ment, which become the most faithful Subjects to the best Anno 1o. Geo. II.

of Kings.

Our Duty and Gratitude to your Majesty have, on many Occafions of this Nature, called upon us to lay at your royal Feet our thankful Acknowledgments for preferving to your own Subjects the Bleffings of Peace; and the additional Motive of our unfeigned Regard to the common Interests of Europe, in which it is impoffible for this Nation to be unconcerned, makes us now receive, with great Satisfaction, your gracious Communication, that the Re-establishment of the general Tranquillity is. far advanced.

How happy and fecure foever your Majefty's Wif dom, under the Protection of the divine Providence, may render these Kingdoms, it was impoffible for us to remain. wholly unaffected with the Miseries of War, fuffered by other Parts of Christendom; and we cannot but rejoice in the pleafing Hopes, that all Dangers and Apprehenfions of new Troubles may be happily removed.

At the fame Time, we efteem it a fresh Inftance of your Majesty's never-failing Care of the public Welfare, that you put us in mind to be attentive to the final Conclufion of this great Work. As your Majefty hath, on your Part distinguished your paternal Tenderness for your People, in not permitting them to be haftily involved in the Calamities of War; it would be themost unbecoming Return for fo great a Benefit, to fhew any Signs of an indolent Security: And we beseech your Majefty to accept the strongest and most affectionate Affurances, that we can never entertain the least Thought of leaving ourselves in a defenceless Condition but that we will always chearfully concur in all fuch Meafures as shall be neceffary to maintain the Honour and Safety of your Majefty and your Government, and the true Interest of your Kingdoms.

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The gracious Approbation which your Majefty is pleased to give of the Conduct of this Parliament, affords us great Comfort and Encouragement; and your vigilant Care to execute the Laws with Juttice and Impartiality, and to protect the Rights and Properties of all your Subjects, fills our Minds with the most lafting Impreffions of Thankfulness. Under this deep Senfe of our Obligations to your Majefty, we cannot fufficiently exprefs our Deteftation of those infolent Riots and Tumults, which have of late appeared in different Parts of the Kingdom, in Defiance of the Law, and Violation of the public Peace. Every Part of the Behaviour of thefe daring Offenders appears to us as weak and unreafonable as it is wicked, except that they have considered the Interefts and Views of your Majesty and your Parliament, as

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Annoro. Geo II. being fo clofely united, that it was impoffible to traduce or 1736-7. oppose the one, without including the other. Our Duty, as well as our Safety, makes it incumbent upon us to give another Mark of this happy Union, by teftifying our humble Concurrence in your Majefty's juft Opinion, that fuch audacious Practices ought to be timely fuppreffed: And as we do, with the firmeft Confidence, rely on your Majefty's Authority being prudently and vigorously exerted for this neceffary End; fo we affure your Majefty, with the greatest Sincerity, that our Endeavours and Ásistance shall never be wanting to fupport that Authority, and to preferve the Quiet and Security of the Nation."

King's Anfwer. "

King's Speech taken into Con

fideration.

Lord Carteret's Speech concerning Riots.

To which Addrefs his Majefty returned the following Anfwer.

66

My Lords,

I

Thank you for this dutiful and loyal Addrefs. The Affection you fhew to my Perfon and Government, gives me the greatest Satisfaction.

66

My principal Care is to fecure to my People the Bleffings of Peace, and the full and undisturbed Enjoyment "of all their civil and religious Rights, and to preserve the Tranquillity and good Order of the Kingdom.

66

"The Continuance of the good Harmony between me " and my Parliament, will enable me to purfue with Effect "these great and defirable Ends."

Thursday the 10th of February, the Houfe of Lords, according to Order, refolved itself into a Committee of the whole Houfe, for the taking his Majesty's Speech into Confideration; upon which Occafion as there was not properly any formed Debate upon any one Point, we can only give the Heads of fome of the most remarkable Speeches.

The Lord Delawar having taken the Chair, the Lord Carteret ftood up and fpoke to the following Effect, viz.

My Lords, his Majesty in his Speech, delivered to us by his Commiffioners, moit juftly took Notice of the many Riots and Tumults that have lately happened in this Kingdom; and as his Majefty moft wifely thought it an Affair of fuch Confequence as to deferve being mentioned by him to his Parliament, I expected that this House would have immediately refolved upon taking that Part of his Majesty's Speech into Confideration; but as a Motion for that Pur. pofe would have come more properly from fome other Lords, I delayed for fome Days taking Notice of it, or making

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any Motion for our taking that Affair into our Confideration. Anno 1o. Geo. II. This, my Lords, was my Reafon for allowing fome of the first Days of the Seffion to pafs over, without taking the leaft Notice of what his Majefty had fo wifely and so neceffarily mentioned in his Speech; but upon finding no Step made towards it by any other Lord, as I thought it an Affair which ought not to be delayed, I took the Liberty to move your Lordships for the Committee you are now in ; and as I moved for your going into this Committee, I think it incumbent upon me now to explain what I meant or intended by my Motion.

Tho' none of the Riots or Tumults that have lately happened in this Kingdom, feem to have been aimed directly a-, gainst the Government, yet, my Lords, it must be granted, that no fuch Thing can happen in any Country, in which the Government is not fome way concerned; for as the Peace and Quiet of the People are disturbed by fuch tumultuous Affemblies, and as it is the Business of every Government to preserve the Peace and Quiet of the People, therefore wherever any fuch Thing happens, the Government ought to look upon itself as deeply concerned; and if we confider what mighty Confequences have arifen from very fmall Beginnings, if we confider how often Governments have been overturned by Tumults which at first seemed infignificant, which feemed no way intended for any fuch End, we must conclude, that not only our Government, but our present Establishment, and even our happy Constitution, are concerned in the Riots which have lately happened in feveral Parts of this Kingdom For this Reason, it is the Duty of this House, as being the King's chief Council, not to let fuch Riots and Tumults pafs over unobferved, but to enquire narrowly into them, in order to discover their true Caufes, and to provide an effectual and a legal Remedy; for if the Law fhould lofe its Force, if it fhould become neceffary upon all Occafions to make ufe of a military Force for preferving the Peace of the Kingdom, our Conftitution would be at an End, we could not then be faid to be under a civil but a military Government.

Of all the late Tumults, the first I fhall take Notice of are those which have happened in the Weft on account of the Turnpikes. Why Turnpikes fhould occafion Difturban ces in that Part of the Country more than in any other, is what I fhall not, at prefent, pretend to account for ; but thefe Disturbances were fuch, it feems, that for quelling them it became neceffary to employ a military Force, which I am very much furprized at, confidering the fevere Law your Lordships paffed fome Time fince against those who should 1736-7

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Anno 10.Geo.II. be concerned in any fuch. To me it is amazing to fee that the civil Power, armed with fuch a fevere Law, fhould not be able to prevent, as well as to quell any fuch Tumult, without the Affiftance of the Gentlemen of our Army; and therefore I am apt to fufpect thofe Tumults proceeded, not from any want of Power in the civil Magiftrate, but from fome other Cause, perhaps from fome real Injuftice or Oppreffion brought upon poor People by means of thofe Turnpikes. The People feldom or ever affemble in any riotous or tumultuous Manner unless when they are oppreffed, or at leaft imagine they are oppreffed. If the People should be mistaken, and imagine they are oppreffed when they are not, it is the Duty of the next Magiftrate to endeavour first to correct their Miftake by fair Means and juft Reasoning. In common Humanity he is obliged to take this Method, before he has recourfe to fuch Methods as may bring Death and Destruction upon a great Number of his Fellow-Countrymen, and this Method will generally prevail where they have not met with any real Oppreffion: But when this happens to be the Cafe, it cannot be expected they will give Ear to their Oppreffor, nor can the fevereft Laws, nor the most rigorous Execution of those Laws, always prevent the People's becoming tumultuous; you may fhoot them, you may hang them, but, till the Oppreffion is removed or alleviated, they will never be quiet, till the greatest Part of them are destroyed. This is the chief Reason and the chief End of all Parliamentary Enquiries, and this ought to be our chief View in the Enquiry we are now going upon. If we find any Injustice has been done, if we find any of thofe Tumults have proceeded from Oppreffion, the only way to prevent fuch Tumults in time to come, will be to remove that Oppreffion, and to punish feverely every one of thofe who have been guilty of it. This is the only human Method of preventing Riots or Tumults; for I hope none of your Lordfhips are of Opinion, that any more fevere or any larger Powers ought to be granted by Law: You have already, by a late Law, made it Death without Benefit of Clergy, to be concerned in riotoufly breaking down any Turnpike: You cannot, by any Maxims of Government hitherto purfued in ́ this Kingdom, inflict any feverer Punishment; and I hope you will not, under Pretence, that the civil Magiftrate is not able to execute this Law, agree to the erecting a Barrack at every Turnpike, in order that the civil Magistrate may have it in his Power to fhoot every Man who prefumes to make his Escape from that Punishment which is provided för him by Law.

As

As for thofe Tumults which happened in Spittlefields, and Annoro.Geo.II. that Neighbourhood, the Government was, I think, my 1736-7. Lords, as little concerned in them, as ever it can be in any fuch: They proceeded entirely from an accidental Quarrel that had happened between the English and Irish Labourers; and they might have been quelled, and the Ringleaders punifhed, even tho' we had not had a Regiment of regular Troops in the Kingdom. Then with refpect to that most ridiculous Affair that happened in Westminster-hall, it was, it is true, a most daring Infult both upon the Government and the Courts of Juftice; but I do not think it can be called either a Riot or a Tumult. There was, I believe, but one Perfon actually concerned in it, and but very few privy to it; and as it answered no End, nor could proceed from any fudden Paffion or Refentment, I must think none but mad Men could have any Hand in it. If we confider the Place where, and the Perfon before whom this ridiculous Infult was committed, we must conclude that no Man in his right Senfes would have been guilty of it, or would have fo much as thought of any fuch impudent and foolish Contrivance; for the noble Lord who prefided in that Court, has, I am fure, gained the Affection and Esteem of every Man of Sense in the Kingdom. He is a Magiftrate of great Power; but, my Lords, great as it is, his Authority is equal to his Pow er; for Power and Authority we must always look as two Things of a very different Nature: Power, the Legislature may give, but Authority it can give no Man. Authority may be acquired by Wisdom, by Prudence, by good Conduct and a virtuous Behaviour, but it can be granted by no King, by no Potentate upon Earth. A Man's Power depends upon the Poft or Station he is in, but his Authority can depend upon nothing but the Character he acquires among Mankind; and the more Power a Fool or a Knave is vested with, the more he will be despised, the more generally will he be loaded with Hatred and Reproach.

The Riots and Tumults which proceed from Smuggling are, my Lords, of an old Standing, and of a very different Nature; but they are of late become fo frequent, and the Smugglers are become fo numerous and fo audacious, that they deserve our closest Attention. I am afraid fome extraordinary Methods must be made ufe of for fuppreffing them; but the only Way of contriving an effectual Method for that. Purpose will be, to enquire into their Caufes, and to take fuch Measures as may be proper for removing those Caufes for in the Body political, as in the Body natural, while the Caufe remains, it is impoffible to remove the Diftemper. Severe Laws against Smuggling, and the most rigorous, the 1736-7.

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