition is certainly a striking paper, and places in a strong light the earnest desire of the popular leaders to steer clear of everything that might tend to wound British pride or in any way to inflame the ...
— The Atlantic Monthly, Vol. 10, No. 58, August, 1862 • Various

... to a speedy and complete recovery, with no worse consequences than a bad fright. We understand that the expediency of placing a proper railing at all dangerous points on the pier is being made the subject of a numerously signed petition to ...
— Somehow Good • William de Morgan

... various expedients to avoid the fearful consequences; she appealed to the bank director, and begged him not to prosecute her husband. Mr. Randall, though he had been greatly irritated by the cruel insinuations of the culprit, was not a malignant man; and he was disposed to grant the petition of the disconsolate wife. He had recovered his money, and had no malice against the ferryman. But the sheriff declared that no such arrangement could be tolerated. The matter had been placed in his hands, and, as a sworn officer of the law, he ...
— Haste and Waste • Oliver Optic

... of the Jewish reformers of Warsaw were now systematically directed towards this goal. In 1820 there appeared an anonymous pamphlet under the title "The Petition, or Self-defence, of the Members of the Old Testament Persuasion in the Kingdom of Poland." The main purpose of this publication is to show that the root of the evil lies in the Kahal organization, in the elders, rabbis, and burial societies, who expend enormous sums of taxation ...
— History of the Jews in Russia and Poland. Volume II • S.M. Dubnow

... 2 combined) petition, petulant, impetus, impetuous, perpetuate, repeat, compete, ...
— The Century Vocabulary Builder • Creever & Bachelor

... Army, because it was an effort to discipline salvation on a working basis. When the Salvation Army first began its meetings in Brooklyn its members were hooted and insulted in the streets to an extent that rendered their meetings almost impossible. I was requested to present a petition to Mayor Whitney asking protection for them in the streets of the city. People residing near the Salvation headquarters were in constant danger of annoyance from the mobs that gathered about them. It was the fault ...
— T. De Witt Talmage - As I Knew Him • T. De Witt Talmage

... dinner-time arrived, and Don Quixote and Don Alvaro dined together. The alcalde of the village came by chance into the inn together with a notary, and Don Quixote laid a petition before him, showing that it was requisite for his rights that Don Alvaro Tarfe, the gentleman there present, should make a declaration before him that he did not know Don Quixote of La Mancha, also there present, and that he was not the one that was ...
— Don Quixote • Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra

... among the younger sisters, the result of which was that they met Abe in the morning with a unanimous petition. They could neither ask nor expect him to remain; ...
— Old Lady Number 31 • Louise Forsslund

... in Thy keeping. And these things we ask in the name of Thy Son—Amen." The serene quiet, the beloved old room, the evening scene familiar to her from her earliest childhood, her father's reverent, earnest voice, halting and almost breaking after every word of the petition for her; her mother's soft echo of his "Amen"—Pauline's eyes were swimming as she ...
— The Cost • David Graham Phillips

... Cusano,who has in his keeping the deed of this gift; and so also I wrote to Corigero and never had a reply. I now send thither Salai, my pupil, the bearer of this, to whom your Lordship may tell by word of mouth all that happened in the matter about which I petition your Excellency. I expect to go thither this Easter since I am nearly at the end of my lawsuit, and I will take with me two pictures of our Lady which I have begun, and at the present time have brought them on to a very good end; nothing else occurs ...
— The Notebooks of Leonardo Da Vinci, Complete • Leonardo Da Vinci

... when I said I felt better, but she assured me the children only wanted to look at me. I refused her petition, but, on my ultimatum being announced to them, they set up such a roar that, to quiet them, I called ...
— The Speaker, No. 5: Volume II, Issue 1 - December, 1906. • Various

... virulently. Despite the decision of the London Council, the governor vetoed an important bill because the proprietary estates were not exempted from taxation. An angry debate arose in the Assembly as to whether they should petition the king to withdraw Pennsylvania from the proprietaries and make it a crown colony. Franklin took an active part in this contest, and threw all the weight of his authority in favor of the petition; but in the election which followed in 1764 the combination of the aristocrats, ...
— Benjamin Franklin • Paul Elmer More

... very wise act of public policy and also an act of fairness to the best women who are engaged in the cause of woman suffrage." Then, through the efforts of a working committee made up of the six members who had introduced suffrage resolutions, a petition asking for the creation of a Committee on Woman Suffrage, as called for in the Raker resolution, was signed by all members from equal suffrage States and by many of those from Presidential suffrage States and from Primary suffrage Arkansas. This ...
— The History of Woman Suffrage, Volume V • Ida Husted Harper

... armed, and declared that there could be no supply of men or money until their demand for the confirmation of the charters was granted. No longer content with simple confirmation, they drew up, in the form of a statute, a petition requiring that no tallage or aid should henceforth be taken without the assent of the estates. This was the so-called statutum de tallagio non concedendo which seventeenth-century parliaments and judges erroneously ...
— The History of England - From the Accession of Henry III. to the Death of Edward III. (1216-1377) • T.F. Tout

... discourse occurred was the public-house just opposite to the Insolvent Court; and the person with whom it was held was no other than the elder Mr. Weller, who had come there, to comfort and console a friend, whose petition to be discharged under the act, was to be that day heard, and whose attorney he was at that ...
— The Pickwick Papers • Charles Dickens

... hideous copy of it with very soft pencils. He was so pleased with it that he copied another one of the pictures and then another. By and by he had copied almost all of them. His father gave him a dollar and Vandover began to add to his usual evening petition the prayer that he might become a great artist. Thus it was that ...
— Vandover and the Brute • Frank Norris

... had seen him kneel a thousand times before, facing the eastward-looking window, now a black, uncurtained square in the whitewashed wall. What he said was almost unintelligible. There was no petition nor even any sequence of ideas which could be traced. He poured forth a series of ejaculations expressive of intense and rapturous delight, very strange to listen to in such a place and from an old man's lips. Then ...
— Hyacinth - 1906 • George A. Birmingham

... than that of the Society of Civil Engineers, for instance, or the various learned academies. Our body has thus greater general but less special influence, just as on a question of general scientific policy a petition from the American association might carry greater weight, whereas on a question of engineering it would be incomparably inferior to an opinion of the civil engineers. There is in this country, it is true, a general scientific body of limited membership—the National Academy of ...
— A Librarian's Open Shelf • Arthur E. Bostwick

... even the shadow of a cloud seemed to darken her path. Then, for the first time, her mind was agitated with doubts as to her Saviour's love for her, and very distressing to those around her were her anxious cries for pardon. "Father, forgive me, for Jesus Christ's sake," was her constant petition. She was visited by a minister and by several Christian friends, who used every effort to give her relief, but for some time all in vain; she seemed unable to lay hold on any promise for her comfort. One of these friends especially felt a deep interest in the dear ...
— Jesus Says So • Unknown

... the parish of Bethersden, at Canterbury, Chart, Halden, &c., worth, at least, 500 per annum. About which time he [being then on the commission of the peace] was made choice of by the whole body of the county of Kent at an assize, to deliver the Kentish petition to the House of Commons, for the restoring the king to his rights, and for settling the government, &c. For which piece of service he was committed [April 30, 1642] to the Gatehouse at Westminster, where he made that ...
— Lucasta • Richard Lovelace

... there never is in the afternoon. The good minister sits in the aisle, in front of the pulpit, and invites any one he likes to make a prayer. Any other one, who feels the need of it, may request that he or she be mentioned personally in the petition; and those who wish it may ...
— Choice Readings for the Home Circle • Anonymous

... unable to find that any of the public money had been wasted or lost. His report, submitted in the closing days of Congress, was not ordered to be printed. Subsequently, on the 15th of April, 1879, after Mr. Glover had ceased to be a Member of the House, a petition from him was presented asking that his report be printed, which was referred to a committee, but they did not seem to think the report of much consequence, as they did not recommend it ...
— Recollections of Forty Years in the House, Senate and Cabinet - An Autobiography. • John Sherman

... be done here in secret, and hidden in the forest gloom. Imagine the astonishment of the travellers when this rough backwoodsman rapped on the table and bowed his head. And such a prayer! "Never," says Mr. St. John, "did I hear a petition that more evidently came from the heart. It was so simple, so reverent, so tender, so full of humility and penitence, as well as of thankfulness. We sat in silence, and as soon as we recovered ourselves I whispered ...
— Stonewall Jackson And The American Civil War • G. F. R. Henderson

... to haul out lumber and put up a small building for the newspaper and post office, although we had not yet got the necessary petition signed for a post office. We could not do that before the settlers arrived. A small shed room was built a few feet from the business structure as a lean-to for our ...
— Land of the Burnt Thigh • Edith Eudora Kohl

... may gain such a woman; but do you rather pray that you may have no such inclination. Another invokes the gods to set him free from some troublesome circumstance; but let it be your petition that your mind may not be set upon such a wish. A third is devout in order to prevent the loss of his son; but I would have you pray rather against the fear of losing him. Let this be the rule for your devotions, and ...
— The Worlds Greatest Books, Volume XIII. - Religion and Philosophy • Various

... the governor ("Gespann") Paul Rosto to petition the King, to restore their husbands, and when the young schoolmaster, Augustin Paradiser, the only man in the village besides Rosto appears on the scene, they bitterly complain to him of ...
— The Standard Operaglass - Detailed Plots of One Hundred and Fifty-one Celebrated Operas • Charles Annesley

... Douglas anticipated the era of aerial navigation now just dawning. On one occasion, he urged upon the Senate a memorial from an aeronaut, who desired the aid of the government in experiments which he was conducting with dirigible balloons. When the Senate, in a mirthful mood, proposed to refer the petition to the Committee on Foreign Affairs, Douglas protested that the subject should be ...
— Stephen A. Douglas - A Study in American Politics • Allen Johnson

... They had come to offer him a free pardon and the rank of colonel from General Montero in consideration of joining the rebel army with his mounted band. No notice was taken at the time of the proposal. It was joined, as an evidence of good faith, to a petition praying the Sulaco Assembly for permission to enlist, with all his followers, in the forces being then raised in Sulaco for the defence of the Five-Year Mandate of regeneration. The petition, like everything else, had found its way ...
— Nostromo: A Tale of the Seaboard • Joseph Conrad

... more declared the wishes of the nation that he would strike the decisive blow on the pretensions of Edward, by himself accepting the crown. The Bishop of Dunkeld, with al the eloquence of learning and the most animated devotion to the interest of Scotland, seconded the petition. Mar and Bothwell enforced it. The disaffected lords thought proper to throw in their conjurations also; and every voice but that of Badenoch poured forth fervent entreaties that he, their liberator, would grant the supplication ...
— The Scottish Chiefs • Miss Jane Porter

... not even in thought could she say that dreadful word; but she knew now that mamma was in the music room; and earnestly repeating her silent petition for help, ...
— Elsie's Motherhood • Martha Finley

... not signify that the bowed frame was wearied by a day of physical toil, or that the aching head pleaded for "tired nature's sweet restorer," or that a voice from the outer room came often to his ear, with the petition that he would no longer rob himself of his needful rest; there were new and holy impulses that refused to be put aside, and hungerings and thirstings that must be satisfied, and not until the candle gave out its last flicker did Archibald Mackie spare himself the pittance of slumber that was to ...
— The Elm Tree Tales • F. Irene Burge Smith

... Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary to Her Most Gracious Majesty Queen Victoria at the Court of Saint James's in London and To The Governor and Commonwealth of Massachusetts in the United States of America Greeting—WHEREAS a Petition has been filed in the Registry of Our Consistorial and Episcopal Court of London by you the said Honorable Thomas Francis Bayard as Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary to Her Most Gracious Majesty Queen Victoria at the Court of Saint ...
— Bradford's History of 'Plimoth Plantation' • William Bradford

... get tired of staying ashore," Danny Grin proposed genially, "I'll make humble petition to be assigned as junior ...
— Dave Darrin on Mediterranean Service - or, With Dan Dalzell on European Duty • H. Irving Hancock

... explanation. When all is said and done, the rapt saint is found the only logician. Not exhortation nor argument becomes our lips, but paeans of joy and praise. But not of adulation; we are too nearly related in the deep of the mind to that we honor. It is God in us that checks the language of petition by a grander thought. In the bottom of the heart it is said, 'I am and by me, O child, this fair body and world of thine stands and grows; I am, all things are mine; and ...
— Cosmic Consciousness • Ali Nomad

... been good training schools for popular government, but also proved reasonably successful. They hold their sessions every year, in the month of March, in their respective electoral districts, and there discuss all questions of local taxation. They may also petition the central government on other matters of local interest. The members must be males of the full age of twenty-five years, who have been resident for three years in the district and pay the sum of $10 as a land tax within their district. The qualifications for electors ...
— The Constitutional Development of Japan 1863-1881 • Toyokichi Iyenaga

... the final burning. The Marquis of Leganes, Governor of the Milanesado, chancing to be in Majorca with his fleet, took pity on the youth and beauty of a girl sentenced to the flames, and sued for her pardon. The tribunal praised the marquis for his Christian sentiments, but would not grant his petition. ...
— The Dead Command - From the Spanish Los Muertos Mandan • Vicente Blasco Ibanez

... machinery was making its way, feared and hated by the lower order of workers, eyed distrustfully and uncertainly by the higher. Men and women struggling for bare subsistence had become active competitors, till, in 1789, a general petition entitled "Petition of Women of the Third Estate to the King" was signed by hundreds of French workers, who, made desperate by starvation and underpay, demanded that every business which included spinning, weaving, sewing, or knitting should be given to women exclusively. Side by ...
— Women Wage-Earners - Their Past, Their Present, and Their Future • Helen Campbell

... for the rest. I prayed in the collect for the fourteen S. after Trinity for encrease of Faith, Hope, and Charity, and deliverance from scruples; this deliverance was the chief subject of my prayers. O God, hear me. I am now to try to conquer them. After reception I repeated my petition, and again when I came home. My dinner made me a little peevish; not much. After dinner I retired, and read in an hour and a half the seven first chapters of St. Matthew in Greek. Glory be to God. God grant me to proceed and improve, for Jesus ...
— Life Of Johnson, Vol. 2 • Boswell

... position of Sir Charles Dilke. Under these circumstances, I have no hesitation whatever in saying that counsel have been well advised in suggesting the course which they have induced Sir Charles Dilke to take, and the petition, as against him, must be dismissed ...
— The Life of the Rt. Hon. Sir Charles W. Dilke, Vol. 2 • Stephen Gwynn

... Fifteenth of March, B. C. Forty-four, as Caesar entered the Senate the rebels crowded upon him under the pretense of handing him a petition, and at a sign fell upon him. Twenty-three of the conspirators got close enough to send their envious ...
— Little Journeys to the Homes of the Great, Volume 7 - Little Journeys to the Homes of Eminent Orators • Elbert Hubbard

... These allegations are confirmed by Goerres in a pamphlet, "Results of my Mission to Paris," in which he says, "The Directory had treated the four departments like so many Paschalics, which it abandoned to its Janissaries and colonized with its favorites. Every petition sent by the inhabitants was thrown aside with revolting contempt; everything was done that could most deeply wound their feelings in regard to themselves or to their country." "The secret history of the government ...
— Germany from the Earliest Period Vol. 4 • Wolfgang Menzel, Trans. Mrs. George Horrocks

... Ministry that we all resigned in a body, except Mrs. Colton (who was in England) and Mrs. Farr. We were fighting the battle of the unpaid boards, and we were so strong in the public estimation that we might have won the victory. The Government had relieved children on the petition of parents, contrary to the strong recommendation of the council. Although the commission had declared that the reformatory boys should be removed at once from the hulk Fitzjames, they were still kept there, and the only offer of accommodation given was to share the Magill ...
— An Autobiography • Catherine Helen Spence

... was then indefinitely delayed by Rougon's resignation of the Presidency of the Council of State. After Rougon's appointment as Minister of the Interior, he induced the Council of State to refuse the petition of the Sisterhood, and M. Charbonnel accordingly succeeded to the estate. Subsequently the Charbonnels accused the Sisters of having removed some of Chevassu's silver plate, and Rougon ordered the police to make a search in the convent. This caused a scandal in the ...
— A Zola Dictionary • J. G. Patterson

... say, which makes me happy of course. And you will not make the 'better' worse again by doing wrong things—that is my petition. It was the excess of goodness to write those two letters for me in one day, and I thank you, thank you. Beloved, when you write, let it be, if you choose, ever so few lines. Do not suffer me (for my own sake) to tire you, because two lines ...
— The Letters of Robert Browning and Elizabeth Barrett Barrett, Vol. 1 (of 2) 1845-1846 • Robert Browning and Elizabeth Barrett Barrett

... Worshipping, comprehends several articles, as ascription, confession, remorse, intercession, thanksgiving, deprecation, petition, &c. Ascription of honour and praise to the peerless, supreme Majesty of Heaven, and confession and deprecation, are to be uttered with all that humility of looks and gesture, which can exhibit the most profound self-abasement, and annihilation, before One; whose superiority is infinite. The head ...
— The Young Gentleman and Lady's Monitor, and English Teacher's Assistant • John Hamilton Moore

... the number of distinguished signatures obtained in France to their petition in 1901, the Delegation drew up a formula of assent to their Declaration, which they circulate amongst (1) members of academies, (2) members of universities, in all countries. They also keep a list ...
— International Language - Past, Present and Future: With Specimens of Esperanto and Grammar • Walter J. Clark

... day's work in the secret Volksraad. He was tired. 'It is hard work,' he said, 'for the head.' The State attorney, a young Christ's man, explained to him that 'we were both at the same school in England.' Kruger was eloquent on the subject of the Petition. He told me that some of the 21,000 had died three years before they signed it, and some had signed it owing to a bottle of whisky. 'And I want you to let that be known in England' (I know anything said to you will circulate—by experience). He said, did the subtle old ...
— Letters to His Friends • Forbes Robinson

... between a king resolved on innovations and a nation that will have none of them. It sends up to London specimens of the petitions received—one from the nobility, one from the gentry, one from the burghs, and a fourth from the clergy. The clerical petition thus honoured was that from the "Presbytrie of Auchtererdoch." The petition of this Presbytery was probably selected not on account of the zealous character of the opposition of its members, but on account of their known loyalty. The impression to be produced on the King's ...
— Chronicles of Strathearn • Various

... and said one of the patrols had all signed a petition (all except two absentees, he said) asking him to order an election in that patrol ...
— Roy Blakeley • Percy Keese Fitzhugh

... one bond of unity, one nucleus or point of convergence, one prayer,—the Lord's Prayer. It is matter for rejoicing that we unite in love, and in this sacred petition with every praying assembly on earth,—"Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done in earth, as ...
— Pulpit and Press • Mary Baker Eddy

... the consideration of the Senate, a petition of certain members of the Pottawatomie tribe of Indians, complaining of the treaty made by W. W. Ross on the 15th November last with that tribe, which treaty was laid before the Senate for its constitutional action in ...
— A Compilation of the Messages and Papers of the Presidents: Lincoln - Section 1 (of 2) of Volume 6: Abraham Lincoln • Compiled by James D. Richardson

... increase of pay. He pointed out to his firm of wholesale stationers that prices were rising in every direction. The firm, who knew when they had a marketable thing cheap, granted his petition. Henceforth Edward was able to earn five pounds a week. He increased Miss Crewe's allowance by fifty pounds, and continued to live more like a beast than ever, for the price of paper and paints was soaring. He worked practically without ...
— The Best British Short Stories of 1922 • Edward J. O'Brien and John Cournos, editors

... lips that open like the blushing rose, strow'd over with morning dew, and from a breath sweeter than holy incense; in order to which, I approach you, most excellent beauty, with this most humble petition, that you will deign to permit me to throw my unworthy self before the throne of your mercy, there to receive the sentence of my life or death; a happiness, though incomparably too great for so mean a vassal, yet with that reverence and awe I shall receive it, as I would the sentence of the ...
— Love-Letters Between a Nobleman and His Sister • Aphra Behn

... kneeling before the altar, my heart became filled with gratitude; and no petition suggested itself to me save one, and that was, "Let me believe and love!" I thought of the fair, strong, stately figure of Christ, standing out in the world's history, like a statue of pure white ...
— A Romance of Two Worlds • Marie Corelli

... cleere deserving That rancks in this below your fellowships? For which of all my cares, of all my watches, My services (too many and too mightie To find rewards) am I thus recompenced, Not lookd on, not saluted, left forgotten Like one that came to petition to your honours— Over the ...
— A Collection of Old English Plays, Vol. II • Various

... away too long," said he. "You don't need to look around any more when anybody gallops up behind you in this state, unless something hits you in the back; and even then it's liable to be only a bunch of tracts or a petition to sign against the trusts. I never looked at that hombre that rode by; but I'll bet a quart of sheep dip that he's some double-dyed son of a popgun out rounding up ...
— Sixes and Sevens • O. Henry

... Is the petition yet prepared? You know My zeal for all you wish, sweet Beatrice; 40 Doubt not but I will use my utmost skill So that the Pope ...
— The Complete Poetical Works of Percy Bysshe Shelley Volume I • Percy Bysshe Shelley

... head fell on her hands, as if this burning petition had exhausted her strength. The duenna approached her, took her arm, endeavored to ...
— The Amulet • Hendrik Conscience

... more than once set him adrift, the outcast of grocerdom, to earn a living as best he could by his vigorous thews, and it was in one of these intervals that, having need of a porter at the works, Warburton had engaged him, on Mrs. Hopper's petition. After a month or so of irreproachable service, Allchin fought with a foreman, and took his discharge. The same week, Mrs. Allchin presented him with their first child; the family fell into want; Mrs. Hopper (squeezed between door and jamb) ...
— Will Warburton • George Gissing

... the tree at page 91, how they conquer all the details of the trunk itself, and become darker and more conspicuous than any part of the boughs or limbs, and so in the vignette to Campbell's Beechtree's Petition. Take the beautiful concentration of all that is most characteristic of Italy as she is, at page 168 of Rogers's Italy, where we have the long shadows of the trunks made by far the most conspicuous thing ...
— Modern Painters Volume I (of V) • John Ruskin

... he is making you uncomfortable, and hangs on like a burr. But if you laugh at him, with good humor, he is disarmed. A friend of mine reduced to confusion one of the most unabashed mendicants in Castile by replying to his whining petition, politely and with a beaming smile, "No, thank you. I never eat them." The beggar is far from considering his employment a degrading one. It is recognized by the Church, and the obligation of this form ...
— Castilian Days • John Hay

... laughter and haughty disdain— "To handle my snood you petition in vain; Six suitors are mine since the year thou wert gone, What art thou, that thou should'st be the favourite one? Art thou sick? Ha, ha, for thy woe! Art thou dying for love? ...
— The Modern Scottish Minstrel , Volume I. - The Songs of Scotland of the past half century • Various

... that the Holy Spirit might bless their meeting and deliver them from the power of their enemies. He also prayed with much emphasis that their enemies might be turned into Christian friends—at which petition a loud "Amen" ...
— The Fugitives - The Tyrant Queen of Madagascar • R.M. Ballantyne

... those well-intended offices which you are pleased so emphatically to acknowledge, let me beg that you make in your devotions one petition for my eternal welfare. ...
— The Gaming Table: Its Votaries and Victims - Volume II (of II) • Andrew Steinmetz

... learn whether a decision had been reached. On each of these occasions the Political Department renewed the assurance that we would be informed as soon as there was any news. In order to be prepared for every eventuality, we drew up a petition for clemency addressed to the Governor-General, and a covering note addressed to Baron von der Lancken, in order that they might be presented without loss of time ...
— A Journal From Our Legation in Belgium • Hugh Gibson

... before the Count, through a member of the king's council, a detailed exhibition of his plan and a map of New France executed by himself. He soon after received an intimation from this nobleman of his willingness to accept the office, if he should be appointed. A petition was sent by Champlain to the king and his council, and the appointment was made on the 8th of October, 1612, and on the 15th of the same month the Count issued a commission appointing ...
— Voyages of Samuel de Champlain, Vol. 1 • Samuel de Champlain

... happiness. And I am surprised to see people overlook it, and think it matter of congratulation that winter is going, or, if coming, is not likely to be a severe one. On the contrary, I put up a petition annually for as much snow, hail, frost, or storm, of one kind or other, as the skies can possibly afford us. Surely everybody is aware of the divine pleasures which attend a winter fireside, candles at four o'clock, warm hearth-rugs, tea, a fair tea-maker, shutters closed, curtains flowing ...
— Confessions of an English Opium-Eater • Thomas De Quincey

... said; 'I do like my King, but better I like my Church.' She swallowed in her throat. 'I had thought,' she said, 'that Privy Seal would stay his harryings of the goodly nuns in this land.' But now she had a petition, come that day from Lincoln gaol. Cromwell's servants were more bitter still than ever against the religious. Here was a false accusation of treason against her foster-mother's self. 'I will soon end it or mend it, or lose mine own ...
— Privy Seal - His Last Venture • Ford Madox Ford

... officer we don't like instead of having to wait until the earth has revolved to a certain place about the sun. But we still have to vote on a fixed date whether we have anything to vote upon or not. If a recall election is held when the people petition for it, why ...
— A Preface to Politics • Walter Lippmann

... done, the American Consul at Beirut, who took a deep interest in the case, addressed a letter to Soleiman Pasha, next in power to Ibrahim, who was then at Sidon on his way to Beirut. This was favorably received, and the Pasha expressed his wish that the family would send a petition to him, that he might be ready to judge the case when he should arrive at Beirut. This was accordingly done, and the requisite evidence was made ready. The poor man received his food daily from his missionary friend, with messages of cheer, and ...
— History Of The Missions Of The American Board Of Commissioners For Foreign Missions To The Oriental Churches, Volume I. • Rufus Anderson

... boldly, "as the spokesmen of a great number of our fellow-countrymen, for the purpose of sending our petition through you to the Emperor and to the Roman Senate, that we may urge upon them the policy of allowing us to govern this country after our own ancient fashion." He paused, as if awaiting some outburst as an answer to his own temerity; but the Governor merely nodded his ...
— The Last Galley Impressions and Tales - Impressions and Tales • Arthur Conan Doyle

... as a chivalrous protector of a distressed woman, and never knowingly committed any offence against his accuser's home. Robards and Rachel Donelson had been married in Kentucky, then a part of Virginia, and Virginia had no law of divorce. In 1790 the Virginia legislature, acting on a petition of Robards, authorized the supreme court of Kentucky to try the case and grant him a divorce if it should find his charges against his wife and Jackson to be true. Somehow, Jackson and Mrs. Robards were persuaded that this act of the Virginia legislature was itself a divorce, and so they were ...
— Andrew Jackson • William Garrott Brown

... already the controlling influence in the government, was pressing its unholy and arrogant demands openly and without shame. It had destroyed civil liberty in the Slave States, and was fast destroying it in the Free. It was stifling the right of petition in Congress, and smothering free speech in the States. The Executive was recommending that the mails should be sifted for its safety. The question of the right of Slavery in the Territories and the Free States was taking form, and the slave-catchers claimed ...
— The Atlantic Monthly, Volume 15, No. 88, February, 1865 • Various

... there has been in the conduct of the British ministry for the last ten years, to justify those hopes with which gentlemen have been pleased to solace themselves and the house? Is it that insidious smile with which our petition has been lately received? Trust it not, sir; it will prove a snare to your feet. Suffer not yourselves to be betrayed with a kiss. Ask yourselves how this gracious reception of our petition comports with those ...
— America First - Patriotic Readings • Various

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

... the outside of the Seminole petition, the office instruction for its answer of May 7, 1862, reads as follows: "Say that by resolution of Congress the annuities were authorized to be used to prevent starvation and suffering amongst them and that being the only ...
— The American Indian as Participant in the Civil War • Annie Heloise Abel

... who had arrived in 1649, and Drisius, who came in 1652 (the successors to Michaelius, who came over in 1623, and Bogardus, who followed him in 1632), proved to be the most bigoted and fanatical in the opposition to the request of the Lutherans. Instead of their petition being granted, the Lutherans were now forced to have their children baptized in the Reformed churches by Reformed pastors, and to promise to bring them up in the Confession of Dort; and private services in dwellings were made punishable with severe penalties. Peter Stuyvesant, who was also deacon ...
— American Lutheranism - Volume 1: Early History of American Lutheranism and The Tennessee Synod • Friedrich Bente

... replied Scheherazade, "I have a sister who loves me as tenderly as I love her. Grant me the favour of allowing her to sleep this night in the same room, as it is the last we shall be together." Schahriar consented to Scheherazade's petition ...
— The Arabian Nights Entertainments • Andrew Lang.

... far back as 1865, the first steps were not taken until 1873 when the Michigan State Dental Association requested the establishment of a dental course as soon as possible. This was supplemented two years later by a similar petition to the Legislature on the part of a large number of citizens of the State, which led to the appropriation of the sum of $3,000 for each of the next two years for the establishment of a Department of Dentistry ...
— The University of Michigan • Wilfred Shaw

... of creation at the dawn of day, when from the forest ascends the song of thousands of God's creatures, praising their Maker in the only way they know. The hymn ended, Aunt Faith knelt down, and they all joined in the Lord's prayer. Then came the petition for the day, for a better realization of God's goodness, and a reverent spirit in the worship of this temple; for forgiveness of sins and aid in forgiving the faults of others; and above all, for a spirit of hearty thankfulness and praise ...
— The Old Stone House • Anne March

... of this College having surrendered their charter to the King, and petitioned to have the Establishment put on a more enlarged footing; their petition was graciously received and a new charter granted, bearing date the eighteenth of November, one thousand eight hundred and twenty-three. A grant of a sum of money was at the same time made to the College out of the royal revenues in this Province, ...
— First History of New Brunswick • Peter Fisher

... Captain Lake, I just mention this—I put it before you—that is, because you know the county is not to be contested for nothing—and you'll want a very serious sum of money for the purpose, and possibly a petition—and I can, one way or another, make up, with an effort, about L15,000l. Now it strikes me that it would be a wise thing for you—the wisest thing, perhaps, my dear Captain Lake, you ever did—to place me in the ...
— Wylder's Hand • J. Sheridan Le Fanu

... 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. ...
— The Eve of the French Revolution • Edward J. Lowell

... Scarcely had this petition been uttered, when a mysterious person appeared to Reham from the invisible world, and pointed to the mountain from whence the tempest descended. Reham immediately attended to the sign, and galloped forward to the mountain, where he discovered the magician upon its summit, deeply engaged in incantations ...
— Persian Literature, Volume 1,Comprising The Shah Nameh, The - Rubaiyat, The Divan, and The Gulistan • Anonymous

... system"; in the reconciliation of the cross all orders of beings are concerned. "That in the dispensation of the fulness of times He might gather together in one all things in Christ, both which are in heaven and which are on earth; even in Him" (1:10). (c) Prayer. A petition that the understanding of believers may be illuminated; that they may know the hope of their calling and the riches of their heritage, which comes through unity with ...
— Bible Studies in the Life of Paul - Historical and Constructive • Henry T. Sell

... the same organization prevailed in the courts of Quiche and Atitlan. The chiefs of the latter province forwarded, in 1571, a petition to Philip II, in which they gave some interesting particulars of their former government. They say: "The supreme ruler was called Atziquinihai, and the chiefs who shared the authority with him, Amac Tzutuhil. These latter were sovereigns, and ...
— The Annals of the Cakchiquels • Daniel G. Brinton

... queen-mother, and prayed that the relaxation of the rule touching the forty days with respect to other staples might be withdrawn.(465) Their prayer, however, would seem to have had but little effect, for within a week of the petition to the king we find that monarch issuing an order to the collector of customs on wool, leather and wool-fells in the port of London, to enforce the delay of forty days before goods ...
— London and the Kingdom - Volume I • Reginald R. Sharpe

... presumed not materially incorrect. The documents to which I refer are the judgments of the 22d April, 1815, and the 17th December, 1822, on the Portsmouth petitions, together with the minutes of conference between your Lordship and certain physicians, on the 7th January, 1823. In the judgment on the petition of 1815, it is stated by your Lordship,[A] "I have searched, and caused a most careful search to be made into all the records and procedures on lunacy which are extant. I believe, and I think I may venture to say, that originally commissions of this sort were of two ...
— A Letter to the Right Honorable the Lord Chancellor, on the Nature and Interpretation of Unsoundness of Mind, and Imbecility of Intellect • John Haslam

... when this Papist relief bill comes before the house, to convene our whole body for the first time. My lord has thoughts of our walking in procession through the streets—just as an innocent display of strength—and accompanying our petition down to the door of the ...
— Barnaby Rudge • Charles Dickens

... to do mischief. Being related to Morales, the royal treasurer, he had access to people in place, and an opportunity of enlisting their opinions and prejudices on his side. Columbus wrote to Morales, inclosing a copy of the petition which the rebels had sent to him when in Jamaica, in which they acknowledged their culpability, and implored his forgiveness; and he entreated the treasurer not to be swayed by the representations of his relative, nor to pronounce an opinion ...
— The Life and Voyages of Christopher Columbus (Vol. II) • Washington Irving

... life, a life more useful to other men, than Benjamin Franklin. For forty-two years he gave the constant efforts of his life to his country, and during all that time no taint of a selfish action can be laid to his charge. Almost his last public act was to petition Congress to pass an act for the abolition of slavery. He died in Seventeen Hundred Ninety, and as you walk up Arch Street, Philadelphia, only a few squares from the spot where stood his printing-shop, you can see the place ...
— Little Journeys To the Homes of the Great, Volume 3 (of 14) • Elbert Hubbard

... 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 mind against ...
— Behind the Bungalow • EHA

... was discontinued. Bligh was exceedingly angry, and, by declaring he would put the six officers in gaol, brought matters to a crisis. The officers of the New South Wales Corps all took part with their comrades; they assisted Mr. Macarthur to get up a petition, asking Major Johnstone, the military commander, to depose Governor Bligh, and himself take charge of the colony. Major Johnstone was only too glad of the opportunity. He held a council of officers, at which Mr. Macarthur and several others were present. Their course of action was decided ...
— History of Australia and New Zealand - From 1606 to 1890 • Alexander Sutherland

... oldest liturgies—a precaution not to their disadvantage. As in the prayers of the synagogue, so also in Christian Churches, all sorts of matters were not submitted to God or laid bare before Him, but the prayers serve as a religious ceremony, that is, as adoration, petition and intercession. [Greek: Su ei ho theos monos kai Iesous Christos ho pais sou kai hemeis laos sou kai probata tes nomes sou], (thou art God alone and Jesus Christ is thy son, and we are thy people and the sheep of thy pasture). In this confession, an expressive Christian ...
— History of Dogma, Volume 1 (of 7) • Adolph Harnack

... said unto Esther at the banquet of wine, What is thy petition? and it shall be granted thee: and what is thy request? even to the half of the kingdom it shall ...
— Short Stories Old and New • Selected and Edited by C. Alphonso Smith

... 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 of ...
— How Women Love - (Soul Analysis) • Max Simon Nordau

... struggle which is most circumstantial, and on the whole most probable, the first difficulty which the would-be rebel had to meet and vanquish was that of quitting the Court. Alleging that his father was in weak health, and required his care, he requested leave of absence for a short time; but his petition was refused on the flattering ground that the Great King was too much attached to him to lose sight of him even for a day. A second application, however, made through a favorite eunuch after a certain interval of time, was more ...
— The Seven Great Monarchies Of The Ancient Eastern World, Vol 3. (of 7): Media • George Rawlinson

... hour; French only 4.5 miles; the former travelling, in the year, forty times the length of miles that the French accomplish." These coaches were a great improvement on the previous method of sending the mails. In 1783 a petition to Parliament stated that "the mails are generally entrusted to some idle boy, without character, mounted on ...
— Railway Adventures and Anecdotes - extending over more than fifty years • Various

... himself and pled with God by all these names, Hezekiah comes to his petition. It is but translating into words the symbol of spreading the letter before God. He asks God to behold and to hear the defiant words. Prayer tells God what it knows that He knows already, for it relieves the burdened heart to tell Him. It asks ...
— Expositions of Holy Scripture - Isaiah and Jeremiah • Alexander Maclaren

... 'kingdom of Christ.' We think that the fundamental idea has been grasped by none more correctly than by Origen among the ancients, and by Calvin among the reformers. The phase of the idea principally dwelt upon by the Church Fathers may be seen in their explanation of the third petition of the Lord's Prayer, which Augustine especially examines profoundly. Most of them understand by it the realm of glory, the future revelation of Christ. Origen alone, in his book on Prayer, taken a more exact view of the subject. In like manner Calvin, ...
— Orthodoxy: Its Truths And Errors • James Freeman Clarke

... son knelt down together, and Seth prayed for the poor wandering father and for those who were sorrowing for him at home. And when he came to the petition that Adam might never be called to set up his tent in a far country, but that his mother might be cheered and comforted by his presence all the days of her pilgrimage, Lisbeth's ready tears flowed ...
— Adam Bede • George Eliot

... they are. But although they speak so fairly, yet when the time comes to vote, they vote as the priest tells them. They have no option, with their belief. I don't blame the poor fellows one bit. I followed the report of the South Meath election petition very closely, and I know that the same kind of pressure was exerted here. At Castlejordan Chapel Father O'Connell commanded the people, in a sermon, to go to a Nationalist meeting, and said he would be there, and that their parish priest expected them ...
— Ireland as It Is - And as It Would be Under Home Rule • Robert John Buckley (AKA R.J.B.)

... from Riverside Company and the "fee" which his lawyer, Mr. Bitter, was to have for "presenting the case" before the Board of Aldermen. I went back to lunch at the Boyne Club, and to receive the congratulations of my friends. The next week the Riverside Company was formed, and I made out a petition to the Board of Aldermen for a franchise; Mr. Bitter appeared and argued: in short, the procedure so familiar to modern students of political affairs was gone through. The Maplewood Avenue residents rose en masse, supported by the City Improvement League. Perry Blackwood, as soon as he ...
— The Crossing • Winston Churchill

... paper, and soon perceived the nature of its contents. It was a "petition" signed by all the boys present. It ...
— The Boy Tar • Mayne Reid

... 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, ...
— Neville Trueman the Pioneer Preacher • William Henry Withrow

... 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 House of Commons, solicit the passing ...
— The Rise of Canada, from Barbarism to Wealth and Civilisation - Volume 1 • Charles Roger

... throw myself at your knees if so I may win your confidence; and I shall win it, for Providence has destined you to be my son. Ah, once it was my dream that you should be more completely mine. If, when I made my second petition, they had granted you to my loving care, you would have been brought up with my daughter and you would certainly have become her husband. But God would not have it so. You have now to begin your education, whereas hers is almost finished. She is of an age to marry; and, besides, ...
— Mauprat • George Sand



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



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