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of fresh air, and to take as much exercise as I could bear. Such has been the opinions of Doctors Lipscomb, Wright, and Stanton, whom I have consulted in London; and such also is the opinion of the Physicians to whom I have had occasion to resort since my arrival here, and whose certificate is annexed. Such treatment as I complain of is, I am persuaded, as contrary to the intention of the Judges by whom I have been sent here, as it is, I submit, inconsistent with that to which any man committed for a misdemeanor, ought to be subjected."

That about a week after the Petitioner's arrival here, he was, in consequence of this remonstrance, visited by the magistrates, one of whom, in the course of conversation, observed, that they (the magistrates) could not compel the jailor to accommodate Petitioner with rooms in the front of the prison; adding, that he understood another person confined for a libel (whom he named) paid three guineas a-week for his accommodation in another prison. To this observation Petitioner said, that he could not afford to pay so much; upon which another of the Magistrates observed, that his (Petitioner's) subscriptions were likely to be considerable." In a few days after this visit, Petitioner was allowed to take exercise for three hours each day, which, according to his request, was fixed at from eight to nine in the morning, from one till two in the afternoon, and from five till six in the evening. But this arrangement was soon after altered, and an order issued, that such Petitioner should take exercise for 3 hours in succession, namely, from eleven till two o'clock. Against this order Petitioner again remonstrated; but the orders respecting the treatment of Petitioner have throughout varied in such a manner, as to justify Petitioner in stating, that they are dictated by a spirit of oppression.

That, for a period of nearly five weeks, Petitioner was not allowed to go into the area for the enjoyment of air and exercise at all, in consequence of which his health suffered so severely, that the medical Gentleman who usually attended him, thought it necessary to call in another physician; and Petitioner despairing of any redress from the Magistrates, had the certificates of these two Gentlemen transmitted to the Sheriff, copies of which certificates are hereunto annexed. The Sheriff in reply, as Petitioner understands, communicated his opinion to the Magis

trates, that Petitioner should be allowed the air and exercise recommended by the Physician, but still Petitioner has been allowed only one hour each day, namely, from one until two o'clock; and if it rain at that period he is not permitted to go out at any other hour, his application to that effect having been peremptorily refused. Upon one occasion, indeed, Petitioner being severely afflicted by a headache, to which he has been subject for some time back, sent a request to the gaoler that he might, in consequence of his illness, be allowed to go into the air of the Castle-yard, even for half an hour, in lieu of the hour from one till two o'clock, but this request was rejected. That this allowance of air and exercise granted to him, Petitioner most sensibly feels, and his medical attendant has so represented it, but in vain.

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That there are various other instances of oppression and injustice, of which Peti tioner has to complain, but by the repetition of which he does not think it right to trespass upon the patience of your Ho nourable House. Your Petitioner, however, cannot overlook this circumstance: that about a fortnight after his arrival here, a person who came from London to attend him in his illness, was excluded from the prison, and a prisoner appointed to attend him, whose integrity he has cause to suspect; but whom, nevertheless, he cannot dismiss, because no other person will be admitted, even the person who dresses his victuals being refused admittance. That under such circumstances Petitioner appeals to your Honourable House for relief, trusting that you will not sanction such severity as cannot be justified by the sentence passed upon him, such as he presumes to assert was not in the contemplation of the judges by whom that sentence was passed, such as is wholly unusual in this country.-Petitioner particularly and earnestly requests that your Honourable House, in consideration of the very weak state of his health, and the aggravation of his complaints, by the mode in which he has been hitherto treated, and which, if continued, must terminate in incurable disease, will be graciously pleased to take such steps that Petitioner may be forthwith removed into an airy apartinent, and allowed the air and exercise necessary for the re-estab lishment and preservation of his healththat such apartment may be easily af forded him, as there is room amply suf

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"That Petitioner has waited in the humble hope of meeting redress, through the clemency of his Royal Highness; but having this day heard that the Secretary of State for the Home Department, owing to some delay, which to your Petitioner, suffering under such privations, appears extraordinary, has not yet been able to obtain the information which he professed it his duty to seek, previously to his offering his advice to the Regent upon the Petition presented. Petitioner therefore fearing the speedy prorogation of Parliament, has submitted his case to the consideration of your Honourable House, not from any doubt of the justice or clemency of his Royal Highness the Prince, upon whose liberality he has the utmost confidence ; but from the impatience of a man unjustly oppressed, and suffering under the pains of disease, brought on by the treatment he has received.

"All that Petioner requires, is an airy apartment, with the opportunity for air and exercise, which the prison yard affords. “And Petitioner will ever pray,

"PETER FINNERTY."

"Lincoln Castle, June 16, 1811.

A Copy of Dr. Charlesworth's first Testimony to the Magistrates of the County of Lincoln.

Being professionally consulted by Mr. Finnerty, I am called upon to state my opinion, that his health already much impaired, must materially suffer from the confinement to which he is now subjected, and from the alleged coldness of his room; and that a warm room and every possible advantage of fresh air and exercise are indispensibly necessary, not only for the chance of his recovery, but even for the preservation of his present state of health. I have the honour to be, Gentlemen, Your most obedient Servant,

(Signed) E. P. CHARLESWORTH, M. D. March 1, 1811.

Copy of Dr. Faussett's Testimony. Being called upon, in my professional capacity, to visit Mr. Peter Finnerty, in the Castle of Lincoln, I found him affected with many severe complaints, arising from disease of the digestive organs, with which, from his own testimony, he has at different times before, when deprived of the opportunity of air and exercise, been in a slighter degree affected. From the testimony, also, of Dr. Charlesworth, who has attended Mr. Finnerty during the greater part of the time he has been here, these complaints existed to a considerable degree of severity in his first coming, but almost entirely went off, on his being allowed a freer air, and more extended place of exercise. Within the last three weeks, since he has been again more closely confined, they have returned in a much ag gravated form.-It is my opinion that there is little or no chance of his health being restored, without a freer allowance of air and exercise than the confined court to which he is at present restricted, will admit of, but, on the contrary, every prospect of his complaints going on increasing. (Signed) JouN FAUSSETT, M. Ď. Lincoln, April 29, 1811.

A Copy of Dr. Charlesworth's second Testi

mony.

After presenting, as addressed, the subjoined testimony, Mr. Finnerty was permitted to walk three hours a day in the area surrounding his prison; and in a week or ten days after that time, was so far recovered from his complaints as to render a continuance of my visits unnecessary.— Immediately upon his return to close confinement, my professional assistance was again required, and in the course of three weeks, I find all his former symptoms not only returned, but greatly aggravated. Under these circumstances, it is my opinion that the same or a stronger necessity of fresh air and exercise exists than did at the time of my former application, of which the following is a copy. (Signed) F. P. CHARLESWORTH, M. D. Lincoln, April 29, 1811.

Mr. RYDER stated, that he had that day received a letter from the High Sheriti, the delay of which was owing to his having been in town, and having left directions behind him, under the expectation of an immediate return, that his letters should not be sent after him. It informed

believe he stated that a friend of his had been denied access to Mr. Finnerty.

Mr. HUTCHINSON thought that the alle gations contained in the Petition were of a nature that required an answer very different from that which had been as yet given. There could be no doubt that Mr. Finnerty had entered the prison in which he was now confined in a state of health much impaired-a circumstance which in itself ought to have been sufficient to have ensured Mr. Finnerty every possible

him (Mr. Ryder,) that Mr. Finnerty had at first enjoyed only one hour of exercise in the open air, which period was afterwards extended to three. This indulgence, however, it was found necessary to withhold, in consequence of the extreme irregularity and impropriety of his conduct, and which was stated to be of a description not more inconsistent with decorum than with the rules and discipline of the prison. He was in possession also of certificates contrary to those mentioned by the Hon. Gentleman. He had, how-indulgence consistent with his situation. ever, no objection to make every further inquiry necessary to prove whether it was possible to relieve the inconvenience complained of. His Noble Friend (Lord Castlereagh) had, it was but just to say, mariifested every desire to render the confinement of Mr. Finnerty as mild as was compatible with the sentence.

Mr. WHITBREAD said, he knew not what Mr. Finnerty's conduct might have been; but the charge rested entirely on the authority of the letter received by the Right Honourable Gentleman. But even if this was the case, he could not see why he should be denied airy apartments. The certificates which he had received were signed by three very respectable Physicians (we believe Drs. Lipscombe, Charlesworth, and Taylor,) and were therefore entitled to belief. The observations of the Magistrates, as recorded in the Petition, were under any circumstances highly improper (Hear!); nor was a want of money a just reason for adding to the rigours and severity of the punishment of any offence. The conduct of the Sheriff likewise was very indiscreet.

Indeed, he thought that this might have been rendered without any very extraor dinary exercise of humanity. But instead of this, it appeared that he had been treated with downright cruelty. It was, indeed, a statement of cruelty so excessive, that in his opinion it would be to the disgrace of the House if they suffered it to remain upon their Table uncontradicted and unremedied. There were some parts of the Petition to which the Right Honourable Secretary had given no answer-one espe cially, which appeared to him to require the fullest explanation, if indeed it could admit of any-and that was, that the gaoler, with but three in family, monopolized to himself the exclusive use of thirteen separate rooms; while Mr. Finnerty, at the manifest risk of his life, was to continue for eighteen months confined in a damp and noisome cell, He would ask, was this to be endured?—(Hear!) Was it to be endured that a gaoler was thus to assume' the power of making an infinite difference between punishments which the Courts of Law originally meant to be the same. (Hear!) Upon what ground did this Sir FRANCIS BURDETT did not know what gaoler take it upon him to refuse Mr. Finpowers were vested in the Magistrates or nerty's friends access to him? Was this a Gaoler to convert the Prison into a House part of his sentence? and were they to of Correction, and inflict solitary confine- leave Mr. Finnerty in such a precarious ment at their discretion. This appeared state of health as he then was, to the disto have been done in this instance, and an cretion of a man who seemed so capriacquaintance of his had informed him, ciously and cruelly to have abused his that in passing through Lincoln, he had trust? He felt himself bound to entreat, wished to see Mr. Finnerty, but was re- from the Right Honourable Secretary, fused admittance. It likewise seemed to some distinct declaration upon this part of him that the Secretary of State was not a the subject, pledging himself to interpose proper person to be appealed to, or any of his authority, in the remedying what apthe executive Ministers of the Crown.-peared to be a system of oppression. AnoEnough had certainly been said to induce the House to take the Petition into full consideradon and extend to the Prisoner all the roliet and accommodation that was "consistent with the nature of the sentence. Mr. BABINGTON said a few words, but in a tone inaudible in the Gallery. We

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ther circumstance, not very satisfactorily explained, was the great lapse of time that had intervened between the time of the letter of the Secretary of State to the Sherill, and the receipt of the Sheriff's answer; such delay might have been of fatal consequences in cases where the

years employed in this great city in a way most flattering to his literary talents, and, he believed, as productive in point of emolument as it was honourable. What then must have been the sufferings of this unfortunate gentleman, not only to have been thrown into gaol for eighteen months, but to be banished to so remote a distance as Lincoln, from the scene of his industry, and thus cut off from his literary connections, and perhaps the means of common subsistence (Hear!)? Under all the circumstances of the case, he thought it most particularly deserving the attention of the House. He concluded, by entreating of the Right Honourable Secretary to take the most speedy and effectual means of putting a stop to the system of oppression, by which Mr. Finnerty appeared to have been so shamefully persecuted.

health of the individual aggrieved had
more rapidly declined. As far as the
present question personally related to Mr.
Finnerty, he confessed that he was one of
those who did not think it the less deserv-
ing their attention on that account. He
did not stand forward to defend Mr. Fin-
nerty's violation of the laws of his coun-
try, for which violation he was now mak-
ing so severe an expiation; but however
culpable Mr. Finnerty had been, he (Mr.
H.) could not forget that Gentleman's
past life.
At a very early age, when a
mere boy, he began the world by turning
the advantages of a good education into
the means of honourable subsistence for
himself and family; it was his misfortune
while yet a boy, to live in times when it
was criminal to complain of oppression-
times which every honest and honourable
mind must have witnessed with indignant
regret-times in which such a system of
oppression and persecution was pursued,
as must, if persisted in much longer, have
ended in the ruin of the country-in such
times, and under the impulse of those feel-
ings which they were but too well calcu-
lated to excite in every ingenuous mind,
did Mr. Finnerty pass the limits of tem-
perate discussion, and so bring down upon
himself the weighty visitation of the law.
To this offence Mr. Finnerty had been led
by those sentiments which in periods more
favourable to the cause of liberty, have
distinguished the brightest characters in the
history of this coun ry. He had been in
that instance, as well as in a subsequent one,
right in principle, a rooted atrachment to
the cause of his oppressed country was that
principle, and it was a principle from
which, however punishment might re-
motely flow, disgrace never could. In this
country, as in his own, the same principle
had led him into the commission of a si-
milar offence. He had in both cases told
the truth beyond the licence of the law,
and in this case, as well as in the former,
he suffered in the cause of his country,
which was the cause of truth and justice.tuation.
He thought it, therefore, extremely harsh
that a man so suffering for telling the
truth, unjustifiably should be classed with
the greatest culprits and felons in the ad-
measurement of his punishment, at the in-
solent discretion of a gaoler. (Hear!)
There was besides a circumstance in the
sentence of the Court on Mr. Finnerty,
which must have operated with peculiar
severity in his case. It was well known
that Mr. Finnerty had been for many

Lord CASTLEREAGH said, that his Right Honourable Friend, the Secretary for the Home Department, bad done him but justice in giving him credit for his wishes, respecting the mitigation of Mr. Finnerty's sufferings. When he had first heard of that gentleman's application upon that subject, he did not feel himself prohibited from interposing with his Majesty's Government, for the immediate and effectual repression of any undue severities which might have been experienced by Mr. Finnerty (Hear, hear!). In claiming every exemption from such oppression, he thought that the Petitioner was asking not for indulgence, but for justice. (Hear, hear!) Neither could any proceedings that might be taken in consequence of this Petition, be considered as a mark of indulgence to the Petitioner, it would be in effect but remedying a wrong, restoring Mr. Finnerty to a right. In saying this much of the motive of the present application, which appeared to him, if Mr. Finnerty thought himself aggrieved, to be a very justifiable appeal, (Hear, hear!) he could not help alluding so far to the remote cause of the Petitioner's present si

He (Lord Castlereagh) had not, he trusted, been remarkable for following up with any vindictive animadversions, attacks of a certain nature, but the one made by Mr. Finnerty, was, he must say, so gross a libel, not merely personally upon him, but upon the Administration in general of Ireland at that time, that he thought his passing it over in silence might have been misinterpreted as a tame acquiescence in the truth of charges so extremely heinous. He had, therefore, no

there were any sanction of it to be found in the laws of England-but be that as it might, if there was such a distinction, was the imposing of it to be left in the hands of a gaoler? (Hear, hear!)—this would be a power beyond any thing exercised by the King's Bench. That Court sentences one man to twelve months imprisonment another to eighteen-another to two years-but what is the difference of a few months more or less confinement, com

ment that could be inflicted on a British subject short of death. Another consider

alternative left him, but such an acquiescence, or the discharge of a painful public duty; in the discharge of it he had been influenced by no private motive. The House would do him the justice to admit, that in attacks of that kind, merely affecting himself personally, he had not proved himself extremely querulous; (Hear, hear!) but in the present case had he passed it over, he should have really thought himself guilty of a great breach of public duty; that duty, however, hav-pared with that of solitary confinement in ing been now discharged, he should have a felon's cell, shut out from every intergreat pleasure in forwarding every means course, and even the means of earning for the removal of any oppressive usage, subsistence withheld; and was this fearwhich the Petitioner may have expe- ful discretion to be left to the whim of a rienced. (Hear!) Nor indeed should he gaoler? (Hear!)-This was not the case have been unwilling to have been instru- of a private individual-it was the case of mental in applying to the fountain of the public-this was putting into the mercy, had not the repetition of Mr. Fin-hands of every gaoler the severest punishnerty's assertion of the truth of his statements of torture, &c. in the Petition now upon their table, tied up his hands effec-ation was, that the punishment of the rich tually from any such interposition.-It did man would be essentially different from not however preclude him from joining that of the poor man, though confined for with the House in providing that the the same offence, and under the very wrongs of which the Petitioner.com- same sentence (Hear, hear!)-from plained, should be redressed.-Having said gaolers it might not be so wonderful-but so much upon the question, as affecting what were they to say to Magistrates who Mr. Finnerty and himself, nothing that could have the face to tell this wretched had fallen from the Honourable Gentle- man, that for three guineas a week more man who spoke last, should tempt him to he could be accommodated with a better go then into the discussion of the conduct apartment? What! was this language for of the Irish Government during the times Magistrates, who officially stood between so warmly alluded to; but this he would the prisoner and oppression, to make use take the liberty of saying, that upon that of in answer to an application for redress? question, when brought before Parliament (Hear, hear, hear!) This was a circumin a way likely to be subservient to the stance which could not rest there; it was purposes of truth, he should be prepared certainly very late in the Sessions, but to meet that Honourable Gentleman, or even so he thought that this fact and any other, and to prove to the satisfaction others, particularly the power so shameof the House and of the Country, that the fully usurped by the gaoler, ought to be general conduct of the Irish Administra- made the ground of a parliamentary ention (he spoke not of individual instances quiry. (Hear, hear!) He never read the of cruelty, which nothing could justify), libel on the Noble Lord, but if it was as was at that time fully justifiable. bad as that libel upon the Magistrates, he scarcely knew what punishment could be too excessive. He repeated that he thought the conduct of the Magistrates did furnish a ground for parliamentary inquiry.

Sir SAMUEL ROMILLY said, that this appeared to him to be a case of the very last importance; there was one material fact which had not been at all explained by his Right Hon. Friend (Mr. Ryder). When this person was sent to the castle of Lincoln, there to be confined pursuant to sentence; the gaoler locks him up in a solitary cell appropriated to felons-upon what authority did the gaoler venture to do this?—the prisoner was not sentenced to solitary imprisonment-a punishment Concerning which, however, he believed, there were no small doubts, as whether

Mr. WILLIAM SMITH said, that his Hon. and Learned Friend had said every thing he meant to have said upon the subject. If the gaoler can put a man in solitary confinement, how is that man to get re dress? He gives, perhaps, a letter to the turnkey to put in the post-office, and he throws it behind the fire-how then is it to be known? The man may die, and the

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