John Lees Petitioner

(No.566.)

A Petition of John Lees, of the township of Royton, in the parish of Oldham,in the County of Lancaster, was presented, and read; setting forth, That the Petitioner attended a public Meeting, advertised to be holden at Manchester, about one o’clock at noon; that in about three quarters of an hour after his arrival at the place of the Meeting, a most violent, wanton, and unprovoked attack on the people assembled, commenced by a large body of Yeomanry Cavalry and Special Constables,by which several hundreds were seriously hurt and wounded, several lives lost, and his personal safety greatly endangered; that the Petitioner conceives it necessary, in order to preserve a due respect for the administration of justice, that so wanton an act of aggression should not go unpunished;that in the opinion of the Petitioner, the first step towards bringing the guilty parties to punishment is, by a proper inquiry into these before-alluded-to transactions, either judicial or legislative; that as our Courts of Law refuse to institute the necessary inquiry, the Petitioner fervently intreats that it may no longer be delayed by the House, otherwise justice may in this case be completely lost sight of; the Petitioner therefore most humbly,but at the same time most earnestly prays, That the House will be pleased to institute an immediate and full inquiry into the transactions which took place at Manchesteron the 16th of August 1819