of Surgery throughout the United King-| dom. The objects of the bill were, first, to provide that no one should be allowed to practise surgery without a testimonial from some of the regular colleges of the United Kingdom; secondly, that no more pecuniary fee should be demanded for such testimonial than had heretofore been usually paid; and, thirdly, that the laws should be repealed which precluded any surgeon from officiating in the hospitals and dispensaries of Ireland who had not obtained a testimonial from the college of surgeons in that country. Such being the provisions of a measure, the necessity for which, with a view to save the people from the danger of unskilful practitioners, was indisputable, he trusted that no opposition would be made to his motion.

Mr. Lockhart expressed an opinion, that if this bill originated with the surgeons, it must have a monopoly in view. The effect of it would be, to injure a profession which ought to have too much pride, to entertain any apprehension of the competition of pretenders.

The motion was agreed to.

EXCHEQUER BILLS.] The House having resolved itself into a Committee on the Exchequer Bills bill,

chequer bills, he requested him to state whether such was the fact. Because, if such were the purpose of the right hon. gentleman, that purpose should have immediate publicity, in order to put an end to the uncertainty, and gambling speculations, which at present prevailed in the city.

The Chancellor of the Exchequer said, he had already notified to the House, that it was not his intention to bring forward any part of his financial plan before Easter; and he trusted it would not be thought improper on his part to decline any premature or partial disclosure of that plan. With regard to the communication to the Stock Exchange, the hon. member alluded, he presumed, to that made by the broker of the commissioners for redeeming the National Debt. fact was, that, understanding a general expectation prevailed, that if exchequer bills were funded, a preference would be given to those bearing an interest of 24d. a day, he gave directions to have it made known, that if any funding of exchequer bills should take place, no such preference was intended.

The

Alderman Atkins expressed a wish, that the right hon. gentleman would favour the House with somewhat more of explanation, in order to remove the uncertainty that prevailed. For his own part, he could not think it desirable to fund any exchequer bills, and so to diminish the floating capital of the country. For how could it be politic to take a measure which must operate to reduce the price of stock? Government could raise money at less than 3 per cent, in consequence of the present price of stock; whereas if that price fell eight or ten per cent, it could not have money under 4 per cent. Such a fall would, he apprehended, be the result of funding, at present, a great quantity of exchequer bills. Another report prevailed, that it was the intention of the right hon. gentleman to propose the raising of a loan for the purpose of buying up the 5 per cents, and this was a plan which he must also deprecate. But at all events, he thought that no danger could result from the right hon. gentleman's explaining what were his views upon the points alluded to.

Mr. Grenfell said, that from some circumstances which had come to his knowledge, he felt it necessary to put a question to the chancellor of the exchequer. A report having prevailed last week in the city, that it was the intention of the right hon. gentleman to propose this session the funding of exchequer bills, and that what were called the twopenny halfpenny bills would be preferred, he understood that on Saturday last a communication was made to the Stock Exchange by the person who usually made known there the intentions of the Treasury, that it was not proposed, on funding exchequer bills, to grant a preference to any particular description of those bills, but to take those that were to be funded out of the general mass. Hence, an impression prevailed in the city, that it was the intention of the right hon. gentleman to fund a considerable number of exchequer bills. He did not wish for any information from the right hon. gentleman as to any part The Chancellor of the Exchequer hoped of his financial plan, which might not yet the House would feel the propriety of bematured; but, understanding that it was his silence with regard to the financial the intention of the right hon. gentleman, plan to be submitted to its consideration, in all events, to fund a quantity of ex-until that plan was fully matured-until,

indeed, he was actually proposing to have | tioner being informed of this nocturnal it carried into effect.

tioner into some violent expression, and the petitioner was confirmed in this opinion, by hearing another person cough behind the door, on which the petitioner demanded that this vile fellow should leave the room: that the petitioner was next day taken before justice Haigh, of Huddersfield, who on one Brooks of Golker Hill stating that the petitioner was a reformer, and had attended public meetings, and that a reward was offered by government for his apprehension, ordered him to be remanded; on the petitioner remonstrating against being detained on so vague a charge, the worthy justice replied, He would take all responsibility upon him

termined to leave the country, and was then going to Liverpool to see a friend of his set sail for America, and also to prepare a passage for himself and family, that the petitioner left London in company with the said Oliver on the 24th of April, who on the road requested the petitioner to introduce him to a few steady reformers in any of the towns through which they passed where the petitioner had any acquaintance, which he accordingly did, in Birmingham, Wakefield, and Leeds, believing him to be a real reformer; that on the 4th of May the petitioner was seized by two ruffians, who took him by the collar as he was walking on the highway towards Huddersfield, and command-self,' and delivered the petitioner into ed him to return to some men who (these ruffians said) wanted him, which command the petitioner refused to comply with, asking them by what authority they stopped him on the king's highway? to which question they returning no answer, the petitioner attempted to proceed on his journey, when the ruffians, again seiz. ing him by the collar, said, "We will let you see our authority;" that the petitioner was by them detained on the king's highway until five or six other men came up to them, who ordered him to go along with them; the petitioner then inquired by what authority they detained and ordered him to go along with them, when two of them said that they were special constables, and that the petitioner should know farther when he got to the place to which they intended to take him, adding, that, if the petitioner refused to go with them, they would compel him, bidding some of their fellows to drag him along; that the petitioner was therefore obliged go with them to a public house, situated in a lonely place called Golker Hill, where he was taunted and otherwise abused through the whole of the evening; that when the petitioner retired to bed, a person was put into his room, who pretending to be a reformer, expressed much regret that it should have fallen to his lot to guard a person whom he could not but respect as a brother, and who exclaimed in bitter terms against those who were the cause of such unjust proceedings, adding, that not only a total change in Kings, 'Castlereaghs, and Commons,' must take place, but that all must be pulled down before any good would be done for the people,' which wretch the petitioner believes (as he then told him) was placed there for the purpose of leading the peti(VOL. XXXVII. )

to

the care of a police officer named Whitehead; that the petitioner was conducted by Whitehead into a room in the GeorgeInn, Huddersfield, where he asked the petitioner if he would pay for a person to guard him, on which the petitioner replied that he had neither the power nor the will to pay money for any such purpose; then Whitehead bade the petitioner to follow him to a lodging which he said was much better than the petitioner deserved; that the petitioner was then put into a place called Towzer, the most damp and nauseous dungeon imaginable, having no fire in it, the floor of which was nearly covered with human excrements, the bedding beyond description filthy, and the whole place was fœtid to such a degree that the petitioner scarcely thought it pos sible to exist therein until the next day; that the petitioner remained in this nauseous place twenty-six hours, after which he was removed to a room where Oliver appeared as a prisoner in great agitation; the petitioner was shortly removed to another house, where he was ironed, then placed between two thief-takers in a chaise and conveyed to Manchester Police-office, and thence to the New Bayley prison; that the petitioner, when in the police-office, and also in the New Bayley, demanded to be informed for what he was detained, and by what authority he had been apprehended, but no answer was given to him until the 7th of May, when the petitioner was brought before a number of gentlemen in a room belonging to the New Bayley, where one of them appeared to preside; here Nadin, the deputy constable, deposed that he had seen a warrant, signed (he doubted not) by the secretary of state, authorizing the apprehension of Mr. Mitchell on a charge of (2 D)

Mr. Bennet also presented a Petition from Thomas Evans, of No. 8, Newcastlestreet, Strand, setting forth;

stop the torrent of unjust persecution, | jesty's most honourable privy council, they will now so take the petitioner's case through which nefarious artifice sufficient into their most serious consideration, as time having elapsed, she was, after ento grant him that redress which will ena- during three days imprisonment, permitble him to bring to justice such indivi- ted to return to the petitioner's house, duals as have so incalculably injured him, which she found had, during her absence, and also enable him to meet his friends been filled with police officers of the lowest and connexions as he should have done and most brutal kind, who had been sent had he not been so unjustly imprisoned; thither to apprehend every person that and the petitioner, forgetting the sor- might visit the house whilst they held unrows of a solitary imprisonment, will, as in lawful possession, which supposed autho. duty bound, ever pray." rity they had acted upon to the extreme, even inviting some of the friends of the petitioner into the house, in order to comprise them within their assumed juris"That the Petitioner solicits the ear- diction; and the police officers, when they nest attention of the House, to the griev- had satisfied themselves with the number ous and illegal persecutions which he is of their seizures, had abandoned the house about to detail, in full confidence that he to whatever accident might have befallen is able to adduce undeniable proof of the it, had not the sister of the petitioner's correctness of every allegation, and in ar- wife fortunately arrived and prevented dent hope that the House, as the consti- farther mischief by her presence; that at tutional guardian of public right, and the end of two years and eleven months, avenger of individual oppression, will in- the petitioner was liberated, without trial terpose their high authority to enable him or any recompence for the manifold injuto obtain plenary justice; that on the ries he had sustained, and before he could 18th of April, 198, the petitioner was proceed to obtain legal redress, the authors seized, pursuant to a warrant charging and inflictors of those injuries procured him with high treason, issued by the late from parliament an especial act of indemduke of Portland, then one of his ma- nity for this and other similar abuses of jesty's principal secretaries of state; that their ministerial trust; so that thus ruined the petitioner was held under re-examina- in property, debilitated in health, and cation until the bill for suspending the Ha- lumniated in character, his profession rebeas Corpus act was passed, and was then duced, his connexions broken up, and all committed, on pretence of treasonable the fruits of his previous industry dissipractices, to the house of correction for pated, he found himself at length sudMiddlesex, from whence he was trans- denly cast upon the world to maintain his ported to the county gaol at Winchester, family, under circumstances which seemed and again to that at Chelmsford, at which to forebode years of penury and privation; gaols he was treated with more rigour that the petitioner, since his liberation than the common felons, being denied, from this confessedly illegal imprisonment, during the whole period of this long im- had not taken any part in political affairs prisonment, the use of books, or the pos- of any description, but had been sedulously session of pen, ink, or paper, or the ac- engaged in the business which he had cess of friends or relations; indeed so se- taken up, and from the labours of which vere was the nature and so lengthened the for sixteen years he had never indulged duration of this unjust confinement, that in two successive days of recreation, his after his liberation, the petitioner was fre- former persecution and unrequited losses quently afflicted with a dropsical malady, having rendered the utmost industry and or species of erysipelas in his limbs, which carefulness necessary on his part to provide has greatly impaired his former excellent for his declining years, and against the state of health, and sometimes rendered dangerous attacks of the incurable malady him an invalid eighteen months together; contracted in consequence of the rigour that on the day following his arrest, the and closeness of his imprisonment; that wife of the petitioner, though far advanced the petitioner had succeeded, through his in pregnancy, was, with their infant son, unremitting exertions, in establishing a committed on the same false charge to manufactory of patent braces and spiral the house of correction, amongst the fe- steel springs, to which he looked up as a male felons, from whence she was taken secure shelter from the approaches of fuand examined before the lords of his mature distress, when, notwithstanding his