Star.
London, England, 1817-02-25 00:00:00

I adapted Med presented ru the Prince Rient. That
the adjournment of the Meeting in Spa-fit:WS t i the
2d of December, was not theeffect of any previotis
concert, but merely the result of ignorance as to the
time when P•rliarnent would meet. That when he
had seen Lord'Sidmontli, previous to the qd of De
cember, his Lordship had not asked him to witithold
from attending the Spa-fields Meeting, but had told
him that his
-presence and his conduct there appeared
to have prevented great mischief (Near. hear.) —That
the rioters who had- committed excesses in the City.
did not belong to the Meeting, but had been met by
the petitioner on his way to it, where he had propo.
sect acresolution against eiotioe, which had been una•
nimously ad4pted. That the third and last Spa-fields
Meeting had bs'en still more numerous than either of
the former. and bad passs-cl without the least dis-
turbance. That as to the pike-heads, he had received
an anonymous letter whilst at the last Meeting. in.
forming him that a person dressed as a game-
keeper, had called on a man of the name of Ben-
cliffe, a r. iith, residing in Covent-garden, and had
employed him to make spikes for a
—That some had been made, which he bad t ken
away, and ordered more ; and that a Police Offi:er
had since called on Bencliffe, and had a similar one
made, to be laid before the Secret Committee; and
that he conceived the letter might prove an important
clue. As to the plan for an attack nit the Tower or
the Bank, that the adjournment to .Patite-yaid prov-
ed that no such intention was formed, and if the
Meeting had not after all taken place there, it was to
prevent any inconvenience which might arise from
its vicinity to Parliament. In fine, that the Petition
proposed by the Petitioners, and adopted at the diffe-
rent Meetings, had been received by that House, the
House of Peers, and his Royal Highness the Prince
Regent himself. He (Lord Cochrane) could in no
degree be considered responsible for the truth of thes.!
statements. - In his opinion, however, they ought to
he submitted. to a Committee of that House, or the
Petitioner ought to be examined at the Bar. If they
were found to be untrue, then let the Petitioner be
punished in an exemplary manner, for attempting to
impose on the House. The present was not the time
for entering on the general question. But be must
say, that to him it appeared a very eetraordinary cir-
cumstance, that the whole peciple of England should
have been condemned—he would not say by a pack-
ed, but by a chosen and selected Committee—with-
out any opportunity having been afforded them of
rebutting the accusation. This was, in his opinion,
so extraordinary and so iniquitods a proceeding, that
he must take the earliest opportunity of protesting
most strongly against the adoption of any-such melt.
ewes as it appeared likely mould be proposed on' the
Report.—(Hear, hear.) He trusted the House would
not sanction any such proposition by its vote, when
It must be evident to every one who heard him that
there had been (so far as Came to his keowkdge) no
serious riot cii disturbance in the whole
He had heard of no disturbers of the public peace—
of none who wished to make any radical change in
the form of Government, except, perhaps, those per.
eons under the name of Spenceans, who, he under-
stood, did net amoont to aboge a hundred in number.
'That there might be a few wicked and-daring men
in the country who wished for confusion war very.
possible; but that the Constitution was.therefore
danger, it was most absurd to assert. But,
this subject, every kirialpf itetificseand.misrepureente*
von had been tenoned to. As one proof of this, he:
we.nalti merely state the fact, that in X4e Courier, the
Resolutions which emanated lions those infatuatedin-
dividuals, the Spenceaus, were published as the Re-
aolUtions agreed to by•the Meeting, when, in reality,
they were rejected in ma; and the Petitions which
were_ subsequently presented to the Priace Regent
and to Parliament, were substituted. The Petition
was then read, and ordered to tie on the table.
REPORT OF THE SECRET COMMITTEE.
The Order of the Day fox taking int') vuisideration
the Report of the Seiret Committee having been read,
Lord CASTLE EAGH assured the House, that
he had never come forward, in the whole course of
his Parliamentary career, with more real pain thn
atpte present moment. It had been a duty oft
intpties4 upon him in these latter times,• to provide
extraordinary measures to meet extraordinary dan-
geri. But severe asked been that ditty, it was still
more 'painful and grievous at.a period, not of war,
when foreign hostility might be connected with do-
mestic treason ; but of peace, when every appear
altie of external danger had disappeared. (Hear,
hear,) to call the attention of Parliament to civil di-
visions. He had bope4 that alter the dreadful re-
cords of the sufferings of mankind which the last
twenty.five years had presented...after the m:nforable
lesson given to those disposed to embark in desperate
enterprises, that the calamities which they occasion•
ed. fell back upon their own held', and upon their
country, and affected all classes of the community;
he had hoped, that aftCr the close of a war, in which
the country had been rescued from the greatest perils
both at home and abroad, it would have been diffi-
cult, if not impossible, to fine-found individeals so
dead to every sense Of public virtue and private in-
terest—so prone tobe acted upon by wicked and
designing counsellors, as to s'ender it necessary for
Perham:lt to Come to the grave Considerations
to which it was his duty to call the House.--
rlowever unlikely that ought to have ben, no one
who had read of, or looked at the 'Ririe of audacity
and pride which, bad grown out of the French-Revo-
lution, in which persons without natuial pretensioas
had not only risen to ibe first °Sees of the State,
but had rendered thetpselvei masters of the whole
property of the country—no one who had studied the
history of the times could be surprised that inliivi-
duals should be Found amongst us so inletgated as to
try, by a bold effort, to effect similar objects and to
attain equal Iteration. As Tong as a period of cala-
mity would enabie them to. direct the passions of the
pock. it was not astonishing that such persona
should risk even their own lives to turn 'those passions
to their own purposes. There were many *cum-
however, which threw a ray of *contolation
'Wille_pictOre. Tf we had not yet traversed the
whole period of revolution sod of danger, we bad at
last seen tbeigenest when thay had passed their
-acme and won't* their-decline. It was a. subject of
congratulation to. the-country, more real thin that
width might be derived from the endeavours of
the Noble Lord who had Omuta tha petition.
Lewd (leebrktut), to dePitilate• the. peril,
._chid
tieing had so far beano, Vas dangerons, becaus it