The British Press; or, Morning Literary Advertiser. — London, England, 1819-12-18 00:00:00

sera cicstion, they were not to be affected by the I....acter cf any individual, they were to consider the cf.ice only, and that it might he filled without a regaid to virtue or ititeerite. In such is ease, she security woold the CPU iiiry have against the eppoiiitnient of Magistrates, possessing un recitin witnlation to power lint their devotion to the ex isting Minister, and who would taint by party fel ing the poor.: of justice ? The Noble E ivy thou ,e rm e g !y coino.entesl upon the intpulicy of the clause eitne hill which enabled one Alagistrate to alter the time nod place of the meeting. which rendered an 11 , 11 , :•.• inietitig illegal by the forswore o f an lo de. dual vet properly entitled to attend it, which g.tve to any silly Illorkliend invested with the powers of a hlseistratc, or even an Under- Sheriff, who was u-Daily a party agent to disturb say meeting, by re (1111Illig :ill strangers to depart wok., a quarter of on 'hour, under pain of trans portation. lye also condemned the clause which n tliornied any nighttime. upon Ws own judgment, to .rest any individual who might in his *ohm propound doctrines calculated to bring the Goi. ...raiment and Constitotion of the country, as by 1.411, established, into contempt. or who stionlit re commend the alteration of any law by any other than legal means. This gave a forge discretion to Meer:Pates, many of whom would be willing to attire it to party purposes, and many would per cent lt through ignorance. ii a man at a 'public meeting were to argue an abstract principle, such, fur inetssice, as that the people were justified ie such a ease as that of James 11. in exercise rug the right of resistance as the only means they had left of securing their liberties and their reit gioo, sonie weak and silly Msigistrate—weak in worst or understanding, but strong in the capability of doing mischief. might arrest such a man as in.. citing the people to overturn the constitution. If itt a public meeting coiled for the porpoise of pro. posiog an alteration in the constitution as by law establisher!, any individual were to *hew the neces sity of soCh an alteration, it would be immediately urged that he was endeavouring to bring the consti totion into contempt. in short all priblic meetings would be censigned to the caprice of an indi rdllal Magistrate, who either corruptly or igno rantly might abuse his power, and prevent the xerci.e of one ef the noblest rights of Eng lishmen. if this law passed, a county meeting would he no longer a proper place for an independent 4 ( ;col kman ; that is. if lie were opposed in principles 11/ the Minister of the day. Ile had, since the corn inrerenseist of the Session, acknowledged that some &hover existed, and that some coeviive measures v. e+c recessary, presided they were temporary. and riai pot too much infringe upon the principles of tee conelitntins - ; but he also contended, that touch evil had arisen from the supineness of he Government. Noble Lords on his *isle of Inc .1 louse heal suggested the expediency of offer ors; -nine conciliatory mesenres, tint the ides of • occ•iation wns rejected, as if it necessarily /see rd a concession of soinething v a tualde. li e eia* hippy. however, to find that his Majesty's Mroisters at length had seen the prudence of '`':s e as? meow; of conciliation, and they had no .!out! ! contributed much Mimi& gratifying and 4.ol.rib:sting the public mind by the clause iatro ibieeil on the suggestion of ills Noble Friend (Lord Holland) into the Traverse Bill. depriving the Attorery-General of the power he had hitherto pos. sessed of keeping informations iiidefinitely sus percled ever the beads of his Majesty's subjects.- 11 was but a few years kick since a similar propo wino was mask by his Noble Friend to their Lord. s!:tps. on which occasion he was told that it %souls be a" infringement of the prerogative of the Crown. What distinction was between thee and that period, that made the infringement less necessary. he did cot know, but he would leave it to the Noble Loris ',Nies:tr. to answer. There was another Bill intro it...veil by the Noble Secretary of State. which at tached the dreadful punishment of transportation tr. a person twice convicted of publishing a hind. %Vilest he and the Noble Lords who was in the !io ta: ef acting with him remonstrated against that they were told that they were holding out to the public encouragement to persist in the pub leat.cei of seditious libels. (however, in another ulare it had been expunged from the Bill. In the tore place. a Bill had been brought in touching PArliatrientary Reform, which went to do away oitli clue of the most corrupt boroughs in the coun t:), which was a subject that his majesty's Ministers win met in that House would not listen to. On the to'sject ef Reform he begged their Lordships per. in , %1110/1 to say a few words. Ile would never give I:s consent r what was celled a general reform. Ile could not bring his mind to assent that the dis- TCPV/Pg of the country proceeded from the present I a:roams of the House of Commons. If it was 'awe perfectly framed, it must be admitted that it could nut be mote averse to war, and all the con comitaut evils attending it. They bad been told it was an old establishment, noel evils hail crept i :to it ; he for one would not deluge it for a new inc. I f' they had a snore popular Parliament it would nut present the meetings in Smithfield. The g reat benefit they derived from the practical con stitution of Parliament, as it POW stood, was. that el; his Majesty's Ministers were obliged to be i.nihers of it, and to be amenable to it for their conduct, and that eve, y 11111. of talent in the country could find his way there, and if %vie otherwise constructed, men of talents sessald lie driven to other means out of doors, a hich might become dangerous to the State. Holding 0,1-se principles, it could slot be supposed that be was mu advocate for every wild scheme of reform, bus when corruption crept into the system, it was Inn duty to use a remedy, and he for that reason t !caught the tnesstil e 'nought forward elsewhere would have the effect of performing the cure with eat sestittiag to a snore gee:vial one. as giving the electien to great local towns, when ho ios:ghs were proved to be not worthy of the elective I j 4 i i t, would do every thing that souhl satisfy thinking part of the conouireity. sod renew th- coofidence of even the disautislied in Perlis itieist. The Noble Earl concluded by moving as se A melidinent, that the duration cif the Bill should be limited to the Ist of July. 1t521.. ..... • Lord KING bad a decided übp-ciioti to the Bill. it stood um its owu lumodetion. but be bad r - objecuon w hen he - -Idered of such an inrcad beitie made in the constitution. His belief war, that the discontents and distresses of the country were in great measure canoed by the conduct of his Majesty's Mildews, fo► which ►ea snn they reinsert to grant an inquiry into them. afraid of implicating themselves, was then deprived of one of their rig,lits, that of io. quiry, to cover the misconduct of a ftliiiister or a Magistrate. if the discontent of the people was caused hydistress—t here was a mode of kgislaiing t hat of inquiry ; but if the thseotitriit arose from an. oVier cnise, would not the snow method apply, in stead of tthing it, as the Noble Secretary desired, on the notoriety of the cause ; loud with the whold of the coercive measures there was not tune concili atory one offered. The amendments to the present Bill were not even an overthought of Ministers, but it was wrung front them by those who were in the habit of opposing their measures in another place. The clause of traiispottatium in another Bill, which hid received their Lorthlsipti . assent, but which hap. pity was now blotted from the face of it, chewed it was the intention of Nlinisters to ranter an arbi trary government. They had great Te lop i i t o b e jealous of the Ministers of the Crown, for if they did not wish fug. arbitrary measures they would have introduced the Bill as a temporary measure, and not one that was to continue for five years. lie would not say that their present Situation was one of safety, fur it certainly was disturbed, but he would recommend measures of conciliation, and if that was not attended to, and that ut• irritation resorted to, the consequences most test oil the heads of those who produced it. Titerelore, even as a tem por.try measure, he could not assent to the Bill, but however he did vote against its principle, he would support the amendment of his Noble Friend. The Duke of ATHoI. conceived it his duty to support the Bill, as he considered the situation of the country to be such as called for the measure, and that the people of Great Britain looked up to their Lordships for protection, After the over whelming majority to the Address to the Prince Regent, hot only of those who generally supported Ministers, but of those who acted independent of them, plealging themselves to measures for the preservation of the peace of the country, he was surprised that there should be at:y objection) to the lote,•ent BM. The treasures su ; :gested by :Willis ters were called for by the country and the Parlia ment, and they only did their ditty in bringing them forward. IVltatrver difference there might be in the views taken by either side of the House, there could be but one in their intentiolis, which was the welfare of the country and the Constitution; and the only differroce between them was, whether the present Bill was one of a proper nature to repel the evils the country was threatened with. As to the amendment of the Noble Earl, he understood him to say, that every clause of the Bill was so orb ject:onable that he could not agree to any of them if the measure was to be in force for five years, but if they would agree that it should be limitted to two years. he would agree to them all. That certnittly might be good argument, but it was a kind of tra mming he did not understood. Ile was consinced that the calamity of British blood being spilled by Britons was prevented by the measures brought for. ward by Ministers, by meetings not taking place which were prevented by the knowledge of what was paasiog to Parliament. He was aware that th e e e had beets unfounded alarms as to the state of the country, but that was caused by Parliament not sit ting sooner, and when it did meet, the reports came so Gist, that they had not time to inquire into them. He listened with much attention a few nights; back to the Noble Marquis (Laniodowii), when he told them of the distresses of the country, but lie did not inform them how to remedy them. It was true he told them of the evil, but left their Lordships to find out the remedy. After the overwhelming majotities approving of three measures, he was at a loss to know why they should be now objected to. Earl MoRI.Ey flattered himself that the spirit of sedition had not risen to so great to pitch that it could not be subdued, but oil the fullest inquiry, he was sorry it was not in his power to say that lie could congratulate them on its diminution, but hoped by the measures then forbore Parliament that it would be put an end to. His Lordship then took a review of the conduct of the unpaid Magistrates of the country, and said, that they were a most in valuable set of men ; there were no men of more local knowledge or discrimination, or who were more willing to extend their knowledge; fur which remelt there were no set of men. however respects able, deserved more to he upheld by the country and the Parliament. He teight agree with the theory of Noble Lords opposed to the measure, but there were times when theory must yield to the circumstances of the times. As to the distresses of the people, lie had no doubt but by the protection of the higher and middle orders, they would be its time relieved. Tie Earl of DONOUGHMORE said, this:king as he did,- he could not help objecting to the saddling the country with the measurer proposed by his Ma jesta's Ministers ; he therefore objected to the present Bill as part of the whole. 11 - by take away that great right of the people of petitioning without molestation his Majesty and the two Houses of Pat figment ? It had been contended that it did not take away the right ; he would allow it was so for the sake of the argument, List it limited it, as it put the meetings u n der the direction of persons appointed by the Crown. The people had not been convicted of doing wrong, and there. fore they ought not to be punished ; but sup pose the facts had been proved as they related to the meetings at Manchester moil other party of the country, would that be sufficient g round t o divest the people of their constitutional rights? Ile fur one would say not, although the Noble Secre tary of State had said that the notoriety of these meetings was a sufficient ground for the present Bill. lie would never give his assent to such doctrines. They had itichided Ireland in the Bill, although it had been allowed by one of the Ministers its another place that the cooduct of the people of that country was most exemplary. Why afro was she to be devolved of her rights? %Vit. it because she was acting in obedience to the laws as they exist, that cotersive nttasores were to be used towards her ? Was it b. cause her conduct was such as it ought to be that she should have another chain put about her neck ? What was Parliament doir ? T, r and afraid you should depart from it, we will put a new fetter on it. This was not legislatit,g, for the purpose of remedying so evil. hut trying how far they could torture before the ohject would ger exas perated. The Bill came before them in fed com pany, for it wit accompanied by another thst delis iv. ed the subject of defending his house in the tsight. time. In trolls the Alinistcrs got frightened; they called Parliament and frightened it by their state ments, and. refract of routratliction. refused all in quiry into the truth of them, then brought fnrward throe measures in defence of their own characters, to sinew the public that they had not been asleep at their posts; but if they bad used the power in their hands, there would lie sin necessity for the pre sent measures. If, in times of difficulty, they had neglected to use the means they had, their Lordship. ought not to countenance their neglect by heaping penalties on the people.— With respect to Ireland, lie was of opinion the original intention was not to include that country within the operation of the Bill. Ile believed the framer of it, and the Ministers theinselet a thought on; but on re-consideration they were of ',pinion, that though there was tin recess tv to include Ire land in the Bill, yet that they might 1111 well make one business of it, and throw in the whole empire into their system of corroon.—(/tear.)—lle won. detect, indeed, they did not ismclude the remote de pendencies of the Crown, its well as the more im mediate parts of the empire : they had just us much right to do the one as the oilier. To include Ireland was 'merely for the sake of insult—it could be for nothing else ; for in the state of Ire land there was nothing to which this Bill could be at all applicable. When Ireland was in a disturbed state, which she was not now. she contrived her ;40114 better than the Radicals did in this country. filer meetings were not like tbeir% in noisy and tumultuous numbers—they were, on the contrary, in small and secret Committees. If she were therefore disturbed at the present time. this Bill would not be applicable—it would not touch the source of the danger ; so that in no way, tinder no circumstance, could the me:!ssue have a real applioaf to the state of things in ireland. whether tranquil or others% i.e. In the unfortunate state of that country, in !Sines of civil dissetition, I here was 11011111:g of these sorts of attempts to assail the GOVC, 1111 l ent, by marching in lock-step to great public meetings. The Noble Lord con eluded by pronouncing a general cont!eint,tition of the measure. and intimating (as we understood.. for t lie Noble Lord tip ke in a low tone of voice) the necessity of exempting , Ireland , from the cope. ration of this Hear, liar.) Time Earl of II ARROWBV expressed his surprise that after all which the Noble Lords opposite must have heard of the state of the country, tisry. should gill avow their opinions so generally hostile to this Bill. Some of their objections went to the prin ciple of the measure, while others were confin ed to the proposed date of its continuance. Now if the Bill were so bad as they represented it in be, it (night not to be passed at all—it might not to be permuted even to have a temporary existence. This Bill was unlike others which were rendered neces sary by the state of the country, contrary to the principle of the constitstt , mind only justified upon the ground of imperious necessity. It. on the contrary, coistrevened no real popular right, and might, instead of bring limited, have been render. rd perinsuent without any infringement of the tint principles of the colistitestiou. It was held indeed by some, that Ilse meettogs of the people ought not to be subject to regulation—that they ought to be conducted just as it pleased their too looters, in any manner, at any time or place, and in any numbers. Tints argument came strangely too from quarters from which it was Intimated that Ministers ought to be impeached, for not dispersing, at the time, the tumult miry meetings held its the me. trempolis. [The Eat lof Doisosiglimore in explanation, said he had only alluded to their prevention, not tbs. persionl Tlw worst part of the defence of such meet ings was their bring grounded on the Bill of Rights : but there was 111111111Ig in the history of that Bill to make that position tenable. Ile did not think the people's tight to meet for the pm pose of petition bad any reference to the Bill of is-l:--they had a right to hold meetings, but not altogether with out regulation. Their right to meet was ancient and undoubted. It w a s not indeed defined by any particular statute, but existed in virtue of that ge neral ptinciple of the Cnitioitutinn, which asserted that what was not forbidden by law, was law. The Noble Lords opposite seemed by their ob jections to thiok th it Bilk of this kind should be free I . every objectionable detail—that they should have nothing 113 them calculated to excite a differeesce of opinion ; according to such no opinion, they ought to lw urtrandum, lunduudum tulle" duo. Ile was ready to admit that it one cit. CUMMIIIICe more than another oats calculated to promote the glory of the country, it eves the cos:. stitutional right of the people to exprcss their opi nions upon the state of public affairs.—(lleur.l--• But was it by such rneetinAs as their Lordships had lately wen this opinion was to be expresser)? Quite in a ellfereist aay had the meetings been field which in the best days of British history exhibited a glorious struggle for popular light. Ile was old enough to remember the county inee•ings which took place in various parts of the cottony iii the years 1779 and 1780. fur laying public mansion at the foot of the Throne, and before both Iluoft-s of Parliament. Lle remembered the celebrated meet nig at that period held in the county of York, which Sir George Saville descrthell in the Ihnise of Cololllolls to hist comic-steel of the gentry of that great county, the twines of six hundred of whom lie Ltid on the tahle. Of the same meet. lug Lord Bin kingliam said its that I leu•e, that the rental of those who chiefly conspioesl it, atuonuttd to upwaids of 800,000/. a ear. All thesr meet ings too. be it tentembeved, were regtilatiy con vened by the Sheriffs, and to them only were sum moned the gentry and leelsoldcrs of the vomit,, mill inhabitants paying direct taxes to the State. The meetings ton, in Mr. Fox's time. iii West. minster Ilall, were exclusively for the inhabitant householders of Westminster. There was siestlinig in the present Bill to prevent such mettii g* from being now called. 'Fite Lord Lieutenant cools! call a comity meeting, so could the Sheriff. the Cactus Rotulurur the iority of • Grassei Jr sides, the Atag-dretes were not empowered, In tl:e first instance, to disperse any meeting. even by this Bill. They were only authorised to arrest any person who may be tittering seditious language at • meet ing, and not to disperse the meeting unless resist puce were differed to the authority of the Magistrate.. The Noble Earl (Dopouglimore) had paid, that this Bill was enacted upon evidence, if no t in s uffici en t. at least scant,. To this be would reply, that if their Lordships had riot had one single piece of evi dence laid no their table, it reqoired 'oohing more to justify the voaciment of this Bill than that they should have eyes to see and rues to hear.—(hear.) Wilful lilindlewas nridl deafness could alone account for the oporiions of those who saw no danger in the present state of the country. Was it nut enough to see the ►late of alarm in which the people had been kept for months hark by wandering meetings. and those pests of society, itinerant oriarors, in various parts of the country, where it became neces sary that some towns should he placed, as it were, in a state of siege, to ensure the protection of the loyal and peoceable portion of the community ? —(Hear.)—lt was in virtue of this right of peti. tem, it seemed, that immense bodies of people claimed, to the terror of the well-disposed part of the community, the right of marching backwards and forwards, and impeding every sort of public W is the right of petition the only veto:dile right possessed by Englishmen? For what purposes had they entered into the social compact of civilized life, but for the s e c ur ity of their renown and property from the uncer tainty and violence of the caprice of mere pity. steal force? To protect this plate of society from the n►vchinations of the seditious and the de luded, it had now unfortunately become necessary to have an army at Manchester, an army at Glasgow, and another at Newcastle. AVlien persons talked of the undefined nature of popular rights, and al luded to meetings of the people, they should take a retrospect of the growing population of the country. In the year 1750 the whole population of Lim cashire did nut exceed 300,000, and consist ed almost entirely of agricultural persons, while at the present period that of Salford and Man. cheater alone exceeded altogether, the whole enmity population at the preceding period. The different state of the population since that period, was also entitled to serious consideration. It now consisted entirely of manufacturers, and depended of course upon the slate of the market. The misfortune of well a condition was the fluctuating provision it afforded, for the sale of the manufactures was de pendant upot► a variety of causes—want of capital, wont of demand, change of fashion may create that alteration, which would throw nan►bers out of work. The vast improvements in machinery had also a powerful operation upon the question of the coin 'meatier state of the population. and its means of ►ubsistence. Formerly, before machinery had at tained its present perfection, a foreign order may employ the manufacturers for six months; now, the some work could be executed in as many weeks. Advantage had been taken of the temporary decline of trade to instil the most mischievous principles into the minds of these poor people, and artfully to divert their minds from the real cause of their distress. These demagogues attacked ail the parties in the state—they inveighed alike against the Government and the Opposition, and created at length a deep-rooted hostility among parts of the community. It was precisely in this way that the riots in 1780 were created. The person who con ducted them, in addition to the influence of reli gious fanaticism, prepared the popular mind by the same means that were lately abroad. He inveighed against every party in the Government and in Perlis tnetit ; lie assembled immense multitudes of people from► all quarters, and arranged them in marching or der with banners. In the A pril of 1780,thesemeetings ►were convened. in June they approached the walls of Parliament, and treated its Members with dis respect and violence, and in a few days afterwards the metropolis was or► fire in different quarters. On that disgraceful occasion, for the want of checking these tneetings it) time, for the want of preventive laws, such us those now proposed, the constituted authorities were compelled to resort to direct mili tary force to protect the peaceable inhabitants of London. The Noble Lord then proceeded to enu merate the details of the Bill, and to explain that none of them, under any circumstances, affected meetings to be held within door., or inter fered with county meetings, when called in the manner lie had already described. With respect to the state of Ireland, he was mat happy to hear such testimony borne to the excel lent conduct of that intere►ting people, to the exemplary manner in which they endured their distresses : such conduct entitled them to the high est praise, and would ever. he trusted, be remem bered to their eternal honour, and with the gratitude or their country. But was this most laudable repose of Ireland a reason why Par liament should not afford her the benefit of those protective measures which other parts of the empire so unfortunately required ? The same reason would create a number of other excel). thins. Cornwall and Devonshire were calm and un disturbed ; but was that a reason why they should be exempted from the operation of the Bill ? —(!fear. /pear.)—He thought nut, for the evil to be guarded against was of that nature, that if merely attempted to be cooped up in one spot, there would he a liability to its escape into some other ; so that the measures, instead of Whig tegral and general to put down the evil. would be always fluctuating, and required to watch and fol low it hour place to place. He thought therefore the only safe course was to legislate at once fur the whole of the empire, and so to frame the protec. ton as to ensure the quiet of every portion of his Majraty's loyal and peaceable aubjects.—(Year.).... 1 . 11111 Bill, when so applied, would, lie was per. suaded, deter the disaffected from pursuing their scl►euaes ; it would prevent itinerant orators from _editing to the (lustre*, which unfortunately prevail ed in parts of the manufacturing districts. by taking the population every day they pleased from what ever work was open to them ; it would prevent the neces►ity of resorting to military force ; it would establish the authority of the civil power, and re store 'Mugs to a state of quiet and confidence. lf. Imo - ever, violence again was directed against the rile and loyal, he hoped the authorities tions of the country. That the evil b een so long matured would subside in so *hart s time as some Noble Lords imagined, he hail mu, serious doubts ; hot so long as it existed they :nue all ngree in the necessity of confining it to narrow a sphere as possible. NVltile was so employed, their attention should be tiro: r fixed on the most effectual Measures to prevst.l anarchy, and its inevitable follower, arbitrary vernment.—(llcar, /sear)—Let them, if escape that dreadful alternative. Well had it heel, said, " that the gates of Hell were worse than [led itself;" mild anarchy was worse than orbits-v government. It was for these ream's that he w 0 0 ..? aria the law with vigour to preserve eventual:, liberties of e..e country, and even of were now instigated to assail thens.—(//ruei Earl GROSVENOR animadverted owns the s m . solar reason which was assigned fur ex/coding 1.,.. Bill to Ireland. It was granted, it seemed, as a boon and • favniir. Was it memo to extend this favour to the Cape of Good Hope. mid the other dependencies of the Crown?—was y;;ay to have the benefit ef this new system of legislation.' The Ministers congratulated theinselve% nn the overwhelming mejornie• that supported their inea sures. That they land those majorities was en untie. nimble and lamentable fact. But they should al.n bear in mind Ora such were not undeniabl e pronls of the virtue of their system, for it sometime% happened that in the course of six months the same majorities changed sidep, and rejected alt they had before supported. The allusion to ri le French Revolution was rather, as lie thougla, infelicitous illsistration of the a rgumen t, o f m i . nisters ; for that Revolution, if it skewed soy one thing more than another, demonstrated the ills that befel a government determined to uphold itself 1 against the voice of the people, and 'll defiance of existing abuses. In vain would violence be op plied in the hope of erndicating grievances. The greater the violence, the greater would be in the end the disaffection. Timely cciicession would have prevented the French Revolution, and timely concession would be now a better remedy for the grievances that unhappily subsisted in this country, than the application of the strong arm of coercion. The Noble Earl then denied the doctrine that the gentry and freeholders alone were constitutionally competent to call county meetings. Ware not the great bulk of the people, he would ask, to he heard, whenever they laboured unskr distresses and grievances ? If Poch a principle Were once to be admitted. the people would have no melons of redressing their wrongs, the whole right of petition would be frittered away, and only made oubservient to the framing perhaps of a few loyal addresses. He readily concurred in the necessity of avoiding the rock of democracy, hut there was another calamity toot the less dangerous, agatiot which they ought to guard the :irate, namely, from sinking in the vortex of arbitrary power. He had the strongest objections against the main tenance in a time of peace of so large a standing army as now pressed upon the country. The vo lunteer system rendered so large a force unneces tory. The volunteers were surely efficient, when one troop could almost in an instant disperse the immense multitude assembled at Manchester on the 16th of August. He was • friend to regulation, but not to coercion ; he could not, therefore, give his support to measures which endangered the liberty of the press and the right of petition.— He did not believe that there was any disposition prevalent among the people to overthiow the con stitution ; he saw proofs of the contrary in the be haviour of the people. He would establish his assertion by reference to the cases most frequently quoted. In the trials of Mr. Hone, the juries thought they saw the workings of a political pur pose in his prosecution, and acquitted him; but in Carlile's case, as the crime was palpable, the jury gave a verdict which satisfied all good men in the kingdom. What had been the effect of that vile trick of bringing over the hones of Paine ? Why, universal disgust or ridicule. There was certainly, among the decent part of the people, a wish for some kind of change, and that opinion was chiefly encouraged by the distresses of commerce ; they had from general calamity been led to suppose, that • popular representation, by inter posing in time, would be able to check that expenditure which had nearly annihilated the country. The present danger had been increased by what had taken place in Manchester on the 16th August, and subsequently. He maintained, and offered to prove, that Newlin had not used any effort to enter the crowd before he called for the assistance of the military. His Lordship then ran into a strain of happy ridicule of the means which had been taken to augment the alarm ; them lie considered the late Lord Mayor's ploi and the declarations of loyal meetings. He ' metaled the present measures, as they tatti! disgraced many principles and p.actices of our conStitution. hitherto held sacred. He them as the more suspicious and objectionable, cause they came from a Ministry who were in in) macy with the Court of Spain, fo- the head . . which his Lordship expressed his dislike in terms. His Lordship enumerated several tionable measures of Administration. both in home and foreign policy. He pathetical' melded the condition of the labouring the disastrous iircessity which compel to seek support in other countries. Here ship quoted the well-known sentiments Mined in 7he Deserted Tillage, and warned Lord hips of the danger of encountering threatened in those lines of it— " Bat a bold peasastry, their country's pride, Wises owe destroyed, eau *ever be 'applied. His Lordship concluded • long and speech by objecting to the motion. The Duke of ATHOL explained. The Earl of W ESTMORLAND maintained, that. whereas the Riot Act was no innovation. but merely confirmed the old law as enacted under Henry IV. nod confirmed under Henry VI. so the Bill then before the Howe was a sort of emendation of the Riot Act. as it interposed so as to Fr.. vent riot altogether. He cautioned the Noble Lords opposite bow they suffered danger in frighten the capitalists out of the country by their backwardness in allowing the present mos- He - for wishing of Paine ? There was people, a opinion was :ommerce ; en led to by inter- check that Mated the increased ter on the maintained, i us e d any lied e thenf or tcartlle p mans which n ; among syor's plot, s. He le— i entirely of our five considered onable, be- mre in inti- lie head of ;e iu atroag eral übjec Dili in their etically Is poor, an tiled theta ! his Lord. ents con. v arned their . ug the evil ti pride, ,lied." eloquent fined, that, if but ruperiv . -a • . i t h e rui , f i d e nce of even th e dissutirlird in Parka- u county was most eSeiliplary. Why then Wad She The Meeting, tun, in Mr. Fox's time. in West- the population every day they pleased from what- then before the House was a sort o f e me n d a ti on o f anent. The Noble Earl corseloded by m o vi ng its to b e deprived o r h er rights? Was it because she miaster Hall. were exclusively for the iiihaliiimit I ever work was open to them ;it would prevent the the Riot Act, as it interposed so as to t:re. an Amendment, that the duration of the Bull was actiii4 in obedience to the laws as they exist. householders of Westmioster. There was nothing necessity of resorting to military force ;it would vent riot altogether. He cautioned the \tilde should lie limited to the Ist of July. lts22. that cart-sive u n asores were to be used towards in the repent Bill to prevent such tarl-til gs from establish the authority of the civil power, and re. Lords opposite how they suffered danger in Lord Kula had a decided obj•ction to the Bill, her ? Was it because her conduct was such as it t being now called. 'l'ne Lord Lieuiri l mo cookd store things to a state of quiet and confidence. If, frighten the capitalists out of the country by a , it „ taro t Oil it s o w n foundation. but he had a ought to be that *he should hive another chant put call a county meeting, so could th e Sheri ff , the however, violence again was directed aga i nst th e their backwardness in allowing the pres en t mea- ly ... 3ler o bject i o n w l ie n he c o nsidered it as part of about her neck ? What was l'arli.iment doiii i7 o' ? Casio: leolulurrem, the majority of ii Graffil Jure. peaceable and loyal, he hoped the auth o rities sum. He saw no reason for wishin g a ch ange in 11 ,. coercive measures of tits Majesty's Ministers. Telling the Peoplcof Ireland, ifyuu now act properly. or any five Magistrates. flow then could it he would put it down with decision and vigour, an d • Government, us venerable, and more b e neficial h imig ht f o rw ar d aat pressed through the House we do nut Wiese it 1 s your jotentiuo to remain Sot said the poptlar right, as it had ever been cousti . not hesitate to employ at once the lull p ow e r s i n . and glorious than any w hi c h h a d gone b e f ore o r saltimut allowing any ioquiry. lii protested against for which re,sosi a e kg,st..t e o „ lour good co „d uct , ta "„ a l ly t „,, 5 ..d, ads ilifriugv•l upon ? Be- ousted to thins for the maintenance of the instituo etisted with it. He defended Ministers from any . 1 I T. 11 , 4? .„ • '''• ....,:••:•4' . .- - • - . .