§ Sir R. Wilsonsaid, he held in his hand the petition of a person of whom he knew nothing more than what was set forth in this statement, but of the correctness of which he had no reason to entertain a doubt. It contained the complaint of 1452 one who had been deprived of his liberty, under the powers conferred by an act which had threatened the liberties of all, and who had been stripped of the means of vindicating himself by the indemnity granted to those who had applied for the authority which enabled them to inflict the wrong. This latter proceeding had shown that the late parliament had disgracefully leagued itself with the instruments of oppression, and left no ground for wonder that those who had suffered should withdraw their love and reverence from the government of their country, when they found all access to the sanctuaries of justice shut up against them. The petitioner, John Buchanan, described himself as having been a weaver at Glasgow, and the petition stated, "That the petitioner met, in company with nineteen others, in Hunter's Tavern, Old Wynd, Glasgow, upon the 22nd day of February, 1817 (owing to the pressure of the times), for the purpose of considering the most legal and proper method for prosecuting the reverend doctor John Burns, minister of the barony, Glasgow, for parochial relief, and while so engaged, the sheriff depute of Lanarkshire, followed by his fiscall, officers, constables, patrolmen, &c. entered the said tavern, and said, 'I see 'you are all there, gentlemen; just be 'quiet: don't be alarmed; just be quiet: 'the forty-second is surrounding the house; 'you are all my prisoners;' that the petitioners, considering the violence of the sheriff to be a gross insult upon the liberties of his majesty's subjects, requested him to show his warrant of arrest, but received for answer, ' I am warrant 'enough myself;' neither did he read or show any other warrant; that the petitioner was then ordered to deliver up all his papers, which he did without hesitation, having only one sheet, containing a list of towns, beginning with Manchester, and ending with Glasgow, copied from the Glasgow Herald of the 21st February 1817, and, as reported by the secret committee of the House, did contain secret associations, with the mad design of overturning government; the petitioner was then seized by two constables, one at each arm, and in that position was, forthwith forcibly dragged to the common gaol, without being told for what, though he repeatedly requested the sheriff to tell him the same; he was there stripped to the skin, and searched for unlawful papers and weapons, though they found none of 1453 either on him, he was consigned to a cell, not exceeding nine feet in extent, and three-fourths of the said extent Covered with a large iron bedstead, a table, a coal bunker, a cupboard, and a stool, leaving the petitioner so little room to exercise himself, that his health and strength failed, to an alarming degree; that the petitioner for the first five days of his confinement was not allowed a bed, aliment, or victuals, nor any thing else, one quart of stagnated water twice per day excepted, all necessaries of life being kept from him with the view (as he supposed) of starving him to death; that the petitioner received on the fifth day of his confinement, and not till then, a straw pallet, and eight pence to provide himself in victuals, coals, washing, and in fact every other necessary of life; this sum he received daily afterwards during his confinement (which was twenty-three weeks), nothing more!!! He was also this day robbed of his ink-piece and pen; he requested back the same, but as yet never received either of them; that the petitioner, along with his fellow prisoners, petitioned the sheriff for an advance of aliment, but received no answer; petitioned him again, received for answer, 'he laughed at it;' that on the 8th day of March, Alexander Calder, sheriff's officer, unwarrantably, and forcibly entered the petitioner's house, forced open the locks of several drawers, took there from seven or eight sheets of written papers, and, with the exception of three sheets, these are still kept from him, though he repeatedly requested the same since and before his liberation; that the petitioner's wife and family were reduced to a dreadful state of poverty, owing to his long and close confinement, and only suspended from the horrors of death by the eleemosynary gifts of others, or selling wearing apparrel, or household furniture, for the one-fourth of their value, for providing victuals to satisfy nature, which, together with his own weakness when liberated, reduced him to long embarrassed circumstances; that the petitioner petitioned the House for redress last year, but was answered by a base and corrupt act of Indemnity, for a corrupt ministry and spies; but being assured the old parliament was dissolved, and as he supposes a new one replaced, petitions the House again, trusting candour and conscience will be exercised in his case, even in defiance of the Indemnity act; may it 1454 therefore please the House, to take the above petition into their most serious consideration, and grant the petitioner such redress of grievances as may once more raise him to his wonted sphere in society, from which he was brought down by the basest act of tyranny ever exercised over man."
§ Ordered to lie on the table.