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time that the person to whom they succeeded was still more faithless, and he was glad to see him where he was. Under all these circumstances, he thought some explanation was due from the noble lord as to what he trusted to, and he hoped that he would be able to give them some satisfactory answer on the subject. Lord Castlereagh could not help thinking that the language of the hon. gentleman, if a sincere wellwisher to the cause of the abolition, was not calculated to promote that object; for if any thing was more likely than another to discourage the French government from making exertions in the cause of the abolition, it was precisely such language as he had held. This he (the noble lord) could say; that no engage ment could have recorded in more explicit and comprehensive terms the abolition of the slave trade on the part of France. To his certain knowledge, the French government had immediately acted on the treaty, and sent dispatches to the different ports for the purpose of securing its execution. He could state also, that he knew the governor of the island of Bourbon had actually been displaced by the French government for allowing the crime of slave dealing in that colony. And he could also say, that whenever any information had been received by him respecting any traffic in slaves on the part of French subjects, he had transmitted it regularly to the French government, and that they had never received it other wise than with every appearance of the most anxious desire to act upon it.

After some other members had spoken on the subject, the committee divided: Ayes 56; Noes 4.

On the 11th of February, the House having resolved itself into a Committee of Supply, Lord Castlereagh said, that after the full discussion which this subject had undergone, he felt it quite unnecessary to make any further observations, now that he moved, in the terms of the treaty, that a sum not exceeding 400,000l. be granted to his majesty, for the purpose of carrying into execu tion the treaty with the Spanish government for the abolition of the slave trade.

Mr. Lyttelton said, that it was with regret he rose to offer any observations calculated to disturb the unanimity which the object of the treaty so justly obtained; but he took the opportunity, from instructions that he had received, to ask the noble lord a few questions materially connected with our commercial intercourse with Spain. And he must say, from what he was taught to believe, that this country was, as to those relations, in a state rather remote from a cordial amity with that power. The British merchants were not merely treated with severity, but with a caprice the most destructive to the continuance of a commercial intercourse. In the export of cotton goods we were met by a total prohibition. Woollens and linens, which were staples of this country, were also prohibited. The duties on iron were 110 per cent upon their actual value. If he was rightly instructed, we were not only treated with rigour, but that rigour was exercised

without

without due notice. Formerly six months notice had been given of any prohibitions; now, these were suddenly made, so that it was impossible to give notice to the merchant in London so as to prevent shipments and very serious losses. That orders upon matters of commercial regulation should be explicit and clear was essential to the very existence of commerce. Let taxation be carried to any extent, but let timely notice be given of such taxation! He hoped the noble lord would feel it his duty to effect, if possible, a treaty to remove the excessive impositions on our trade, or at least to ensure due notice to our merchants. He particularly wished to know what remonstrances had been made by our government, and what answer had been returned.

Lord Castlereagh, in reply to the question of the hon. gentleman, said that he lamented as much as any one, that the commercial principles which regu. lated the conduct of the Spanish government were of a nature which had now been quite ex. ploded in the politics of this country, and which he hoped would not long maintain their ground in any European cabinet. At the same time we ought to show some indulgence towards that government even on this score, considering that we ourselves, not long since, had acted upon the very same mistaken principles in many of our commercial regulations. For the purpose of effecting a general improvement in our relations with Spain, two proposals had been

made by the British cabinet; but he was sorry to say that nothing decisive had been done with res pect to them, nor could he state that any measures were in progress relative to this point. With respect to the particular branches of trade mentioned by the hon. gentleman, no man could regret more than he did, that Spain had placed such restrictions on the cotton trade; but this restriction was not a recent one. In the treaty of 1792 the admission of cottons to the Spanish market was entirely prohibited; and if since that time it had been at all permitted, it was only by an act of special indulgence, suspending the operation of that treaty. After all, Spain was not the only country that acted on the system of commercial restriction and prohibition: we ourselves were a good deal embarrassed by the restrictions of our own regulations in that matter. With respect to the system of the Spanish government, it had produced such effects in so many cases, that the strongest remonstrances had been found necessary. These in many cases had been effectual; in other instances the evil had been diminished, though not entirely remedied; and in several instances they had been hitherto quite unsuccessful. It was to be hoped, however, that as those mistaken notions of commercial regulations were gradually abandoned by other nations, the time was near at hand when they would ease to be prevalent in Spain.

Some other gentlemen joined in the debate, but at length the resolution was agreed to.

CHAPTER

CHAPTER IV.

Proceedings in the House of Lords respecting the Indemnity Bill.— The same in the House of Commons.

N the 23rd of February the duke of Montrose presented to the House of Lords a report of the Secret Committee of the Lords appointed to examine into the matter of the several papers, sealed up, presented to the House by command of the Prince Regent.

The Committee were ordered to report that they had proceeded to examine the papers so referred to them.

"In execution of this duty they proceeded, in the first place, to consider such of the said papers as contained information as to the state of those parts of England in which the circumstances detailed in the two reports of the former committees appear to have arisen.

In the last of those reports, presented to the House on the 12th of June last, it was represented that the period of a general rising, of which the intention and object were stated in the reports, appeared to have been fixed for as early a day as possible after the discussion of an expected motion for reform in parliament; that Nottingham appeared to have been intended as the head quarters, upon which a part of the insurgents were to march in the first instance; and that they expected to be joined

there, and on their march towards London, by other bodies with such arms as they might have already provided, or might procure by force from private houses, or from the different depôts or barracks, of which the attack was proposed. That concurrent information, from many quarters, confirmed the expectation of a general rising about the time above-mentioned, but that it was subsequently postponed to the 9th or 10th of June, for which various reasons had been assigned. The report added, that the latest intelligence from those quarters had made it highly probable that the same causes which had to that time thwarted the execution of those desperate designs, viz. the vigilance of the government, the great activity and intelligence of the magistrates, the ready assistance afforded under their orders by the regular troops and yeomanry, the prompt and efficient arrangements of the officers intrusted with that service, the knowledge which had from time to time been obtained of the plans of the disaffected, and the consequent arrest and confinement of the leading agitators, would occasion a still farther postponement of their atrocious plans.

It now appears that in the

night of the 9th of June last, a rising took place in Derbyshire, headed by a person who went for that purpose from Nottingham, and was therefore called "The Nottingham Captain." The insurgents were not formidable for their numbers, but they were actuated by an atrocious spirit, Several of them had fire arms; others had pikes previously prepared for that purpose and as they advanced towards Nottingham they plundered several houses of arms, and in one instance a murder was committed. They compelled some persons to join them, and endeavoured to compel others by threats and violence, and particularly by the terror of the murder which had been committed; and they proposed to reach Nottingham early in the morning of the 10th of June, and to surprise the military in their barracks: hoping thus to become masters of the town, and to be joined by considerable numbers there, and by a party which they expected would be assembled in Nottingham Forest, and which actually did assemble at that place, as after stated. The disposition to plunder, the resistance they met with, and other circumstances, so delayed their march, that they had not arrived near their place of destination at a late hour in the morning and the country being alarmed, a military force was assembled to oppose them.

The language used by many persons engaged in this enterprise, and particularly by their leaders, leaves no room to doubt that their objects were the overthrow of the established government and

laws; extravagant as those objects were, when compared with the inadequate means which they possessed. In the course of their march, many of their body felt alarmed at the atrocious projects in which they had engaged, which had actually led to a cruel and deliberate murder; they found that their confederates had not arrived to their support, as they had been led to expect; and in the villages through which they passed, a strong indisposition being manifested towards their cause and projects, some of them threw away their pikes and retired, before the military force appeared; and on the first show of that force the rest dispersed, their leaders attempting in vain to rally them; many were taken prisoners, and many guns and pikes were seized.

This insurrection, of small importance in itself, is a subject of material consideration, as it was manifestly in consequence of measures detailed in the two reports above-mentioned, and appears to have been a part of the general rising proposed to take effect on the 9th or 10th of June, as stated in the last of those reports.

At the assizes at Derby, in the month of July following, the grand jury found bills of indictment for high treason against forty-six of the persons charged with having been engaged in this insurrection; and several of those persons having been taken were arraigned upon the indictment before a special commission issued for that purpose, which sat at Derby in the month of October following. Four of the principal

offenders

offenders were separately tried and convicted; three of them were executed; and the capital punishment of the fourth was remitted, on condition of transportation. The conviction of these four induced nineteen of the other persons indicted, whose conduct had been deemed in the next degree most criminal, to withdraw their pleas of not guilty, and to plead guilty to the indictment, in hopes of thus avoiding a capital punishment; and the sentence of death on these persons was afterwards remitted, on different conditions. Against all the other persons indicted, who were in custody, the law officers of the crown declined producing any evidence, and they were accordingly acquitted. The rest of the persons included in the indictment, had fled from justice, and have not yet been taken.

The fact of this actual insurrection first proved to the satisfaction of a most respectable grand jury of the county of Derby, who found the bill of indictment, and afterwards proved in open court, to the satisfaction of the several juries, sworn on the four several trials of the persons convicted; proved also, by the acknowledgment of the same guilt by those who withdrew their pleas of not guilty, and pleaded guilty to the same indictment, and thus submitted themselves to the mercy of the Crown; appear to the committee to have established beyond the possibility of a doubt, the credit due to the information mentioned in the last report, respecting the plans of more extended insurrection, which had previously been concerted, and

respecting the postponement of these plans to the 9th or 10th of June.

But this insurrection in Derbyshire was not the only circumstance occurring since the period described in the last of the two reports before-mentioned, which demonstrates the correctness of the information on which the committee who made that report proceeded, in representing such a general rising to have been intended, and to have been postponed; and that Nottingham was the head quarters upon which a part of the insurgents were to march in the first instance; and that they were expected to be joined there by insurgents from different quarters.

On his

Early in the same night on which the Derbyshire insurgents began their operations, the town of Nottingham was in a state of considerable agitation. It appears from the evidence given upon the trials at Derby, that during the march of the Derbyshire insurgents towards Nottingham, one of their leaders, afterwards convicted of high treason, was sent forwards on horseback, to obtain intelligence. return to the main body of the Derbyshire insurgents, it was pretended that the state of Nottingham was favourable to their designs; the actual state of Nottingham and its neighbourhood, appears from the evidence given on the trials at Derby. In the night of the 9th of June, some persons, stated to be in number about one hundred, had assembled on the race course, in Nottingham Forest, where the Derbyshire insurgents, according to

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