Star.
London, England, 1818-02-03 00:00:00

.

S. That •
bas been left

period II
uriotts to

a wanton outrage of tae law., --
Wended by a corrupt and venal Administration... —_
ruerrtsmof more than a million of men who hate petitioned for
5. That the arrests which have taken place, were meant to
delude the nation into a belief that the oppressive measures of
tie ministry were necessary and just; and fo colour an affected
alarm at tumults, generally excited by hired agents of the
Government, in furtherance of its views to subdue the spirit
of Deform.
6 That the sufferers under this malignant persecution have
been treated in a cruel and arbitrary manner; banded front
county to county, from prison to prison ; espossd in fetters to
the public gaze ; subjected even to privations of food, and doom-
ed to rigorous solitary confinement; their letters intercepted,
and communications with their nearest relatives forbidden.

7. That dam is every reason to bellow their utors know
them to be innocent, while they were subjeped toot these i
ties, from their recent liberation without trial, some uncoils
pooally, and others upon their own nxognizances, which tare
bias cancelled by their accusers.
I. nos this Meeting sincerely sympathises with all these vie.
thoslif atbitrary power, and hired acctuation; and deems them
sambiantly entitled to public support.
411. That in the opinion of this Meeting, the subjecting Mr.
Means and Son, and other Englishmeo, to the shameful degs
illation of being ironed, was a grow violation of the laws of the
had ; a scandalous outrage upon humanity, and in their persons
• Meardonable insult offered to the whole People of Eng-
• educing a wanton barbarity derogatory to the national
ellwroeter, and revolting to the mild principles of the English
CbatittitutMn.
• 10. That the manly firmness of Mr. Evans, son. Mr. Evans,
. and Mr. Benbow, in refusing any but unconditional Übe-
Alden, signally entitles them to the warmest approbation, 6r
boring afforded another noble example, chit, even in this age,
deeds only to be resisted, to be subdued.
a subscription be now opened for the assistance of
the Messrs. Evans, Mr. Benbow, and such other sufferers under
the recent Suspension of the Habeas Corpus Act, as may seem
added to public assistance and support by a Committee.
The Resolutions were received with loud and long
continued expressions of applause.
His Lordship proceeded :—He had anticipated, he
said, that when the Resolutions should be submitted
they would be received in the manner they had been.
He did not apprehend that any person oould be found
prepared to dissent from the truths contained in them;
for it could not but be the conviction of every maxis
mind, that had not his Majesty's Ministers taken'the
steps they had taken last year to excite tumult, no
tumult would have happened on the part of those
who advocated Parliamentary Reform. Why did
his Majesty's Ministers bring all their information to
the Houses of Parliament concealed in a green bag?
Why was it referred to a Secret Committee ? If acts
of violence had been really committed by the people,
;here could have been no reason for secrecy; neither
when they were prepared to take the individuals into
custody, could there have been any reason for con-
cealing the acts of which they were accused. Had
'they received their information from credible per-
sons, what motive could they possibly have in con-
cealing their names? No man who came forward to
give information of acts of violence committed again.t
Government or the laws of the country, could pos-
sibly wish to have his name concealed ; for his own
part, if he had given information to Government of
acts of treason against the State, he would accuse
Odra man, as, he conceived, merited the accusa-
tion, and would avow what he had done. There
could have been no just ground of secrecy. The fact
was, his Majesty's Ministers were conscious they had
hired their emissaries, to give information against
'the people. They knew they bad hired Oliver, ask
the ether villains connected with him, to give informs
motion against the people, and they knew also that
'their information was false. What was the reason his,
Majesty's Ministers again proposed to bring down
another green bag, to be referred to a Commiktee,
similarly constituted as the last? After all the alarmsi
they had excited had subsided—after the Constitu-
don of the country had been restored—after all
grata& of apprehension must have ceased—it ap-,
rapid that another green bag was to be referred to
$ Committee. 'What was proposed by this ? It was
ordered to carry on the delusion a little longer !
re were in the country many willing dupes,. and
there were many who allowed themselves to be duped
Who were interested in the plunder of the people—
it was for this reason the alarmwas necessary to be
kept -
sible

up. His Majesty's Ministers were at length sen-
that their villainy was exposed, and their con-
laid open in the face of day. They did not
dare to meet the indignation of the public, and that
was the reason why they were endeavouring to keep
up the juggle a little longer. What they were doing
was probably with a view to the Suspension of the
Habeas Corpus Act, under the effect of some future
alarm, or to afford them a precedent for that mea-
sure, whenever the people should hereafter comet
forward, as he trusted they would, and cover the
House with petitions for Reform. He trusted the
people,notwithstanding the threats of Ministers,svould
resort to the measures which had provoked the ven-
geance of Government last year. He trusted the
people would not be deterred from meeting for the
purpose of that Reform, of which they had, by the
machinations of Ministers, been• hitherto deprived.
He hoped they would not petition Parliament in
classes of twenty merely, but in bodies of an hundred,
tens of hundreds, thousand;, and tens of thousands.
He would have them shew his Majestyri" Minisiers
they were not afraid of their Bills, but would mebt
in spite of them, till they obtained that Reform they
were determined upon having. He would not tres-
pass further upon their time; he returned them
thanks for the indulgence with which they had lis-
tened to him. His heart and hand were with them,

and he should always most willingly, as far as his
humble abilities would enable him, devote himself to
their cause, and promote their endeavours to extort
from Government that Parliamentary Reform so es-
sentially necessary to restore the Constitution of the
country to its ancient purity.—(Loud liss.zzas followed
Al, Lordship's speech.)
Mr. WooLaa stood forward on the present occa-
sion to second the Resolutions which had been just
submitted to their approbaticiu; and he did so with
feelings of exultation. It was to him a subject of
proud gratification, to see so many persons assembled
together to celebrate what might aptly be called the
signal defeat of Ministers in their last Ministerial
campaign against the rights and liberties of the peo-
ple.—At this period last year, Ministers were full in
array against the people, ranging their forces in every
jiad,
direction, and' Attempting to asswn mit an aspect.
as if they thought the Gorgon nri isterial terrors
would frights= very one trot: ter Or altitC

I`.

shotild have the hardihotki
gibbet, orsome other expe-
ois career. He had no doubt
the Meeting this day would
considerable degree of liberty
common cry of their calum-
. were constantly told that the
language they held at their public meetings, proved
they were still in possession of a considerable portion
of that liberty of which they complained they had
been deprived. But to whom was it they were in-
debted for the small remnants of freedom that was
still left them? It was to their own exertions—to

their own effort; notwithstanding the perils with
which their exertions had been attended. It was to
this opposition to unjust laws and arbitrary measures,
they were indebted for what they now possessed.—
Certainly they owed nothing to his Majesty's Minis
ters.--If it was possible any one should require proof
if their hatred of freedom, it was only necessary to
refer to their conduct during the last year. The
brightest privileges of Englishmen had been torn one
by one from them, as Ministers had from time to
time determined to dispossess them. Never at any
lieriod of our history had the people obtained a po-
litical benefit from Ministers; never had they obtained
a voluntary surrender of their rights, unless when
they had such a force to support their pretensions, as
rendered the concession of Ministers an act of pru-
dence. Such was the short history of the people's
rights. He then referred to the efforts which had
been made by our ancestors, observing that the peo-
,ple of the present age had been more disposed to ad-
mire the exploits of their ancestors than to imitate
them. It should never be forgotten that Sydney and
Russell, who had achieved so much in the cause of
liberty, had sacrificed their lives, the one on the scaf-
fold, the other in the field. It was not the possession
of a right, but the ikse of that right, which made it
valuable. He obserrcd,-that the people had only to
determine to be free, in order to secure to them the
enjoyment of that blessing. To expect any thing
from the present weak Administration-was in vain.
Whoever expected good sense from them, must be
disappointed. •Whoever expected that bold policy
which formed an excuse for rashness, would 1* dii-
appointed.—But, above all, whoever expected from
them mercy and humanity, would be completely dis-
appointed. Ministers could have no confidence in
the people, because they must feel that they had no
claim to the esteem of the people ; there was nothing
by which they could maintain their importance, but
by retaining their places ; for that reason they wished
to render their offices They knew the
English character must destroyed, before the peo-
ple could be reconciled to their Government. It
therefore was and had been their object to degrade
the people below the standard of Englishmen, in or-
der that the rulers and ruled might• bear a compari-
son with each other. He adverted to the petitions
,for Reform last year, to resist which, Parliament had
felt the necessity of doing something. It became the
Honourable House to assign some reason for the con-
duct it meant to adopt, that the public might know
how to act, but the subterfuge to which Parlia-
ment had resorted, would, in the transactions of

ordinary life, have excited a blush, as they had had
recourse to some of the most barefaced falsehoods.—
Violence had been attributed to the people for claim-
ing the rights of Englishmen, and their language in
petitioning might have been strong, but it could not
be stronger than their injuries. To have used words
of adequate strength, they must have spoke in thun-
der, and delivered their words with the rapidity of
lightning. ; no language could do justice to their feel-
ing. Their oppressors thought it was not violence
-to bury the rights and privileges of Englishmen, and
of the British Constitution. They had heaped inno-
vation on the Constitution, like " Pelion on Ossa ;"
but that they considered no violence ; but for the
people to dig round the sordid mass, and endeavour,
from the rubbish, to extract what there was of value
—that indeed was a degree of violence, for the re-
pression of which, weak and venal judges were to be
concentrated round the feeble Administration, and
'law was to be perverted to defend that which was
obnoxious to all law, and destitute of all principle.
They would hear the details which had given rise to
the meeting of this-day from other persons. He was
persuaded that the recital of them would make those
who should hear them imagine themselves either
among the barbarous hordes of Africa or the despots
of Asia—in truth, in any place but the British me-
tropolis. He wished it to be recollected, that the
victims who had been seised by the arbitrary hands
of Government bad been seized in the exercise of
their most valuable right—the right of petitioning-
Parliament. He deprecated the necessity of petition-
ing Parliament at all. There had been a time, when
the'petitions of the people would have been laid- at
eke foot of the Throne. It was an Innovation that
the people should have been reduced to the necessity
'of petitioning their own servants in the House of
Commons. If Parliament had not uinrpedithe power
which they exercised, it would never have been vie-I
eessary for the people to send petitions, calling on
them to do their duty. This usurped power had been
exercised in a most oppressive manner ; there were
•some of the persons then present who suffered the
ire-itest indignities and oppressions under the adts of
t the Government; and the only way these sufferings
an their parts could be accounted for was, that tlr.
Ministerial crusade was so violently directed against
the people, that these individuals would never have
been so treated, had it not been intended that their
graves should prevent them from ever telling the
tale of their woes—(Marts of applause). It was
indeed natural, that men who thus exercised their
power, should resist every attempt at Reform ; that
they should contemplate Reform as the most deadly
weapon which could-be directed against their politi-
cal existence ; and therefore it was as natural to ex-
pect that they would have directed all their force
against the voice of the people. Such was the line
of conduct which they had resolved to adopt during
the campaign of last year; but that was a year of
signal disgrace to them, 'for they had been defeated
in almost all the attacks they had planned against
the liberties of the people. But as it was not possible
fof the people, successful as they now were, to cal-
culate on the fresh effort despotism would again
make, they must not lose the commanding situation
in which they then stood, or let slip the fair oppor-
tionity they had of insisting on heir -ig;hts. The
Godernment seized innocent men on charges of high
Mid kliFew them into prisons. Did they be-

A • 1

COOPtigIIWOU the fear, that if any one si
ei.imiststalskra rennifl‘the halter, the 1
diens, Woold tattninate his
sob the iniqOtoit•
that the language of the
carps Act were pnwe that there was a cot
hee r the Pecsige; in England. It was the cc
too. to silence the minors, and the people we
zee oath' limed for _