Kent.- The Kentish Petition. The Humble petition of the gentlemen, justices of the peace, grand-jury, and other freeholders, at the General Quarter-Sessions of the Peace holden at Maidstone, the 29th of April, in the thirteenth year of the reign of our sovereign Lord King William III. over England, &c., broadside, torn and frayed with some marginal loss, some spotting or staining, creased, lightly browned, c.290 x 185mm., [?London], no printer, [1701].*** With the prospect of war with France King William asked Parliament to authorise the creation of a standing army. This was refused, causing many to send appeals to Parliament. The people of Kent chose five men to carry theirs to London in May, 1701. The Commons declared the petition seditious, and the men were arrested and imprisoned. Defoe responded with his strongly worded pamphlet 'Legion's Memorial', in which he pleaded that the pamphlet be delivered to the Commons, and demanded the immediate release of the Kentish petitioners (which they were to great fanfare). Later that year he published a brief history of the petition, from its writing by the men in Kent in April to the resolution of the affair in June. This one of two issues, with the same text but a slightly different setting.