§ Sir Francis Burdett presented the following Petition from George Beaumont: viz.
To the honourable the Commons of Great Britain and Ireland in parliament assembled.—The Petition of George Beaumont, late printer, publisher, and sole proprietor of a Sunday newspaper called the British Guardian, but now a prisoner in his majesty's Gaol of Newgate:—
"Sheweth; That your Petitioner in his paper of the day of last, inserted a letter under the signature of "Tiberius Gracchus," condemning the disgraceful Convention of Cintra, which "disappointed the well-founded hopes and the just expectations of the nation."—That your Petitioner therein attributed this disaster to the same cause as the late Earl Chatham, Mr. Fox, Mr. Burke, and Mr. Pitt, had attributed the war against the freedom of America—to an interior cabinet irresponsible to the people; to a power behind the throne, greater than the throne itself.—That for treading in the footsteps, and repeating the language of these illustrious persons, his majesty's Attorney-General filed an information against your Petitioner for a libel, on which he was convicted, and sentenced to two years imprisonment in Newgate, to pay a fine of 50l., to enter into recognizances for his good behaviour, for five years after the expiration of his imprisonment, himself in 300l., and two sureties in 200l. each, and to be imprisoned until such fine be paid, and such security be given.—That such sentence is contrary to the mild spirit of the British constitution, as it will necessarily occasion his perpetual imprisonment. —That soon after the information was filed, your Petitioner was arrested under and by virtue of the powers given to the Attorney-General, by an act passed in the last sessions, chapter 58, and was detained two months in prison before he received his sentence, a circumstance before unknown in the administration of our laws, and such previous imprisonment was not taken into consideration by the learned 809 judges, in the sentence which they afterwards passed upon him. Yet, but a few days before, when a public defaulter was brought up for punishment, only twenty-one months imprisonment was inflicted on him, a previous confinement of three months being taken into consideration, and no fine was imposed; for your Petitioner submits, that the having, previously to coming up for judgment repaid the money which he had improperly obtained, cannot in any sense be called a fine. And, on the same day, on which judgment was passed on your Petitioner, a person convicted of corrupt and wilful perjury, was sentenced to an imprisonment of three months only; yet your Petitioner, for an undefined offence, is to undergo, and is undergoing, an imprisonment of two years and two months certain, and for the remainder of his life, unless he can find sufficient securities.—That mankind in general estimate crimes by the punishments affixed to them, and it therefore tends to ruin the morals of the people, to inflict a more severe punishment on a person who has blamed the conduct of an administration, than on those who have peculated from the public stock, or forsworn themselves in courts of justice.— That your Petitioner was not fairly tried, for the forty-eight special jurymen were not impartially and indifferently chosen between the crown and your Petitioner, but were selected by the master of the Crown-Office.—All which your Petitioner submits to the consideration of your honourable house, and prays that you will afford him individually such redress, and take such measures generally to prevent the recurrence of similar evils, as to your wisdom shall seem meet."
The Petition was ordered to lie on the table.