said, he held in his, hand a Petition, on which he intended to found a motion on some future day. It was the Petition of Thomas Houlden, a debtor, who, was confined in the castle of Lincoln, complaining of oppression while in that prison. The Petition was then brought up and read; setting forth,

"That the petitioner, having been confined in Lincoln Castle for debt, experienced such harshness and injustice from the jailor of the said prison as he thinks it due to justice and humanity to submit to the consideration of the House; that the petitioner was not long in the custody of the said jailor, when he felt the oppression of his system, and when he had reason to suspect the existence of a strong prejudice against him in the jailor's mind, in consequence of his complaints of that system, but still more in consequence of the freedom with which his feelings prompted him to observe upon the ill treatment, and particularly the extortion, to which himself and his fellow prisoners were subjected; and that the petitioner, being dissatisfied with the bed furnished to him by the jailor, and for the use of which he was obliged to pay what the jailor demanded, thought proper to have a bed of his own brought into the prison, upon which he was, by the jailor's order, removed from the room in which he had previously slept, and compelled to take his bed into the apartment assigned to paupers; to this apartment, however, it was the common practice of the jailor to remove such debtors as were not satisfied with his beds, or disposed to pay the sum which he thought proper to demand for the use of such beds; and that the room in which the petitioner was so confined, is about twenty feet long, and sixteen broad, and yet, in the course of last summer, it contained seven beds and ten prisoners; when thus crowded, on the night of the 8th of June last, the weather being excessively warm, the petitioner was, with his fellow-prisoners, considerably astonished to see the turnkey proceeding to lock the room door, which had never been before so done; the petitioner, therefore, knowing the turnkey to be generally insolent, unless to those who could afford to purchase his civility, and conceiving also that it was not possible the spirit of oppression or personal prejudice could be carried to such an extreme by any man entrusted with the keeping of an English prison, objected to the locking of the door, unless it was to be done by the jailor's express order; a message, however, being soon afterwards delivered, that the jailor actually ordered the room door to be locked, it was locked accordingly; but yet the petitioner was, two days afterwards, namely, on the 10th of June, taken before doctor Cayley Illingworth, one of the magistrates for the county of Lincoln, and accused by the jailor of opposing his turnkey; to refute this accusation, which the jailor pressed with great eagerness, frequently calling the petitioner rascal and scoundrel, and otherwise grossly abusing him, in the magistrate's presence, the petitioner produced three witnesses; after some examination, doctor Illingworth, expressing his regret that the charge was not proved, dismissed the petitioner, who accordingly went away; but shortly afterwards the petitioner was again taken before the said magistrate, and, after being again grossly abused by the jailor, was committed to one of what are usually called the condemned cells, which cells are about seven feet below the level of the front of the prison; and in this cell the petitioner was kept, in close and solitary confinement, for eleven days and nights, during which he was precluded from communicating with any person whatever but the turnkey, and denied the use of pen ink and paper; and that, at the period alluded to, there were about sixty-five debtors confined to fourteen rooms, while the jailor, with only three in family, was allowed to appropriate thirteen apartments of the prison for his own accommodation; and that the petitioner was released from his solitary confinement a few days after intelligence reached the prison of the conversation which took place in the House with regard to the Petition of Mr. Finnerty, which conversation, the petitioner understood, excited the fear of the jailor; and to that fear the petitioner ascribes his release; and that, while the sheriff, sir John Trollope, seldom interfered with the prison, and declined even to answer a prisoner's letter of complaint, the petitioner and his fellow prisoners found it quite vain to make any appeal to the magistrates who usually visited the prison, and who were never known to interpose, as the petitioner humbly conceives it to be their duty, for the purpose of removing the complaints or redressing the grievances of a prisoner; the petitioner, therefore, being unable to defray the expence of seeking redress at law, has no other refuge, but in the justice and humanity of the House, from which he hopes for such redress as to their wisdom shall seem meet."

hoped that his hon. and learned friend, who was so well able, would probe this matter to the bottom; for he was certain that much oppression prevailed in our prisons. A case had reached him that very day, which he would state to the House. A person of the name of Godfrey had been confined in the same prison, and being troubled with a severe bowel complaint, he had had recourse to spirits for relief. The use of them was at last denied to him, and on a relapse, medical assistance was brought him. His medical attendant prescribed to him the use of the same cordials, and he got better. One night he had another relapse, and disturbed the prisoners with his cries, who wished to get into his cell to afford him assistance. The turnkey, however, said he could not disturb the governor, although they represented to him that the man was in the agonies of death. At length he ventured to awake the governor, but medical assistance arrived too late, for in a few hours the man died. On the Coroner's Inquest were sworn men under the influence of the governor of the prison. One of the medical men said, that he was called an hour too late; and another, that even then all the medical assistance would have been unavailing.

The Petition was ordered to lie on the table.

, after adverting to the present state of the country, and the non-existence of an Administration, gave notice that he should, on Wednesday next, if something was not done to prevent it, and if some person more competent than himself did not assume the task, submit to the House a Resolution, of which the fol- lowing was the substance:—"That an humble Address be presented to his royal highness the Prince Regent, beseeching him to carry into effect his gracious declaration, that he would take the Resolution of the House of Commons into his 'serious and immediate consideration,' and praying that his Royal Highness would be pleased without delay, to adopt such measures as were called for by the present disorganized state of the government, which was calculated to augment the difficulties and increase the perils that existed, and which would lead to the complete Overthrow of the country, if not, opposed by an Administration more adequate in strength, and possessing more of the confidence of the people than that which had lately been in existence."