Star.
London, England, 1817-06-25 00:00:00

Was t`lat idea, he was convinced, which had pro-
duced the verdict of acquittal in Westminster ;
and was the evidence .Which had been found instil.
ticient to convict four guilty men, though not guilty
to the extent charged, to be admitted to punish the
whole people of England ? The only things required
would be a change in (,ur municipal laws, the care•
ful and energetic execution of those laser, and the pre
servation of the rights of those, by br the greatest
port ion ti thecommunity, whose principlrs and loyalty
remaine.l unshaken.

Mr. LOCKHART defended the necessity of the
measure, as the present dangers rose from an offence
rather new in our code, and untang'ble by the exist-
ing laws. It was not an offence confined to particu-
lar districts, bat endeavoured to be spread through
the whole cruntry by a system of rltlegates.
agree as to the reality of danger, but those who
opposed the present measure, did not propose any
other in its stead.

Mr. CUR WEN could not, consistently with his
dirty, give a silent vote against this bid. What had
occurred on the recent trial proved, that actually
there was no danger, and that the whole conspiracy
was confined to six individuals, who might do much
mischief, but who could not overturn the Govern-
ment. His objection to this measure arose from his
opinion of the bad judgment of Government on this
subject—(!Weer, hear.) He spoke with abhorrence
of the system of not merely rewarding spies but con-
torting honours on them; yet he admitted that it
might be proper, in some cases, to use spies, and
when used they must be rewarded, but certainly not
' honours. He deplored that tire House should
be DOW Occupied, at this period, in forging chains
for the people, instead of occupying itself in relieving
them (tom those burdens which bore them down, and
in reforming the representation. As to this Bill, it
was not calculated' to attain the end professed.
Mr. BARNEWALL could not think that this
question had any thing to do with economy or re-
form. The question was one of expediency; the
object was the preservation of the Constitution.—
However much might be said in abese of this mea-
sure, however loud the outcry against it, he would
not consent to cringe before the tyranny of clamour.
(Hear, hear.) Our Constitution was not so weakly
fixed as to depend on any one law..
The LORD MAYOR said, that though he could
not flatter himself that he should make any impres-
sion after the excellent speeches which had been made
against the measure on the former night, yet he felt
that duty to the situation he filled, and the situation
which he represented, would not allow him to give a
silent vote. He should have, in the statement which
he had to make, to speak of himself, and he concyived
he had not been treated, in the course of the trans.
actions referred to, with that respect which was due
to the office he held, from some persons in other official
situations. At the time of the first meeting at Spa-
fields, he had sumnioned all the power rf constables
at his command, and made arrangements for; pre-
serving tranquillity. Tht meeting separated with.
out any act of outrage, except some petty attempts
on bakers' shops. Atter that time he had received a
variety of letters from various persons, many threa.
tening his own life, and naming several days on
which he was to be shot. Those which related to
himself he disregarded—the others he sent to the Se. '
cretary of State. From the examination of these pa-
pers, he was convinced that they chit fly came from
persons who were not engaged in treasonable designs;
but who for their own purposes wished to create an
alarm of treason. The paper which led to the col-
lection of the greatest number of persons on the ied De-
cember originated in a person who was one of the
most taithtul to his Majesty's Administration—
(Hear, hear, hear,)—it was the, advertisement of
a work which was printed at an expense of three
pence halfpence a copy, and which was sold at one
peony, the difference of the expense being made up,
by the Administrating. The work had their appro.
bation, though the paacard had not been submitted
to them. The placard was-44 Spatields Row—
'Truth for a Penny—Go it, my Boys !" There could
be no doubt that this paper, which was put upon the
2J of December, Rad tended to collect and to excite
the people. Though the body of people collected in
Spalields on that day had been watched by Magis-
trates immediately connected with the Government,
and had been heard to make use of the words—"" To
the Tower, to the Lard Mayor," no notice had been
sent to him of their proceedings. The City Consta-
bles, who had been on duty at an execution which
took place early in the morning,.were not at the
Mansion House when the rioters entered the City.
!He went out with his brother Aldermen, and saw
many hundred persons, some of them with arms, fir-
ing
in the air, and giving other demonstrations of I
joy ; the whole body was speedily dispersed, and were
not seen till an hour after, when some assembled in
the Minories, and one person, it was said, went to
the Tower (not, it should be recollected, to the Tower I
Gate). The whole were dispersed without a single i
soldier. Was not the law strong enough to meet
riots like this ? That afternoon, he met perhaps
eight or ten thousand persons returning from Spa-
fields, in Holborn; and on the appearance of the
Constables, they wade way for him immediatde.—
When he was led to arrest Preston, he found him in
a garret, with scarcely a bed to lie on. His two
daughters were lying on the floor. Only a single
paper was found in his apartment, and he was not
possessed of a shilling. It had been now proved that
there was not a single association for political pur-
poses in the whole metropolis ; he had never been
able to and any on inquiry, and Oliver, the spy, had
admitted to the Committee of Secrecy that lie knew
of none. There were thousands and tens-of thou-
sands in many parts of England bearing the utmost
misery with patience. There were in Cornwall many
persons living on ten, twelve, or fourteen ounces of
barley bread, yet no place could be more tranquil
than that county. London had always been distin-
guished for-the attachment her citizens spewed to the
established and glorious Constitution of the Country,
and certainly on the recent occasion she had not in
the slightest degree forfeited that character. This
was to him clear proof that the suspension was not
required. But the advocates of the measure say that
the law was not sufficient. The law, indeed, was not
sufficient to punish where there was no offence, there-
fore.this suspension of law is necessary in order to
imprison upon mere suspicion—(!fear, bear.) These
were his views and feelings on this question; he was
sensible that be could net, particularly sifter the able

discussion, that had taken place, odd atiy-thing tesie ;
but.in fife circumstances in which he was placed, he
could not give a silent vote—( Year, hear.)
Sir WILLIAM CUR rIS allowed all credit to the
conduct of his Right Honourable Friend (the Lord
Mayor) for his conduct on the occasion to which the
greatest part of ).is sreech referred; but he. denied
that the effect of the present measure, which he op-
posed, would be to deprive the people of England of
their liberties (roar, hear.) nor did he think it true
that his exertions had been the only obstacle to the
success of the traitors who would have dthiged the
City in bkeid. Good and loyal men would not have
remained• inactive while their property and their
lives were in danger—(Hear, and a lestre...) The Spa-
fields riot should not, however, have been treated
in the manner it was treated by his Hon. Friend, and
considered a little disorderly disturbance. His Ho-
nourable Friend himself allowed that the multitude
had arms—that they had fired their guns in the air
to skew how formidable-they were; and in his (Sir
William Calais's) opinion, a mob so disposed and so
prepared should be considered rather lib engaged in
treason and rebellion alum in a common tumult.—
(Hear, fear, hear.) ,Those people said they ;met for
the purpose of petitioning for reform : he did not be-
lieve a word of the statement—(.l laugh.) Ot what
use was their arms if they meant peaceable petition-
ins ? Were muskets and military implements the
instruments of quiet reform —Nis ; they wanted no
reform ; they headed rebellion, and intended plunder.
The Right Honourable Gentleman (the Lord Mayor)
had spoken of facing tire snub unarmed, and allowed
his courage to be interred from the hazards of the
enterprize ; but lie would remind his i lei. Friend
that prudence made a part of courage—(4 laugh )
He remembered a meeting of delegates that was held
at the Crown and Anchor Tavern, where there was
a disclaimer of physical force; but these men used
every means of inflaming the minds of the people,
and after they had excited them to those disturbances
which they pretended to deprecate, or. exposed them
to' be attacked and put down by the military, they
would turn about and say to them, " Go along, you
ignorant mob; you have neglected our advice, and
exposed yourselves to danger by your precipitation
and folly."—(4 laugh.)
Lord I)EERHURST observed, that in intru-
ding, for a few moments, upon the attention of the
House, he did so under considerable pain and alarm,
known only to young speakers in Parliament; but which
1
i alarm was counteracted by an alarm still more to be
dreaded, if he conceived that be could forego his
public duty I From a sense, then, of that imperious
duty alone, was he induced to trespass upon tire in-
dulgence of the House. (Bear, hear.) His vi t-t (1.
this night would be in direct opposition to that given
upon a former occasion, when the question was ori-
ginally proposed to the House, and he could not
give it in silence. He gave his assent At that time
with the greatest possible reluctance, to the Suspen-
sion of the Habeas Corpus Act, not so much with a
view to past dangers, as from the anxions desire
of pteventing future evil, as when a house has hen
on fire, its inhabitants are not contented with putting
out the flames, but engines are stationed on the spot
to prevent further and future conflagration. - (Hear,
hear.) But now, upon mature reflection, he thought
the great engine of the Suspension Act might be
withdrawn, and that the laws, as they stood, (with
the Sedition Act in force) were sufficient to counter.
act the present difficulties, and he could not consent to
thefurther Suspensionof an Act, so hateful to the spirit
of an
-Englishman, of an Act that struck so vitally at
the true rights and liberties of the subject— (Hear,
hear, from the Opposition.) As was henbane and the
deadly nightshade to the human, so was this measure
to the great constitution of the country. It should
never be tesorted to but in a case of extreme neces-
sity, (which necessity lie did not see now existing,)
nor should it ever be administered but by the hand of
the most skilfel physician ! This was a measure that
required the gravest, the deepest reflection—it was a
measure not lightly to be dealt with ; and after all
the consideration he could give it, he did not con-
ceive that, for the misconduct of a few misguided
but suffering individuals, . the great mass, the great ,
population of the country should still writhe under
its further extended thraldom (Heir, hear, hear, from
the Oppositioil) He thought it the great fabric, the
noble structure of the Constitution, had, in the opi•
nion of his Majesty's Ministers, in tire oisinit n of the
majority of the House, been in arty way defaced—if
one stone had been put out of place, by the miscon-
duct latterly exhibited on the part of certain people—
now was the moment of all others to adjust it with
the cement of mutual conciliation and forgiveness,
rather than to bind it by the iron clamp of overbear.
ing, oppressive, and intolerant power (Hear, hear,
from the Oppositicn.) Conceiving that this was the
moment that ct,nciliation and lenity could be best
Ishewn with effect towards the suffering and discon-
i tented, and that by such means their tears would be
Idried to the advantage of the country, he should
decidedly oppose the present measure. (Ilear, (sear,
hear, front the Opposition.)
Mr. GRENFELL was sorry to differ from the
Honourable Members with whom he usually voted ;
but he owed it to the independence with which he
always acted to support the second reading of tire
Bill, because he thought it necessary to the well-
being of the country—(lfrar.) He knew it was
argued that the treason was confined to persons of
low condition i' but when he considered the dreadful 1
proceedings of the lower orders in tire French Revo- '
lotion, when he reflected that Robespierre and others
were of that class, he could not think the danger
beneath the dignity of the Legislature, nor unworthy
of its serious and anxious consideration.

Lord COCHRANE had nothing to nay in the
way of new argument, nor did he see any necessity
for new arguments, as none of the reasoning on the
of the Hothe where he sat had been answered. V.t:iat
was the House called to do ?--to suspend the whole
benefits of the constitution. On what grounds :--on
the grounds of a report to which he was not allot cd
on a former night to apply the epithet, which he
then thought, and which he still thought it deserved.
Was. the whole kingdom to suffer for the errors of. a
few? Minireers called upon the House to rally round
the Constitution, but how absurd was this call in the
face of a measure which destroyed the Constitution?
It had been remarked by a member of the Royal fa-
mily in another House, that *hen the seittiments of
men were suppressed by 'a despotic measurei Minis.
tett' rather increased thau diminished thuirMangce.