HC Deb 06 June 1807 vol 9 c734
Mr. Cochrane Johnstone

presented a petition from Mr. Elliott of New Bond-street, against Mr. Galway Mills, who was then in custody of the Marshal of the King's Bench, for a debt due to the petitioner, when he was returned to the present parliament. The petition stated, that in the course of business two bills of exchange had come from Mr. Mills into the hands of the petitioner, which had been respectively dishonoured; that Mr. Mills was also indebted in considerable sums to the petitioner for work done, goods sold, and money advanced; that in last Michaelmas Term the said Mr. Mills had, upon process out of the Court of King's Bench, been taken into the custody of the marshal of the said court, but had entered a sham demurrer, which he had afterwards abandoned; that in last Trinity Term the petitioner had obtained judgment for 1013l. but that execution had been stayed by a writ of error brought by the said Mr Mills, to evade justice, and in order to escape the payment of his legal debts; that as no bail can be taken to an action pending a writ of error, the said Mr. Mills was in custody of the marshal of the King's Bench, when he was returned to the present parliament as a representative for the borough of St. Michael's; that the petitioner was informed that Mr. Mills had it in contemplation to apply for his liberation to that house, he having a considerable colonial property in the West Indies, with a view to withdraw from the jurisdiction of the courts, and for the purpose of evading justice; that under these circumstances the lord chancellor would not grant the writ "Ne exeat Regno;" that if the said Mr. Mills should be discharged out of custody by that house, the petitioner would be greatly injured; and that the petitioner therefore prayed that honourable house that it would be pleased to take such measures on the premises as to its wisdom should seem meet, and that petitioner might be heard by himself or his council, to prove the facts and allegations in his petition —This petition was ordered to lie on the table, as were also similar petitions presented against the same gentleman, by Mr. Cochrane Johnstone, from Mr. Allen, of Bondstreet; and by Mr. P. Moore, from a creditor, to the amount of 19,200l.—The petitions were ordered to lie on the table.