at the head of affairs in this country, who would be difpofed to punifli, with an unrelenting feverity, the person who attacked one branch of the conftitution, while they would cherish the libeller of the other. Some one might reprefent. the monarchy as independent of the parliament. Such an offender might find his fafety from the punishment of this bill in the fimilarity of his fentiments to thofe of the minifters, and might fecurely ftrike at the foundation of two parts of the conftitution, while he proved his zeal and attachment to the throne. A period might exift, when, as in the prefent days, the principles which placed his majesty on the throne would be detefted as the fymptoms of difaffection, while the advocates of prerogative might find their abettors in the bofom of the cabinet. The bishop of Rochester fpoke in favour of the claufe, and of every part of the bill; and lord Grenville attempted to refute the opinion of lord Thurlow. Lord Lauderdale, in defence of the opinion lord Thurlow had given of the bill, adverted to what had formerly fallen from a noble duke now high in office (the duke of Portland), namely, that much of the calamities and diftreffes under which the country fuffered, was owing to the misconduct of the perfons now, in office. The lord chancellor, after an apology for his own weakness in at tempting to refute the opinion of the noble lord who had preceded him on the woolfack, faid, that inftead of difapproving of the claufe in which it is provided that no perfon fhall be profecuted unless it be by order of the king or his council, he admired it; because it removed the odium from attaching to any particular individual, ahd made his majefly's fecretary of state, and the various perfons who compofed his council, refponsible for the indictment of every perfon. So far, then, from its being an engine in the hands of government to accelerate any fummary procefs, it be. came a check upon the govern ment, and retarded the profecution. Lord Carnarvon hoped that this bill would not do away the autho rity of the house of commons, to impeach any minifter who should maliciously incite or ftir up the people to the hatred or diflike of his majefty or the conftitution. He understood that the house of commons maintained this authority;. but with what right, he was not able to determine; and therefore it. was neceffary the bill fhould be clear and explicit; he wished that to be explained; for there was as much mifchief to be apprehended from minifters as from other perfons. After fome further converfation, the following amendment was agreed to, "And if any perfon or perfons hall, after being fo convicted, offend a fecond time, and be thereupon convicted, fuch perfon or perfons may, on fuch fecond conviction, be adjudged, at the difcretion of the court before whom they may be fo convicted, either to be banifhed this realm, or to be tranfported to fuch place as fhall be appointed by his majesty for the tranfportation of offenders, for fuch term as the court may appoint, not exceeding feven years." The duke of Bedford faid he could not let this claufe pafs without giving it his moft decided oppofition. He looked upon it as a daring attack and flagitious outrage on the liberty of the fubject, and felt felt as a man that might incur the penalty in making this declaration. His grace adverted to fome words which had fallen from the bishop of Rochester relative to publica tions on the fubject of parliamentary reform. The learned prelate, in reply, obferved that common fpeculative and philofophical difquifitions might be still written and publifhed, though he always thought they did more harm than good; for the bill was merely directed againft thofe idle and feditious public meetings for the difcuffion of the laws, where the people were not competent to decide upon them. In fact, he did not know what the mass of the people in any country had to do with the laws but to obey them. The earl of Lauderdale and the duke of Bedford expreffed their abhorrence of the affertion of the noble prelate; and the former obferved, that if he had been in Turkey, and heard fuch a declaration from the mouth of a mufti, he should have attributed it to his ignorance; but to hear it from a British prelate, filled him with aftonish ment and indignation. The houfe divided on the clause, Contents 45 Not contents 3 After a fhort converfation, the house was refumed, and notice given that the report of the committee would be received the next day. On the 12th of November, upon reading the report of the committee upon the treafon and fedition bill, the duke of Leeds renewed his motion of amendment for correcting the words, "the established government and conftitution of this realm," which were fo equivocal and indefinite, that no certainty could be obtained as to the true meaning. At the request, however, of the lord chancellor, his grace a greed to defer his motion till the third reading. On the following day, upon the third reading of this bill, the earl of Lauderdale observed, that if the bill about to be paffed was adequate to fupprefs fedition in a country where a difpofition to overturn the laws was faid to have appeared, it would furely be fufficient where a very oppofite fpirit prevailed. He could not think it poffible that ftronger penalties were neceffary to fupprefs fedition in a Scotchman than in an Englishman. He therefore propofed that the following claufe fhould be added to the bill: Provided alfo, and be it enacted, that this act fhall extend to that part of Great Britain called Scotland, and that no prosecution fhall be there inftituted by indictment at common law, or otherwise, for any offence within the provifions of this act, otherwise than under this act.” Lord Mansfield, and others of the court lords, oppofed this amendment of the earl of Lauderdale ; and it was at length negatived without a division. The duke of Bedford then rofe to make his final declaration against the bill. He faid he felt fo great a depreffion of fpirits, and found himself fo overwhelmed with anxiety of mind, when he contemplated the bill then before the house, that he was compelled by thofe fenfations to oppofe it through all its ftages, and would endeavour, by one other effort, to imprefs their lordfhips with the fentiments he entertained on the fubject. grace contended that this meafure was not merely an extension of the criminal law, but a ftab to the conftitution, and an attempt to strike at the foundation of the liberties of Englishmen. He faid it was common for fome noble lords to His go go to France for their examples; nor would he there decline to meet them. He allowed the French revolution to be both calamitous and fanguinary; but it was not produced by the harangues of field preachers, or the difcuffions of political clubs: it was effected by the profligate manners of a licentious court, which fanctioned by its example, and extended by its influence, a contempt of morals and of decency; a corrupt and unprincipled fucceffion of minifters, who involved the nation in unjust and unneceffary wars-who fquandered the refources, and irretrievably ruined the finances of a flourithing nation-who ftretched the feverity of the law beyond the fufferance of human nature. It was by these causes, that the old government of France forfeited the attachment and loft the fupport of the people. In this country, he faid, the perfonal virtues of the monarch conftituted a marked difference: the amiable character of the king might banifh the licentious immorality of a French court; but in the conftitution of the cabinet, and the meafures of corrupt and wicked minifters (for corrupt he was warfanted to call them, in confequence of their profufe and lavish grants of public money) would be found the conduct that contributed to the fall of the French monarchy: a war undertaken, and obftinately profecuted, without a regard to the intereft or the wishes of the people of this country; new places created, and rewards bestowed upon the partizans of their corrupt fyf tem. Before he concluded, the duke obferved, that if the laws in exiftence were adequate to the punishment of fedition, and the fup 1796. preffion of illegal meetings, minifters were culpable for not employing the means furnished by the conftitution for its protection, and could not plead neceffity for the introduction and enactment of a law which would inevitably overthrow the deareft privileges of the people of England. Lord Grenville contended for the neceffity of the bill in queftion, and repeated nearly the fame arguments which he had ufed upon introducing the bill into the houfe. He urged, that it did not create or constitute any new treafons; it only altered the punishment applied to both under the exifting laws. Refpecting the old government of France, to which the duke of Bedford had alluded, he agreed with him. The manners of the court were diffolute, and its conduct imprudent, and the beginning of the revolution was regarded in a favourable point of view by the people of this country, as it afforded a profpect of encreafing the felicity of a great nation. But what brought on all the plunders, affaffinations, blood, and horror, which defolated France, was the fyftem of principles maintained by clubs and public meetings. Political affemblies, it was well known, had been held in England, which openly profeffed to imitate the clubs in France. Thefe clubs and focieties proceeded on the rights of man, as they were called; rights, which, as they explained them, were incompatible with the exiftence of law, order, religion, or morality. The earl of Lauderdale, in a fpeech of confiderable ability, contended, that, though minifters pretended that the fafety of the king's perfon had induced them to offer the bill to their lordships, yet on the day he received the outrageous C infult infult in going to the house, those fame minifters fuffered him to return without additional guards, or any precaution whatever to prevent a repetition of the infult. The real motive of minifters in bringing forward this measure, was to encreafe their own power, and conceal, if poffible, the fhame and confufion which they had brought . upon themfelves by the madness with which they had profecuted the war. They knew, that, unless they could prevent the people from meeting and uttering their complaints, their own difgrace would follow; and therefore, under the pretext of providing for the fafety of the fovereign, they were endeavouring to provide for their own. The earl of Lauderdale concurred in moft of the arguments made ufe of by the duke of Bedford, and added fame juft animadverfions upon the unconftitutional expreffion which had a few days before fallen from the bishop of Rochester, namely, that "the people had nothing to do with the laws but to obey them." With refpect to what had been urged by lord Grenville in defence of the bill, he obferved, that as to the free difcuffion of parliamentary proceedings, there never was a common turnpike bill brought into parliament, without being difcuffed in fome meeting, more or lefs numerous, according to its importance. If the privilege of political difcuffion be allowed on trivial and partial concerns, furely it ought to be permitted on fubjects of importance and general intereft. He obferved, that minifters had once exerted themfelves, through the medium of the courts, to try how for the law of treafon would go. Their my Hoe, however, was difap. pointed by their ignorance; and 7 because they could not bring their wishes to meet the law, they now came forward to make the law meet their wishes. He concluded with declaring, that he hoped that the fpirit of the people would fhew itfelf through every part of the nation, because he was perfuaded that, nothing else would fave the nation from ruin. The earl of Abingdon oppofed the bill in a defultory and eccentric manner: he alluded to what had been faid of the earl of Clarendon by the earl of Mansfield and lord Grenville on a former night, and faid that lord Clarendon was a very fuperftitious perfon, and believed in ghofts; and as a proof to his affertion, he took a book from his pocket, and quoted feveral paffages. Upon the queftion being put, that the bill do pafs, the house divided. Contents, 66; non-contents, 7. A protest against the paffing of this bill was entered and figned Bedford, Derby, and Lauderdale. While the bills were thus warmly difcuffed in both houfes of parliament, the oppofition without doors was the most steady and systematic that perhaps was ever manifefted to any public measure; and, if we confider the immenfe force of influence which was wielded at this period by the minifter, and which was ftrenuously employed in fupport of this favourite fyftem, we ought rather to wonder at the fpirit and magnanimity which was difplayed by the people, than to be furprifed at the efforts which the partizans of administration were enabled to make in their favour. On the 11th of November, the Whig Club of England met at the Crown and Anchor tavern, his grace the duke of Bedford in the chair. thair. They refolved, "that they would give every aid to the civil magiftrate, in detecting and bringing to punishment the perfons concerned in the daring attack made upon his majesty in his paffage to parliament on the first day of the feffion: that, lamenting as they did this nefarious act, they faw with the utmost concern that it had been ufed as a pretext for introducing into parliament a bill ftriking at the liberty of the prefs, and the freedom of public difcuffion; in fubftance and effect, deftroying the right of the fubject to petition the branches of the legislature for redrefs of grievances, and utterly fubverfive of the genuine principles of the conftitution, and for propofing another measure calculated to produce fimilar effects, by means ftill more exceptionable. That it was highly expedient, that meetings of the people in their refpective diftrict's fhould be immediately called to confider this important fubject, and for the purpofe of petitioning parliament against the faid bill, or any other measure which might tend to infringe the juft rights of the people of Great Britain." -- This meeting was uncommonly ftrong. All the members of both houfes of parliament belonging to the club were prefent, to the number of near fifty lords and members of the house of commons. The members of the Correfponding Society (which had afforded the unfortunate excufe for these proceedings), and others of the populace, affembled on the 12th of November in a field near Copenhagen houfe. The infinuations of the minifter, as implicating the fociety in the attack on his majefty, were indignantly repelled, and fatisfactorily refuted. An addrefs, remonftrance, and petition to his majefty, was propofed, ftating in ftrong terms the neglect with which their former petitions had been treated, and imploring his majesty to exert his royal authority to maintain and preserve inviolate the rights and liberties of his fubjects, then about to be invaded by the two bills impending in parliament. A petition to the lords fpiritual and temporal, nearly to the fame purport, was alfo read, and laftly, one to the commons of Great Britain, ftating it to be the petition of nearly four hundred thousand Britons, inhabitants of London and its environs, affembled together in the open air, to express their free fentiments, according to the tenure of the bill of rights, on the fubject of the threatened invasion of their conftitutional liberties. These petitions being unanimoufly agreed to, the meeting concluded and difperfed with the moft perfect order and decorum. In the mean time, the affociation against republicans and levellers, well known by the appellation of Mr. Reeves's Society, met at the Crown and Anchor, and agreed to an addrefs to his majefty, highly approving of the meatures that had then been taken, and of the two bills impending in parliament. The example of the Whig Club was immediately followed by the livery of London, the electors of Weltminster, the freeholders of Middlefex; and by feveral counties, and by almost every confiderable town in the kingdom: wherever a meeting was publicly called, the decision was almost unanimous. On the contrary, counter petitions were in feveral places clandeftinely handed about, and figned by the immediate dependants of minifters, by the officers of the customs and excife, the military, and even by fchool C 2 boys; |