meafures they had formerly reprobated, to lay every possible impedinent in the way of a fimilar attack upon themfelves. Confidering the matter in this point of view, I have no hesitation whatever in declaring, that the alarm fo induftriously spread in the latter end of 1792, against the different focieties licked together for the purpofe of procuring puliamentary reform, was perfectly wife, confiftent, and natural. The method of calling out the militia at a most unusual feafon, of apprehending fundry perfons, and feizing a voluminous mafs of papers, with ali the well-affumed trepidation of an immediate death-blow meditated again't the Conftitution, was admirably well calculated to annihilate the most diftant hopes of thefe focieties in future, and commence a reign of terror which no fucceeding oppofition would have been able to thake. The means were oftenfibly adequate to the end propofed; and the precipitation with which the act of Habeas Corpus was fufpended, thewed the extreme eagerness of the partics to take advantage of the momentary paralysis of public opinion. What followed? After a long lapfe of time, the perfons originally confined, were brought to their trial, under fuch peculiar circumstances of hardship, both as to the atonishing number of witnetles fubponed against them, and the unheard of phalanx of profeffional men, drawn up in array, at the bar, that, I think, hardly any thing fimilar can be found in the annals of mankind. I fay, and I am fure many gentlemen who now hear me, can testify to my veracity, if they pleafe, that even before trial thefe wretched victims were exultingly condemned to the gallows. That the affurance of their fate was in certain quarters perfectly proverbial; and I now declare my opinion as an honest and independent man, that if thofe perfons had then fuffered, not one of us now alive, fhould ever have feen the rights of Habeas Corpus reftored to this country. Nothing would have been required to keep up a perpetual neceffity for the fufpenfion, but the facrifice of a dozen or two of miferable wretches once in a year, to exaggerate fufpicions of treason: a precedent would have been established (and who fo fond of precedents as our Courts of Juftice) for the condemnation, and in no very long period, popular prejudice might have gone hand in hand with the verdict. Thank God, the inte grity of a jury, and of a jury empannelled in the metropolis, in the very vortex of ministerial influence, fuddenly difperfed the tremendous cloud, and left nothing for Minifters but the miferable thift of the poffibility of an exifting conspiracy without confpirators. By this time the projected war was in full effect, and any one who will be at the trouble to trace with accuracy the circumstances of which I have just sketched a rapid outline, will clearly difcern from the

very nature of the cafe, as well as the opportunity taken for this tranfaction, that it was planned for the very purpose of infuring to Administration an undisturbed career in the profecution of hoftilities. I affume it as a matter of fact, which every man may verify if he pleafes.

The failure of the project, therefore, as it was moft exceedingly mortifying to its projectors, muft be expected in the fame degree to have given courage and exultation to its opponents; for which reafon we ought then to have perceived the immediate operation and effect in the conduct of the parties and their affociates, of all those dangerous and deftructive defigns, of which they had been fo loudly accufed. What was the fact? Tranquility in the extreme, a general fubmiffion to the laws, and a temporary fufpenfion even of the moft legal exertions of the focieties for a Parliamentary Reform, in favour of the vigour and unanimity required for the conducting the war; accordingly this war went on and went on, like that former war, the opposition to which had been so advantageous to the conductors of the prefent. Calamities poured in upon calamities, expences were multiplied upon expences; all the floodgates of profufion in fubfidies, loans, and all the endless et ceteras of Minifterial dilapidation were thrown open, and it became again too apparent, that no remedy fhort of a Parliamentary reform could poffibly reach the enormous evil; and this brings us, Sir, to the moment of the Proclamation now on the table. We have feen that an attempt to produce a complete annihilation of the focieties by an attack upon the lives of fome of their prominent Members had failed. neceffary, therefore, now to change the mode of procceding, and by one blow to quafh the very existence not only of all these exifting focieties, but even the poffibility of any such society ever exifting at all; and the time chofen for this operation is of itself fufficient, in my mind, to warrant the inference I now draw. The Houfe will pleafe to confider how very near we are fuppofed to be to a diffolution of Parliament, and upon that ground, pause a moment, to reflect in what fituation every man will ftand who shall not start as a ministerial candidate at the general election. Sir, upon this head, but to have dropped a hint is fully fufficient. I affirm that the prefent Miniftry, by a bill founded on this proclamation, will have the effectual control over all the electors of Great Britain univerfally, and no man can poffibly expect to be returned, but on minifterial intereft.

And now, Sir, to come to the proclamation itself, for aught I can fee, every one of its fentences is a mere affumption of fact without any proof whatever. Will the House admit, upon this

fingle authority, that inflammatory and feditious fpeeches have been delivered at the meeting alluded to, without any formal teftimony adduced for it? Shall we without any evidence whatever conclude, that because it is notorious that one man in a tumultuous affembly has thrown a ftone at the King's coach, many thoufands of men who met quictly and decently the day before, are complicated in the tranfaction? Are we not in full poffeffion of an acknowledgment from the Crown itself, that under an extreme preffure of diftrefs, obediance to the laws has been fo general as to deferve its particular notice, and violated only in a few instances? Shall we not be permitted to afk, why iffue fuch a Proclamation if it be infufficient; and if futficient, why back it with an act of Parliament? Shall we not call for a lift of all thofe Juftices of the Peace and others, to whom the Proclamation is addreffed, that we may judge for ourselves, whether or not they are now competent to the duty without farther aid? Shall we not, at all events, demand a call of the House, that on a cafe of fuch magnitude, in which the whole fabric of our Conftitution, as fettled in 1688, is in danger. Every fingle Member may be well apprised of the circumstances under which his own liberty and that of his conftituents, of the whole nation, and of all their pofterity, is to be done away for ever? Surely, Sir, if ever there was a time when procrastination was a virtue, it is now: and as I have fo long trefpaffed on the patience of the House, I shall fit down under the fatisfactory conviction that I have not in fo critical a period fhrunk from that duty which on lefs important occafions I fhould have been much better pleased to elude.

Mr. MAURICE ROBINSON obferved, that he perceived, in the right honourable gentleman who moved this business, a direct attack on the liberty of this country; and in an honourable Baronet (Sir William Pulteney), a fophiftical and infidious blow at the Conftitution. It appeared, the people would have a right to read but not to utter complaints against the burdens they endured. It seemed also that the interefts of the Sovereign were opposed to thofe of the people, whereas he had always heard that the Sovereign was the third branch of the Legiflature, and was bound to take care of the democratical interefts as much as his own. The King of this country, he faid, was no tyrant-he was a part of the Conftitution itfelf, and was reftricted by its laws. An attempt, he contended, was made to impeach the loyalty of the people at large: but this was a grofs mifreprefentation. No King had more occafion to try the affection of his fubjects, and no King ever experienced more adequate and convincing proofs of their attachment and love. He was not astonished at the bill itself, because he was not astonished at VOL. XLIII.

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any measures of the prefent defperate and violent fervants of the Crown; but he was astonished at the total want of evidence that the two parties mentioned in the bill were connec@led. He then adverted to the interference of the magiftrates, deprecated fuch an atbitrary measure; and alluded to the conduct of a magiftrate of the city (Mr. Lufhington), who, he faid, had endeavoured to deprive the citizens of London of the trial by jury. The magistrate was prefent, and he knew he was able to defend himself. He asked gentlemen, did they forget their dignity, as reprefentatives of the people and concluded by pronouncing the measure to be the termination of a fettled plan, for the complete annihilation of the liberties of the country.

Mr. Alderman LUSHINGTON faid, notwithstanding the confiderable part which an honourable gentleman had affigned to him in the fubvertion of the liberties of his country, he fhould foon have an opportunity of baging forward that bill to which the honourable Member alluded. Which he confidered the very bold and daring attack that had been made on the facred perfon of His Majefty, and the various poffible mifchiefs attendant on that event :—when he confidered the bold and tumultuous meetings that had taken place both in the metropolis, and at no great diftance from it, and that if the defign on our moit gracious Sovereign was not there projected, it was certainly encouraged by thefe meetings:when he looked at that bold attack, not folely against the person of the King, but against the whole Conftitution, he thought the ftrong measures of the right honourable gentleman neceffary for the prefervation of the Conftitution. He was very willing to give credit to his ancestors for having acted with due wifdom, but he would not fuffer his understanding, which the Almighty had given him as the guide of his conduct, to be locked up and fettered by what they had done. Their regulations were all fuited to the neceflities of the times in which they lived, and he hoped we had the fame right. The omnipotent had given him an understanding to be ufed and exercised, and it was the duty of every man to think for himfelf, and to act for his own advantage. He thought the ftate of the country in the time of Charles I. and at prefent was totally different. A new set of principles, a change of general opinion was afloat, which would overturn the Governments of Europe, if the torrent were not restrained. If a negative was put on this bill, he would venture to say, that not only every man in that House, but millions without the House, would feel in common with them, and would lament the day when they rejected this bill, which was founded in wisdom; he would not fay under any circumstances, but in the prefent ftate of the country,

he was perfectly certain if this bill, or fome meafure fimilar to it, was not adopted, the right honourable gentleman (Mr. Fox), would not long have an opportunity of exerciting his brilliant talents in fupport of the Conftitution, in maintaining of which they had the fame end in view, but differed as to the means. Political fubjects' appeared to him to differ widely from conftitutional. The former might be difcuffed as freely as before; it was only intended to prevent thofe feditious difcourfes that tended to fubvert the Conftitution. The magiftrates, by the propofed bill, were called to exercise thes authority of the State, where not merely political but conâitutional fubjects were difcuffed; and if they interpofed that authority in an undue and unconstitutional manner, there were many able and willing to bring them to justice, and affert the liberty of the people.

Mr. CURWEN thought it his duty to exprefs his fentiments on ' this occafion. No man more deprecated the idea of an attack upon the Sovereign than he did; and he never contemplated any thing with more abhorrence than that attack, except the glaring attempt which was that evening made under the fanction of his name to deprive the fubject of his laft, deareft, and beft privilege. If any thing could endanger the perfon of His Majefty it would be that bill. With the privilege of a free difcuffion on the defects of their Government, the proceedings of Minifters, and the conduct of their reprefentatives, the people of this realm were never obliged to recur to acts of violence to obtain a redrefs of their grievances, and hence arose the security of their Sovereigns. It was true that the right honourable gentleman had fufficient caufe to fupprefs the voice of the people; for no man had ever fuffered more mortifications from it than himself. What was it that put a stop to the Ruffian war?—. Not the majority of that Houfe, but the voice of the people. What was it that put a stop to the Spanish armament?-Not the majority of that Houfe, but the voice of the people. To preferve this voice inviolate he would rifk his life and property. If freedom of difcuffion were taken away, his attachment to the Conftitution would cease. It would be indifferent to him, if the bill fhould pafs, whether the Conftitution were overwhelmed by the strides of defpotism, or the torrent of democracy. He could only attribute the cause of the bill to the convenience of Minifters, who wifhed to put a stop to the progrefs of complaints against them to the Throne; and, as an argument in fupport of this affertion, requested that part of His Majefty's Speech to be read which spoke of the general moderation and good behaviour of the people: yet, after this had been pronounced by His Majefty to both Houses of Parliament, they were called upon to vote for a bill, which no Minifter had before prefumed to bring