The Statesman.
London, England, 1818-01-06 00:00:00

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to trios: 6• only." continues be,

wish beci.obing

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...sty 66 We most taketere that the spies we thud
employ ire men of the-hairy test chetae.er, when 1%1,4
conduct is abate all -ouspiciob ! !"—lt.- se this L .• nett
Gentleman would go about the task of inelocit g and
of these filet rate Characters to undertake an office
:which the other Learned Gentleman sayi would ren.
dee him the molt inhumes of mankind, is fir be-
my depth to conceive ; but I suppose that this
ivy 'rapidity is dialog to my not having been bred e.
lawyer; end I will, therefore, leave these twd
',Learned Friends to settle their difference of opio:ora
Ito their eWn *ay slot, however, without
Seine fear that their decision will be is teems.
of the new school. it is to be hoped, lidweverobst
the 66 porticeler easel' In which this new School is
admittiole, Will be pointed out to us, leit the system
of encrtikehisent should lead other Learned Friends
to lei* adding to these particular eases, and the
is ovum reedits" shobbi be entirely lost .1 ht of.
According to the morality of the nevi.. System, it
would be perfectly right and proper, that the Lae-
catlike spies, *ben they fell in with Mr. Oliver;
should ezbibit themselves before him in fall coalmine,
with piston; and blackened faces, abd topics of 110';
lawful oats, and Scythes laid straight ith' pole, and
all the psniphernilia of their profession, and shoold
pass themselves opon him ea reel *whiniest Re:
formers;—and it would also be right and proper,
that Nr. Oliver should play the same getne.
In this Case they would both report to their em-
ployers that they had had a successful cruise,lend
had at length met with shat they bad been so long
in search of. The country spies would say, they
had at letsgth met with a Geotlhinan rioter, a delegate
from the great traitors in London ; whilst Mr. Oliver
might very honestly Mate to hie employers, as we are
told be did to the people about Nottingham sod
Derby, that be bed fallen in with men in Leneashins
and Yorkshire, " who could hard!, be kept down,
they were so ensioos to begin." This was precisely'
the kind of language in use among the Lentaihire
spies, when labouring in their. *creation; dad the
adoption i 4 this langoage by Mr. Oliver, min to
me, that be was either their pupil or their dope.—
From them only could he learn the wonderful tiles
he told of "immense armies pouring from the north,
and sweeping all before 'em!—garrisoning Notting-
ham !--occopying the passes of the Trent!—seizing
the Magistrates as hostages !—levying contributions !
—burning the barrecks!—and disarming the sol-
diers !! !"—I have been in the habit, Gentlemen, of
hearing huff of this sort any time for the last twelve
or fifteen years, and I know that its warlike charac-
ter is owing to the circumstance Of the band of spies
having been selected, in a great measure, out of
corps of local militia; their mock-military dialect
bas become quite a Slang amongst them : walking,
they call " marching—standing still, they call
" balting"—renning away, " dispersing"—and re-
assembling, 66 rallying ;" —a dolma men cannot bus
collected together, but they have their " sentinels,'
and their " look-out parties," and their Captains
of tens," and their " rear-guards," and their
" pirquet guards," and many oils& things too ridi-
culous to mention. In short, they hare mere diii-
lions and more officers than ever they had men, like
some country theatres that have more characters than
performers, or like the Grand Orange Lodge at
Menchirter, which centring to hive ten stebardt
out of a dinnering party of only eight persons.
Them has, indeed, Gentlemen, been so much re.
semblance and apparent connection between the mo.;
none of the Orangemen and those of the sham-riofer:
—the late conspiracies in benceehire, Yorkshire,
and Derbyshire have all been so thoroughly ridico.
tons—there has been such an sir of whimsicality
throWn over the whole, and the ridiculousness has
been so much of one and the same character., that I
cannot divest myself of the idea that the whole Ina
originated at one and the same place.
When I first made known to the late Mr. Whitai.
bread, in 1812, the mencemes of the licilton spies.
I had the satisfaction to leans from him that I had
not over-rated their importance: for that 1 had
thereby enabled him to do away with the only mat.
ter in the Green Bag of that day, which his friends
in the Secret Committee had deemed of much conse-
quence : much of the matter contained in that Bat
they lied seen through, clearly enough, bat he ad-
mitted that the tales about armed men with blackened
faces had somewhat puzzled and alarmed them, end
had given the idea to the Committee that something
very diabolical was going forward—and so indeed
there was, as subsequent events, have shown. It
was to me, at that time, a carious end somewhat in-
teresting question, whether my Lord Castlereagh had
been himself • little puzzled by these diabolical do-
cuments ; or whether he bad produced them only for
the purpose of puzzling the rest of the Committee.—
Some of my friends were from the first of the latter
opinion, but I did then, and do still, incline to the
former. Knowing the craftiness of the spy-mongers,
and knowing also that the commonications I inside.
procured for them " a gentle rap on the knuckles,"
—seeing also that many of the spies were itlione.
(lively omit back to their looms, or pet upon half-
pay—and finding that the peace-disturbing powers
granted to the Magistrates, by what was Wier( wily
celled the Pesos Preservation Bill, were never acted
upon-J.4am these, as well at other considetations,..l
did then, and de Still, lean to the opinion, that
some at least of his Majesty's Ministers bad been
themselves imposed opoe, and thit having been set
right, the issecof Secret Service Money into our part
of the country was pet a stop to, or considerably
lessened. I mid not then, tier eau I yet, •on any
other 'apposition, account for the Immediate cessa-
tion of operations on the part of the spies, and the
consequent restoration of peace to the neighbour.
bowl. I must confess, however, that the bite decla.
rations of my Lord Castlereagh have somewhat al-
tered my views, and I now ilswr tbot the system of
epionage is to form a fundamental festers of the re-
mainder of his Adoiniatraties...,' Many of those,
however, who usually support Stinisiters, have es-
premed their abhorrence of thirrolitglisting, and un-
gentlemanly, and impolitic precrieei• Sod there can
be so doubt that it will become a very premitteet sub-
ject of investigation and enquiry, dathiag the nest
Session of Parliament., On this 'recount, Gentle.
men, 1 crave your patience, if I dwell a little longer
on the subject than I might otherwise (Mot se m.
Dry.
Mr. Deegial observed, last summer, in the Howe