The Statesman.
London, England, 1821-03-08 00:00:00

IMPERIAL PARLIAMENT.

ROUSE OF OP COMMONl4.—Wtosrsiaty, 111Aaca 7.

REMARKABLE PF.TiTION.
Mr. JAMES printentsd a Petition from a person
anted Alathan Broadiantst. complaining of a multi-
plicity of grievances. He bad been committed upon
a charge of High Treason, which was afterwards
abandoned, and he was subseimently tried for a mis-
deuir.neur. and sentenced to two rears imprisonment
in r Cagle. Among other grievances, the
Petiti,•rer t of helm; stinted of his allow-
ances of food, becatt4e he refweil to work. Also, that
he was st fused he use of newspapers, and that all his
letters nee•• opeteii before he received them. The
Hon. Member complained that a letter of his had been
so opened, which lie conceived to be a breach of privi-
lege. The Petition complained also of the conduct
of the gaoler, by idiom. orders he hail been thrown
into a tb&wp cell celled the ditch, which was to him a
great degradation, as well as a source of great misery
sod tattering. Ile had been thrown into the ditch by the
turnkeys. and tiinA injured thereby, bet he had been
refused the attendance of a surgeon, to whom he sent

(Stanley) whether he knew the statements he had
made to he true, of his own knowledge, or whether
be only knew them from representations made by
others. With regard to the Petition I.e certain])
thoitzlit that it ought to he rereived. There were
Men about rt mesubers present; but th ought to re-'
collect, that that House was composed of 1;:ri, and'
unless the Petition was entered 111,1111 the Journals,
those who were not present, would have no tai..w-
ledge whatever of any suck Petition having hues
presented.
Lord STANLEY said, that lie did not know of his
personal knowledge any thing of the farts spoken of
in the Petition : but his information st as this—he had
seen the contrailicions which he had mentioned, in the

Iraod•writing of the surgeon of the ;faol.
Mr. Serjeant UNSU)%V would not admit that be-
cause every Member of the House 44 Commons was
not present, that those who wen•, should be honnil to
let such a foul calumny as the present petition
evidently contained, lie on the table, and Ire en-
tcrril upon the Jouraafs of the Iluu•e.
Sir It. WILSON explained.
Mr. WHIM /USE sa►d, that it bad come to his
knowledge that the sisiting Magistrates of the Gaol in
which the Petitioner was confined, had thowilit pro-
per to alter some of the regulations of the gaoler, not
lung ago, upon a representation being made to them,
that his conduct had been improper. He thought it
perfectly necessary for the House to be in possession
of this fact, because it would then see, that if this
person hail already done what the Magistrates thought
necessary to he remedied, it was quite possible that he
might commit other abuses. He shoull support the
Petition.

Mr. LOCKHART contended that the Petition ought
to be received, from the respect sv:.ieb was at all times
due to the right of petitioning. He did not conceive
that the Howie would be bound to sanction its con-
tents by allowing it to lie upon the table.
-

Mr. IVYNNE could not for one moment allow tbat

the House was bound to receive the petition, when its
assertions had been so completely falsified by the
evidence which had been given. If it were necessary
to look for the precedent upon such a subject, hundreds
of petitions had been rejected upon the ground of con-
taining falsehoods. He would allow that what the
Hon. Member for Westminster had said, afforded
•owe ground for believing the contents of the petition.
It was fair to assume, that when the ♦isiting 3lagis-
trate, were applied to, they would remove it. He
would most positively deny that that House was the
place to which such application ought to he made. He
was afraid that, instead of being the last and superior
tribunal to which all others must appeal, they were
about to make themselves the hearers of all sorts of
complaints and disputes in the first instance. The
consequence would be, that they never could attend to
such cases, and fresh sources of discontent would be
thus opened. He thought it best to declare at once,
that the House could i,ot take cognizance of such coin-
plaints, and he would thetefore vote against the pre-
sent petition lying upon the table.
Mr. BERNAL said, that it appeared to him from
the petition, that the Magistrates had been applied to
by the prisoner, without effect. The Noble Lord near
him (Lord Stanley) had only negatived some of the
facts stated by the petitioner, and that not upon his
own knowledge, but from representations which had
been made to hint► by others.
_ _

Mr. WYNNE observed, that he had not founded
his opinion of the falsehood of the petition upon what
bad fallen from the Noble Lord alone, bat from the

the House to support a vexation. Petition, but he con-
sidered the present to be one v. ought to be re-
ceived. They had better err by admitting too many.
titan by shutting their doors to the petitions of the
people.
Mr. Ult EEVE V, altlionA he believed the sate.
ment, of hi' liouourab:e Fr;etul (Mr. ilornby), should
%.,te in favour of the petition.
Mr. GREY BENZ E1"1' declared a similar inten-