Star.
London, England, 1819-11-30 00:00:00

of Government will be evident, and that those objects,
by the public yoke, will be for ever defeated: If the
Country abstains from this course, and if the Home,
wAcitit any evidence to warrant these innovations,
shall consent to follow the Noble Lord in his despe-
rate and adventurous course, all I can say -is, that I
shall witness it with the deepest and most sincere re-
gret. I shall then have lived long enough, and I can
n; longer be of service to my Country !—(Hear, hear).
I observe, a smile playing upon the countenance of
a Gentleman opposite. It that Gentleman supposes,
that I shall ever retire from the service of ,my
country, let him be assured, that it is contrary to
every principle of my life r He did not mean to re-
tire from Parliament—he would still attend, and, by
his vote, oppose the progress of laws destructive of
the Nation's rights; but he should not feel bound,
after the People had shewn such apathy, to sacrifice
for it, as he had hitherto done, his time and his health !
—Wear, hear, hear). He hoped that all Members
would give the subject their most deliberate attention.
The New Laws"were not such as the public exigency
required ; the extent, or even the existence, of disaf-
fection, were not proved ; and, until they were, it was
the duty of evert honest man to pause. At least,
attention ought to be paid to this point—whether
some course of conciliation alight not be adopted—
whether steps ought not to be taken to satisfy the
People, and to prove, that while the House was wil-
ling to repress sedition, it had a fixed determination
to. listen to their grievances, and, as far as possible,
to apply a remedy?---(Cries of Hear, hear).
Lord CASTLEREAGH explained. It had been
stated by the Hon. Gentleman, that he had affirmed
that no diitress existed in the country, except as re-
garded the commerce with America; he had merely
said that the distress of the country was not of that
description that could be alleviated or redressed by
Parliamentary interference.

Lord FOLKSTONE said, that he hoped Parlia-
ment would not separate until it had restored tran-
quillity, by rescuing the Constitution, the main pillars
of which were now on the point of being subverted
by audacious hands—(Hear, hear). It was ridicu-
lous to talk of Meetings sanctioned by Magistrates,
when it was so much the fashion for the Constituted
Authorities to decline presiding at the Assemblies of
the People. It became the House particularly to
enark the tone and manner adopted by the Noble
Lord in proposing and explaining his new measures.
lie held it forth, forsooth, as a matter of kindness—
nay, of corkession—that those who shall have no
right, by the new Act, to attend a Public Meeting,
and who, being desired to withdraw, obey the mass.
date-within a quarter of an hour, are not to bef
of felony!—(Hear, hear). This was the Noble
kindness, that, indeed, such persons were not to be
considered as felons, if they fled at the first intima-
tion! Again : the Noble Lord would not, indeed,
establish a Censorship over the Press of England !
Oh, no ! nothing in the world was mere remote
from his wislies ! . But then, he made no difficulty
whatever in taking away from Publishers, in many
instances, the Trial by Jury—(Lord Cheers).--
Not only the tone, but the spirit in which the Noble
Lord laid down his new plans, Was calculated to
awaken the most anxious jealousy of the House. One
of the Noble Lord's measures was to be local and
temporary; the others were to be permanent—(Hear,
tear).—And because some of these measures were
said to be called for inconsequence of the disaffection
and disturbance existing, or said to be existing, in a
few districts, therefore, the whole, except one, were

to. be unbounded in their
their endurance !—(ateers)..—An Honourable- and
Learned Friend of his stated, a few nights ago, that
for upwards of two years and a half, publications were
circulating in great numbers, urging the propriety of
assassination, and preaching the boldest treason. He
begged leave to ask, why were not the laws put in
execution against those abominable tracts ? He would
not impute negligence or indiscretion to the Law Offi-
cers of the Crown, but he felt in his conscience that
these gross and manifest outrages upon the Liberty of
the Press were permitted to go on, in order to bring
the legitimate use of a free Press into contempt.--
-It was obvious to the most cenfined capacity, that
the laws were not executed, in order that a pretence
might be obtained for cutting up the free Press of
the country by the roots.- The Solicitor General laid
it down the other night, that such Meetings as those
held at Manchester might be suppressed by the laws
already in existence. Why then was not a termina-
tion put to these assemblies by the old laws, without
having recourse to new statutes ?—(Hear, hear!) But
the truth was, there was no real wish entertained to
put a stop to the large Meetings, until there was a
sufficient number of them to answer certain purposes.
There was internal evidence of this assertidn in the
letter of one of the Lancashire Magistrates, upon the
table, and also of a premeditated design not to arrest
Mr. Hunt, until he should be seen in the midst of the
people—(Hear, hear !) The thing was manifest :
there was no desire to use the laws where they
might have been used with effect, according to the
Solicitor General's account. No—the storm . was
suffered to gather, until it should become formidable
enough to induce the House to enact new trammels
for the People, and to destroy their liberty—(Cheers).
The SPEAKER then read the Question. •
Mr. BROUGHAM, after the lapse of a few mo-
ments, rose and said, that he was not disposed to take
the sense of the House upon the Noble Lord's mea-
sures at this stage; not because he entertained the least doubt
that these were measures which it behoved the House, and the
Country, strenuously and unanimously to resist. He concurred
entirely with the protest just given by his Noble Friend behind
him (Lord Fulkatone) against the whole system pursued by the
other side of the House, and he fully agreed in reprobating the
spirit, and the total want of information, in which the House
as called upoa to accede to these measures. But he did not
think it right to take the sense of the House upon them now,
because they were connected with so many matters of detail,
that distinctions sufficiently clear, and opinions sufficiently
guarded, could not be entertained In the present stage of the
business. Ile was •ot prepared to say, at this moment, what
might be all, or even a few of the consequences of this mo-
mentous measure—for instance, of putting down Public Meet-
ings. lie did not see what was meant by these new regu-
lations and restrictions, under which the Pee* were to meet.—
It seemed that they were to be confined to their own separate
parishes, that the pariahs*. were to be limited to a certain num-
ber of inhabitants, that in consequence some parishes might be
too large, and therefore that in future no parish could safely
meet for public purposes, unless they previously consulted the
abstract hat of their population—(Hear, bear). Further it ap-
peared that every parish consisting of nineteen or twenty then-
shed inhabitants was to be cut down and subdividedefor the pur-
pose of legalizing their Meetings. Ile would like to know who.
thee dtie-law war to extend to all kinds of Public Meetings, to