Star.
London, England, 1817-03-15 00:00:00

Pater, Ply Mouth, at a much cheaper rate than the mi.
ginal contract ; and, as the workNias a great national
on. ! vht itsolight not to be discouraged. ,
Sir G. HOPE s,:id. the works at every place were
reduced. The Admiralty Board was as anxious as
possible to go on with the work ; but they did not feel
justified in ;:o doing, as the teal necessity was not at
present so appirent.
Sir J. NEwponx observed, that wherever an
essential work could be carried on at a cheaper rate,
he tholipht that it ought not to be stopped. N sum
o' twenty or thirty thousand 'pounds, which could be
employed to so beneficial a purpose as far the Break-
water, ought not to be. postponed till a future day.
was a 14c. that many. eessele had been saved by
getting behind this Breakwatt,e;, and if, by neglecting
the work, any loss should accrue, it might be strictly
charred to the account of the Board fur delaying
t ie woiks.
Si, G. IV -1 ft If ENDER said, that before a war
should arr t• e' w. every probability that a safe
anchorage would be oi! ,•••- I in the Breakwater.--
He then moved for a sum of e 49...9): ;for the Trans-
port Service, &c.—These sums were agreed to, and
the Report was ordered to be received to-morrow.
The flouse'went into a C •mmittee on the Game
?enervation Bill.
Sir KNA ECHBU 1.1. said, as the law in this
c ise at present did ree extend to Svitiand, he had no
ofjeetion to the intreduction of a clause to that effect.
hir C. MONCK • bjected to the severity with
which some of the elitists were framed.
r some otsservatimis, which W. BAmats,
Mr. Serjeaut Best., Sir E. KNATCNBULL. and Mr.
BRAND toiik part, the Report was ordered to be re-
ceived Eiis do, t otnight.

SEDITI ASSZNIBLILS.

On the queqinn for the third reading of the Sedi-
Cons Assemblies Bill,
Sir M. W RIDLEY objected to the preamble of
the Bill. He contended, that strong grounds for the
8,1 l ought to have been shewn. The preamble con-
tained words which were false, and which were no-
thing less than a libel'on the people. He would ask
where these seditious and unlawful meetings were to
be found ? Tne people had met peaceably to peti-
tion, and. with the exception of one meeting, in
which he must regret that disorders arose, they had
generally conducted themselves well. The laws,
however, were sufficient to punish the guilty ; and
we had witnessed the coquet of the Lord Ma)or
and a Worthy Alderman in putting down the tomtits
of that day. He then alluded toftlie case of Cash-
man, and regretted that the sentince had not been
carried into execution, tw the sake set example, im-
mediately atter it had been pronounced. At that
execution no symptoms of riot tied occurred ; nor it
we looked at the transactions at Bath, were those the
consequence of
,any public meetings. The Honour-
able Baronet alluded to the conduct of Magistrates,
who, excited by tears and apprehensions, would step
in, and had actually stepped in, to prevent public
meetings ; what then must be the fears of such per-
sons, and how would they act when armed with those
powers which this Bill gave them ? He objected,
por so much to the principle as to the clauses of the
Bin; and Ire notibed the Spencean Society. About
(91 ti 'ma ago, thhe,was a society called 44 The
Society.' held at Newcastle ; Spence
was thee a member ; and heiesil the paper referred
to is the Report of the Committee, and the society
Opened him, and he shortly after left the town. He
therefore had been :Wired to contradict, and he did
it most publicly, that the people of Newcastle had
any connection with the Spenceans. The Librarian
of the Newcastle Society had published a blasphe-,
mous parody on the Litany. and he was dismissed
from his employment. The Honourable Bananas
concluded with moving, 44 That this Dill be read a
'third time this day six months."
Sir J. C. HIPPISLEY alluded to the disturbances
in Soinersetshire. which were owing to the dissemi-
nation of those son of writings to which the Honour-1
able Baronet had alluded : all these publications had
been transmitted to Government. The Cooney of
*Somerset was loyal, and the men alluded to had been
convinced of their error.
Mr. W. SMITH said; whether sediaons writings
Mid been circulated or not, was not the immediate
quation before the House. but whether there was any
tecessisr this Bill. With respect to the ground
which.npon this Bill proceeded, it was, that those
persons who asked for annual Parliaments and uni-
versal Suffrage, were actuated by a wish to subvert
the British Constitution. Now that was a mere mat-

ter of opinion, and it would become persons bolding
mach opinions to be careful how they affixed such an
odium es any men for holding contrary opinions, and
• So impute to them a with to subvert the Constitution.
He defended his constituents from the charges con-
• tuned in the Report. He read a letter from a Gen-
denims at Norwich, in which he accused a certain
person of sending up officiously to the Secretary of
State a blasphemous hand-bill, containing a parody
on the Litany, which parody had been written 25
years ago—.bad slept ever since—and had never been
ciroulated but 'through the medium of a printer, by
hii emissaries : he had confessed the fact to the writer

of tbe letter. The Honourable Gentlernin

ever there was any person more entitled to be ion-
teamed and treated with disgust than any other, it was
s:Venegado; one of those. men, who, having neither
character not fortune to lose, are ready td lend their
bands, for the sake again, to betray the cause which
they professed to support. The Honourable Gentle-
man read some passages from a work, which con-
tained the most seditious language. This book he saw
infuse shop of a bookseller in Pall-Mall, who serves
the Royal Family; it was given to a person of the
same of Winterbottom, to publish, if he chose it, for
his benefit, by the author. He did not wish to call
down the severity of the Attorney-Generalon the au-
thor or publisher of the work. With respect to the,
charge against the Union Club, it was true that brio'
of bis constituents came up to town as delegates to
the Hampden Club; but not finding the Clubin
ei-
istatce, they turned round and went home, and this
ems' the sum of the offence which brought down on
the Union Club of Norwich, the notice of the Secret
Committee. With respect to the Bill, the penalties
were. in. his opinion, greater than the offence would
isw rit. He had already given his opinion on that'
subpct, and must vote fir the notion of the Ho'
nostealile Baronet.
Mr. C. WYNNE'defended the eopduct of the an:

Thor of the book alluded tn, end complained of the
manner in which his friend bad been treated by the
Honourable Gentleman. Was it right,that atterhaving
recanted the opinions which he entertained when a
boy of nineteen, he should now be twitted with his
error. He had known him for thirty years, and for
the Honourable Gentleman to call him renrgado, in
a pine where he could not answer for himself, was
not correct

Lord W. RUSSELL thought that his Honoura-
ble Friend had argued very pointedly in respect to
the measure under discussion. The Noble Lord was
not prepared to surrender the rights and liberties of
the country on loose reports and exliarte evidence.
however he might he allied by the ties of relationship
to any one of the Members of the Committee, upon
the report of which the Bill was founded. The NAle
Lord said, he had bad a seat in the House many
years; be had witnessed several measures of this de.
scription. He took satisfaction to himself that he had
always opposed them ; and he was fully persuaded
that no one of them was ever attended with any
good consequences.
Mr. FINLAY thought the measures which had
been taken viry advisable. He thought them highly
proper in preventing those meetings, which might
have drawn the country into very considerable dan-
ger. It was necessary that a part of English liberty
should be sacrificed for a moment, in order that the
whole might be eventually preserved. On the whole,
he could not but give his cardial assent to the Bill.
He did not agree with what had been said about
some persons of eminence in and about Glasgow be-
ing connected with the seditious assemblies and
transactions which had taken place in that quarter.
There had, he believed, been none connected with
those proceedings but e'en of the lowest character,
and in very inane circumstances. As to the higher
class of workingmeople, there were none whom he
did not believe to be of the greatest respectability.—
The only danger, he could not but believe. was con-
sequent upon the very bad state of trade, and the
great number ot people who were thrown out of em-
ploymeut. With respect to meetings, be could not
think that they were to be called whenever they were
requested, and it appeared to him that a Magistrate
might very properly•refuse to ca.l a meeting which
he did not deem entirely prudent.
Sir S. KOMILLY regretted that a measure so
important as the present should be discussed in so thin
a House. He was himself decidedly against this
measure, which went to deprive die people of Eng.
land of their dearest ptivitege.that of public discus-
sion, which rendered the people of this country more
attached 'to their Government than any other people
were. This valuable privilege had not only an effect
on our domestic situation, but operated most benefi-
cially as regarded foreign Powers. This had been
recently shewn in the case of the Slave Trade, which,*
by the Treaty ot 1814, was to have existed in France
far several years; yet the expression of public opinion
in this country had obliged the French Government
to abandon that abominable traffic. The House
ought therefore to pause long before it deprived the
people of this invaluable right. At present, he con-
tended that there were no grounds for passing the
present Bill. He contended. that no political distut-
bance had existed at any of the Meetings which had
taken place. Disturbances had ukso place Certainly,
but they were disturbances arising out of the distress,
and want of the people, and not out of political feel-
ing. Such, he contended, was the seigin of the dis-
turbance and riot which took place on the day of the
Spafields meeting. If the present Bill did no more
than prevent meetings sad, assemblies without the
permission of some responsible persons, housekeepers
or others, seven or more in number, he would not
oppose 'it; but be objected to the capital punish-
ments which the Bill enacted—(Near, hear, hear.)
The Honourable Gentleman then took a review of
the provigons of the present Bill, and of the Riot
Act, the latter of which he contended had never ope-
rated to prevent rioting ; as a proof of which he in-
t aanced the riots in London in 1780, those in Bir-
mingham in 1793, and lastly, the Corn-bill riots in
1814. He contended that passing the Bill as it at
present stood, would only be adding one more capital
punishment to our statute-book, already a disgrace tol
the country, and which could never be acted upon.
`The liberties of the people had never during a time
of peace been abridged to such an extent as the House
were now about to abridge them; and he called on
the House In pause before they adopted it. He was,
of opinion with the Noble Lord (Lord W. Russell)
that the people had already given up mere of their
liberties into the hands of Ministers than they could
afford to spare.
Mr. BATHURST defended the measure ar neces-
sary. and contended, that the designs of the Spen-
ceans were most dangerous, pointing at nothing less
than revolution, and a division of all property. The
Right Hon. Gentleman repeated all his former argu-
ments in support of the Bill, which he contended did
not at all interfere with the Constitutional Meetings
of the People, whether in Corporate Bodies or an
Counties, &e. It Was only those Meetings which
were not constitetienal which were to be prevented—
Meetin;s from which riot and destruction of property
had originated. The Committee, is "their Report,
stated, that they bad proof that other meetings and
other riots were in contemplation. Would Gentle.
men who opposed the Bill say, it was not the duty of
Government to prevent those meetings taking place
or would they say, that these meetings ought to have
been allowed to take place, to see whether these new
riots would be more successful than those already past?
Mr. PONSONBY had heard that the declaration
made to-night by the Member for Glasgow (Mr.
Findlay) chat ilo persons were concerned in the riots
which took place in that city above the lower orders.
He had heard the declaration with great satisfaction,
because, from the speech of the Learned Lord Advo.
cote on a former night, he bad been led to form a
different opinion. The Right Honourable Gentleman
(Mr. Bathurst) said, the Committee had called on the
House to adopt some measure. The Committee
had.done no such thing, but left all to the discretion
of .the House. The House has adopted three asea-
sures already, and were now discussing another.—
' With respect to which his opinion was, that part was
good and part bad. He was persuaded that at this
time some restraint should be laud on public meetings.
Hs alio thought the adjournment of meetings should
be prevented. He did not deny that it was necessary
the thiftegiatrany should be invested with powers of
restraint; but be must °blest to this power being

vested in the hands of a single. Magistrate. He eons
sidered that morelhan one Magistrate should be re
quired to act on this occasion. This he considered
as the most objectionable part of the Bill, .and as
giving such power to a single Magistrate, he could
not support the Bill.
Mr. Serjeant BEST thought the Bill provided the
only remedies which could be applied to the evils
which the Right Honourable Gentleman had acknow-
ledged existed. The Right Honourable Gentleman
had found fault with some of the provisions of the
Bill; but he had recommended no others in their
place. The power given to a Magistrate by the Bill,
was certainly considerable ; and it would he desirable
that there shoeld, whenever it was possible, be a con-
currence of opinion between two or more Magistrates.
If the power given to the Magistracy by the Bill was
great, the House would recollect, it was given for a
most important purpose, namely, to protect the
honest and quiet part of the community, against the
plans of the designing and disaffected.
Mr. CA LC RAFT also opposed vesting the power
in question in the hands of a single Magistrate. A
single Magistrate could not license an alehouse, or
order the removal of a pauper. Yet here he was to
have the power of stopping the mouths of a starving
people. But these were trifles. He objected to the
Bill altogether, except those parts which related to
secret oaths, calling meetings by unknown persons,
and adjournments of meetings. But he would boldly
say, that he knew of no conduct on the part of the
per,* of this country which could justify any at-
tempt to abridge their liberties. If this had been the
only measure proposed to give power to Government,
it would have met with a different reception ; but
Government had already got the liberties of the
people in their hands.
Mr. P. MOORE opposed the Bill, on his own be-
half, en the behalf of his constituents, and on that of
the whole empire. The' conspiracy of the whole
country, if it existed, was not against the Throne, but
against the Trustees of the Executive Authority.
Mr. CANNING did not support the present mea-
sure because he conceived it permanently necessary
to abridge the invaluable right of petition. If he
consented to throw restraints around it, they were
restraints in the nature of protection, to defend it
from misuse. Let this Bill be passed, and let another
question arise on which it was the wish of the country
to express its opinion, where was the clause that
would.silence the national voice ? He supported the
measure on the behalf of the people, to separate them
from their deluders. He wished to draw a line be-
tween the ssund and the infected, and to keep the
plague from spreading farther than it had yet done.
He defended the Report of the Committee, and con-
tended that it was customary to found measures upon
such reports. If those which had been proposed by
Government had been brought out singly and suc-
cessively, he r uld agree that there had been unfair
dealing, but the whole system had been laid open at
once. There was an almost total unanimity of opi.
nion that popular meetings ought to be placed under
some controul : the question was therefore become
one of mete detail, whether the proposed provisions
were adapted to the end in view ? He alluded to the
bad nse which had been made of the instruction so
carefully bestowed on the lower classes. What could
be a higher crime than for designing men to avail
themselves of that dawn of improvement, as soon as it
rose, so,as to make it almost a question whether it were
an advantage or nett It vote-iike'sbnee illegal strata-I
gems et war, in which,not satisfied with using fair wea-
pons, the enemy poisoned the wells and springs of life.
An attempt had been made by an Hon. Gentleman
opposite to ridicule the little success which had at-
tended the attempt at insurrection. That Hon. Gen-''
tleman was difficult to be pleased. He wished the
Tower not only to be summoned, but taken, and the
Metropolis not only to be alarmed but in flames !
Enough had been done, in his opinion, to call for
such remedies. For his own part, he was contented
to see the mob march to the Tower, without waiting
till they should take possession of it; he was content
i
to see the torch, without waiting till the Bank was in
flames—(ffeer, hear.) But those who argued against
the proposed measura would have us wait till things
were carried further—they would have no remedy
' applied till all was irretrievable—(Hear, hear.) I le
had no wish. to balk or infringe upon the right of
petition ; but when that right was endangered by the
conduct of those who pretended to exercise-it—who
pretended to speak the voice of the people--when
they heard the voice of Jacob but felt the band of
Esau—it was against that, and not against the right
of petition, they were called upon to struggle—( flour.)
In every free Constitution, occasions would occur on
which part of it must be put in abeyance, to secure
the safety of the rest. Such an occasion, a case of
powerful necessity, called upon the House to give its
sanction to this meaiure—they were called upon to
prevent the exercise of the right of petition from being
mixed up with rebellion, devastation, and ruin.
Mr. BROUGHAM said he rose, he feared for the
last time, to enter his protest against this measure ;
and he should perhaps have contented himself with
that, but that the Right Hon. Gentleman who bad
la* spoken, had perfectly misapprehended the argu-
ments Made use of on that side of the House. The
Right Hon. Gentleman (Mr. Canning) had said,
that all except three Members on that side of the
House, had agreed as to the necessity of limiting by
regulations public meetings, meaning of course those
who bad spoken—of whom it happened that three
would form a majority. But those who had spoken
of the necessity of regulations—never said any thing
of the necessity of such regulations as those before
the House. They had agreed, that the sanction or
seven householders might be declared a necessary
step previously to the calling any public meeting, on
the principle analogous to our constitutional usage,
of preventing any idle or mischievous persons, not
connected with the vicinage, from calling large bodies
together for bad purposes—(Hear, hew.) But was
there any thing in common between such a regula-
tion as that, ;ad giving the power to one Magistrate
(while ewe were necessary, as had been observed, to
pats a pauper) to enter any meeting to arrest the
speakers, and finally to disperse it. That such a
power was given by the Bill, it was in vain to deny—
the quibble set up by the Learned Serjeant was of
no avail. He (Serjeant Best) had said that the
Mhistrate possessed such a power already. He
possessed no such power, as that not directly given.
but awkwardly acknowledged by the Bill. He
(Mr. Boughatn) understood the powers postessedi I

by the Magistrate 'of arresting persons guilt? of e
breach of the puolie peace—he understood the power,
though that was doubtful of arresting persons liver,
ing words tending to a breach of the peace—hut l!e
had never before heard of any power which a More-
trate possessed of arresting any person for any thing
uttered which, in his opluion (for on that the whets
rested), tended Le bring the Government Sete ern;
tempt. On no such power Lad any Magistrate hie
therto acted—tor none had any Magisgaze coo iended
—to what dangers did this subject aey one Leo: cisirg
the right of petitioning, which the Right lekeeuraele
Gentleman had acknowledged to be sacred. These
meetings must hereafter depend on the charecter nr
prejudices of the neighbouring Jounce of the-Peacee
and from the various feelings which would opereie.
even upon worthy Magistrates, they night be•at.
tined, as great inroads would he made on the rieht
of meeting publicly v.-, petition as any eleicsnieot mon
insure. The Right Honourable Gentlemen (Mr,
Canning) had said, that the Ministers were not much
pleased at the Suspension of the Habeas Corpus—.
that they looked upon it as a fearful, rather than a
valuable gift. He would endeavour to relieve hint
from his uneasiness, and to shew him that his alarm,
as to the uselessness of that power were as ground-
less as those of the Report seemed to be. He did not
believe, for his own part, that there would be many
arrests, or that it had ever been intended to sorest
many persons ; but in adopting that measure there
were two purposes in view. The one he took to be
the desire to increase a wholesome dread, which the
Ministers above all others were interested in spread-
ing over the country. The other was to divert the en.
tention of Parliament and the country hem The
pressure of taxation ; to prevent the present Session
from being, like the last, a Session of rebuts -a Ses-
sion of defeat to those who attempted to impose
taxes, and of victory to those who promoted Reform,
and to set aside the demand for Parliamentary Re-
form. (Hear, Ater.) For when such important
questions came nightly before the Hnese, as that of
the life or death of the Constitution, or at least of its
suspended animation, as the Right Hon. Centlenee
(Mr. Canning) had acknowledged, of the aggega.
ment of a Dictator—(hear; hear)—when gee elens of
such fearful magnitude were constantly beftm: them,
it was impossible that they could atteed tub.jects,
which, though of themselves important, were, in corn.
parison with the former, of less consequence.—
One only of the numerous nences on the subject of
Retrenchment had, in tact, yet Leen be:epee forward.
This was some solace to the Ministers tinder the
weight the Parliament had laid Loon them. This
was not All, the tongues and pens of pnblie !lookers
and writers felt the influence of the Bill. Every. ore
who sat done' to attack the measures of his Mejestes
Ministers, or to enlighten the public, felt that he tfid
it with a halter about !xis neck. 'He knew that if l.e
passed a certain line, the nest week or the next day
he would surely be prevented from continuing to
write. The result had been, that the Ministers
had been saved from a stormy Session—and what to
thern. was of equal importance, they might look at
any publication without being offended. The men
against whom the powers of the Bill would be direct.
ed, might not probably be those whom he reach re-
spected ; but it mattered not to him in whose person
the Constitution WAS violated. The Honourable
Member then, to shew the danger of relying on re-
ports founded on ex-parte evidence, referred to the
Report of the Committee in 1812. which gave smash
more terrific accounts than those the documents
lately presented to the House. It detailed murder
and riots, and affiliations of clubs, and meetings of
disciplined bodies •of armed men, all the matesir3
parts of which statements. afterwards curved out to
be utterly false. The form of a horrid oath was re-
peated in the House, with much the same Lenore!:
effect with which a• similar document had been read
the other day. It bad been then also asserted, tha:
at the murder of Mr. Horsefield, the populace lid
gathered round him,. to revile him—which, on tie
trial, had been proved to he a great falnliood.—
He warned the House against the system of tricker!
pursued in older to magnify a small danger, and
blow up the small flame of disaffection into a tie
which might consume the Constitution. As a ee•
cimen of this system, be mentioned, that an Apple-
. don had been made to the Court of Session
land, to remove prisoners confinea fur sedition, from
the gaol to the Castle of Edinburgh. What sett
the purpose of this ? The Castle, it was thouglie
would sound better, as it was known that only ol
tors were confined there. The Court gave it in tee:
light—would not lend its authority to tricl: caul: i
was to be put on the country—decided that the la t
should take its course—and mimed ta sennien
removal of the poisoners. The great point whoe
had been relied on in 1791, was, that the reople
not apply to Parliament, but relied on thetuselre.
They now universally applied to Parliament, oral
how had the House requited the ?—(Hter, 7r)
—They had refused to inquire into their diorer
(Hear)---they had passed to the !Aces Carders of :fa
Day ; they had not gratitude enongli even to cone-
der the came of their evils ; and now they P*4'l
fills to Fog them —(llear, hear,, hear).-1-10 bored
no evil would come of thus; thar the `resent, as
was one of the worst, would he found 'the last of
series of encroachments on liberty, and that the fanl
prediction of his Honnurable Friend (Mr. Calcraftf
would not be realieed, that pewee waginsatiable, are
whet, they were no longer ready to give, other
vion'd .cot be found ready to take—Weer, hea:9. I
Hon. and Learned Centlaman then went on to vier
tend that the whole of the proceedings of Ministers
were caletalaetd to ceeate alarm in the public Mille.
to answer their own pnrposes.
Lord COCHRANE, amidst loud cries of Qirit!rs! voted•
ad, that the Bills whirl. ''ad introdneed re itiwridel
to cover their own desi7ns, end be ment.iimid the eases tf a its
M47'ear, and a Mr. Weir, who were imprivined mew o:llPetff
under it, and one of them, the latter, wa• sines, ards Ji• bursa:
without any crime being imputed to him. Tee Err resting
Wl' ear) was confined in the Debtors' at.!, of the prison a: W 2,
gow, and was most Larshly treated. tie was a Sisdent of IY4
vlnity, and had the certificate of several of his felinw.stuileivr
prove his unimpeachable character. White these practices air'
lifted, no man ViValli be ,Ate in the eoootry. fir, telt eattirmtcl
that Mitristets.had no other !ruentien hut to establish desry
fa the country. Fur his own parr, he would prefer the ofei At .1
011 disguised tyranny of Algiers to the system they were at P"'
net pursuing to deprive the people of their Isbertie.
Mr. FINLAY explained: The person Aided to by the °s4
lard (Cochrane) was not treated in so harsh a mower as sv.. ,
rqtreseuteil. He was plated to ;ha debtors' ride in the I" 4'
Brat, sad if he had soy remota to complain, be soiai un AT. t
better accosunosiatioti. But teen the debtors wd.: et a

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