phetic eye, to have foreseen not only the immediate but the remoter consequences of the French revolution. The noble lord concluded by reading a long extract from the commencement of Mr.Burke's remarks; and then moved, that the bill upon the table be read a second time.

Marquis Wellesley said, that ow ing to several causes, there existed throughout the country a state and temper of the public mind, furnish ing what lord Bacon had described as matter of sedition. For a long time back the general distress had produced (to use the words of the same author) a gene: al discontentment. If the machinations of discontented persons threatened danger to the constitution, it became parliament to put restraints even on the general liberty of the subject. But having stated that principle upon one side, he had a few principles to state upon the other. It did not follow from this, that upon every allegation of conspiracy they should alter the existing law, or suspend, for a moment, the true bulwark of the people's rights. It should only be on a plain direct case, supported by clear, and he had almost said incontestable evidence. But when proved that treason did exist to a great extent, it should be proved, in addition, that it could not be put down by the ordinary laws. Upon his view of the question, there was another observation to be made. If it was shown to him distinctly, point by point, that the overt acts of 1795, 1801, and those of the present time, were precisely the same, unless they could show that the country was also in the same situation, he could not give his assent to the measure now proposed. He would go a step further they should show him that the measures proposed were

adapted to the condition, character, and circumstances of the present times, and were of a tendency to remove the prevailing discontents. There was this marked distinction to be observed, that in the former periods the great mischief apprehended proceeded from the agents of France-now there was no such apprehension. Before, the conclusion of the grand principle, which had extinguished jacobinism, was this, that the war was carried on for liberty and justice, and the rights of nations. But when they came to the peace, and what was unjustly called the settlement of Europe, those principles were violated, and jacobinism appeared once more. One of the ministers had said that war was favourable to commerce. This he stated, not as a particular proposition, but a general law derived from God and nature; and, therefore, he supposed peculiarly applicable to the commerce of Christians. From this it was inferred, that a great shock and convulsion must necessarily have followed the establishment of peace. His lordship contended, at great length, that government should have made arrangements with foreign powers for the protection of the commerce of this country, to the neglect of which he ascribed much of the present distress and discontent. He also charged them with having neglected to call parliament together, which was the natural way of resisting the evils complained of, and redressing the grievances that might appear to have led to them. He declared himself willing to concur in the measures for securing the person of the sovereign, preventing seditious meetings, and punishing attempts to seduce the soldiers and sailors; but he objected to putting into the hands of unskilful power

the

the liberties of the people. The noble lord had said that Ireland was perfectly quiet, but he believed its tranquillity was something of the same sort as described by a friend of his some time ago, who said it was as quiet as gunpowder. Without meaning any disrespect to the committee, he trusted in God that parliament would not forget the advice of lord Bacon, in his Essay on seditions and troubles, that they would feel it was doing little to remedy the outward appearance without removing the matter of sedition. This was only to be done effectually by applying every effort of the state to the reduction of the public expenditure, and, above all, of the military charges.

Lord Liverpool said it was unnecessary, after what had fallen from the noble marquis (Wellesley) to revert to the situation of the country, and the conduct of those to whom its administration had been intrusted.-The noble lord had himself now admitted his participation in measures similar to those which the administration of this period felt it their duty to propose. There had been other committees, of which their lordships could not fail to recollect the committee of secrecy on the affairs of trade, and with which political matter was mixed. At the time that a noble friend of his (lord Sidmouth) was at the head of the treasury, a conspiracy against the life of the sovereign was formed; and though nothing more flagitious and criminal had ever been planned, yet no bills like those now submitted were then brought in, because it was regarded as an insulated transaction; and when once the traitors had been seized, tried, convicted, and executed, the conspiracy fell to the ground. He stated these things,

in order to show that those persons who from their situations were best acquainted with the aspect of affairs then, and who reasoned by comparison now, were, perhaps, more justified in proposing the present measure than some noble lords imagined. But the noble lord must have a precedent like that of 1794. This however was not the question; for, if their lordships would refer to their journals, they would find more instances of the suspension of the habeas corpus act, which had taken place in peaceable times. There were, notwithstanding, seldom or ever two cases alike in all points; and he considered it sufficient to show the grounds of suspension in the present instance. He had little expected to find such objections to the late peace, circumstances which had left more liberty to Europe than at any former time. He would maintain that trade and manufactures in peace were greater than at any former time; and the real fact of distress was the agricultural one, when, from the depreciation of agriculture, the interests of trade declined. Let noble lords look to our restrictive policy in cases of this kind. But it was said, why was not parliament called at an earlier period? He should here consider it improper not to avow that government had long entertained great anxiety; but though there were clubs in embryo, though meetings were announced, and though thousands of seditious pamphlets were in circulation, yet it was not till within three weeks of the meeting of parliament that government were possessed of decisive evidence on those points; and it was even still later that government were prepared to substantiate the charges contained in the reports. Even since the committees had met, a most important

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object, if they afford no probability of success, there is not a case made out for granting this extraordinary power. In the first place, the government knew their men, their description; and the report distinctly states, that they are the persons who took an active part at the Spafields meeting; persons known to them, and actually in their custody-men not like persons in former plots and conspiracies, referred to as prece dents of rank, fortune, and influ ence, but wretches reduced to the lowest poverty and distress, which would have probably driven them to the highway, had not the discontent, from the distresses of the times, suggested the course which they had taken. These were the leaders, and the means they used were not preconcerted or previously arranged. There was to be a mob assembled, and they took their chance that they would have fallen into their views; and of this mob there might be about two hundred persons, and not more, who took an active part. The experiment, therefore, has been tried and has failed; and it is after this failure that the house is called upon for this extra ordinary remedy. But the measure was not only unnecessary, but it was totally inapplicable to the case. The case was that of evil-minded men availing themselves of the public distress to carry their views into effect, by secret meetings, secret oaths, and seditious publications.-Now, the suspension of the habeas corpus act could not act upon these points. There are laws for the suppression and punishment of those offences; and to make a foundation for this measure it was necessary to show, that these laws had been exercised, and found insufficient. His lordship concluded an able speech with declaring, that the present was not

that sort of emergency that called for the extraordinary power required by ministers.

The duke of Sussex said, there were some points in the bill which came more immediately under his view. He was witness to the greatest part of the examinations at the mansion-house, where he heard that the subscription to pay the Spafields' bills amounted to 107. The waggon remained with a debt of ten shillings to this hour. The waggon had a stocking with about fifty balls. He could not allow mole-hills to be magnified into mountains. He looked to the question as one of life and death, and he could not consent to vote for the bill.

Lord Grenville was persuaded that nothing could justify such a vote in time of peace, but the evidence of more fearful evil, against which it was necessary to guard. He did not see it necessary to go into an inquiry as to former periods, in comparison with this. He certainly thought the present danger not less formidable on account of the character of the actors, and he could not look, without the utmost apprehension and alarm, at the doctrines that were spreading around. Though their ultimate success was unattainable, yet what might not result from even the fruitless prosecution of their plans? If we neglected to take measures against them, what might not be the consequences in the mean time? He was old enough to remember this metropolis five days in the hands of a lawless mob-a mob as insignificant, at first, as those who proceeded from Spafields to riot, and who would have accomplished their object if they could. Look to France. Let them reflect on the lives of men exhausted in blood in that country, and trace those cala

mities

mities to their origin. All was then produced by clubs, by filling the air with libels, so that a man could inhale nothing but sedition and blasphemy, directed to the perversion of ordinary minds. There had been an attempt in France to undermine all religion, and he had no doubt but that the same dreadful consequences were designed for the present times by those who had intended a complete revolution in the country. There had been a question agitated in the country for some time, in fact the question of reform in parliament; on that subject he should not at present give an opinion; but parliamentary reform was made to cover projects of a wild and visionary nature, and at the same time destructive of the constitution of the country. These societies ought not in many cases to exist. There was an opposition to the present state of things which ought not to be tolerated. If after the rebellion in 1745 meetings had been held to discuss the question, whether king George or king James had the best right to the throne, how would it have been regarded? The duke of Gloucester voted for the bill, under a conviction that it was absolutely necessary.

Lord Holland considered that the government, by the suspension of the habeas corpus act, was made a government of will and not of law. It ought to be seen how great was the danger, and whether it was such as to require such a measure. He could not agree with the statements which had been made as to the effect of the circulation of irreligious publications, especially as the lower orders were principally strongly attached to particular sects. Their lordships had not proved that the law, as it was, would not remove the evil, nor had they shown that

Majority 115

Their lordships then went into a committee, and reported.

The bill was then read the third time, and passed, and ordered to be sent to the house of commons.

In the house of commons, on the same day-The order of the day, for taking into consideration the report of the secret committee, having been read,

Lord Castlereagh, in adverting to the importance of the question he was about to bring before the notice of the house, stated that he had never felt himself in a more painful situation. It was his duty, and it had been the duty of other men in public situations during these latter times, to submit to the mortification of calling on parliament for extraordinary powers at periods of extraordinary danger; but severe as that duty was at all times, it must be peculiarly painful and grievous for him to find that it was now imposed on him, not at a period of war and confusion, but after the return of peace, and when it might have been hoped that tranquillity had been restored within as well as without the kingdom. He should have hoped, that after the dreadful record that the whole world had been furnished with, of the sufferings inflicted by a neighbouring nation on themselves and others, by an unprincipled over

throw