Star.
London, England, 1817-06-23 00:00:00

reign of Richard It. and of the rebellion in Ireland
in 1793, were held out as objects of imitation ; and
the must violent of such declarations was generally
received with the strongest marks of applause.
In consequence of these preparations, the public
meting propnod took place at the time appointed,
and was attended by probably nearly 12,000 persons:
many of these 'proceeded to the ground in regular
order, with knapsacks en their backs, and notwith.
standing the assembly was dispersed by the military,
acting under the orders of the Magistrates, and the
principal leaders were apprehended, under warrants
horn the Secretary ti State, a. considerable number
actually ma relied off on their way to London; many
were intercepted 'refine they reached Stockport, but
several found their way as far as Ashbourn.
The Act for enabling his Majesty to detain sus-
pected persons had now passed ; most of those who
had rendered themselves most conspicuous in exciting
disafflction ie this part of the country, had either
been apprehended, or had secreted themselves ; and
all hopes were precluded of any immediate result
from the assemblage which had been so long con-
certed ; yet it appears to your Committee, from a
variety of concurrent testimony, on which they rely,
that the previous organization had been extended so
widely, and the expectation of ultimate success had
been so confidently entertained, that these circum-
stances produced no other effect on the great body of
the discontented, than to delay the explosion Which
had so long been meditated ; to OCC:16:011 the discon.
tinuance of the mere open meetings of the associa-
tion ; and to call forth the exertions of new leaders,
who were determined (in their.own phrase) to 44 te.
organize the party."
Meetings were accordingly held in several of the
townships in the neighbourhood of Manchester, be.
tween the 10th and '2sth of March, with more pri•
vacy, but under the established system of delegation,
at which only the Deputies from the disaffected places
were present ; and at which it was resolved to pry.
mote a general rising at Manchester, on Sunday the
30th of March, or the following day. A meeting
was appointed for the leaders at Ardwick Bridge,
close to Manchester, on the Friday before that day ;
se here they expected to receive information from Bir-
mingham, Sheffield, and other places, with which
they were in communication; having previously learnt
from an emissary, who had visited Huddersfield and
Leeds, that the disaffected in that part of the country
were as ready to begin at • any time, and were pre-
paring arms for the purpose. The design was to
assemble as many as could be collected, in the night,
at Manchester; to attack the Barracks, the Police
Office, the Prison, the Houses of Magistrates and
Constables, and the Banks, in separate parties, and
to set fire to the Factories in the town. it was even
declared by one of the conspirators, that this last
atrocity was intended for the purpose of increasing
the prevalent distress, in the hope of thereby adding,
to the numbers of the discontented, by throwing the
workmen out of employthent. It was calculated two
or three thousand men would be enough to commence
these operations, as they reckoned upon being joined
by 50,000 at the dawn of day. A Proclamation war
said to be 'prepared, in order to be produced on this
occasion, justifying the revolt, and absolving the in-
surgents from their allegiance.
Expectations were held out, that a general incur-,
rection would take place, at the same time, in diffe-
rent parts of the counties of Lancaster, Yin k, War-
wick, Leicester, Nottingham, Chester, and Stafford;
and though some of these, particularly the two lat-
ter counties, may have been included -without any
sufficient ground, your Committee see just reason to;
apprehend, that a successful insurrection at Man-
chester would have been followed by partial risings,
to an alarming amount, in each of the other coi).
ties. Some preparations were made for providing
antninniticn, with a view to the arms which it was
intended to seize. The execution of this plan was
defeated by the vigilance of the Magistrates, who
being apprised of what was in agitation, made a com-
tsrunicatioti to the Secretary of State, by whom war-
Min were immediately issued, and the ringleaders,
assembled at Ardwick Bridge, were consequently
seized on the 23th. The, Magistrates of Manchester
thereupon published an Address to the inhabitants,
annninicing the danger. and calling upon the !route
holders to be sworn 'as special Constables, and to
assist in preserving the peace of the town.
This plan of the disaffected being thus discovered
and deranged, they became more wary and secret in
their proceedings ; but in the moment of disappoint.
ment, declarations were made, that it would be im
possible to prevent the rising for a month longer.
.The assassination of persons most obnoxious to
their rereniment was suggested by some of the most
desperate of the conspirators • an attack was made
upon the house of one of the Magistrates; the life of
another was threatened ; alid a pistol was filed into
the house of a Gentlemen who wets acting as a spe-
cial constable. Shortly after this period it appears to
have been discussed, whether it would not be more
• prudent to discontloue the,appointment of delegates,'
and US rely only, Upon one man in each town, who
might call the disaffected together a short time before
the intended insurrection, and seize on horses, prepa-
ratory to the attack on Manchester ? But, notwith-
standing this proposition, the came system of con.
nected operation by means of delegates was indefati-
gably persevered in.
Delegates from Manchester, Birmingham, Not..
tingham, Derby, Lends, altelfield, Wakefield, Hud-
dersfield, and other places in the disturbed part of
the country, either constantly or occasionally attend.'
ce these meetings. The numbers assembled were
not large, but the activity was unceasing ; emissaries
were continually passing from one of those places to
another, to compare their accounts of the state of the
public mind ; to foment the irritation among the
disaffected.; and to combine some general plan of
simultaneous, or connected insurrection ; the object
of which was, after consolidating a sufficient force, to
march upon London, and there to overturn the ex-
isting Government, and to establish a Republic.—
The same designs were continued of attacking the
barracks, and e:epots, in different parts of the country
(one of which we's particularly reconnoitred With that
view) ; of plundering the houses of Noblemen and
Gentlemen, where arms were supposed to be lodged;
of betting the Magistrates and keeping them as nos-
tapes, and as authorities for levying contributions on
IN: country ; of disarming the soldiers by night, in
q raters, or seducing them from their duty ;

:old of providing arms fur themselvev, rattly by these
seizures, and partly by an easy method of forming
pike-heads out of common tools and utensils.
It appears to your Committee, that the utmost
confidence prevailed among the delegates, as to the
ultimate attainment of their object ; that the succes-
sive arrests of several of the principal leaders, though
they occasioned momentary disappointment, did not
extinguish the spirit of insurrection, or the hopes of
success, in the parts of the country above mentioned;
and the utmost impatience was manifested at the
delays which had taken place in fixing the day for
the general rising. This, after several postponements,
was appointed for the Monday in Whitsun week, and
was afterwards again postponed to the 9th of June,
which was thought more favourable for a midnight
insurrection, as the moon would then be in the wane.
Notice of this last appointment had been so widely
circulated, that it bec.tme almost of public notoriety;
which, while it awakened the attention of those whose
duty it was to preserve the public peace, did not ap-
pear to derange the preparations of those who were
disposed to disturb it. Even where the planners of
the insurrection suggested a farther delay, they found
it impossible to restrain the impatience which they
had excited among their followers, who had forsaken
their ordinary habits of industry, and who .must
either proceed to the immediate attainment of their
object, or for the present relinquish it, and return to
their accustomed occupations.
On the `2Bth of May a meeting of Delegates in the
neighbourhood of-Sheffield was dispersed, and soine
of the parties were apprehended ; and on the 6,11 of
June several persons described to be delegates (and
believed by your Committee to be such), who were
assembled at another place in the same neighbour.
hood, were apprehended by the Magistrates of the
Riding, assisted by the military ; and the final ar-
rangement of the plan, which was there to be settled,
was thus happily frustrated. It was confidently ex-
pected, that these arrests would disconcert whatever
measures were in preparation, and they appear to
have had that effect in the immediate vicinity of
Sheffield ; but the spirit which had been excited
could not be wholly suppressed. In the neighbour-
hood of Huddersfield, in the night of the Bth instant,
several houses were forcibly entered and plundered
of arms. A considerable body of armed men were
approaching the town, when a small patrole of Yeo-
manry Cavalry, attended by a peace officer. fell in
with them, and vi as received with the discharge of
several shot, by which one of their troop horses was
wounded. The patrole having ascertained that they
were too few to oppose such numbers, thought it
prudent to retreat, when several shots were fired after
them without effect. On returning *ith an additional
force to the spot, they found that the whole of the
insurgents had disappeared ; but guns tired as sig.
nals, in different directions, and lights sbewn on the
heights throughout the country, sufficiently proved
the extent of the confederacy, and the concert with
which it was organised.
In some populous villages of Derbyshire, a more
open insurrection took place on the 9th of June. A
delegate from this part of die country had attended
a previous meeting at Nottingham, and an active
emissary from thence bad joined them in the course
of the night. The insurrection began, according to
the general plun propo‘ud, with, sittitoks upon houses,'
for the purpose ut procuring arms; in one of which,
a servant was wantonly shot; about 9.00 insurgents
were soon assembled, mostly armed either with pikes
or with fire-arms ; and began
*their mud towards
Nottingham, in expectation of increasing their num-
bers as they went, and of finding that place in full
insurrection, and prepared to support them. They
were however intercepted by detachments of cavalry
(under the orders of active and intelligent Magi-
straws), which came up with them in different direc-
tions, and totally dispersed them. Between 60 and
60 were taken, and lodged in the different gaols ;
many fire arms and pikes were taken at the same
time, and a quantity of ammunition was found upon
the persons of the prisoners.
Your Committee have thus stated the prominent;
points of the information, which bat been laid before
them, particularly as affecting the manufactunng
districts in the Northern and Midland Counties, and
which has been substantiated, in almost every parti-i
cular, by depositions on oath, taken before Magis-
trates. The character of the danger remains the
same as was described in the former Report. It
arises horn the indefatigable exertions of persons in
the lower 'ranks of life, or but little above them, of.
some popular talents, inflaming and aggravating the
actual distress of a numerous manufacturing pope.
!anion, by exciting hopes of an immediate remedy to
all their sufferings from a Reform in Parliament,
and preparing them (in despair of attaining that
object) to attempt, by force, the total subversion of
the established constitution of Government.
Your Committee stated, in their former Report,
that the mode of organization, practised with such
mischievous success in the populous districts, had
been in very many instances, conducted under the
toyer of associ4tiuns,.eilledHanthden Clubs, (amok
for the ostensible purpose of procuring- a Reform in
Parliament ; and they now find that in many instances
where the open meetings of those societies have been
discontiiinedb several ut the Members of them have
assembled more privately, and been the principal Ira•
ders in the proj. cted combinations
In their former Report they did not think it neces-
sary to advert to that atrocious system of combina•
tiou, outrage, and hired assassination, which has
prevailed in some of the midland counties, under
the name of Luddism...both because the trials of
persons, charged with those crimes, were then known
to be depending ; and because the system itself did
not then distinctly appear to your Committee to have
any immediate application to political purptises.—
But they have since found reason to believe, that
those whose are concerned in instigating the people
to insurrection, have availed themselves of this
powerful engine for the snore extended purposes of
political innovation.
Upon the whole, your qeMtnittee have been anxi-
ous neither to exaggerate or extenuate the nature and
extent ut the danger. They have not been insensible
to the jealousy, with which the testimony of persons,
originally implicated in the designs of the Conspira-
tors, or even of persons who never having engaged
in those designs, have attended their meetings in
order to discover and repint their proceedings, ought
io be received ; but the facts stated by your Com-
mittee test not only upon contiringtory evidence, but

(111tilAinCt, substentior, and sstislactory testimony ;
and although your Comthittee have seen reason to
apprehend, that the langnage and conduct of some
persons, from whom information bas been derived,
may, in some instances, have had the effect of en
couraging those designs, which it was intended they
should only he the instruments of detecting ; yet it
is perfectly clear to your Committee, that before any
such encouragement should .have been given, the
plan of a simultaneous insurrection, in different parts
•of the country, had been actually concerted, and its.
execution fully determined on.
Your Committee have the satisfaction to continue
to believe, as they have before stated, that the clang
ger which they have described, is to be found only,
among the lower order of the manufacturing popula•
tion, in particular parts of the country, many of
whom are labouring under considerable privations,
from the low rate of wages, and the increasing price
of the necessaries of life; though your Committee
cannot but remark, that the most active and deter-
mined insurgents are, in many instances, to be found
among those whose earnings, even in the present
state of the manufactures, would enable them to aup.
port their families in comfort.

They find, that of the promoters of these comma-
motions, many have either left the country, or are
prevented from prosecuting their designs. The dis.
affected appear to want leaders to conduct such enter.
prises as they have conceived; are frequently discon-
certed by jealousy and distrust of each other, and by
the consciousness that their plans are watched' and
by the arrests of the ringleaders.
Great as the numbers probably are, among whom
disaffection, to an alarming extent, has made coma-
derable progress, fomented at first by popular ha-
rangues, and still by the more powerful and general
excitement of seditious publications, your Committee
are fully aware, that the number of those, who are
now prepared to take the lead in any project of open
insurrection, is not to be estimated by the exagge-
rated reports of their Delegates. Though they have
been all along taught to look, to London for counte-
nance and support, though some of their own im-
mediate emissaries have, from time to time, affected
'to bring them hopes of encouragement from that
quarter, in case of success; and though it has been
stated to your Committee, that a Delegate from the
country has recently been attending a meeting of De.
legates in London, no specific information has been
laid before your Committee of the existence of-any
body of men, associated in the metropolis, with
whom the disaffected in the country appear to be
acting in concert, or to hold comatuoication. Their
hopes arise from their own numbers, which, if they
could be excited to simultaneous movement, would
distract their opponents and would procure the means
for carrying their utmost designs into execution.' It
is hoped by them, that the timid and irresolute would
thus be encouraged to stand forward ; and they flat-
ter themselves that efficient leaders would not .be
wanting to put themselves at the bead of a successful
insurrection.

Your Committee cannot contemplate what has
passed•in the country, even since the date of their
former Report, without the most serious apprehen.
lion. During this period, the precautionary measures
adopted by Parliament have been in force; many of
the &Lica active piumoters of public disturbance have
beenApptehendedi the immediate projects of the dis.
affected have been discovered and deranged ; yet no.
thing has deterred them from a steady pursuit of
their ultimate object. Though hitherto checked. the
least advance towards the attainment of that object
' could not bus be attended with the utmost hazard to
the lives aqd properties of his Majesty's subjects.
In the late insurrection on the borders of Derby.
shire And Nottinghamshire, the mass of the popula-
tion, through which the insurgents passed, evinced
the utmost abhorrence of their designs and projects;
In other instances, where the inhabitants have been
called upon to aid the Civil. Power, that call has been
answered with alacrity and zeal. Such conduct in-
creases the claim of the peiceatile and loyal inhabi-
tants of the disurbed parts of the country to the most
elficieet protection.
Your Committee find that it is the concurrent opi.
nion of many of those entrusted with the preservation
of the peace, and best acquainted with the state of
the disturbed districts, as well as the admission of the
disaffected themselves, that the suppression of the
attempts at insurrection hitherto made, may, in a
great degree, be ascribed to the existence of the extra•
ordinary powers entrusted by Parliament to the Exe-
cutive Government, even in cases where it has not
been found necessary to call them into action ; and
that the tranquillity of the country would be put to
hazard, if those powers were now withdrawn.' In
this opinion your Committee fully concur ; and, con-
fidently as they rely on the loyalty and good, disposi-
tion of the great body of his Majesty's subjects (even
in those. parts of the country in which the spirit of
disaffection. has -*hewn itself in the most formidable
shape), they cannot but express their conviction, that
it.is• not yet sale to rely entirely, far the preservation
4 the public tranquillity, upon .the ordinary powers
of the Law.

. _
11,1MBURGH Aida.
BERLIN, JUNE 14.
On the 12th, her Royal Highness Princess Char-
lotte lelt this city to go to St. Petersburgh. Tke King,
the Royal Family, and the Whole Court, accompanied
her to the end of the first day's journey, viz. to Frey.
enwalde.'

On the 9th there was a brilliant Court at the Royal
Palace to take leave of her Royal Highness, at which
all the superior military and civil authorities, as well
as the diplomatic body, attended. The most general
interest was expressed at the depaiture of this beloved
Princess, the sight of whom constantly revived in the
breast of every Prussian a never dying recollection.
The most fervent benedictions accompanied her
Royal Highness, and only the thought that the al-
ready intimate union between the two Allied States
will be, by her Royal Highness's marriage, still far-
ther confirmed, could lessen our regret at losing her.
On the same day, his Royal Highness Prince Wil-
liam set out for St. Petersburgh, attended by Goral
Von Natzmer, and his Aide-de.Camp, Count do
Schlieffen.
• aToCKHoI.m, JUNE 10.
The Duke of Devonshire, who bad given.' most
distinguished reception to the young Grand Duke of
Russia in England, has been invited toSt. Petetsbnrgh
to the wedding of the Grand Duke Nicholas, and has
left .Sweden to proceed to that city.

THE EVENING STAB..

LONDON.

MONDAY, JUNE 213, 1817.
THE FUNDS.
Prize of Stocks this day at twelve rielnck :
Reduced 754—Cunsoh shut—Cousols fur Opg. 7t
4 per Cent. 954—Navy, shut—Bank Long Anns.
India Bonds 68 90 pre.—Exch. Bills 9s. 13s. pr.
The glut of money at present in the market is ►eyond all pre.
cedent. The Bankers have this morning issued a Circular i.e.:
ter to their country customers, informing them that the d,tlieuke
was so great to dispose of their money to advantage, that !het
could not snake any use of it. It is stated that they cannot te•
three ands harper cent. and therefore the advantage of
is not worth the hazard. We announced last week that :a..
Bank would discount at four and a half ;.k is positively (cu.!
this morning that it will discount at four. In consequence of •h,s
excess of cask Bank Stock rose a per Cent, in the course of la e
week. Consoh this morning opened at 76 and a quarter, 4:.
went to 76 fivaclghths, and three.fourths.

We have not disguised our opinion that the ey—
cesses committed in the midland counties where t!:r
public peace has been disturbed, -are to be •entitely
attributed to the • excitement of an unprincipled vil-
lain, overstepping the bounds of his instructions, Ind
labouring to produce those acts ut treason which he
was only deputed to watch and report. Instead of
watching for the purpose of preventing, he seems to
have done every thing in his power to disturb the
peace of the country, and to involve people who were
suffering under privations arising out of the circum-
stances of the times, in acts of rebellion and treason.
The more that this business is investigated, the more,
we are confident, will it appear manifest that-the
partial insurrection which the country has to deplore,
and the actual bloodshed with which it has been
ac-
companied (tor one or two people have actually lost
their lives) have been entirely the work of the spy

The Leaf Mercury, which had the credit to be the
first to detect and expose this villainy, has followed
up its former exposure by the subjoined observations
and statements:

• 4, LEEDS, JUNE fl.
" Mr. (Meer, the political incendiary, made his
first appearance in Yorkshire, about nine or ten weeks
ago, accompanied by one Mitchell, a Liverpool De.
legate, (now in custody), under the assumed anise.
ter of a zealous Parliamentary Reformer, whose cb•
.
ject it was to ascertain the dispolititins of tile pecple;
and to give to the sluggish current of public feeling
a due degree of fervour. On his arrival,in Wake:
field by the True Briton coach, he crlled upon Mr.
Benjamin Scholes, a publican in that place, a pencil
who had taken a leading part in a meetiherecently
'held for the purpose ot petitioning the Legislature
'los a Reform in the Representation ot the People...*
and, as a specimen of the manner in which Mr. (Mere
executed his mission, we shall state the substance ,:t
a deposition made by Mr. Scholes, before J. P. Hk.l-
- Esq. one of the Magistrates of this ltidin:;