Star.
London, England, 1819-12-03 00:00:00

by urging them to measures of security. What was
the appearance of the country at the separation of,
Parliament last Session ? Was it not all apparent
tranquillity ? Yet, such was. its irritable stare in-
ternally, that one or two Meetings set it in motion!
—What was the condition, even of the West Riding
of York, at that' time ?—Apparently, a state of
profound quiet ; and to this apparent tranquillity
Earl Fitzwitliam himself, and the Gentlemen at the
Assizes of York, bore ample testimony ; yet, let the
Wiese recollect, what was the effect of the Meeting
att Hunslet Moor upon that part of the country ?
Why, it produced so much irritation, that there was
not a large town in that part of the country that was
not the scene of- tumultuous and Radical Meetings.
He would put it to the candour of a Noble Lord op-
posite (Lord Archibald Hamilton), to declare what
was the effect of one Meeting in the West of Scot-
land, apparently so tranquil before? Had it not the
effect of carrying terror and dismay throughout every
village and district of the County? He would beg
the Noble Lord then to consider, if the present Bill
bad been in force at the time this formidable Assem-
bly took place, how safely and easily it would have
been inThis power to have collected an armed force
fully sufficient to overawe all dangerous attempts on
the part of the disaffected multitude. Again, he
would beg to impress upon the House the fact, that
previous o the formidable Meeting at Newcastle,
where, he had been assured, there were present not
less than 700 men, all armed, ready to resist the Civil
Authoi itiei.—Previous to this Meeting, Government-
had reteiv,sl the Mast positive assurances not only of
the tranquillity of that part of the country, but even
of the good disposition of the People (Hear, hear).—
What was the effect of this Meeting in the country?
—universal terror and dismay. If, then, such were,
the symptoms which were manifested, whenever an
opportunity was given, and that the character of
them appeared so decisive of the internal condition
of the country, could Parliament, consistently rith
its duty, suffer itself to halt behind the progress of
disaffection ? It had been said, and an argument was
attempted to be founded on the assertion, that as the
evils were only proved to exist in the manufacturing
classes, the agricultural part of the community
should he exempt from the visitation of the remedies
by which those evils were to be counteracted. Now,
there was one simple answer to this : namely—that
it was-well known that the manufacturing districts
entered largely into the agricultural districts, and
that they were very often so inseparably connected
as not to be distinguished from each other But,l
were the Act merely to be local in its nature, be
begged the House to look at the result. A tedious
pracess must he gone through ; the state of the-
country roust first manifest itself in decided charac-
ter; the Magistrates mu t meet, consult, and de-
cide ; they must make their represenoition to Go-
vernment; Government must deliberate and decide.
And about the time that the Magistrates would he
authorised to meet the formidable appearances that
presented themselves, the mischief Mould have gone
forward—the Radi:als would have met. and all their
purposes been fully effected. From the considera-
tion then of all these dangers and injurious delays,
he was fully of opinion, that e' measure ought to
be a general oae, and not local. He.would now come
to the next. proposition, that of permanency. He had
already declared it as his conviction, that this mea-
sare, as it was now intended to be proposed, threw
no embarrassment on the exercise of the right of the
subject to deliberate upon his complaints. On the
contrary, it was evident that the necessity of making
the measure permanent, arose out of the very nature
of those Meetings. What, indeed, could be more dis-
advantageous to a subject, than to be placed in a
situation where he must exercise his right under such
isividious circumstances, as would completely invali-
date it and would not the system which must be fol-
lowed, in the absence of such measures as the Bill
then before the House, have that disagreeable effect?
Resides, nothing could be more painful to a body of
Magistrates than to be placed in such a situation as
the Magistrates of Manchester were on the 16th of
August last, unable, as they must be, to determine
what it was that should constitute an illegal Meet-
ing. Was it not lamentable, that Magistrates should
be placed in su:h a conjuncture as that a Noble-
man of undoubted loyalty found himself in, When he
was obliged to confess, that he rejoiced at the. close of
the. Meeting at Ilunslet Moor ; for, while he recog-
nized the apprehensions to which it gave birth, he
was obliged to confess the inadequacy of the law, as
it stood to meet those dangers? Was it not, then, of
the first consequence to provide a safe and secure
mode of exercising this most important right of the
subject ? And when he was told, that the Bill aimed
a blow at Public Meetings in general, he would ven-
ture to ask, were the Magistracy of the Country com-
posed of such characters as that they could refuse their
concurrence to call a Public Meeting without very ade-
quate reasons for withholding their consent?—( Wear),
He should be astonished to find, that there was any'
Gentleman in that House who entertained the notion
that disaffection was of that tardy. character—that it
was so resistless, as to be overthrown by a Bill; like
the present, for the duration of three months. He
believed, in his conscience, that it would be better to
pass no Bill at all, than a Bill of so limited an ex-
istence. But it would be in the recollection of the
House, that Parliament was not precluded at any fu-
ture time from repealing the Bill altogether, or
shortening its duration; and under these circum-
stances, be thought that the mere circumstance of
declaring the Act to be permanent, might be reason-
ably conceded, as he believed that it would furnish a
most valuable appendage to the Bill, in displaying
the determination of the House, and striking a cor-

responding terror into the minds of the diZffected.
For his part, he saw nothing in the Bill inconsistent
with the liberty of the subject—iC.4etrs and laughing
on the Opposition Benches). He thought it Would
afford the most lasting and effectual guarantee to the
rights of the People. He should, theretbre, wish to
make it permanent, for the purpose of taking from
it the imputation of being an invasion of the Con-
stitution, which certainly did not belong to it. Hay
ing felt it necessary to say thus much, in order to
convey to the Gentlemen opposite, the impressions he
entertained as to the impossibility of making the
concessions they required, he should conclude by de-
claring, that nothin had occurred, during the de-
bate,. which altered the seatialeate be had already de.
tailed to the Hesse.