TO THE PARLIAMENT Of the commonwealth of ENGLAND, SCOTLAND, and IRELAND; The humble Petition of Sir John Stawell  
Showeth,  
THat your Petitioner hath met of late with several Papers, which have, at the Parliament door, been preferred unto you; The one entitled Reasons for the establishment of public Sales: The other a Petition of William Lawrence of Edinburgh Esq; with reasons thereunto annexed, why the Petitioners Purchase ought not to be questioned by Sir JOHN STAWELL: There being but little of truth contained in either of them; He humbly conceives their principal ends are but to dishonour two Great, and Honourable Courts, who have done your Petitioner Justice: The one as unto his Life, The other as unto his Estate: To retard the proceedings of the Committee, to whom you have been pleased to refer his late Petition; And utterly to extinguish those hopes, he for the present conceives, of being restored to your favour, and a right understanding, after his very great losses, and long sufferings.  
Wherefore your Petitioner most humbly prays, That since he hath made his humble addresses unto you, without reflections upon persons, or cause given to irritate those passions which appears in the expressions in those Papers; You will be pleased to permit the proof of his Petition, according to the rule prescribed by the Committee, and receive hereafter, as there shall be cause, such a further manifestation of his wrong, as may give some light to works of darkness, answer those Objections now made, and give further satisfaction, as your Honours shall please to require,  
And your Petitioner shall ever pray, &c. JOHN STAWELL.