tioner, that the government were fully apprized before-hand of the propositions intended to be brought forward at the meeting. So that your petitioner humbly begs leave to express his confidence that your honourable House will clearly perceive that if any insurrection had taken place on the day of the first Spa-Fields meeting, it would have been entirely owing to the neglect, if not connivance, of those persons who possessed a previous knowledge of the principles and views of the parties with whom that meeting originated. "With regard to the second assertion, namely, that," care was taken to adjourn the meeting to the 2nd of December," your petitioner, begs leave to state, that it will appear upon the face of the proceedings of that day, that there was nothing like previous concert or care in this matter! for, that a resolution first proposed to adjourn the meeting to the day of the meeting of parliament, and then to meet in Palace-yard, of course not so much in the vicinity of the Bank and the Tower; and that when this resolution was award ed so as to provide for a meeting on the 2d of December on the same spot, it was merely grounded on the uncertainty as to the time when the parliament might meet. Your petitioner further begs leave to state here, as being, in a most interested manner connected with this adjournment of the meeting, that when your petitioner waited on lord Sidmouth with the petition to the Prince Regent, he informed his lordship, that the meeting was to reassemble on the 2d of December, when your petitioner had engaged to carry his lordship's answer and deliver it to the adjourned meeting, and, that his lordship, so far from advising your petitioner not to go to the said meeting, so far from saying any thing to discourage the said meeting, distinctly told your petitioner, that your petitioner's presence and conduct appeared to his lordship to have prevented great possible mischief. Whence your petitioner humbly conceives, that he is warranted in concluding, that there did, at the time here referred to, exist in his lordship no desire to prevent the said meeting from taking place. "Your petitioner, in adverting humbly to the third assertion of your secret committee, begs to be permitted to state, that the persons who went from Spa Fields to engage in riot on the 2d of December, formed no part of the meeting called for that day; that these persons came into the fields full two hours before the time of meeting; that they left the fields full an hour before that time; that they did not consist, at the time of leaving the fields, of more than forty or fifty individuals; that they were joined by sailors and others, persons going from witnessing the execution of four men in the Old Bailey; that your petitioner, who had come up from Essex in the morning, met the rioters in Cheapside; that he proceeded directly to the meeting, which he found to be very numerous; that there a resolution was immediately proposed by your petitioner strongly condemning all rioting and violence, which resolution passed with the most unanimous acclamations, that a petition, which has since been signed by upwards of 24 thousand names, and received by the House of Commons, was then passed; and that the meeting though immense as to numbers, finally separated, without the commission of any single act of outrage, or violence. And here your petitioner humbly begs leave to beseech the attention of your honourable House to the very important fact of a third meeting having taken place on the 10th instant, on the same spot, more numerously attended than either of the former; and that, after having agreed to a petition, which has since been received by your honourable House, the said meeting separated in the most peaceable and orderly manner; which your petitioner trusts is quite sufficient to convince your honourable House that, if as your secret committee reported, designs of riot do still continue to be prosecuted with sanguine hopes of success, these designs can have no connexion whatever with the meetings for retrenchment, relief, and reform held in Spa-Fields. "That, as to the pike-heads, your petitioner begs leave to state to your right hon. House, that while he was at the last Spa-Fields meeting, an anonymous letter was put into the hands of your petitioner's servant, who afterwards gave it to your petitioner; that this letter stated that one Bentley, a Smith, of Hart street Covent Garden, had been employed by a man, in the dress of a game-keeper, to make some spikes to put round a fish pond; that the game keeper came and took a parcel away and paid for them; that he came soon afterwards and said the things answered very well, and ordered more to be made; that, in a little while after this the said Bentley was sent for to the Bowstreet office, and, after a private examination, was desired to make a pike, or spike, of the same sort, and to carry it to the office, which he did. That your petioner perceives that the information which it contains may possibly be of the utmost importance in giving a clue to the strict investigation, which he humbly presumes to hope will be instituted by your honourable House into this very interesting matter. "That as to the fifth assertion, that delegates have assembled in London from Hampden Clubs in the country, your petitioner has first to observe, that these persons never called themselves delegates, and were not called delegates by any body connected with them; that they were, called, and were, "Deputies from peti"tioning bodies" for parliamentary reform; that your petitioner was one of them, having been deputed by the petitioners at Bristol and Bath; that these deputies met three times, and always in an open room, to which news-paper reporters were admitted; that an account of all their proceedings was published; that they separated at the end of three days, not upon a motion of adjournment, but of absolute dissolution, which motion was made by your petitioner, who is ready to prove that your committee has been imposed upon as to the fact that these delegates, or deputies, are expected to meet again in March. "That your petitioner is ready to prove at the bar of your right hon. House all the facts and allegations contained in this petition, and that he humbly prays so to be permitted there to prove them accordingly. And your petitioner will ever HENRY HUNT." The petition was ordered to lie on the table. pray. HABEAS CORPUS SUSPENSION BILL]. The order of the day being read, for the second reading of the Bill to empower his majesty to secure and detain such persons as his majesty shall suspect are conspiring against his person and govern ment, Lord Sidmouth rose and observed, that whatever differences of opinion might exist as to this and other measures in contemplation, he was confident that no noble ford could have read and reflected upon the report of the committee upon the table without the deepest regret, calculated as it was to shock every feeling of loyalty to the throne and of affection for the illustrious individual exercising its functions, and to cast a loathsome stigma upon the character and disposition of the country. Twice had a noble earl complained that the report had been presented unaccompanied by any evidence or documents to support it; but he (lord S.) trusted that the House, instead of censuring its committee for neglect of its duty, would applaud the regularity and the prudence of its proceedings. The committee had thought fit to present to the House the conclusions and results at which it had arrived, instead of detailing information, necessarily of a secret nature, and producing documents which would put to hazard the safety of individuals, from whom the important evidence had been obtained. These were motives that the House could not fail to approve; and, actuated by the same feeling, his lordship held it to be incumbent upon him to observe the same restraint. To that evidence, which the committee had declined to furnish, he could not, with any regard to propriety, refer. There were, however, in the report, three prominent features to which it was fit for him to advert in the first instance, and which merited the particular attention of their lordships. The first was, that no doubt was left in the minds of the committee," that a traitorous conspiracy had been formed in the metropolis for the purpose of overthrowing, by means of a general insurrection, the established government, laws, and constitution of this kingdom, and of effecting a general plunder and division of property." In the second place, that the committee are deeply concerned to be compelled, in further execution of their duty, to report their full conviction that designs of this nature have not been confined to the capital, but have been extended, and are still extending widely in many other parts of Great Britain, particularly in some of the most populous and manufacturing districts." And the third point, inserted at the close of the report, was a declaration that "such a state of things cannot be suffered to continue without hazarding the most imminent and dreadful evils; and although the committee do not presume to anticipate the decision of parliament, as to the particular measures to be adopted in the present emergency, they feel it to be their duty to express their decided opinion that further provisions are necessary for the preserva- | sufferings were to be attributed not merely tion of the public peace, and for the pro- to the ministers of the day, but to defects tection of interests in which the happiness in the constitution: the efforts that had of every class of the community is deeply been made, and nobly made, to mitigate and equally involved." every cause of complaint, had been treated as worse than nothing, and as increasing the evil they were intended to remedy; and this evil agent, whose deliberate purpose seemed to be to destroy all that was valuable, had at length plainly told the people, that peaceable entreaties were vain, and that by open violence alone. could their grievances be redressed. Some noble lords had complained that These were the main points adverted to in the report; and it was impossible to read them without the utmost degree of grief and shame, that in this country, distinguished in former periods of its history for its zealous attachment to the laws and constitution, facts, but too indisputable, should have compelled a committee to make such a statement to the House, at a moment, too, when the fidelity and gal-prosecutions had not been instituted against lantry of the nation had placed it on the loftiest pinnacle of glory and when it had become as well the admiration as the envy of the rest of the world. Was it at such a period that conspiracies to overthrow the government, and to destroy the constitution, were to have been expected? Was it at such a period that parliament could have contemplated being called upon for measures like those this night to be suggested? Unhappily, for a long series of years, but more especially since the commencement of the French revolution, a malignant spirit had been abroad in the country, seeking to ally itself with every cause of national difficulty and distress; it hadconnected itself even with the dispensations of Providence, and had endeavoured to impute the visitations of God to causes with which they could have no connexion. During the war it had been incessantly busied, not in aggravating our defeats, for we had known none, but in denying our victories, and misrepresenting them as the triumphs of our enemies. On the arrival of peace, its activity had been redoubled; and, while the people were suffering under a heavier pressure of distress than had been felt, perhaps, at any former period, it had employed itself in exaggerating calamity, and fomenting discontent. The purpose of that malignant spirit was, to avail itself of the reduced and burthened state of the country, and to apply it to its own desperate purposes; for evidence had been laid before the committee, by which it unquestionably appeared, that the whole physical strength of the population was to be employed and organized by it, for the destruction of the most sacred establishments. That the distress arose, in a great degree, from unavoidable causes, he apprehended would be denied by few; yet this malignant spirit had represented to the ignorant and credulous, that their the authors, printers, or publishers of these infamous libels; but it was but justice to government to state, that they had not neglected their duty with regard to those publications. As soon as they reached the hands of ministers, they were trans-> mitted to the law officers of the crown, who felt that these publications were drawn up with so much dexterity-the authors had so profited by former lessons of experience, that greater difficulties to conviction presented themselves than at any former time. Ministers had, however, strictly enjoined them to file informations in all cases where a conviction was possible, trusting with confidence to the loyalty and integrity of a British jury. Many prosecutions were now actually pending, the lawofficers, of whose ability and interest his lordship was fully assured, not being of opinion that any proceeding of the kind could be earlier instituted; the delay had originated in the most conscientious motives. These seditions had been spread over the country with a profusion scarcely credible, and with an industry without example; in the manufacturing districts they had been circulated by every possible contrivance; every town was overflowed by them; in every village they were almost innumerable, and scarcely a cottage had escaped the perseverance of the agents of mischief; hawkers of all kinds had been employed, and the public mind had, in a manner been saturated with the odious poison. Clubs had also been established in every quarter under the ostensible object of parliamentary reform. His lordship would not assert, that some of them had not really this object in view; but he should belie his deliberate conviction if he did not also assert, that a very large proportion of them indeed had parliamentary reform in their mouths, but rebellion and revolution in their hearts. without risking the most imminent and dreadful evils. The report referred, not merely to what had been done, but to proceedings still carried on for the furtherance of treasonable purposes; and that not merely in the metropolis, but in various parts of the country, where the seeds of disaffection were most likely to flourish; and the report stated a decided opinion, that some other measures were necessary to secure the good order and happiness of society. It was therefore for the wisdom of both Houses of Parliament to consider and determine what those other measures should be which were required to protect interests in which all classes were deeply and equally involved. That which prominently forced itself upon the feelings and attention of their lordships was, the imperious necessity of affording protection to the illus With respect to the means by which this dreadful purpose was to be effected, the report of the committee said much. Pub. lic meetings from time to time had been adjourned until all was ripe for action, and the first disturbance of the peace of the country took place on the 2d of December. On that occasion ministers would have failed in their duty if they had not made preparations adequate to the danger. His object would ever be to employ the civil power, and never to call in the aid of the military but in cases of absolute emergency; but on this occasion the civil power was incompetent to preserve tranquillity; and soldiers were so posted as to be ready on the instant in every part of the metropolis. The consequence was, that the disturbances within the jurisdiction of the lord mayor had been quelled in a few moments by a troop of life-guards which he (lord Sidmouth) had deemed it his in-trious personage, who, on the day of the dispensable duty to dispatch after the rioters, even without the sanction of the chief magistrate of London. He had directed them to proceed to Skinner-street, and to follow the rioters into all parts of the city and in one situation a line had been actually drawn up, and some shots were fired, which put a speedy end to the disturbances. The trials of some of the chief actors ensued, and his lordship said, he had not deemed it advisable (and he hoped it never would be thought so) that prosecutions for treason should be instituted but where the clearest case could be made out. He should always prefer proceeding for a minor offence, where it could not be shown decisively that it partook of the nature of a higher enormity. It had been said by a noble lord (Holland), that ministers were informed at that time of the treasonable purposes of the individuals engaged; in short, that they were acquainted with all the facts contained in the report. The noble lord was in an error; for the particulars of a conspiracy indisputably of a treasonable quality had not been communicated to ministers, and if they had no intelligence the noble lord could not blame them for inactivity. The circumstances that marked the atrocious character and designs of the meeting in Spa-fields did not come to the knowledge of ministers until three weeks before the meeting of parliament, so that no blame could be fairly imputed to them upon that account. The committee had reported that such a state of things could not be suffered to continue meeting of parliament, was not only exposed to insult and indignity, but even his sacred person was attacked and endangered. The House would not have forgotten what had been the proceeding on a similar occasion, when a similar attack had been made on the person of the sovereign: the act of the 36th Geo. 3d. c. 7 was passed to afford to his majesty additional protection; and his lordship would ask, if the dreadful and atrocious conduct recently witnessed did not render it fit that that bill should, by amendment, be made applicable to the Prince Regent ? It appeared before the House, that the enemies of the constitution, in the prosecution of their desperate designs, had made attempts, vain and impotent indeed, to seduce from their duty the soldiers and sailors who had fought our battles and conquered our peace: the legislature had decided by a bill, which expired in August last, that persons guilty of such attempts should forfeit all right to the privileges they were entitled to by birth, and his lordship intended to suggest the revival of that measure.-The clubs existing in all parts of the country formed another evil to be corrected, and to these the 39th of the king, would not apply, unless it could be shown that the clubs were connected together by affiliation: it did not seem, however, under the present circumstances, necessary that that connexion should be established to render the members amenable. The 39th of the king, by a wise provision, had put down the London Corresponding Society, the so ciety for Constitutional Information, and some others by name; and although it had been predicted they had never been revived under new titles. It might be proper to adopt the same course with regard to some of the clubs now existing; and more especially with respect to one of them; and if they should endeavour to communicate their infection to the people under a new description, at least the legislature would have given warning by marking the door where the pestilence raged. It was also in the contemplation of ministers to propose the renewal of a measure that had produced many salutary effects in 1795, which had been renewed in 1798, and which had for its object the prevention of seditious meetings. Having stated thus much, his lordship felt that he should not discharge his duty, and should expose himself to severe selfreproach, it he did not state his conviction that parliament would not perform what it owed to the country if it stopped here. In many parts of the country proceedings were still carried on of a most dangerous nature, and which could not come to the knowledge of ministers but through the medium of persons who could not be brought into a court of justice. On this account yet more effectual provisions were indispensable, since bills to regulate clubs, or prevent seditious meetings, would not reach the most formidable and crying evils of which we had to complain. He was most sincerely grieved to be the instrument, upon this occasion, of proposing a measure, the necessity of which was at all times to be deeply lamented, but more particularly in a period of peace. When we had no foreign enemies, it was the more to be regretted that domestic foes should occasion the suspension of one of the most important privileges of the constitution. Noble lords had much reprobated the communication of extraordinary powers to the servants of the crown; but it was one extraordinary quality of the British constitution, that the powers of the executive government could be enlarged, if by such means that constitution could be better secured. The true question was which was the most dangerous,to give additional strength to the hands of ministers for general protection, or to refuse it, and thereby to hazard every right that was dear and sacred? He required the suspension of the Habeas Corpus act, in pity to the peaceable and loyal $ Το inhabitants of the country: he required it for the protection of the two Houses of parliament, for the maintenance of our liberties, and for the security of the blessings of the constitution. He asked, that this power should be communicated without delay; for though in other measures the House might delay, here procrastination was ruin. To adopt the measure would be a wise precaution-to refuse it a desperate infatuation. suspend the Habeas Corpus act at the present moment would be to obstruct the commission of the most flagrant crimes, and check the hands of sacrilegious despoilers of the sacred fabric of the constitution. "Nam cætera maleficia tum persequare, ubi facta sunt: hoc, nisi provideris, ne accidat, ubi evenit, frustrà judicia implores." Under all the circumstances, it was a great satisfaction to him to inform the House, that it would not be necessary to extend the operation of the bill to Ireland. Some time ago he had proposed a measure for suspending the Habeas Corpus act only in the sister kingdom, and it was the more gratifying for him now to declare, that the disaffected and disloyal in this country did not appear to have made a single convert in Ireland. All he asked of the House at present was, not to exaggerate, but not to under-rate the dangers to which we were exposed, and the difficulties with which we had to contend. It was not merely the lower orders that had united in these conspiracies; individuals of great activity, great resolution, and great energy, were engaged with them, and it became the House to meet their attempts with corresponding spirit, determination, and vigour. Such had been the advice of one of the most gifted and enlightened men that had ever lived, and who seemed, with a prophetic eye, to have foreseen, not only the immediate but the remoter consequences of the French revolution. The noble lord concluded by reading an extract from the commencement of Mr. Burke's Reflections; and then moved, that the bill upon the table be read a second time. The Marquess Wellesley began by observing, that this was a crisis which at once called for all the fortitude of the people and all the energy of the government. He was ready to allow, that the state of the popular mind was exactly such as had been described by one of the greatest statesmen of any age or country |