The Sun.
London, England, 1820-10-18 00:00:00

PETITION FROM PLYMOUTH.

Lord J. RUSSELL rose to present a Petition
signed by 2,040 ofthe people of Plymouth, againgt
the Bill of Pains and Penalties. He had been
requested to support the prayer,of it, and had no
hesitation in saying, that i,f,ever that. Bill should
come .down to the House of Commons, whiCh he
sincerely hoped it would not, he should always
be ready to oppose—itin every stage... He must,.
indeed, be permitted to say, that the result of the
evidence was not such as, in his opinion, to render
itmecessary for the Queen to continue her defence.
With respect to the people of this country, they
appeared to be of the same mind with himself;
,and
in this point of view, looking at expediency alone,
he could not see 'die utility of pressing a mea-
sure ‘,lncli professed to have for its 'object the
.preservation of the public morals against thesforce
of a bad example. The people were of -.opinion
that the charge of,setting a had example WaSnot,
proved against the Queen... The people disbe-
lieved it, and therefore theidea, of-passing the
.Bill to prevent a bad
.example Wasidle b and a-
surd. _ The Neble Lord concluded by tnosiing
that .the Petition should be, read...
It was read accordingly, ; and on the Speaker
putting the question. that it should lie on the
table,
. . .
Mr. LOCKHART fully.agreed ,with the Peti-
tioners, that this
,proceeding was a violation pf
~the Constitution, and a: breach of the Laws, es-
pecially of the Law of Edward, as, re,garded trea
son.. This Bill wasibrought In for the purpose
of imposing Pains and .Penalties on her Majesty,
for an act. ivhich it was said would have been
high treason, had the
,act charged been commit-
ted in this. country ; -but, being, done in foreign
parts, was not treason by our Jaw ; yet . in
.this
Bill, so charging her Majesty, not :a word was
said of, the crime having: been.comnaitted in fo-
reign parts. For, although. the preamble of the
Bill charged. her Majesty •with having carried on.
an adulterous iptercourse with Bergami in divers
countries, and kingdoms, yet it did not state that
any of these countries were, out of his Maje'sty's
dominion,,; atherefr,re on..the,face of the 13111 the'
crime charged was high treason, and it ought not
to have. been flitted away into a Bill of Pains and
Penalties for high crimes and misdemeanours. The.
proceedings, he contended, ought to have been by
iloPcachrnent.7_ife was told that this ought not to be,
because it.Was.llonbtful ivhetbekit,waShigh trea-
son or not.; but this., inhis. opieititi,was the strongest
reason. why the. House ought.inot 0. take cogni-
zance of it. ina Bill. of Pains and. Penalties: But he
would .ask, what were, the authorities upon which
this doubt wns .founded 2 The first authority Was‘.
that,of.LordsCok.e, who 'iced the cases .of Queen
Catherine anti Anne .1301eyn ; and did that upon
a .report•pta person named Spelman, which revert,
he 4Mr..Lo.cliltart), had in vain searched for and
could not Rind ;.phut he had found Acts of Parlia-
mcut, and upon: those ,Acts he denied that the
,charges,against either Anne• Boleyn or Catherine
Wfi.P:those. of adultery ; and therefore these- cases
were. noauthoyities„ Yet it was.upon them that
,Lord Coke gave,bisApinipu, that the Queen *(On-
-Sort being guilty,,of adultery,. came within the
Statute of 'rreasons. lie contencled,hoWever, that
thelpoint was ve..ry :doubtful.
.1f treason. had been
comPlitted h,er,Majesty, then no-,13111 of Pains
411d.Penalties should have been referred ; and
if, it was doubtful, the, Judges :wekt not au-.
therizesl
.to expound. the doubt, but f by the
Statute ..,such„idoubt should come before the
the King and
.Judges,
~
1g
s,a,.Piarliarnent to be expounded;
entertained such dotihts,, are
to tarry, andmot.proc.:eed to judgment ; and Such,
ought. to 'be. the ease now. The judges shonld
and!tho case should hate COMP be-
fore the King and Parliament,- by way of lin-
peachment, The law would not permit eNecution

to be changed in any case. If a statute should
provide the punishment of burning to death for
any crime, acid a„.Judge, otKof,feelings of mercy,
should change the punishment to beheading, such
a Judge woUld be, guilty of ifittrder. So in the
present case ; her Majesty had\ been guilty o
high'treason, it vianot in the power of anyvn
to ;mitigate tti
and 'out of mercy proceed by 'a Bill of Pains and
Penalties, but they must proceed by impeachment,
and to proceed in any other way would be to
shake the law of the land to its base.• lie trusted
the House would now so express its opinion of
this proceeding as to put an end to it altogether.
The Petition was then ordered to lie on the
Table.

•
Lord J. RUSSELL then presented a similar Pe-
tition from some other place, but it was read in so
low a tone that we could not collect from whence
it came.

A new writ was .ordered for the County of
Warwick,tix the room of Sir Charles Mordaunt,
who has accepted the Chiltern Hundreds.
Mr. HUME presented a Petition from Aberdeen
against the Bill of Pains and Penalties.—Ordered
to lie on the Table.
SEDITIOUS PLACARDS.-SIR ROBERT BAKER.'

Mr. HUME rose to call the attention of the
House to a case which to him and to many others
appeared to be of very considerable importance,
involving, as he thought it-did, efforts to •disturb
the peace of the countr,y, of a nature altogether
unexampled. The first thing which' he should
propose to do, was to call Sir Robert Baker to
the bar, in order'that he might be questioned on
the subject of his Conduct on a late occasion with
respect to the liberation of a person arrested for
issuing treasonable hand-bills., This business
had been' carried- on in a manner that would
hardly be credited by' those who had not prop-
cuted the inquiry as he had done. At present
they could only prove that there had been a re-
gular manufactory established for the production
of seditious and treasonable placards, from the be-
ginning of 1818 down 'to the present period, which
had been. traced to an individual who had been
known by the names of Fletcher, Forbes, .and
Franklin. The name under which he had last-been
known was W. Franklin. As W. Franklin he had
been apprehended for issuing certain inflammatory
papers; and in considering this subject, it was
of, very great consequence to remember the lin-
portance which the Noble Lord opposite had at-
tached to some of these Bills when he produced
them to the House. Every one would remember
the stress which he bad laid on the character of
tliese placards, which had been distributed all
over the country, in order to excite the people to.
violence. i' -Up to the last meeting but one of that
House, the Noble Lord had continued to com-
plain of these, and he (Mr. Hume) who had-heard
the" way in which these papers had been coin,
plained of, could not but regard the present dis-
covery as one of the greatest importance. In the
prosecution of the plan which had been acted
upon, it appeared to him probable that, he would
not say hundreds, but that many lives had been
sacrificed. On the Ist of April; 10.0, a placard
'had been issued at Paisley and GlasgOw of an in-
flamtnatorY description, but, of a chardeter nothing
like so violent as those which had lately been dis-.
covered to haveibeen sent into circulation by the
person-he hail ialeneioned. In them, (the placards
issued at Paisley and Glasgow,) it was proposed to
the manufacturers and the artisans to shut uptheir
manufactories, and to abstain from work till
Parliamentary Reform should be obtained. The
Reform they were to obtaih quietly if they could,
but at all 'events they were to obtain
extremely well known what was likely to ?esult
from' this. -'One of the Magistrates in the neigh-
'bourhoOd had very properly offered a reward: of
3001. for the disCoverrof the author of these4.'pla-
cards ; 'and_Government, on the Bth of 112pril,
had offered '5OOl. more, with a pardon to any one
concerned in circulating them, with the excep-
tion of the autlibr. On the Bth of April no
fewer than-twenty persons were taken from their
beds and confined in prison, in the neighbour-
hood where these placards made their appear-
ance. ..It was not before the Friday following
that any inquiry took place as to the.cause why
some of the parties were imprisoned'. One re-
spectable person, it ultimately appeared; had in
this- Manner been deprived of his liberty, al-
though no scrap .of paper had appeared to con.
nect him with the circulation of the hand-bills,
and in fact the 'only ground of suspicion against
him, was this, that he was known to be a friend to
'Rational Reform. The placards in question had
led to the riots which took, place at Boutiymuir,
'and to the scenes Which were known to foive
followed. He then went on to describe the re-
cent' *proceedings at Bow.;street. Mr. C. Pear-
son, he thought,;had, much to his honour, placed
himself in a situation in which feW Members of
that House Would have. been willing to- place
them Selves. lie was brought to take the part he
did take froth the circumstance of his being the
Secretary to the Queen's Plate COmmittee. Tliat
he was placed in this situation was
,Owing to the
course Ministers had thought proper to tak/e, with
reSpect to the Queeti,,' and it 'therefore Ji-Ppeared
to him (Mr. Hume) 'a judgment, on them, thus
growing out of their injustice towards her Ma-
jesty. To (his it was owing that. Mr. Pearson
had beep tie means of detecting a practice which
he (Mr. Hume): was prepared to say, had long
been carried on with-- the. knowledge and ap-
probation
.of the Government. He should not
feel warranted in bringihg this subject. for-
if -he -was not authorised to state so
Jt was not ealey to offer 'direct proofs of
such conduct, but, as far as an affidavit. would
go, he was prepared ; for lie had come down to
the !Hotse to p-refer such a charge on his Own;
simile opinion. `'He had not rested satisfied.
with hisown information, though he had anxiously,
inquireCiato..the Meets of .the case himself, but'
he had 'nevertheless not been content till he had
more thati,one,' or two,'Or'three,.. or five indivi-
duals to speak to. fact§ connected with the pro-
ceedings to which lie was
,tlesirous to direct -the
attention of the house.' fle lad obtained the
first imprint of some lof the bills; he had found

br
the compositor who printed there, and
-ci be
had his affidavit as to what had Passea
tween him and Franklin ; and he ha, a 11,
found the bill-sticker, who, accornpan`e gap
Franklin, had posted seditious and ioptei
matory Placards which ha been
i. he trikiidle'ot-the hadAbeea.
u I
He would read shortly the affidavit of
ter. who spoke to his :having been emplole:ddi',
paid by Franklin-L-by that 'Franklin, 01°7 aft'
'being irresteachad been so strangely iiheirtil,
by Sir R.:-Biker*.- It was to be reinariouir,
'Franklin had been arrested b a warrant
one Magistrate—had been brought to a r°11;
Office, and was,there discharged by another •
gistrate. That Magistrate, he believed, haLd
charged him even without seeing him, and taal
. a Senday,.which was a most unusual C.:remits° '5
tle could prove from Mr. Vickery (though hedisii
not here .at preSeno that Franklin had been ti
charged from his custody by the .Magistil
Sir R.
,Baker,without his seeing him. Whatn,
; b
. a peculiar feature to this case was .that Oh'
was. about to state. Franklin had been lot
charged at seven o'clock in the 'Morning,
aire
big been arrested at five o'clock on the r„
ceding' day; though a.note had been sent teic
Magistrate representing this to
.be a casein ll'ich
.it might not be proper to admit bail, but ill"' ,h 1
bail were at all accepted, two individuals pa,rieti
to be required to be bound in 5001. each. 111,0
it was known that fifteen inflammatory halid
had, been foynd about this individual, it `"rate
be be seen that it: was right to give the Magt-'l'*jt
the warning of which he had just spol'..en",il4,
might seem surprising that the Magistrate se et,
the importance of the charge had failed tfmtl
mand bail, but it appeared that Frank-1i) be
said, " Q ! I am known to Mr. Williams, a° air
will answer for my appearance." He "'as Nate
charged by Sir R. Baker without any bad Woe
ever, and Whether or not; he had fled to aniii
conntry,, was not at present known. Aa I%le
dual was known to have left the country 11-tht
the name of Franklin, but whether- this 'riff
individual in. question, or Whether-fit was °°;o'
blind to favour his escape, remained to he s'-iu
' but probably a few days would bring sofa',
!Tormation on the subject. The. conduct of S'rro'
Baker had been unusual. He (Mr. Hume)ild
also remark, that he had told a deliberate lap
hood in his hearing. He (Sir R.. Baker)
said that be had sufficient bail for the, ar?':e,!
once of Franklin, though it afterwards
out that he had no bail at all. .When Fraljoi‘
was first missed, he (Mr. Hume) heard Mr,:*.i.ll
die say, " do not think he will am
Baker then said he had sufficient
that a Mr. Williams had pledged' hiinse°
his appearance. This Mr. Williams in Moe
quel, denied, and on further inquiry it t
out, that 'Franklin had written a lettfri le
his daughter, telling her' that he shogiut,
a hundred miles from• town that iligbite
The. Gentleinenwho had interested diet-10,i' ele
in this business went to the Hoiee Office, Irte
they saw Mr. Clive, and found that 'he had he
viously been acquainted with 'ajl..the.facts• the
Home Office being thus acquainted sl*ith,,io
, facts, his :notion Nvculd be, that Sir R:-Baker sN
be ordered to appear at the Bar, that' he :jILeo
.be asked if any,atid. 1% instnictiOns hao -of
giVen te.him on the_ subject,_'. from,, florae 01
lice. He then described the recent• visit t°Aft:
Heine Office, :and the application made, t°
Clive and Lord, Sichneuth. to interfere t° e
vent 'the escape of. Franklin:..: had a 1.6'
cf
the 'placards with, him to'- chew the natarer
the transaction, and to show the charactehyt
the recent proCeedings, he would refer to ''ove
had been doo.- in ether cases. :DUring
of Portland's Administration, in 1796, a
of.one httodred guineas had:been offered t°ooo'
cover the parties who had.'pOst(l4. an to fps'
matory placard on the Town Hhuge at P,O
Without following the
.G.DvernilleSt thrilto
all their proclamations and rewards fret° the
time downwards, he would • next refer °oft
reward of bOOl. offered on the iftl: of April" 1
lor,the detectiOn of those who hall circulate; le
treasonable:placards at' Glasgow r3).'d
with a pardon to' any. one :concerned..in i•Owlifel4l
but the auther,' Tinigd'placards, however, 'tetlf
nothing like equal to thOse :re.cently circultete
in Violent and inflammatory language, The .010
elemen who waited on Mr:Clive 'Wished 1„,11
offer a reward, knowing how necessaty thrs trot
to put the officers on the alert, but this 01100 j
done. The Government, or their agentsl,lol
to leave every thing to that. public-spirite° too
w gistrate Who as to do everythin47, but wh''icheo
previously done nothing.. The.-GOverunieldpel
applied to, if possible, dia.less than the 001
strate, and under :Such circumstances' the
would see in what .a situation the coulalr'
as
beep -placed. • Ile would .-say that i!
extremely improbable that any 1-0(114.; a.
should circulate these seditious hand-hit do'
bis own expencei:. He would prove that
Franklin had.. no visible means of
ence, yet. he had lived as a Gentleman, °-f
oven ditied'AVith some of the Alinisters ° :0111'
Groin. He WOuld. further. show from an e,
davit which he had,.. that Franklin hatilorc'e
traced in a hackney-coach from IlowlOtcoitol:5
/i
to Charing Cross, :and thence by a ci,er
ed
route, to a large house in Downing-stri trac
A sentinel befOre it. :He had .tben7heell,priel”
back to the hoese of :Mr.' Dennis 001,t
wher
,had-been before, ind though 0 Itte
dividnal had denied all knowledf,re, of 1100 010.1‘,,,
Franklin, Perhaps they might vet be able Loop I'
him perfectly well
athr:P;itedees:
question -as Mr. Fletcher. :finder a" Iva
to to
cumstanees be thought there. Was.grea.Lgio,tl
suspicion,against the Goveriuneilt• to Prhe
or three bill-stickers to bring
-the part; that :Franklin had acted, and 13,,a of Ita,
eAffidavit :of:the printer. The allicift"`, of •#ce
. . .
nter stated that at the latter entx 00.4
* * peaq at II!
n u 1,51.8., person 0f..., t
11 d 00't
t co.
Ord :kn.:liters of a gentleman
Cake; and'indni-red irhe' 'Would Pri° lootor
hand-bills. Finding them of an OP;

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