mand the affiftance of all his majesty's subjects, of age and ability, to feize and apprehend the offenders; and the magiftrate and his affiftants are indemnified from any legal confequences, in cafe of the perfons fo refufing to difperfe, fhould be killed, wounded, or maimed, in attempting to apprehend them: that perfons preventing the attendance of a magiftrate at fuch meetings, or obstructing him in the execution of his duty, fhall be liable to certain penalties; that the fheriffs, and other magistrates of Scotland, be empowered to carry this act into execution within that kingdom that any place, where any lecture or discourse be given, on any fubject whatever, and money be taken for admiffion therein, fhall be deemed a diforderly house, unless it has been previously licensed for fuch purpose by a magiftrate that the prefident, or perfon delivering fuch lecture, and all perfons paying or receiving money, or iffuing or diftributing tickets for fuch admiffion, shall be liable, upon information, to a certain fine; and perfons acting as the master or mistress of such house (though not actually fo) fhall be liable to be profecuted as fuch that, if a magiftrate, who has received information upon oath of fuch a houfe, fhall repair thereto, and be refused admittance, it shall be confidered as diforderly; and, that nothing in this act shall affect the ecclefiaftical jurifdiction, the act of the first of William and Mary, in favour of the Proteftant Diffenters, and that of the 31ft of George III, in favour of perfons profeffing the Popish Religion.

:

fufficient caufe for the introduction of the bills in question.' The motion was negatived by 167 to 22.

A decided majority was in favour of adminiftration, in every future ftage of the bill, notwithstanding the most vigorous oppofition. But in the most animated difcuffions of the subject, perpetual repetitions of the fame arguments did not fail to occur. The advocates of the minifter endeavoured to prove the connexion between the outrage on his majesty and the proceedings of the London Correfponding fociety as a circumftance of unquestionable notoriety evinced by daily publications of the most treasonable and feditious nature. In the field near Copen hagen houfe, two pamphlets, for instance, had been fold; the one in vindication of king-killing, the other entitled The Hiftory of George. the Laft.' Extracts from other pamphlets, equally treasonable and feditious, were read; and it was contended that these were all printed by citizen Lee, who was officially printer to the London Correfponding fociety. On the other hand, it was contended, that the publications and extracts in queftion (of which no evidence whatever, it was obferved, appeared before the house) could in no refpe&t implicate the fociety at large: that, as proof how little dependence could be placed on the boasted notoriety, citizen Lee was not the printer to the fociety; he was not officially employed by this fociety in any manner; and, therefore, he could be confidered as an individual only, who, in his own person, Previous to any obfervations on the bill, all was fully amenable to the exifting laws, without the members in oppofition prefaced their objec- the intervention of the bill in queftion.* It was tions, by declaring their decided abhorrence of further urged, that this bill was a very unneceffary the late atrocious outrage on his majefty. One and unjustifiable attack on the liberties of the peoof the main points, however, infifted upon by ple; that it deprived the subject of his undoubted the oppofition was, that before the adoption of right to petition against grievances; and was, fuch a strong measure, fufficient evidence ought therefore, a virtual repeal of the bill of rights, and to have been brought of the actual connexion tended to the total fubverfion of the constitution.— between the proceedings of the London Cor- To this it was replied, that the bill in question did refponding fociety and the outrage on his ma- not annihilate the right to petition, but only jefty; that the exifting laws were adequate to all regulated the abuse of it. County and corporate the purpofes of the bill; and that it was an meetings, and indeed all legal meetings, flood infult to a free people, to fuppofe the existence of exactly as they did before. Regulations were apfree difcuffion under the eye of a magistrate, plied, only to render that regular, which was bewho might ftop them, because, in his opinion, fore irregular. The right of the lowest ranks to (formed perhaps, on unfounded conjecture, ca- petition was ftill the fame; nor is any qualificaprice, or inveterate prejudice,) they had fpoken tion of property equired to enable fuch perfons words having the appearance of fedition to go- to petition. I admit broadly,' faid Mr. Pitt, vernment, or ((peaking more truly) to the pre-that fuppofed or real grievances may, as a matfent adminiftration.-Le ve was given to bring in a bill by a majority of 214 to 43; and, at the fuggeftion of Mr. Fox, a call of the house was fixed for the Tuesday fe'nnight.

The bill being brought in by Mr. Pitt, on the 12th of November, the motions for the first and fecond reading of it were carried fucceflively by a great majority; and this was the cafe with the motions for the first and fecond reading of the bill brought down from the lords, for the better prefervation of his majesty's person.-Mr. Sheridan, then, after along introduction, moved, that a committee be appointed to enquire into the extent of the danger of the country, and the reafon for the proclamation of the 4th of Notember, in order to afcertain whether there was

ter of right, be prefented to parliament, by all ranks of people.'-In a word, it was infifted, that the numerous petitions prefented to the -houfe against the bill were occafioned by the groffeft calumnies and misrepresentation; fuch as, that the bill went to prohibit private families from meeting, without giving previous notice to a magistrate:-the bill was not intended to affect private families; and it allowed all the extent of petitioning by which our ancestors made known their complaints to parliament.This statement N о T E.

*Soon after, citizen Lee was apprehended by a judge's warrant, for the publication of three feditious libels, for which he is to be tried at the next Westminster feffions.

was

was again contradicted by the oppofition. It was acknowledged, that meetings against a pending law were not prohibited by the bill; but then they would be nugatory, if, from any fpecial circumstances, they thould, in the judgment of the magiftrate, be declared illegal. No meeting, indeed, could be held with effect, that refpected public grievances, the misconduct of minifters, or a reform in parliament, while it was held at the discretion of a magistrate.

On Wednesday, November 25, the order of the day being moved, that the house do refolve itself into a committee on the bill, Mr. Curwen moved, that it might be poftponed to that day fe'nnight. This produced a debate, in the course of which it was obferved, that the outrage against his majefty originated in a dark, premeditated, and diabolical confpiracy, which took its rife from thofe feditious focieties which it was the object of the bill to deftroy; that it was by the fyftem of clubs in France that the conftitution of that country had been overthrown, that the nobility and religion were abolished, and that they dethroned, imprifoned, and brought to a mock trial, and afterward murdered, one of the mildeft of fovereigns; that the convention was at length obliged, by one decree, to destroy all thofe clubs, by which its own existence had been threatened; and it was that circumstance which gave such an appearance of stability to the French government at prefent, as to induce his majefty, in his last speech, to say that he should have no objection to treat with them.

But the fpeech in favour of the bill, which feemed to make the greatest impreflion on the houfe, was that delivered by Mr. Grant, who entered into a more argumentative and philofophical defence of the bill than we have heard fince its introduction. He began by obferving, that, when great evils exifted, the reftraining of those was always to be referred to a leffer one, although by this reftraint a free conftitution might be a little endangered by the acts adopted to guard it. When a great body of men, perfectly distinct from the government, were preparing to make an attack on that government, what was to be done? Was the government to take no precautions against them? Let it be confidered what the conduct of the fociety was: they ridiculed the conftitution, under which they confidered themfelves as in a fate of flavery. They laid the government was an ufurpation from the beginning to the end; and they feemed to have a fanatical averfion to every thing that was English. They could not bear to hear the courage of our army or navy extolled. They reprobated the constitution of America, because it was too like that of England; and even the new conftitution of France had already begun to be held in difrepute among them. Thus, if thefe men were to be profecuted for their fedition they would fly into the arms of that conftitution they had been abufing, and had treated as chimerical. Many free ftates had been obliged to take away for a time the best part of their conftitutions, in order to guard the whole against the attacks of confpirators. He did not mean to hold out fuch a plan as an improvement: it was,

he would admit, an infringement, and of course an evil, but an unavoidable one. There never was a country in which the general sense of the people had a greater effect in influencing the government than England; he therefore never would infringe the right of petitioning, nor did the prefent bill do folt had been afked by gentlemen, why was not fedition punished by the prefent law, if any did exit? He would anfwer, that what had been called fedition heretofore was no more than the spleen which a solitary individual might occasionally have vented; in the prefent inftance there were thousands, nay tens of thoufands, who were propagating fedition every day; and what would be faid, if they were all profecuted? Why, that minifters were multiplying profecutions and feditions, and thereby caufing greater evils than thofe they intended to remedy. It had been recommended to ministers to adopt conciliatory meafures. No one could value more the effects of lenity than he, because he knew it to be always productive of much good. If, in the quarrel with America, lenity and forbearance had been used, we might still have been in poffeffion of that country; and the affection of Ireland had been found worth preferving at the time when this country granted her a free trade. But what conceffion could be made in the prefent instance, when there were men who demanded no lefs than the very destruction of the constitution ? Men who had fet out with thinking that the rights of man formed the only principle of go. vernment, and that the majority of every coun try was to decide upon its conftitution and go. vernment." Then fuppofe all the wife and en lightened men of a na ion to be fet on one fide, and on the other mere numbers were to come to turn the balance against them, fo fuperior to them in every respect, then there was no ufe of arguments, or of expediency on the fide of right or wrong; the will of the people was to decide the whole. These hai been the doctrines with which the focieties had fet out in 1792; but it was foon found that the will of the people did decide against them. One would have thought that it was then time for them to defift. They did not, however, do fo, but went on as if they thought they had a right to act against the will of the majority, and as if a hundred perfons confidered it a tyranny, not to have obtained that which a whole nation refufed to grant them How, then, was it pollible to conciliate thofe men? They wanted universal fuffrage and annual parliaments, As to their having a king, it was not a matter of choice with them; for their great oracle, Paine, had told them, that it was not in their power to have an hereditary monarchy, for the present generation had no right to do an act which would be binding on pofterity, nor even on themselves. The only mode which could conciliate them, and reconcile them to the conftitution, would be to let them go on until they destroyed it, and then gentlemen would only have to indulge the melancholy redeation that fuch a thing had once exifted. Nothing then but force could conciliate men wh› mide fuch demands. Both houfes of parliament had declared thefe men wanted to overturn the conftitur?

They had not changed their object fince that time, but perfevered, and boafted of the fuccefs of their efforts. If our conftitution then was worth preferving, it was no great evil to make a temporary furrender of a part of it; after which many other valuable parts would remain, that were not at all, comprised in that which fhould be given up. Let this temporary guard of the conftitution be compared with the danger it is in, of being fubverted. If any one doubted this danger, he would ask whether large bodies of men, who were daily drawing others into their opinion, were to be looked upon with indifference? If the acts they were purfuing were laudable, why were they not encouraged? Why did not the members of oppofition approve of them? No; they could not fay that no danger was to be apprehended from them. He did not conceive that the verdicts of the juries, however juft they might have been in doing away the idea of the perfons acquitted having been in a traite rous confpiracy, could remove any apprehenfions of danger that had exifted before the trials. The queftion of treafon was the only point the juries had to try; and was the opinion of twelve men on that fimple queftion, to go against that of the two houfes of parliament, on the general queftion of fedition and danger? Thus, faid he,

if we do not take those measures now, we muft fubmit to our ruin in the best manner we can.'

It had been faid, continued Mr. Grant, that the war was the occafion of the spreading of fedi tion. Did not these focieties exist before the war? Did not all their moft violent proceedings break out when they had nothing to complain of but the conftitution ? and a refufal to depart from that, was their only grievance. Notwithstand ing that fuch complaints had been made before the war, it was fince faid, that minifters had plunged the nation into it from a state of unexampled profperity. With respect to the fmallnefs of the numbers of those perfons, compared to the people at large, he would fay, that history furnished examples of great empires having been overthrown by people who originally had been few. Paine's republican club at Paris had, according to his own account, at first confifted of only Seven members; and for that reafon, it was overlooked by the government of France. The focieties of this country had been proceeding on the exact model of the jacobins of France; their machinations had been directed againft all authority of every kind, even against that authority which is always attached to men of great talents and great attainments, although they may be unconnected with the government: Would thefe great characters (alluding to fome oppofition members) proceed on the mistaken principle of uniting with men who aimed at their deftruction equally with that of the members of the government? When all the great and enlightened men of France had united in the fame way, the infamous Marat ftood up to oppofe what he called the ariftocracy of wealth and talents, and made his want of either a ground for claiming merit and popularity. The fuccefs of Marat, and the

of the others, was too well known; and to

that fituation was the British parliament liable to be reduced. There was no fecurity against the principles of the focieties in this country. Their leaders never spoke of their duties, but of their rights, and then taught them to believe that to the people all power belongs; that they fhould exercife that right; and that after having done fo, they should be happy. Every thing beautiful in the English conftitution they kept out of their fight, and the very nature of Englifhmen was in danger of undergoing a great change. He faw, that although the great body of the people in England were attached to the conflitution, yet a few might overturn it, if fuffered to go on with their preparations, which confifted in the diffufion of paifon through the minds of men. The conftitution of France had been overturned in one night, but the preparátions had been long making. To guard against fimilar calamities here, he thought the prefent bill neceffary, and, therefore, would fupport it.

It

Mr. Fox, after paying fome compliments to the laft fpeaker, for his able and eloquent speech, proceeded to answer the feveral arguments contained in it, from which, he faid, a falfe impreflion might be made on the houfe, on account of their appearance of reafon. He obferved, that the enemies of the conftitution must be increafed, when no difcrimination was made between the diraffected and the friends of the conftitution. Conciliation then was the only mean's of remedying every evil; let all grounds of jealoufy be taken away: let defects be amended, and abufes leffened. The freedom of a govern ment did not depend on the forms of its conftitution. Oppreflive acts could not be defended, because fanctioned by lords and commons. depended on the liberty men enjoyed, of speaking and writing, and it was that which had given this country its character of manly boldness.In this bill the fpeaker was not to be punished for the words he might utter, but he was to be prevented from speaking at all. Thus were we going to lofe all the freedom, boldness, and energy of the British character. It was that character alone that made a nation free-the liberty people enjoyed of fpeaking their fentiments openly, whenever they pleased. if men now would abandon their rights, the fall of the nation from that character, though flow and imperceptible, was not lels cerca.n. The Romans had loft all their liberty in the reign of Auguftus; yet there were people then who praifed his government, and who confidered the country more happy than ever it had been But the liberty of the nation was gone, and with it that fpirit, that energy, and that mind, by which it had arrived at its greatnefs; and after that, it funk progreffively, till its ruin was inevitable. The time then might be when nothing in this country would be left but the appearance of a conftitution; there might be lords and commons at the difpofal of a king, as Augustus held the offices of conful and tribune; but, from that period, its fall could not be far diftant. Take from a tree its roots, or ftrip it of its bark, and, though it may for a little time retain its verdure,.

And

or

t

or even its bloffoms, it muff foon decay and die. When all the fundamental rights of Englishmen were taken away, they would then content themselves as a degraded nation, that gave up the

whole of their liberties.

Mr. Curwen's motion was negatived by 269 to 70; and that for going into a committee was carried by 273 to 72. But, on account of the late hour, progrefs was almoft immediately reported, and leave obtained to fit again on Friday the 27th.

That day, the houfe again went into a committee on the bill. Upon the claufe for enacting the punishment upon those who should not difperfe after a proclamation by the magistrate, a long converfation arofe, in which it was contended, that the punishment of death was too fevere, and the milder punishment of fimple felony, or misdemeanour, was fuggefted. The claufe, however, for felony, with benefit of clergy,' was carried by 80 to 13.

The Solicitor-general rofe, to propofe an amendment, which he hoped would take away the objections which had been made to one of the principal claufes in the bill. The bill, as it then food, empowered the magistrate, upon his hearing any question propounded which he conceived as tending to endanger the conftitution, &c. to read the proclamation, and compel them to difperfe; instead of which, he meant to propofe, that the magiftrate fhould in the first inftance be empowered to feize the perfon making such a propofition, and that it fhould only be upon refiftance being made, that he should make the proclamation: and in order to protect the magiftrate in the discharge of his duty, that any perfon refifting him by force, fhould be guilty of felony.

Mr. Serjeant Adair faid, he congratulated the houfe upon the amendment which had been made, as it rendered the bill, in his opinion, totally unobjectionable. It never was in the contemplation of thofe who introduced the bill to prevent the people meeting to confider of any real or fuppofed grievances; it was only to prevent meetings of a very different nature; and after the amendment now propofed, the effect of the bill would go no farther.

The Solicitor-general moved, that the blank in the laft claufe, relative to the duration of the at, be filled up with the words three years. Mr. Stanley moved, to fubftitute two years. The committee divided, for the Solicitor-general's motion, 48, against it 2, and the houfe being refumed, the report of the committee was brought up, and ordered to be re-confidered on Tuesday.

That day, the order of the day being read, to take into confideration the amendments made by the committee on the bill, Mr. Fox, after ftating various difficulties to which some claufes in the bill were liable, moved to infert in the motion for taking the amendments into confideration, instead of the word now, the words to morrow fennight.' This motion being negativ ed, and the original motion for taking the amendmen into confideration carried, Mr. Fox, Mr.

Grey, and nearly all the members of oppofition, withdrew.

All the claufes of the bill, except the laft, having been gone through, Mr. Pitt moved, that, as the chief object of the bill was to fuprenderprefs thofe debates at which fedition was ed a means of livelihood, the words for the purpose of collecting money, or any other valuable thing from the perfons fo affembled, fhould be part of the clause.'' At other meetings, though money might be paid for defraying expences, it would be obvious enough that the obtaining that money could not be the object of calling them. This amendment being adopted, the bill was ordered to be read a third time on Thursday.

According to the bill as it then stood, after having gone through the committee, The number of perfons who may meet in future for any of the purposes mentioned in the bill, is not to exceed fifty. Meetings of any number of perfons exceeding fifty, muft give five days previ-" ous notice, which notice is to be figned by seven perfons.

If fifty or more perfons meet, and if, after an order by proclamation to disperse, twelve fhall remain one hour, they are to be liable to the punishment of death.

The magiftrate is not to have the power of diffolving any meeting, except in the following cafe :-He may arreft any perfons holding difcourfe which he may think to be feditious, and if any attempt shall be made to resist the magiftrate in fuch arreft, he may then declare the meeting to be unlawful, and may diffolve it.

The clauses against lectures and debating focieties remain as they were, except that the restriction is confined to the difcuffion of political fubjects. Every perfon attending fuch prohibited meetings to be liable to the penalty of 100l. for each offence.

The duration of the bill is limited to three

years.'

On Thursday, December 3, after a debate, which, in general, was, on both fides, a repetition of former arguments, the bill was read a third time: the majority in favour of the third reading being 266 to 51-Mr. Fox then moved, as a rider to the bill, that the house be enabled to repeal it before the end of the prefent feffion. The motion being negatived without a divifion, the bill paffed.

In the different debates on this bill, fome very ftrong expreflions were ufed, which became, themfelves, the occafion of very animated dif

cuffion.

Should these bills, faid Mr. Fox, pafs by the mere influence of the minifter, contrary to the great majority of the nation, and he was afked without doors, what was to be done, he would fay, this is not now a question of morality, or duty, but of prudence. Acquiefce in the bills only as long as you are compelled to do fo. They are bills to deftroy the (Hear! hear 1 conftitution, and parts of the fyftem of an adminiftration aiming at that end." hear !) Mr. Fox faid, he knew the mifconftruction to which fuch fentiments were liable,

and

and he braved it. No attempt of the Stuarts called more for oppofition than the prefent bills; and extraordinary times called for extraordinary declarations. This inftantly roufed Mr. Pitt, who obferved with great warmth, that the right hon. gentleman's declaration could not be mifunderstood, and he thanked him for making it, that the public might fee him fetting up his own judgment against that of the majority of the houfe, attempting the diffolution of fociety, and perfuading the people of England to have recourfe to the word, if they thought they could fucceed by it. Let him not imagine, however, faid Mr. Pitt, that Englishmen will want fpirit to fupport the laws. The right hon. gentleman would probably find the law too ftrong for him; but, if that should not be fo, he hoped that he would find the valour that should aid the law. Mr. Fox would not retract a fyllable of his affertions, which, he said, the right hon. gentleman had fo much misreprefented. He had ftated merely, that if bills to destroy the conftitution were paffed against the fenfe of the majority of the nation, he would give the advice which he had mentioned. He would stand and abide by his words, which he was then willing to have taken down, if required. The words might be strong, but ftrong measures called for ftrong words.-Mr. Windham declared, that the right hon. gentleman had not mended his affertion, which was fo plain a difcovery of his intentions, that he had not, for fome time, heard any thing with fo much pleasure. People would now fee the neceffity for a vigour stronger than the laws. (Here a cry of take dorun his words.) Mr. Windham explained, that he meant ftronger laws than the prefent, and that the laws should be fupported by means not wanting upon other occafions. (A cry of note the words!) Mr. Windham replied, that he would repeat the words if he could, and concluded by expreffing his hope that the country would not be fo abject as to fubmit to the right hon. gentleman.Mr. Sheridan offered to fubfcribe his hand to the declarations of Mr. Fox, whom, he faid, the right hon. fecretary at war ought to have known better, than to expect he would retract his words. When plot-forging minsters meditated attacks upon the constitution; when the fecretary at war had made London (the feat of parliament) a garrifon, and talked of a pigcur more than the law, he would advife every man to refift the establishment of the fytem of terior in this country. No British Kobefpierre, he hoped, would ever domineer over the people of England; Robespierre, who had harafled the people of France with his pretended plots, till he could not vifit the mayor of Paris without a guard. Were they not to give this advice, what contemptible wretches would they be? No other anfwer could be given to the people. Mipifters would not always feel the fame courage as at prefent for perfevering in their plans.-Mr. Wilberforce faid, that fuch declarations were liable to very different opinions, and ex.reffed his difapprobation of them.-Mr. Grey repeated Mr. Fox's words, and faid, that he was ready to fubfcribe to them, and give them to the clerk. He considered the bills as the last blow aimed at the

deftruction of the conftitution; and Mr. Fox, he contended, had faid nothing but what was afferted at the time of the revolution.

On another day, Mr. Pitt, alluding to to Mr. Fox's declaration, thus expreffed himself: I fhali ceafe to complain, that thofe gentlemen, who exprefs fuch peculiar anxiety for the inte refts of the people, and fuch a regard for the privileges of parliament, who profels to adopt whig principles, and to imitate the practice of our ancestors at the time of the revolution-because our ancestors had recourfe to forcible refiftance against a king, who was against all law, and violated the conftitution of the country-that gentlemen profeffing to act upon fuch principles, thould attempt to ftir up refiftance to a king acting with the advice and concurrence of his two houfes of parliament. I defy thefe gentlemen to fhew the confiftency of fuch a conduct with the principles and practice of those whom they profefs to make the objects of their imitation. To this Mr. Grey anfwered, that (as he had already faid) he was ready to fubfcribe his hand to the declaration of his right hon. friend, which was not, as had been mis-stated, an incitement to the people to rife against the authority of king, lords, and commons; but was this :that when parliament should pass an act against the fenfe and intereft of a great majority of the people, without attending to their petitions or complains, in that cafe refiftance was juftifiable. That was the principle on which the conftitution was founded; it was the principle which the right hon. gentleman's noble father (lord Chatham) had always maintained.

It must here be obferved alfo, that during the difcuffion of the bill, a memorable circumstance occurred. On Monday November 23, Mr. Sturt prefented a petition from the London Correfponding Society, figned by upwards of 10,000 perfons, many of which, he faid, were citizens of great refpectability. Proceeding to vindicate this fociety from the afperfions that were caft upon them, he would read, he said, what was truly a bit of treafon: it was an extract from a pamphlet written by Mr. Reeves, a justice of the peace, and chairman of the affociation against Republicans and Levellers; in which that gentleman faid that the government of England is a monarchy the monarchy is the ancient stock from which have prung thofe goodly branches of the legislature, the lords and commons, that at the fame time give ornament to the tree, and afford fheicer to those who seek protection under it. But thefe ftill are only branches, and derive their origin and their nutriment from their common parent; they may be lopped of, and the tree is a tree till: fhorn, indeed of its honours, but not like them caft into the fire. The kingly government may go on, in all its functions, without lords and commons; has hitherto done fo for years together; and in our times it does fo during every recefs of parliament; but without the king his parliament is no more. The king, therefore, alone it is, who neceffarily fubits, without change or diminution; and from him alone we unçealingly derive the protection of the lords and com

mens.