The Sun.
London, England, 1821-05-16 00:00:00

pressed npon the consideration of the House,
but the violence done to the Laws and Constitu-
tion. He pressed it the more, because Ministers
not only put forth gros.sly false statements
with respect to this transaction to delude that
House and turn them from inquiry, but made
those statements the grounds for the enact-
ing of six Bills, whiCh constituted a greater in-
fringement on the Constitution than was at-
tempted since the Revolution—so great a change
had been effected, indeed, that it might be
styled the Revolution of 1819. as the former one
was called the Revolution of 1688. When he
considered the various points of view in which
this great question might be regarded ; and when
he considered that no one was made responsible for
all the dreadful evils that took place, and that no
inquiries were set on foot, he could not but deem
it to be a piece of good fortune, though he • did
not then regard as a misfortune, the unavoidable
delay in bringing forward the subject. The time
had now arrived when laying aside conjecture
and uncertainty, the House could proceed upon a
just estimate of the lying impostures by which it
had been so long deluded. Time, which brought
all things to light, had now rent, aside the veil
which hypocrisy and cheat threw around this
transaction, and when it was presented to the eyes
of an astonished country, the event of the 16th of
August, in all its native deformity, he might say of
'it nihil est scelestius--nihil perniciosus—nikil quod J
hcec civilas Snag is plerar cpossct. If the Noble Lord
and his Colleagues had not lost all regard for
justice and for their own characters, they would
consent to the inquiry which he now, on the
part of the, people of England, demanded. They
had now an opportunity of making good that
ardent desire which some of them professed to
entertain for inquiry. It was impossible that
this subject could remain in its present state.
It was impossible that an Administration stained
with blood—for such he must consider it to be
until it was relieved from the imputation—could
remain without having their conduct investigated,
or that that House, however indifferent it might
be to the purses of the subjects, ought not to
justify the imputation that they were indifferent
to their persons, by resisting an inquiry. Ile
therefore called on Ministers to ,afford an oppor-
tunity of inquiring into their conduct. He called
on the Gentlemen who had deluded the House
and the country by their mis-statements, to come
forward—let them show the sources of their false
and delusive statements—let them declare from
what polluted lips, from what spies they received
their news--" let them drag the monsters into
day"—and let them no longer be secured under
the cover of all the letters of the alphabet. For
himself he would only say, that he was satisfied
that be was attempting the best in his power to
do justice to the people, and to give Ministers
an opportunity of doing justice to themselves.
lie relied, therefore, on the concurrence of the
Noble Lord in the following motion :—" That a
Committee be appointed, by this House, to in-
quire into the transactions of the Magistrates and
Yeomanry at Manchester, on the 16th of August,
1819."—(Loud cheering.)
HopucusE—l beg leave to second the
motion.

Mr. BOOTLE WILBRAHAM said, that he felt as
well the disadvantage of commencing his observa-
tions after the splendid speech of the Hon. Baro-
net as his own weakness as an advocate. As
the Magistrates of Manchester had delegated to
him the important duty of stating their case to
the House, he would endeavour to doss°. He
thought, however, that he had a right on their
part to complain of the course adopted by the
Hon. Baronet in having postponed the motion for
the investigation for nearly two years. The Hon.
Baronet had in April last year given not-:•e of his
intention soon to call the attention of the House
to that subject ; yet the Hon. Baronet had post-
poned that motion for a year. He was far from
being desirous of causing any painful feelings to
the Hon. Baronet. lie bcgged to call their at-

tention to the depositions which had been placed
in his hands, and of which he would give a short
account. It commenced with a description of
the state of Manchester in 1819, and the pro-
ceedings which the Magistrates around it had
been compelled to adopt in consequence of the
disturbed state of the people there, and continued
to give a detail of their consequent proceedings.
There had been but two meetings at Manchester
from January to June, 1819, but from the 2d of
June to the 16th of August there had been eleven.
Itinerant orators had appeared, and after their
harangues thanks had been voted to Cobbett,
Wooler, Sherwin, and Carlile. A meeting had
been advertised for the 9th of August, which
the Magistrates had prohibited as illegal,
after haying consulted an eminent counsel re-
specting it. The conduct of the Magistrates
coirld be easily known from the evidence of Mr.
Hutton at York. Mr. Hutton was a gentleman
possessed of the two great qualities, a gentleman
of true feeling and genuine ceurage, well tem-
pered together., He knew not one man more
remarkable for each valuable quality. The
meeting of the gth had been postponed to the
16th, and the avowed object of the latter had
been similar to that of the former. During the
intervening week every observation of the Ma-
gistrates tended to induce a belief of imminent

danger. They saw the increasing symptoms of
rebellion and they laboured to repress them.
Special constables had been chosen and some
sworn, but the number of men willing to be
sworn had been small in various places. Bam-
ford had, in, the place where be resided, prevent-
ed many from being sworn ; so that not more
than three or four persons had been sworn in
there. Again the Magistrates saw the people
training at night under arms—(Under arms !
echoed the Opposition)—he begged pardon,
he meant training at midnight and before day
in the morning, and at unfrequented places
Those secret nocturnal assemblies, the drilling
of the people, and the other preparations for
war, gave cause for apprehension, which it
had been impossible that the Magistrates could
avoid taking careful note of.' Of those meetings
of the people it had been difficult to obtain dire' t
information, for they had always met by secret
intelligence, and signs to each other. Two men,
who by accident approached one of those nighty-