Star. — London, England, 1817-06-23 00:00:00

reign of Richard It. and of the rebellion in Ireland in 1793, were held out as objects of imitation ; and the must violent of such declarations was generally received with the strongest marks of applause. In consequence of these preparations, the public meting propnod took place at the time appointed, and was attended by probably nearly 12,000 persons : many of these 'proceeded to the ground in regular order, with knapsacks en their backs, and notwith. standing the assembly was dispersed by the military, acting under the orders of the Magistrates, and the principal leaders were apprehended, under warrants horn the Secretary ti State, a. considerable number actually ma relied off on their way to London; many were intercepted 'refine they reached Stockport, but several found their way as far as Ashbourn. The Act for enabling his Majesty to detain sus pected persons had now passed ; most of those who had rendered themselves most conspicuous in exciting disafflction ie this part of the country, had either been apprehended, or had secreted themselves ; and all hopes were precluded of any immediate result from the assemblage which had been so long con certed ; yet it appears to your Committee, from a variety of concurrent testimony, on which they rely, that the previous organization had been extended so widely, and the expectation of ultimate success had been so confidently entertained, that these circum stances produced no other effect on the great body of the discontented, than to delay the explosion Which had so long been meditated ; to OCC:16:011 the discon. tinuance of the mere open meetings of the associa tion ; and to call forth the exertions of new leaders, who were determined (in their.own phrase) to 44 te. organize the party." Meetings were accordingly held in several of the townships in the neighbourhood of Manchester, be. tween the 10th and '2sth of March, with more pri• vacy, but under the established system of delegation, at which only the Deputies from the disaffected places were present ; and at which it was resolved to pry. mote a general rising at Manchester, on Sunday the 30th of March, or the following day. A meeting was appointed for the leaders at Ardwick Bridge, close to Manchester, on the Friday before that day ; se here they expected to receive information from Bir mingham, Sheffield, and other places, with which they were in communication; having previously learnt from an emissary, who had visited Huddersfield and Leeds, that the disaffected in that part of the country were as ready to begin at • any time, and were pre paring arms for the purpose. The design was to assemble as many as could be collected, in the night, at Manchester; to attack the Barracks, the Police Office, the Prison, the Houses of Magistrates and Constables, and the Banks, in separate parties, and to set fire to the Factories in the town. it was even declared by one of the conspirators, that this last atrocity was intended for the purpose of increasing the prevalent distress, in the hope of thereby adding, to the numbers of the discontented, by throwing the workmen out of employthent. It was calculated two or three thousand men would be enough to commence these operations, as they reckoned upon being joined by 50,000 at the dawn of day. A Proclamation war said to be 'prepared, in order to be produced on this occasion, justifying the revolt, and absolving the in surgents from their allegiance. Expectations were held out, that a general incur-, rection would take place, at the same time, in diffe rent parts of the counties of Lancaster, Yin k, War wick, Leicester, Nottingham, Chester, and Stafford; and though some of these, particularly the two lat ter counties, may have been included -without any sufficient ground, your Committee see just reason to ; apprehend, that a successful insurrection at Man chester would have been followed by partial risings, to an alarming amount, in each of the other coi). ties. Some preparations were made for providing antninniticn, with a view to the arms which it was intended to seize. The execution of this plan was defeated by the vigilance of the Magistrates, who being apprised of what was in agitation, made a com tsrunicatioti to the Secretary of State, by whom war- Min were immediately issued, and the ringleaders, assembled at Ardwick Bridge, were consequently seized on the 23th. The, Magistrates of Manchester thereupon published an Address to the inhabitants, annninicing the danger. and calling upon the !route holders to be sworn 'as special Constables, and to assist in preserving the peace of the town. This plan of the disaffected being thus discovered and deranged, they became more wary and secret in their proceedings ; but in the moment of disappoint. ment, declarations were made, that it would be im possible to prevent the rising for a month longer. .The assassination of persons most obnoxious to their rereniment was suggested by some of the most desperate of the conspirators • an attack was made upon the house of one of the Magistrates; the life of another was threatened ; alid a pistol was filed into the house of a Gentlemen who wets acting as a spe cial constable. Shortly after this period it appears to have been discussed, whether it would not be more • prudent to discontloue the,appointment of delegates,' and US rely only, Upon one man in each town, who might call the disaffected together a short time before the intended insurrection, and seize on horses, prepa ratory to the attack on Manchester ? But, notwith standing this proposition, the came system of con. nected operation by means of delegates was indefati gably persevered in. Delegates from Manchester, Birmingham, Not.. tingham, Derby, Lends, altelfield, Wakefield, Hud dersfield, and other places in the disturbed part of the country, either constantly or occasionally attend.' ce these meetings. The numbers assembled were not large, but the activity was unceasing ; emissaries were continually passing from one of those places to another, to compare their accounts of the state of the public mind ; to foment the irritation among the disaffected.; and to combine some general plan of simultaneous, or connected insurrection ; the object of which was, after consolidating a sufficient force, to march upon London, and there to overturn the ex isting Government, and to establish a R e p u bli c . — The same designs were continued of attacking the barracks, and e:epots, in different parts of the country (one of which we's particularly reconnoitred With that view) ; of plundering the houses of Noblemen and Gentlemen, where arms were supposed to be lodged; of betting the Magistrates and keeping them as nos tapes, and as authorities for levying contributions on IN: country ; of disarming the soldiers by night, in q raters, or seducing them from their duty ; :old of providing arms fur themselvev, rattly by these seizures, and partly by an easy method of forming pike-heads out of common tools and utensils. It appears to your Committee, that the utmost confidence prevailed among the delegates, as to the ultimate attainment of their object ; that the succes sive arrests of several of the principal leaders, though they occasioned momentary disappointment, did not extinguish the spirit of insurrection, or the hopes of success, in the parts of the country above mentioned; and the utmost impatience was manifested at the delays which had taken place in fixing the day for the general rising. This, after several postponements, was appointed for the Monday in Whitsun week, and was afterwards again postponed to the 9th of June, which was thought more favourable for a midnight insurrection, as the moon would then be in the wane. Notice of this last appointment had been so widely circulated, that it bec.tme almost of public notoriety; which, while it awakened the attention of those whose duty it was to preserve the public peace, did not ap pear to derange the preparations of those who were disposed to disturb it. Even where the planners of the insurrection suggested a farther delay, they found it impossible to restrain the impatience which they had excited among their followers, who had forsaken their ordinary habits of industry, and who .must either proceed to the immediate attainment of their object, or for the present relinquish it, and return to their accustomed occupations. On the `2Bth of May a meeting of Delegates in the neighbourhood of-Sheffield was dispersed, and soine of the parties were apprehended ; and on the 6,11 of June several persons described to be delegates (and believed by your Committee to be such), who were assembled at another place in the same neighbour. hood, were apprehended by the Magistrates of the Riding, assisted by the military ; and the final ar rangement of the plan, which was there to be settled, was thus happily frustrated. It was confidently ex pected, that these arrests would disconcert whatever measures were in preparation, and they appear to have had that effect in the immediate vicinity of Sheffield ; but the spirit which had been excited could not be wholly suppressed. In the neighbour hood of Huddersfield, in the night of the Bth instant, several houses were forcibly entered and plundered of arms. A considerable body of armed men were approaching the town, when a small patrole of Yeo manry Cavalry, attended by a peace officer. fell in with them, and vi as received with the discharge of several shot, by which one of their troop horses was wounded. The patrole having ascertained that they were too few to oppose such numbers, thought it prudent to retreat, when several shots were fired after them without effect. On returning *ith an additional force to the spot, they found that the whole of the insurgents had disappeared ; but guns tired as sig. nals, in different directions, and lights sbewn on the heights throughout the country, sufficiently proved the extent of the confederacy, and the concert with which it was organised. In some populous villages of Derbyshire, a more open insurrection took place on the 9th of June. A delegate from this part of die country had attended a previous meeting at Nottingham, and an active emissary from thence bad joined them in the course of the night. The insurrection began, according to the general plun propo‘ud, with, sittitoks upon houses, ' for the purpose ut procuring arms; in one of which, a servant was wantonly shot; about 9.00 insurgents were soon assembled, mostly armed either with pikes or with fire-arms ; and began * their mud towards Nottingham, in expectation of increasing their num bers as they went, and of finding that place in full insurrection, and prepared to support them. They were however intercepted by detachments of cavalry (under the orders of active and intelligent Magi straws), which came up with them in different direc tions, and totally dispersed them. Between 60 and 60 were taken, and lodged in the different gaols ; many fire arms and pikes were taken at the same time, and a quantity of ammunition was found upon the persons of the prisoners. Your Committee have thus stated the prominent; points of the information, which bat been laid before them, particularly as affecting the manufactunng districts in the Northern and Midland Counties, and which has been substantiated, in almost every parti-i cular, by depositions on oath, taken before Magis trates. The character of the danger remains the same as was described in the former Report. It arises horn the indefatigable exertions of persons in the lower 'ranks of life, or but little above them, of. some popular talents, inflaming and aggravating the actual distress of a numerous manufacturing pope. !anion, by exciting hopes of an immediate remedy to all their sufferings from a Reform in Parliament, and preparing them (in despair of attaining that object) to attempt, by force, the total subversion of the established constitution of Government. Your Committee stated, in their former Report, that the mode of organization, practised with such mischievous success in the populous districts, had been in very many instances, conducted under the toyer of associ4tiuns,.eilledHanthden Clubs, (amok for the ostensible purpose of procuring- a Reform in Parliament ; and they now find that in many instances where the open meetings of those societies have been discontiiined b several ut the Members of them have assembled more privately, and been the principal Ira• ders in the proj. cted combinations In their former Report they did not think it neces sary to advert to that atrocious system of combina• tiou, outrage, and hired assassination, which has prevailed in some of the midland counties, under the name of Luddism...both because the trials of persons, charged with those crimes, were then known to be depending ; and because the system itself did not then distinctly appear to your Committee to have any immediate application to political purptises.— But they have since found reason to believe, that those whose are concerned in instigating the people to insurrection, have availed themselves of this powerful engine for the snore extended purposes of political innovation. Upon the whole, your qeMtnittee have been anxi ous neither to exaggerate or extenuate the nature and extent ut the danger. They have not been insensible to the jealousy, with which the testimony of persons, originally implicated in the designs of the Conspira tors, or even of persons who never having engaged in those designs, have attended their meetings in order to discover and repint their proceedings, ought io be received ; but the facts stated by your Com mittee test not only upon contiringtory evidence, but ( 1 11tilAinCt, substentior, and sstislactory testimony ; and although your Comthittee have seen reason to apprehend, that the langnage and conduct of some persons, from whom information bas been derived, may, in some instances, have had the effect of en couraging those designs, which it was intended they should only he the instruments of detecting ; yet it is perfectly clear to your Committee, that before any such encouragement should .have been given, the plan of a simultaneous insurrection, in different parts •of the country, had been actually concerted, and its. execution fully determined on. Your Committee have the satisfaction to continue to believe, as they have before stated, that the clang ger which they have described, is to be found only, among the lower order of the manufacturing popula• tion, in particular parts of the country, many of whom are labouring under considerable privations, from the low rate of wages, and the increasing price of the necessaries of life; though your Committee cannot but remark, that the most active and deter mined insurgents are, in many instances, to be found among those whose earnings, even in the present state of the manufactures, would enable them to aup. port their families in comfort. They find, that of the promoters of these comma motions, many have either left the country, or are prevented from prosecuting their designs. The dis. affected appear to want leaders to conduct such enter. prises as they have conceived; are frequently discon certed by jealousy and distrust of each other, and by the consciousness that their plans are watched' and by the arrests of the ringleaders. Great as the numbers probably are, among whom disaffection, to an alarming extent, has made coma derable progress, fomented at first by popular ha rangues, and still by the more powerful and general excitement of seditious publications, your Committee are fully aware, that the number of those, who are now prepared to take the lead in any project of open insurrection, is not to be estimated by the exagge rated reports of their Delegates. Though they have been all along taught to look, to London for counte nance and support, though some of their own im mediate emissaries have, from time to time, affected 'to bring them hopes of encouragement from that quarter, in case of success; and though it has been stated to your Committee, that a Delegate from the country has recently been attending a meeting of De. legates in London, no specific information has been laid before your Committee of the existence of - any body of men, associated in the metropolis, with whom the disaffected in the country appear to be acting in concert, or to hold comatuoication. Their hopes arise from their own numbers, which, if they could be excited to simultaneous movement, would distract their opponents and would procure the means for carrying their utmost designs into execution.' It is hoped by them, that the timid and irresolute would thus be encouraged to stand forward ; and they flat ter themselves that efficient leaders would not .be wanting to put themselves at the bead of a successful insurrection. Your Committee cannot contemplate what has passed•in the country, even since the date of their former Report, without the most serious apprehen. lion. During this period, the precautionary measures adopted by Parliament have been in force; many of the &Lica active piumoters of public disturbance have beenApptehendedi the immediate projects of the dis. affected have been discovered and deranged ; yet no. thing has deterred them from a steady pursuit of their ultimate object. Though hitherto checked. the least advance towards the attainment of that object ' could not bus be attended with the utmost hazard to the lives aqd properties of his Majesty's subjects. In the late insurrection on the borders of Derby. shire And Nottinghamshire, the mass of the popula tion, through which the insurgents passed, evinced the utmost abhorrence of their designs and projects; In other instances, where the inhabitants have been called upon to aid the Civil. Power, that call has been answered with alacrity and zeal. Such conduct in creases the claim of the peiceatile and loyal inhabi tants of the disurbed parts of the country to the most elficieet protection. Your Committee find that it is the concurrent opi. nion of many of those entrusted with the preservation of the peace, and best acquainted with the state of the disturbed districts, as well as the admission of the disaffected themselves, that the suppression of the attempts at insurrection hitherto made, may, in a great degree, be ascribed to the existence of the extra• ordinary powers entrusted by Parliament to the Exe cutive Government, even in cases where it has not been found necessary to call them into action ; and that the tranquillity of the country would be put to hazard, if those powers were now withdrawn.' In this opinion your Committee fully concur ; and, con fidently as they rely on the loyalty and good , disposi tion of the great body of his Majesty's subjects (even in those. parts of the country in which the spirit of disaffection. has -*hewn itself in the most formidable shape), they cannot but express their conviction, that it.is• not yet sale to rely entirely, far the preservation 4 the public tranquillity, upon .the ordinary powers of the Law. . _ 11,1MBURGH Aida. BERLIN, JUNE 14. On the 12th, her Royal Highness Princess Char lotte lelt this city to go to St. Petersburgh. Tke King, the Royal Family, and the Whole Court, accompanied her to the end of the first day's journey, viz. to Frey. enwalde.' On the 9th there was a brilliant Court at the Royal Palace to take leave of her Royal Highness, at which all the superior military and civil authorities, as well as the diplomatic body, attended. The most general interest was expressed at the depaiture of this beloved Princess, the sight of whom constantly revived in the breast of every Prussian a never dying recollection. The most fervent benedictions accompanied her Royal Highness, and only the thought that the al ready intimate union between the two Allied States will be, by her Royal Highness's marriage, still far ther confirmed, could lessen our regret at losing her. On the same day, his Royal Highness Prince Wil liam set out for St. Petersburgh, attended by Goral Von Natzmer, and his Aide-de.Camp, Count do Schlieffen. • aToCKHoI.m, JUNE 10. The Duke of Devonshire, who bad given.' most distinguished reception to the young Grand Duke of Russia in England, has been invited toSt. Petetsbnrgh to the wedding of the Grand Duke Nicholas, and has left .Sweden to proceed to that city. THE EVENING STAB.. LONDON. MONDAY, JUNE 213, 1817. THE FUNDS. Prize of Stocks this day at twelve rielnck : Reduced 754—Cunsoh shut—Cousols fur Opg. 7t 4 per Cent. 954—Navy, shut—Bank Long Anns. India Bonds 68 90 pre.—Exch. Bills 9s. 13s. pr. The glut of money at present in the market is ►eyond all pre. cedent. The Bankers have this morning issued a Circular i.e.: ter to their country customers, informing them that the d , tlieuke was so great to dispose of their money to advantage, that !het could not snake any use of it. It is stated that they cannot te• three ands harper cent. and therefore the advantage of is not worth the hazard. We announced last week that :a.. Bank would discount at four and a half ;.k is positively (cu.! this morning that it will discount at four. In consequence of •h, s excess of cask Bank Stock rose a per Cent, in the course of la e week. Consoh this morning opened at 76 and a quarter, 4:. went to 76 fivaclghths, and three.fourths. We have not disguised our opinion that the ey— cesses committed in the midland counties where t!:r public peace has been disturbed, -are to be •entitely attributed to the • excitement of an unprincipled vil lain, overstepping the bounds of his instructions, Ind labouring to produce those acts ut treason which he was only deputed to watch and report. Instead of watching for the purpose of preventing, he seems to have done every thing in his power to disturb the peace of the country, and to involve people who were suffering under privations arising out of the circum stances of the times, in acts of rebellion and treason. The more that this business is investigated, the more, we are confident, will it appear manifest that-the partial insurrection which the country has to deplore, and the actual bloodshed with which it has been ac companied (tor one or two people have actually lost their lives) have been entirely the work of the spy The Leaf Mercury, which had the credit to be the first to detect and expose this villainy, has followed up its former exposure by the subjoined observations and statements: • 4 , LEEDS, JUNE fl. " Mr. (Meer, the political incendiary, made his first appearance in Yorkshire, about nine or ten weeks ago, accompanied by one Mitchell, a Liverpool De. legate, (now in custody), under the assumed an i se. ter of a zealous Parliamentary Reformer, whose cb• . ject it was to ascertain the dispolititins of tile pecple; and to give to the sluggish current of public feeling a due degree of fervour. On his arrival,in Wake: field by the True Briton coach, he crlled upon Mr. Benjamin Scholes, a publican in that place, a pencil who had taken a leading part in a meetiherecently 'held for the purpose ot petitioning the Legislature 'los a Reform in the Representation ot the People...* and, as a specimen of the manner in which Mr. (Mere executed his mission, we shall state the substance , :t a deposition made by Mr. Scholes, before J. P. Hk.l - Esq. one of the Magistrates of this ltidin:; TESTIMONY or• AIR. SOW! I.S. " On his first interview with Mr. bcbul.e4, Owen said, 0: - tr. he was charged to present Sir Francis tomplimerts .J hint, and to inform him that he was delegated by the 13ar..x.er, Lord Cochrane, Major Cartwright, Mr. Hunt, and other Gen tlemen, to examine into the state of the country, and to learn whether the country meant to sit down with their king rejected or not. Mr. Scholes said, he could not speak far others, but for himself he must say, that though he believed he was among the most zealous of the Parliamentary Reformers in Wakefield, be would go as far as Petitioning went, but no far ther. Some conversaticia then took place on the subject of the Wakefield Petition, on which Oliver observed, that it was very good, but it did not go far enough." Mr. aclioles replied, that they did not mean to ititerfere any further, and he referred Mr ; Oliver, for informetion as to the views of the Reformers, to Mr. Hurst, the Printer of the Wakefield Fatima, Mr. Deal try, sae of the West Riding Magistrates, Mr. Egremont, a Wideman of independent fortune in the neighbourhood, and other Gentlemen, who had signed the Petition. " Mr. Scholes cannot say whether Oliver applied to these Gentlemen, but in point of fact we believe he did not. His dupes were to be found among the distressed and the ignorant, and it was to those principally that he addressed himself. Oliver then requested Mr. Scholes to furnish him with the names of 'itch persons, in the neighbouring villages, as were favourable to Re torm, which he did, and, amongst others, he mentioned John Smaller, of Horbury. Having thus far felt his way, Oliver next proposed to Mr. Scholes that he should accompany him to Man. cheater mid Liverpool, on his political mission, and prommed that be would limb pay bis expenses, and satisfy him for his trouble. This proposal Mr. Seboles declined. " Some time after, Oliver again called at Mr. Scholet'4, an d proposed a walk into the country, to examine the nexly ere ted Asylum„ seating that be bad sousaskill In architem..ne. Durieg their walk -the subject of Parliamentary Reform was resumed I and Oliver observed, that Sir Francis Burdett and the other Gen tkmen by whom he was delegated, were astonished that the country was not mote alive to the subject of Parliamentary Re form. I asked him,' says Mr. Scholes, what he meant by behig alive,' and he f eplied, if petitioning will not do, we rust use physical force." Physical force,' rejoined Mr. Scholm, dignantly, ' the country must not be thrown law a state of in subordination, and I will have nothing to. do with plunging the Nation into anarchy.' Thus repulsed, Mr. Oliver dropped the .The third and last time that Mr. Oliver called upon Mr. Scholes, it was for the purpose of inviting him to attend a meet ing, which Oliver said he bad appointed, at Penistone, in this Riding, for discussing a plan of Parliamentary Reform. This meeting Mr. Schoks positively refused to attend, telling Oliver, at the same time, that he believed be was a bad man, and that he would not only not attend this meeting himself, but he would also dissuade any other persons, over whom he slight have any isifirience.trom attending it. He further saked him his tenon foe staying so long in this part of the country, as be must be sa -1 defied that his project of resorting to force would not fie encou raged Oliver replied, that be did nut dare to return to London till the State Trials were over, and, oa being asked the rause of ids fears, lie said be had assisted young Watson in effecting his escape• ig In this conversation Oliver esprev.ed himself dissatisfied with the apathy of the country, in proot of which, be said he had appointed two tuts:tiny at Huddetslacid, and wisen be ►et 1 dot poi Far t lad to 1 scr obl