The National Register.
London, England, 1817-07-07 00:00:00

tionali Urtitif.tr+

Our tting, Com

MONDAY,

JULY 7, 1817.

~

tutiott attb itatud.

and they laboured withAe men mischievous industry to
to convert that sourness of temper which positive want
had created, into a polaxalluror which should be fatal
to all whom they had registered in the black list of
their proscription. As in 179 t, the stalking-horse of
sedition, Parliamentary Reform, was again ?tit in mo-
tion; Petitions to Parliament for reform, couched in the
most offensive language, were fabricated by thii junto
in London, and dispatehrat h rdoatures into the manu-
fiteturing districts, wbit:l had been previously prepared
fur their reception by the-mission of the grand apostle of
reformation. Next MUM William Cobbett with his
weekly supply of political poison, which from the
cheapness of the dose, and the industry with which it
was disseminated, infected a large mass of the commu-
nity : in his train followed a host of scribblers like
—" Locusts warping on the Cfs.S,trll v.ina ;"
and who, like locusts, stay be said to have " darkened
all the land." Unceating were they in their endeavours
to give full effect to the lessons which they taught;
not a book-stall but presented their labours to the pub-
lic eye—not a hawker but was furnished with their
lucubrations. They bandied compliments from hand to
hand—their disciples at public meetings held them up
as men devoting thetnac. lves for the good of their coun-
try—twopenny transcripts of their idiot-looking faces
were thrust up in every petty pamphlet•shop in the
kingdom, and every attempt on the part of the govern-
ment to check their proceedings was decried as a tyran-
nical stretch of power calculated to stifle the voice of
complaint, and to crush the champions of the people's
rights.

It is no wonder that all this should succeed ; when
the spirits of men are broken down by the absolute pri-
vation of food, or by the humiliation of having to
depend for a scanty subsistence on the bounty of others,
it is not difficult t. persuader them that their superiors
arc in fault, and it readily follows, that if those supe-
riars were removed the evil would have an end.

Such was Cc state of the public mind when the
tumults began L:st ::ar, and although the disturbances
which originated in the Spa Fields meetings, had been
productive of personal danger to sonic of the individuals
concerned, yet the miscarriage was not sufficient to
deter their colleague.; E.An pursuing the grand object
for which they sighed. Meetings still took place both
in town and country, and in the country they assumed
a holder and more deciAse (diameter. Rules were
drawn up for the repulsion of their conduct ; delegates
were appointed to confer together on the best means of
attaining their cud, and every thing bore the appear-
ance of a settled and organized plan of iusubordinallon
Under these circumstances, s Lat other measure than
the suspension of the Habeas Corpus Act could give se-
curity to the country ? The distress of the times had
been the main cause that the labouring pour listened to
the insidious doctrines of those ii:eu, whose only object
was to mislead theta—but could the Government mate-
rially relieve that distress?—Certainly not. To secure
the people, then, from exposure to farther mischief was all
they could do, and this could only be done effectually by
the measure which they adopted : fur without it, arrests
of the most active among the disaKeted must have been
tidlowvd by trials, and with such dexterity had they
mana;p_xl their allitirs, that to prove their offence was a
task of no small difficulty ; acquittal, in most cases,
would have followed; and in proportion as those ac-
quittals were numerous, the triumph of the discontented
would have inereased."Fo keep the agitators front
mixing in society, therefore, until returning plenty
should restore coment, was the only measure of sound
policy, and we may humanity ton ; for their
machinations would; in all proLeLility, have oxposed
many deleded persons to tile dangers which tumultuous
meetings never fail to.,
bring Along with them.