The Sun.
London, England, 1817-11-22 00:00:00

State :

- " Oppressed by the weight of unaliP,ted grief,
for the laniented death of the Peincess Charlotte,
ve can scarcely bring our minds to the task of
exanti i:'g the perverse artifices 'of -a restless
faction, which labours incessantly to consummate
the (:esiroction.of the country, by the subversion
of cvety thing great, and good, and valuable,
in the. Constitution and Establishments of the

Eatpire.
Their efforts are at present chiefly exerted to
intpress a belief upon the public mind, that the
recent seditious dispositions, and treasonable out-
rages. which have disgraced the country, origi-
nated in a Government Agency, for the- mere pur-
pose of enabling Ministers to take advantage of a
season of consternation, in 'order to encroach upon
the Constitution, and to wallow in the blood of
• every innocent victim whom the wiles of their
emissaries might ensnare to destruction. Amongst
these agents, the name of Oliver has acquired, a
prominent celebrity ; and those circumstances
which good subjects have united to deplore, and
which the arm of the law has been exerted to pu-
nish, have been boldly attributed to the machina-
tions of that individual.
" The charge not only against that man, but
against the Governnfent, is so monstrous (and it
is not more monstrous than false), that, however
fpaintul, in the present frame and' temper of our
feelings, we are constrained,' by a sense of duty, to
place the fates, in their true colours, again before
• our Readers. We have collected the information
which follows, after much' lahorions• research,
partly from authenticated detail, in various 'papers,
and partly from other sources of intelligence ; and
we believe we can safely pledge ourselves to the
truth and accuracy of the, whole.
" All the falsehoods respecting Oliver bad been
so fully refuted, that a last desperate effort became
. at length necessary to obtain the slightest degrte
of credit to the fabrication. They therefore left
no means notried to prevail upon the wretched
men lately executed at Derby, to name Oliver as
the person who had. instigaterthent tip the corn-
InissiOnof those crimes, which had drawn down
upon them the vengeance of the laws. However
bort ible the fact, it is not less certain,. for it has
been ascertained beyond a po.,sibility of dispute,
that they sought to draw the attention. of the un-
happy-culprits from the awful situ-ition in which
they stood—to prevail upon them, bY letters,
sozneofwhich were intercepted, and by metsages,
some of Which, were overbeard, to add the heavy
guilt of this falsehood to their other crimes ; and,
• though all the prisoners had repeatedly ack.noW-
ledged they knew nothing ei Oliver', that they had
never even heard his• name; they so far succeeded
" in their diabolical purpose, as to send one of them,
lurner, into the presence of his Eternal JUdge,
with this lie fresh upon hi's lips, that his un-
timely end Was owing to the machinations of
Oliver and the Government !'
" This fact alone is sufficient to excite the disgust
owl indignation of the whole country, and to set
the question of Oliver's guilt or innoeenee at rest
for ever ;. but "as we are again upon the subject,
we shall lay before our readers a tifore minute ac-
count: of the rise and progress of the disaffection,

and of the share which Oliver 'took" in the recent
proceedings, than they' have hitherto obtained--
m
, a account which will enable them to judge of the
extent of the danger, and of the veeessity imposed
upon Ministers to suspend the Habea,s Corpus Act,
and to bring Brandreth and his associates to trial
and pimishment.
" The jacobinical spirit of the French Revolution
took' deep root in ibis canntry ; and, 'though re-
pressed by the breaking up of the Corresponding
and other seditious Societies, which sought to
effect a similartonvulsion in England, it has never
teased, by infhimmatory writings and harangues,
to incite the people to some desperate enterprise,
of which 'the pr, j:!cts of 'ColOnel De3pard, and
others; were the preludes. The vigilance of Go-
vernment, however, prevented any thing like a
"general confederacy among the disaffected ; and
they were still, for a lime, forced to confine their
labours to preparing the minds of the people for
some great change, and to seizing %vitt] avidity
upon eves y event which could draw the Govern-
ment into disrepute, and to attach tO it a ‘'.'egree
of- ()dim!' which the partizans of Treason turned
to their own nefarious purposes.. Resolutions of
a seditious nature were pissed, and writings of a
similar tendency published ; hired
.Missionaries
were lent into the different counties to preach
dis Affection ; jacnbinical societies were formed in
the towns'and villages ; and every thing went gra-
dually add quietly forward towards that crisis,
which the 'secret morels of this system of mischief

cinuemplated.
"hi 1812, the disputes arose between the
mnster hosiers and frame-work knitters, at Not 7
tinghant, which gave rise to that villainous com-
bination known by the afl)ellation of Luddites.
•
These Miscreants., it is too well known; spread
over several counties, increasing rapidly in.num-•
bcrs, and in the extent and atrocity of their depre-
dations. The great leaders, however, continued
tv
.he stationed in the town of Nottingham. and
were divided into two botlit..3, called a Com-
mittee of CoUncil, and an Executive Cominittee,
•Ti e comfier planned the ,atrocities Which were
to he perpetrated ;' the latter, comsisting of men
pt desperate characters, distinguished. by firinness
of nerve and daring boldness, performei the work
which the deliberative 'body appointed ; and it is
well known that the work of death was to them a
familiar and willing task. From 181 to 1816, ,

tnettetufgatts Coritinutii- their career, wit wqt re-
ceiving tiny effectual check, except in this courtly,
where the terrible, example inflicted at York, hells
pity put tit an' end to the confederacy. In the,
other counties, hoverer, gaining confidence in
proportion to their success, they became so hold
as to mingle polities with their other objects, and
formed the daring resolution of extending their
views to the overthrow o he' Government. Cor-
respondences:were opened with souse. of the Seth-
How; Societies in London, Manchester, Glasgow,'
Ilirmingharn, iltiddersfielll, Wakefield,
LeCtlii,. and elsewhere, and where business could
not be done by letters, deputies were sent with
full pOwerS to coalesce, anti to advisr- upon gene-
ral grounds.' The return of these deputies to Not-.
tioghtim greatly flattered the hopes of the Lud-
dites ; foe,they found that a feeling Of discontent,
fomented by more pokvelittl and able agrntt,
than themselves, WAS already very prevlietit
among the maitufacturiog and labouring popula-.
;ion of ,the kingdom, which Wanted brit
,a little
more incitement to 4ecome ripe for the great: end
—Revolution.

" The distresses, which at this season heavily
afflicted the poorer classes, were eagerly geized
on ,by the seditious, as favourable to their views,
and Major Cartwright having recommended the
formation of Hampden Clubs, for the attaistqnt
of Parliamentary Reform, they warmly -recom-
mended their addption, as affording not only a
medium by means of which the disaffected
.might
be brought together and organi'zed, but a pretext,
tinder colour of which their treasonable projects
might he TrOmoted. Hampden Clubs were ac-
cordingly established in 'almost every town and vil-
lage in the kingdom, and their dispositions and
numbers clearly ascertained. In November, 1816,
printed resolutions, of the most inflammatory de-
scription, were circulated throughout the most dis-
affected counties, including York, Lancaster, Lei-
cester, Nottihgnam, and Derby, and it began'to
be openly aunotmeed, particularly by the Leices •
tershire men, that nothing short of the. total
overthrow of the Government would satisfy the
people.
Declarations Were made to this effect early in
December at the Heames Hampden Club, by the
President and Secretary.. The same spirit soon
spread to . the other Hampden Clubs ; and it was
openly asserted that no good could be done with-
oat .a change of King and Government. Dele-
gates were sent to Leeds and Manchester, to learn
how they stood affected there ; and it was agreed
that a meeting of delegates should be held in Lon-
don, through whom the pretended petitions should
be transmitted, and not through the.poSt-office,:
or Members of Parliament, as had co iginally been
intended.

" William Smith (of Ripley), who has since A-
seconded, and Thaivas Bacon (a convict), now
openly deelared themselves.of Cobbett's opinion,
that the Clubs were of •no further use, and that if
they expected any thing to he done', the people.
Must be organized and armed. A delegate from
Manchester, .named Benbow, at this time ar-
rived at Pentridge, and having prevailed on the
Clair' to draw up a petition, he induced Bacon
to take it up to London, where he arrived about
the middle of January, and was present at the
meeting of slelegates, by whom he was very well
received.- Public'meetings being found by these
miscreants inconvenient, a private room was
taken, in which Bacon and a select few met,
and by whom it was resolved that on the re,
turn of the delegates-to their several club-3, they
shwas! point • nut •the inefficacy of petition, •and
the .abstilme necessity of organizing an armed
forie,_ and of resorting to physical strength'
without!, delay. Tom Bacon, on his return to
Pentridge, stated all these things to his most con.
fidential associates, and produced drawings of
pikes and other implements of destruction, which
had been approved in London, irons the. facility
with which they conid be manufactured.
" A new course of proceeding was now vigor-
ously commenced. 'Meetings were held to arrange
th,e mode of rising, and to prepare arms and titt-
munition.
,The Nottingham men, or Luddites,
because more active than ever ; and it was par=
slag y resolved by then' that the country should
-rise of themselves, without any regard to the
Londoneys, who had become more catitiuus since
the failure of the 2d of December. The Execu-
tive Conimittee of the Lttd'iitcs, men already de-
scribed as capable of any act, however daring,
new became ao important body; for it was re-
solved to select from its members the leaders who
were to bring forward the instirgenti from the
neighbouring counties to Nottingham, which was
to he the seat of the new Government ;
,and from
that
,COmMittee, Jeremiah 'Brandreth was ap-
pointed to the command of the Pentridge, South
Wingfield, and Ripley division.
At the private ineethigs, at which Tom Bacon
preSided, it was declared that the insurrection
should commence on the Moirday after Sir Francis
Bordett's motion for parliamentary reform ; awl
the partizans were exhorted to make every effort
for that day. Besides the private meetings, ge-
neral meetings were held, to which the minor
meetings 'made' their' reports. The first of the
General Select Committees embraced Nottingham,
Leicester, and 'Derby, of which Tons Bacon was
a member ; the'seeml took its Bit mingliam,Wol-
vetleanipton, Bilatoisi, and all the population of
that district ; the third, Leeds; the fourth, Man-
chester; the fifth, Huddersfield; awl so on,
thrOughout all the manufacturing counties. From
each of
*these meetings delegates were appointed,
to form a Central COmmittee of Execution, which
4etsially assembled at theJoiners' Arms, the house
•of Btidamin Seholes • (now in custody), in Wake-
field ; and thus an uninterrupted and intelligible
comtroinieution Was kept up with the conspirators
in all directions, and unity of design anti action
apparently secured.
"-During February and March last, the Central
Meeting of'Delegates continued their delibera-
tion's. _Re-ports were made to them, from the re-
Spectiee districts of the members ready to rise ;
the pike heads mannfactored ; the arms procured ;
the rlePOts established ; the stores collected ; the
barracks Open' to assault inspected ; the number
of military under arms ascertained ; and all those,
necessary details, by which a judgment of the
probability of success might be formed.'
" At one of these Central Meetings, held in
the middle' of- Alarch, an -order was filmic,. that

. . ,
till ndeptes the tilt of
May, and repot r .the number of staunch Mends
ready at .ill .risks Co ris,—nmi ilk°
posii ye-means of action. 1t WAS RISO [lo6'r:dried,
that Icl;fCbell. he sent to London; to aScer-
lain what number cif men could be depended on
there, to come turkvard chore the insurrectional
experime,ut was made in the country.
Mitchell atcoldingly set Off for London, and
found his way.to Peudrill, the boot;•maker, in
Newgate7street,, 'who, it is iil he rectAletted, was
one cf the speakers in .Spa-helds, and who, it
has heed understood, harhonred young Watson
until his escape„ 00 board the Venni. Pendrill
.himself was in a' s'tate of di:spair, and pre-.
paring to leave England.
" And now, for 11“: first time, does the haime
of Oliver become in any way•connected with these
ir;tisiictions ; for Mitchell lound Oliver with Pen-
di ill, assisting hini in making tip his boOks ; ao0.:
in his presence, on the assui ance of Pendrill,
gan to untold the object of his mission, and to
lay open the whole proceedings of the Conspiran
tors, and the extent to'whick their projects bad
been-carried.
" Ire our next we shall continue this narrative,
comprising a most interesting detail of the further
machinations of the disaffected, and of that line
of conduct pursued by Oliver, which unquestion-
ably preserved the Empire from being eipased to
the greatest danger, and visited with the most
afflicting horrors.:'

LAW INTELLIGENCE.

COURT OF C.FLINURT, Nov. 21.