The Sun.
London, England, 1812-07-11 00:00:00

4 6
therefore set ties inhabitants in array against the
disturbers. They bad also given them the benefit
a valuable measure, enabling them. to establish a
watch and ward in that district. As the law at
presentstood, it had been frequentlyThund:imprae-
ticable to enforce it. The- unlawful Oaths Act,
and the Bill for ponishlog more severely the de-
staoseer of machinery, &c. had been given to meet
-the evil, hut these of themselves -were. not suffi-
cient. He would now call the attention of the
House to those evils: which it was desirable to pre-
vent, and to meet which the power of -the Magis-
trates, as the law stood at present; .1;;as particu-
larly inadequate. He. would here particularly'
state,'that he would rather look to fucure recure
rence to Parliament, under the most inconvenient-
circumstances, than call at present for any thing
more than those precautionary measdres which
circumstances .rendered absolutely necessary,---
With this feeling he wished the law to be limited,'-
not only in the pbint of time, hut also with re-
spect to space. He would wish it, in the first in-
.stance, not to affect the whole country, but oily
those districts which it was supposed required ex-
traordinary powers. It was his intention in ask-
-ing for leave to bring in this'. Bill, to propose to
Jima is duration to the shortest period at which
Parliament could be expected to assemble, to act
on its assembling as circumstances might require.
He wished it to be confined to the Counties where
the disturbances prevailed in the first -instance,'
leaving the Crowu the power of extending its pro-
visions by proclamation, if it shOuld appear. ne-
cessary. There were three points,. to 'which he
thought attention ought to be particularly direct-
ed :-a-Ist. ,To make a more eGetual provision to
keep the rioters from possessing theMselves of
arms. 2d. To guard against the effects of Tomtit-
tuary Meetings. 3d. To give more effectual power.
and more extensive jurisdiction to the Magis-
trates of the disturbed distriets. In the first place, '
with respect to arms, from an early period
it had been the object of the rioters to pos-
sess themselves of arms. At first this had ap-
peared merely an incidental object, hut latterly ie
had been their professed system to strip .the cosine
try of arms. With a viesv:more effectually to en-
able the magistrates to recover those arcs, it was
his intention to propose-an alteration, in the -law.
At present the law required thata deposition -on
oath should be. made that arms were deposited in
a certain. place before a search could be made.—
This' being thelaw, even after the eventas,whiCh
had taken-place at Huddersfield, when the 'Whole
place was stripped ofaums, a seareh.Coullinot be-
made without such a deposition. The first regu-
lation he should propose was, that any Magistrate
of the disturbed districts should have the power
of searching, and of authorising his officers by his.
warrant, to search not only for, stolen arms, but
.for secreted arms, and he thought there could be
no hesitation in giving them the.power of search-
ing for both. If they were to stop there, they
would not go- far enough. Many well disposed
persons would willingly-give up their arms.to the
safe custody of the military, who were afraid of
being seen voluntarily to give them up, lest such
conduct should expose them to the fury of:the ri-
oters. He wished to give the Magistrates the
power of calling ,on the inhabitants to surrender
their arms, receipts, being given for the same.. At
the same time -he was for making a provision to
suffer those to retain- their arms who would pro-
probably have occasion, and who having them,
would be likely to use them in defence of their
property. Pervons so wishing to retain their arms,
and not satisfying the Magistrates with respect to
the purposes for which they wished to retain them,
heproposed to give an appear to a Special Session,
to be held every three weekS. Tumultuary meet-
ings had lately taken place, not merely in thenight
bat in the day-time • a large number of' persons
had been seen in military array, exercising them-
selves in the use of arms. (Here Mr. Whitbread
seemed to Make some objections to what the Noble
Lord had advanced)—The Honourable Gentleman
might doubt to what purpose such a force would
be appliedwhen trained; bathe (Lord C.) thought
the Honourable Gentleman would admit, that in
no country was an army suffered to exist not train- .
ed under the lar, but raised in opposition ,to it..
Whether the force of which he spoke should ap-
ply itself merely to effect the destruction. of mills
and machinery (the most innocent objects he
should conceive could it be supposed to have in
view) or ultimately to oppose the King's troops,
he was confident he should have the Hon. Gentle-
man's strong support on this point, that such an
army ought to be put down. A body of this -de-
scription, consisting of about seven hundred per
-sons,- had been known to assemble on Sunday,
while Divine Service was performing, at about
one or two o'clock in the day, for the purpose of
training themselves. On such an occasion the
Magistrate could,only read the lidot Act; and order
them to disperse. They could,' however, do- no-
thing till the end of an hour, and thus the rioters
had time to accomplish the purpose for which
they were assembled, as they did not assemble to
commit acts of violence in the first instance: The
Magistrates of Yoils, in -stating this, had not, in
his opinion overstepped
,their duty. They had not
set forth In imaginary case, but, in his i'opinion,
they had made out a clear case, 'and they had fairly
stated, that with no 'more powers than they at
present possessed, they could not be answerable
for
_what might occur. He should propose; that,
the_-Magistrates should have the power of imme-
diately dispersing a tumultuous body, and to
makethose who did not disperse when so called
upon, liable to be punished. The- Bill would fall
short of the object for which it was frathed, if it
only gave this power with respect to one descrips
tion of meetings. It was desirable that it Should
extend equally to nocturnaliiieetings and to meet-
ings in the day-time, and it would therefore he
framed so as to give the Magistrates power imme-
diately to disperSe all tinnultuary meetings, whe-
ther they were for the purpose of training ,or
drilling themselves in the use of arms or not ; and
not only to give the power of dispersing such bo-
dies, for if their power were confined to dispersing
them, the measure might be far from being such
as was necessary to prevent the accomplishieent
of the rioters designs; be wished, therefore, not
only to giee that power, but also to give the pow-a
er of arrest. He would enable the IVla!eistrates to
arrest those-who had not. dispersed immesnately,
bold them to bail for the offence, pat them out e,ir