Star. — London, England, 1818-01-28 00:00:00

rat. Though all the Ithels *ere of the saki* the- I extended to them. Bat the House will fi nd, that Mi- ! o.e nice, t hey were on different parts of the Service of, niters did not think tranquillity solar restored as to! Church of England, and were therefcre the & permit those to go at large concerning whom only .tiect, of distinct prosecutions. His mind had not slight suspicious had been entertained. Do they call at all convinced, though by the law of England this the strength or the weakness of their case P Whe e Jury had the right—and GOD forbid they should ther is such conduct a ground for merit or repreha . have it—of deciding on the guilt or innocence of tion on the part of the House and country at large ? puny accused ;—yet still he had not been convinced Upon the cases of those persons confined or held to the publications an question were not what they bail upon similar charges in Scotland, I shall not been charged to be. On such papers every man had touch, as I find it is resolved upon that these are to -;ht to exercise his own judgment. Had he felt that be the subject of a separate motion—although it will 11,1 been in error when he first proceeded against be fresh in the recollection of the House, what a , —had the first trial produced this conviction on lively impression was made on that memorable night' • mind, he should have felt it his bounden duty to when the Learned Lord Advocate of Scotland, now r the proceedings ; but in the absence of such con- sitting opposite, came into the House, fresh from rMm, ought he to have abstained from proceeding the dreadful scene of sedition which se so alarm ith the second prosecution, beCause the first had ingly described, •and mad the dreadful oath said to fled? Was such the principle on which the admi- have been administered and administering through inis..raticn of the justice of the country - ought to rest? out that district. Yet after all the parade of crimi it could be shewn by the Noble Lord that be had nalitf, these vouchers of rebellion and treason, that Bred in the prosecutions from malice, or from Learned Lord and his Colleagues had only selected spirit of revenge, then he might make out a charge one person for prosecution, who, after three attempts Mist him ; but if this were not made out or stated, to draw up an indictment against him, was acquitted, o would say that his conduct had not been impro• to their utter confusion and refutation—Wear, hear.) r, and that to have withdrawn from the prosecu- Do not these disclosures and discornfitures of the legal * Ca of two of the parodies after a verdict of acquit- advisers of the Crown throw light upon the minds of, ..1 had been pronounced on the first, would have our Constituents, and develope the true situation of en taken for a confession on his part, that the first the country for months back ? Are they not aware of .roreeLling had been wring. Would it have been the delusion which has been practised upon them, 'Oa for him to have made such a confession, when and that the country has been, without cause, robbed .e had no reason to believe or to imagine that such of its Constitution so long ?—_(Near, hear.) Much is as is isel the fact ? Whether Os . not such was the due so the ingen i ous and meritorious stand ma-deat pinion of other persons, was quite another question: the late trials at Derby by the Counsel for the priso nt with the impression be had had on his mind, it nets, against the novel and dangerous attempt at as his bounden duty, after the' result of the first construing the law of treason by the Crown Lawyers, al was knowa, to bring the second publication un- although the parties who suffered there, I have no the consideration of a Jury. To have acted other- doubt, suffered justly the punishment of crimes liable :oe. he ceinceived then—he conceived now, and he to the penalty of death, whether guilty of the trea onet he should ever remaia in the same mind, son or not. Through these different sources of in mild on his part have amounted to a dereliction of formation upon the nature of our situation for some .ity, and he might, in such a case, have been justly • the back, who is there now who pereeivei 'not urged with weakness, and unbecoming apprehen- that the very measures of Government have been the, Fan for the issue, if he had not taken a verdict on cause of that insurrection which they affected here tb each of the publications. be anxious to prevent, by measures of precaution? . Sir SAMUEL ROYIILLY.—" Mr. Speaker, I feel Who has not been easily able thereby to detect this particularly gratified in giving my assent to the pro- anxiety of Government to conceal the cause of those posed Address, and thould consider it a circumstance revolutionary acts in that .part of the country? Uposi leeply to be regretted, that any complaint which the'trial of Brandreth and others, the Attorney-Gene- Plight be made as to toents which have happened ral continually repeated, during the examination of etween the late and the present meeting of : Perlis- evidence, that he wished to confine himself to the ent, should be construed as interrupting the unani- period of the Bth of June, when these deluded people icy which se properly prevails as to the expediency appeared in arms, and consummated the offence for • whi that Addresi—(Near, kw.) If sever there was a me that unanimity became a duty, if ever theie was public event that deserved to be considered a pri nce and individual calamity; it is that upon which, e Commons House were now called on, in corn-1 y with the whole nation, to condole with his Royal lighness—(Hear, hear.) The unanimity or sincerity our sorrow cannot be impeached by the allusion hich the Noble Lord has just made to the subject of late trials; far from it. 'lt is the privilege as well duty of Members solicitous for the well-being of iety at large, upon s the opening of Parliament by .e Speech from the Throne, to proceed to the exa mination of such acts as appear to have emanated from his Majesty's Ministers in the interval between the Sessions of Parliament, and produced private grievance or public . itwotoceniencemer. lear,lreß. tore particularly so when these appear not as isolat ed acts, but as part of a system openly adopted by his Majesty's Ministers for. curtailing the rights, pri vileges, and liberties of the people of England—inso much so, that the once-boasted Constitution of this country no longer can be said to exist, and this House is called again together to transact the public busi ness, dunn& a period of the deepest national calamity, the suspension of that Constitution, to obtain which our ancestors made such vigorous struggles and glo rious sacrifices. While proceeding in that act of un pralleled temerity, it will be recollected, that the House, in consequence of the suggestion of the Mini nen, that a disclosure of facts, names, plans, and dates, would prevent the delinquents being brought to justice, consented to take the greater part of the Report of the Secret Committee, as proved without the means of accurate investigation. So far the House proceeded to pass the Act for suspending the Constitution in the dark—c Hear, hear). Since our last meeting, the transactions whi ch have taken place upon the trial of the offenders at Manchester, Glas gow, and Derby, have thrown a new light upon the real foundation of that daring act of legislation.- 1 ant perfectly prepared,by the subsequent disclosures, to call your attention to the manner in which the in surrectional meetings at Manchester were described in that Report, and the actual nature of those meet ngs, as appeared by the subsequent proceedings at the Acsites. In the Reports of this House and the Lords, it was stated that treasonable conspiracies of the most atrocious nature had been detected to exist is Manchester and the country round about; that the associated bad conspired to destroy the barracks, and to burn the manufactories, with the diabolical inters- Con of increasing the mass of the disaffected by t h e dertruet;on of those very sources of employment ; that they had sworn to render Manchester another Moscow, a signal monument of their vengeance.— The Reports added, that some of these conspirators were then actually in custody. Many months have z.r.ce elapsed, various persons have been examined, and some held to bail ; but no such treasonable plots o: horrid machinations have been discovered, nor one tn been convicted of any such attempts, or even assigns—(Hear.) _lf there are any, why have they :int been brought to trial? Why have not the Re p s endeavoured to be authenticated? No ! the Aucancy-General, to prevent a disclosure of circum stances prejudicial to the interests of the State, re movLd the cases by certiorari into the King's Bench. 1 .. c next Session he allows them all to escape, be cl,:se he possesses no evidence whereby he could pro cu:a tneir conviction, and then Government make a ner:t of what they call their clemency, but which rr. , ..,ra they in fact could never have had any preten sA,-.5 to, were it not for the wrong they themselves committed in the first instance by the apprehension ei,:lese poor people. (Hear, and loud c hee ring) If I:ad possessed evidence to convict them, would Lei have escaped so ? or if they were justly charged offences of this enormous mac itude, were they ,l)jects for the clemency of the Crown ? (Hear.) L.l September we find these people, so strongly tna:i.,ed with rebellious conspiracies andovert acts of 1. let loose, because, it is saido the tranquillity" "'.he country is so ikr siotored, that =serer may be _iich they suffeied, although in his opening speech he had assured the Court he should be able to give most convincing proofs of anterior meetings to that date, and a regularly preconcerted and organised conspirac y. Notwithstanding the well-known activity of the mis sionary of revolution sent down there to foment dissa tisfaction, and occasion that much-to-be-lamented explosion which ended in the sacrifice of the lives of several individuals, still the Law-Officers of the Crown dared not to draw aside the veil which covered the doubtful proceedings anterior to the Sth of June, and to which the Attorney-General had in a former stage alluded with so much confidence. These anterior pro ceedings, notwithstanding the examination of evidence upon the first, second, and thirdtrial, remain, and are likely for ever to remain in profound obscurity. It issemarkable,' that ria the. passing of she Ass foe .des Suspension of the Habeas Corpus, some objected its this House to keeping the names secret as answering no good purpose. The Ministers observed, it would be eligible for the prevention of insurrection, because they could keep their eyes fixed in secret upon such as they knew to be leaders, and seize them at the mo ment their treasonable projects were about to be exe cuted. Wow Brancireth, 'tis said, had long been known to be the most determined of their leaders, yet he was suffered to go at large until he completed the trea sonable outrages which it was their duty to have an ticipated. To advert to the subject of the parodies alluded to, I recollect the late Attorney-General, inmentioning them, refused to read publications of 10 flagitious a nature in a British House of Com mons, and flung them in a sealed cover upon the table. The present Attomey-General now adopted a different plan; and by his triple prosecution and triple defea a t aix tve these, very improperly, a publicity to thotl seho never otherwise would have heard of than. Whilst some curious persons would have given a guinea for one parody, the Attorney-General determines to print an immense and new edition of all the parodies at less than their original price ; and yet he had this evening stated, that his motive for prosecution ass the prevention of the circulation of such works—(lifeer and laughing.)—Thus, in the case of the atrocious delinquents at Manchester, he sought credit for advising an act of clemency, where it was his duty to have prosecuted the offenders to convic tion ; but in Hone's case, where clemency might, with so much credit to his politic foresight, have boon extended, he pertinaciously sought a Conviction, and brought down nothing, but disgrace and defeat on his head. After having revived by the trials what had been suppressed some months before through Hone's apprehensions, it was not surprising, that, after-two defeats, he should have prosecuted Hone upon the parody upon the Atlutuation Creed, which, in the Court of King's Bench, had been already decided, in the case of another party tried for publishing these parodies, to be of a less objectionable nature. Would it have been wealinais or neglect of duty in this case to have let this apocryphal parody pass unnoticed ?—or is it every Attorney General's busi ness to prosecute every kliel or parody that is pub lished ? Ns, certainly. But the object of those pro secutions is too plain ; Government felt sore at hav ing their conduct and character exposed to public view, as impolitic Statesmen and improvident trea surers of the public money, in a language familiar to all years and. capacities. Yet this was not the only abject in the view of either his Majesty's Ministers, or their defender, the Right Honourable Gentleman. — There was another motive for this pertinacious zeal, which prompted these three distinct and separate trials: It was intended to throw discredit on Juries, had the latter prosecutions been successful : but happily for, us and the country at large, the turn has been in fa vour of Juries. Is it possible then that this has been part of a design meditated, and almost matured by Ministers, to take from us, piece by piece, our vs-, luable Constitution ? (Loud cries of Hear, Bear.)— . May not these acts be coupled with similar ones of the same Administration, who have condescended to temper with the Magistracy throughout the country, and prescribed their line ca cendirt by circulars of eh tintottatinifioe al ahj umearrantable nattire- - who a ed. sowl really Wish eveerindividtial to I' l / 4 46% have suspended the Constitution of this country upon lect what was the statement of the Honlairable and frivolous and unfounded representations—who have Learned Lord OR that occasion. lie stated to this told the Commons of England that they are not fit House that there were hundreds of thousands of per to be entrusted with the authentication of the exis- sons involved in those criminal proceedings. if that tence of an alleged conspiracy against the Govern- be the case. how is it that the Hon. and Learned merit of this Country—who have dared to commit i Lord, and all his colleagues, had introduced but one men to prison without crime, and, after discharging i trial ? Why did they not select many individual% ? them for want of evidence, taken securities from The trial in question did indeed involve two persons, them to surrender themselves at any time they may but it was substantially instituted against one. I shall be called upon And shall an Administration like not now go into a history of that transaction, althouvh this expect to receive at our hands an indemnity for I have my decided opinion as to the conduct of iLe , conduct like this—for such repeated and causeless Law Of of the Crown in Scotland, which I will invasion of our best liberties?—(Hear, hear, hear.)— state and maintain at the proper period. But I will No—perish th e thought ! and with it peris h the hope tell the Honourable Lord this, that he is very mate that they ever will be enabled to erect that projected rially connected with that individual against whom new constitution amongst us, so opposite to all which a motion of crimination ought to be proposed. Ido is valuable in that bequeathed to us by our antes- not think I am called on to say more on this occasion. tors—a species of constitution which would persuade I may be allowed, however, to observe, that if Mi es- that an Act of Parliament expressly passed for !sisters, in their proceedings, have not been actuated the regulation of prisons, could not affect the King's by their desire of purniing a system of unjust accu prerogative, or mitigate the sufferings of the persons sation,and severe oppression,their conduct has clearly so confined! Fortunately for this country, the public evinced the existence of feelings of sharpness and has recovered from its false alarms ; all attempts to asperity : inconsistent with the declarations which they sustain the delusion have failed; the feelings of the last Session made to this House. I will not trespass public are hostile to the attempts of Administration to further on the attention of the House—but I protest remodel their happy form of Government ; and Par- against appearing to acquiesce in one single point liament, I trust, will shortly shew its just indigna- asserted by the Honourable and Learned Lord with Lion at the deception which has been practised upon reference to the trial in question." is, when they shall _appear at the Bar of this House Lord FOLKESTONE said, that no man who re and apply for an Act of Indemnity to cover the of- spected those feelings which once actuated the graat • of which they hare been guilty durittg the last tibcly lithe people of England, could remaiwiilent few portentous months."—(Hear, hear,) when he reflected on the unprecedented conduct of The SOLICITOR-GENERAL..." I have to la- the servants of the Crown during the recess of Par ziteot that the House has been so far taken by surprise, liament. Allusion had been made by his Noble and by the observations which have fallen from the Noble Honourable Friend, who on that side of the House Lord and the Honourable Baronet this evening. In preceded him, to the trials both in this country and the course of the observations which have fallen in Scotland. On the first he should offer a few ob from the latter, he appears completely to have con- servations then, but reserve himself as to the other founded the cases of those persons charged with till the noticed motion respecting Scotland was duly treason with the cases of those persons called Blan- before the House. If there was a man in that house, ketteers. As to the trials at Derby, I never expected or out of it, who had carefully read the proceedings to have heard any objection - made on the part of my of the late trials in this country, and did not concer Honourable Friend to proceedings which I had flat- in the correct conclusions of his Honourable and tered myself had been conducted so fairly, and ter- Learned Friend, as to the spirit and tendency of such a minated so satisfactorily to all parties roosent—(A system, it was in vain fer him, after such arguments laugh). If the parties accused Could have shewn as had been already advanced, to hope to convinci: that in the meetings previous to the Bth of June they him. Notwithstanding the answer of the Solicitor (h -had been been innocently made the victirtis of artful and neral, he could not help considering the persons lately insidious persons, why did not their Counsel prove it discharged on their recognizances, as the persons for upon the trial, and avail themselves of the advan- merly charged with the destruction of Manchester.— tages resulting from such evidence? Were we The Reports of both Houses of Parliament had con bound to adduce all that had happentiii anterior to sidered them as the some persons ; on that charge the Bth ofJline, merely to please the worthy Baronet? they averred that these people were apprehended, That which .has given rise to this debate, has sur- and of course it was, on the failure of that accusa prised me more than all the rest—l mean the prose- tion, they were discharged. With respect to the cution of Hone for libel. Do the Noble Lord and trial% at Derby, the Honourablethe Solicitor-General the Honourable Baronet contend , that because there seemed to think that it was sufficient argument to were thrbe libels, one exceeding the others in atro- prove that the evidence was complete enough to en city and pernicious tendency, that none should be sure partial correction. But he - would - adc, ought prosecuted, because the prosecution had the same the duty and responsibility of Govittiment to. rest tendency as a publication. note? If so, then there? Was evidence of that kind sufficient to let the the laws respecting libels are all a farce, and it House and the country into the details ofthis alleged must come to this, that no libel, however atrocious conspiracy? After all the coercive measures of last or blasphemous, should ever be proceeded against , Session, was not - the House and the country entitled lest it have the effect of disseminating its baneful in- at least to a full disclosure?—(Hear, hear.) But li fluence once more throughout society. If, on the mited as even the information was which the country first case failing, his Right Honourable Friend jthe could glean from these prosecutions, who that emelt:led resh rushed with a f argument fof doing so from the mouth of the Honourable Baronet (Sir Samuel Ro milly), who thinks the second the wont and most culpable in a moral sense—Wear).—Although the third parody was the weakest case confessedly, still the Court of King's Bench had condemned the printer of it to four months imprisonment ; whilst for another it had sentenced him to eight months confinement. It is absurd to say that by Hone's suppressing this publication, after a good sale of many days, the evil `ceased ; for after this, and before it, Carlisle and others had inundated the kingdom with editions on editions of the same at the lowest price ; and who.so justly deserved punishment as the fountain whence all the mischief had sprung—the wholesale dealer in seditious blasphemy ? The House must therefore see that the juster inference in cases of this nature is, that those entrusted with the guardianship of society, can not, without a culpable neglect of duty, suffer the offence of libel to go unpunished, although the re medy itself may inevitably be productive of the very evil which it was intended to correct. proved at Derby was the treason of Mr. Oliver ? (Hear. hear)—was the production of an agent of the Government—agent of the Government he would say, for who would deny that Mr. Oliver was the agent of Lord Sidmouth ? The feelings of those who did consign to punishment his victims he could not envy—(Hear, hear, hear.) With respect to Mr. Hone, he never could view that prosecution but in one (X two lights—either a spirit of persecution against that individual, or 3 marked evidence of imbecility on the 'part of those who were labouring for a case, and who 'dreaded the responsibility that they themselves felt to attach to their own oppressions—(hear, hear, hear.] What he had to complain of; what he thotight Par liament ought intensely to feel, was the state of de gradation which those proceedings entailed upon the Courts of Justice and the administration of the law-. 1 (Hear, hear.) Was it possible to read the accounts of Mr. Home's trials without feoling that the dignity of our judicial character was much more lowered b: 'the prosecution than religion could have been in jured by the obnoxious publications ? He 'could cEs- I cover no other object for such a course but either from the determination to sacrifice the man, as an evidence of that cry of blasphemous and seditious li belling of which so much use was made last Session, or with the view of obtaining some ground-work ft a future interference with the Liberty of the Press. The scene that took place within these few days In the Court of King's Bench (alluding to the Blanketeers ' gave a finish to the picture of that degradation. a a future occasion, it would no doubt come before the, consideration of that House--(Hear, hear).—Ther, reMained, however, another transaction which more fully evinced the tendency of the system pursued by Government; in which he himself was more p:uticu larly interested. Need he refer to the total clutregin' of a positive statute—to the opposition given by th servants of the Crown—tp a Court of .Session--a li gal Colin, whose decisions they were bound to nphol and support—in the case of the persons solitarily cot ' fined under the Suspension Act? After, these recollec• it was impossible for him to give .his unquali fied assent to the Address which had been prpflo t ed, as an echo to the Speech. He cot'ld see no ground 'for congratulation on the present improved feeling, the country- -(A murmur that there -...scs so such porn graph).--If, said the Noble Lord, I wanted a salvo, I would refer to the paragraph respecting Spain but I shall forbear from that point, as the 1 feat itself will in a short time be submitted to the House, &It what I object to in the whole tenor of thii Speed is, its miserable inadequacy to the wants and interests and wishes of the country—(hear, Twee*).at a moment too, when the liberties of England lie prostrate at the feet of ' its Ministers, and 'when the arbitrary powers with which they have invested themselves have been used in 'a way wholly unprecedented in any former period of its htstory—(Heer, hear, hear). The Speed from the Throne ought to be a full exposition of the state of the .nation. Has, to use a common but applicable expression, the wishy-washy communict, Lion which the House is now considering, any claim to the character of such an exposition—(hror, hear) It was in the best periods of Constitutional practice the custom so to consider the communications of the Throne ; and in order tillt give a due answer, instead The LORD ADVOCATE of SCOTLAND-- ,, I beg leave, on the present occasion, to make a few ob servations, having been particularly alluded to by my Honourable and Learned Friend opposite. Ido not now mean to go into a review of the circumstan ces connected with the subject which he has intro dueesl to the House—but, when the motion of the Noble Lord (A. Hamilton) is brought forward, I shall be prepared to spew, from the proceedings in the Court, and the issue of the trial, that the charges in sinuated by my Honourable and Learned Friend are wholly unfounded. I will 'hew, that the imputation of ignorance, in drawing up the indictment, is corn- pletely fallacious ; and, from the issue of the trial— from the address of the Judge to the prisoner, on his being dismissed from the bar—when the Jury had returned a verdict, well known in the law of Scotland, as distinguished from a verdict of " guilty"—l mean a verdict of not proven--I will sub stantiate the fact, that the oath to whid( I refer red was taken by certain persons engaged in a ,traitorous conspiracy at Glasgow. With respect to another allegation, of far more importance—namely, that I acted corruptly, or that I suffered corrupt practices to be resorted to, for the purpose of in -1 fluencing evidence ; instead of the statement o f m y 1 Honourable - and Learned Friend being correct, I shall be able to prove to the satisfaction of the House, that, so far from any thing corrupt having been done by me, or any other servant of the Crown, on. the occa sion adverted to, we had, in fact, done nothing but what we could not have omitted doing, without being guilty of a great dereliction of our public duty." Lord ARCHIBALD HAMILTON—" I am de sirous of making one or two observations, in conse.. quence of what has fallen from the Hon. and Lear ned Lurd. I have no intention at present of entering into the subject which has called forth his statement; but I beg leave to say, that I not only dissent from what be has advanced, but when the proper time ar rives, I will positively contradict what he has now asserted. The Hon. and Learned Lord says, be is prepared tashew, that all the charges and statements promulgated in the last Session, with regard to a con spiracy or istsurtocaion in Scotland, ware well fount- • r 1 • , • 1 • , I 1 a :e al I ( :o a- )t. • st sO • Li- y ed Dn he ad he • ho lot ae, of tat ho elt rs.) ar- e- he - • tits ity by Es- ler an li- Dn, fL r the rs,) On the 4 es" Dee ird the le - eld on- let - ted, Ind it of Ira- ivy, pQ ; Use. ec gists lent the rers wen T. MET !ech the but aim N)'l Lice the tead --~