HC Deb 24 April 1822 vol 7 cc1-2
The Marquis of Titchfield

presented a petition from Lynn, praying the interference of the House for a remission of the remainder of Mr. Hunt's imprisonment. The noble marquis read an extract from the petition, in which it spoke of "the unrelenting severity practised towards the victim of ministerial hate, by the petty tyrants in whose power be was placed." The petition then referred, as a precedent for the interference of the House on the present occasion, to their having interfered to procure the remission of the punishment of sir Manasseh Lopez, whose crime was ten thousand times greater than the one imputed to Mr. Hunt. The noble marquis said, he fully concurred in the prayer of the petition, but although he concurred in the prayer, he differed from the petitioners in the reasons which they assigned; for, notwithstanding all he felt upon this subject, it did appear to him that ministers had done no more than their duty in ordering the prosecution of Mr. Hunt. For courts of justice he had the highest respect, and he should not, therefore, be disposed to listen to any thing against their decisions, without the strongest grounds; but the same respect for them made him wish, that they should not become the innocent instruments of unnecessary severity. In looking at the sentence on Mr. Hunt, he certainly did think it a severe one; and it had been rendered much more so, by the great severity with which he had been treated. So much was this the tact, that he looked upon two years imprisonment or less, in the place to which he happened to be sent, as worse than two years and a half in any other prison. Under these circumstances, he considered that, in wishing for a remission of the remainder of the punishment, he was not recommending him to the favour of the Crown, but asking for him a measure of simple justice. He was not one who thought that the House ought lightly to interfere with courts of justice, and especially in a case like the present, as he had no doubt whatever of the illegality of the meeting at which Mr. Hunt presided; but looking at all the circumstances which had since occurred, he thought the home department were called upon to interpose, and advise the Crown to the exercise of its prerogative of mercy.

Ordered to lie on the table.