port should have been taken into consideration. PUBLIC DEBT.] Mr. Hume rose to move for an account of the public debt of Great Britain and Ireland, to which he had called the attention of the House last session. The account which he was about to move for would, if produced, show the total amount of the funded and unfunded debt of this country, from the year 1786 to the year 1819, in a much more clear and correct manner than any that had ever been laid before the House. He then moved for "An account of the amount of the public debt of Great Britain and Ireland, and the interest thereon in British currency, as it stood on the 5th January in each year, from 1786 to 1819, in separate columns:-1. Debt redeemed, and interest thereon, Great Britain, including the Austrian and Portuguese loans:-2. Debt redeemed, and interest thereon, Ireland: -3. Total debt redeemed, and interest thereon, both countries:- 4. Funded debt unredeemed, and interest thereon, including the Austrian and Portuguese loans, England:-5. Funded debt unredeemed, and interest thereon, Ireland :-6. Total funded debt unredeemed, and interest thereon, both countries:-7. Total funded debt, redeemed and unredeemed, and interest thereon, both countries :-8. Unfunded debt, and interest thereon, Great Britain (including all interest due, but not paid, on the 5th January 1819):— 9. Unfunded debt, and interest thereon, Ireland (including all interest due, but not paid, on the 5th January 1819):10. Unfunded debt, and interest thereon, both countries (including all interest due, but not paid, on the 5th January 1819): 11. Total debt unredeemed, funded and unfunded, and interest thereon, including all interest due, but not paid, both countries:-12. Total debt, redeemed and unredeemed, funded, unfunded, and interest thereon, both countries, including amount of annuities paid in each country, and the expenses of management."-Ordered. MANCHESTER MEETING.-PETITION FROM MANCHESTER RESPECTING THE CONDUCT OF THE MAGISTRATES.] Mr. Bennet said, he rose for the purpose of presenting a petition signed by a large body of merchants, manufacturers, tradesmen, and other inhabitants of the town of Manchester, praying the House to institute an inquiry into the fatal trans | actions of the 16th of August. The signatures of between 6,000 and 7,000 persons were affixed to this petition, which bore the names of many eminent merchants, manufacturers, and tradesmen. It was, indeed, signed most respectably, and he thought that it spoke, in the moderation of its tone, and the propriety of its prayer, the sentiments of the great majority of the inhabitants of Manchester. It set forth, that which was unfortunately too well known to the House and to the country-that very great distresses had long prevailed in Manchester and its neighbourhood. Those distresses, which for some years past had weighed heavily on the lower classes, induced them to apply to parliament for relief; but their prayer not having been attended to, the consequence was, that a very general opinion had been entertained in that quarter in favour of parliamentary reform, as the only mode by which their situation could be ameliorated. In that opinion, he entirely concurred. He conceived that reform was necessary; but to what extent, or by what means it ought to be carried into effect, he did not at that moment presume to determine. The petition went on to state, that various meetings were held in that neighbourhood on the subject of reform, and at length one was called in the month of August last, which, in consequence of an illegality in the notice, did not take place. Another was convened for the 16th of that month. The result of that meeting, and the calamity which fell on many of the persons who were present at it, the House and the country were so well aware of, that he would not trouble them with any remarks on the subject. Notwithstanding what fell from the noble lord the other night, who thought fit to declare, that the whole case which had been made out on the part of the people, was found. ed in calumny-that it did not rest on the slightest evidence, he must say that he had read, and read most attentively, all the details of the transaction; and he pledged himself it would appear, that no less than eight or ten merchants and manufacturers, whose credit was perfectly unimpeached, had distinctly sworn to the truth of those allegations which the noble lord had attempted to disprove. When those statements, which were now only partially known, were laid before the public, containing, as they did, verbatim, the evidence of most respectable people, they would be found to corroborate much of They to the whole of the proceeding. It what had been said relative to the transactions of the 16th of August. He did not mean to assert, that they would establish completely the truth of all that had been advanced; but he was bound to declare, that, in his opinion at least, those eight or ten persons had spoken nothing but what was strictly true. If it was necessary to sum up the evidence, he believed it would be found that all those points which appeared to be contradictory, might be so united together, as to make out one clear, distinct, plain tale, that would not impeach the testimony of any man of honour, acting in the capacity of a witness, but would fully establish this truth-that the conduct of the military on that occasion was cruel in the extreme. The petitioners stated, that they, as well as the persons injured, had endeavoured, as far as lay in their power, to appeal for justice to the ordinary tribunals of their country. In the first instance, certain cases were selected, and sent before the grand jury, but unsuccessfully. It would be highly unbecoming in him to cast any reflection on the decision of that body, because independent of the respect which was due to an institution of that kind, and leaving out of consideration the conviction which he felt that twenty-four gentlemen, acting on their oath, would proceed cautiously, he might be permitted to say, that there were individuals on that grand jury, with whom he had been connected in ties of intimacy and friendship during the whole course of his life, even from his childhood, who, he was convinced, would perform their duty most Sir Robert Wilson, in seconding the conscientiously. Amongst these was his motion, said, he concurred most cordially noble friend below him (lord Stanley), in all that had been offered by his hon. who acted as foreman of the grand jury, friend. Having read the whole of the than whom no man possessed a more ho- evidence, as well as the papers that had nest head or heart. He was incapable of been laid before the House, and which doing an unworthy action. Having tried might be said to be a bill of indictment the grand jury, and failed, the petitioners against the people of Manchester, he applied to the magistrates, and were in- would plainly declare, it was is conscienformed by them, that they could not in- tious conviction, that the only offence terfere, since it would ill become them to committed by the people was, not a react as judges in their own cause. They sistance vi et armis, against the civil pownext laid their complaint before the ma- er, but that sort of unintentional resistance gistrates at Warrington, who stated, that which a dense crowd of persons could not they did not approve of the transactions avoid giving to those who endeavoured to at Manchester, but declined to take any force their way through them. He believ cognizance of the business. Thus situ- ed that no resistance was offered to preated, they deemed it necessary to address vent the party from approaching the hustthat House, as the grand inquest of the ings; and it appeared to him, that no atnation; they prayed for their interference, tempt was made to apprise the peoand besought parliament to cause an in-ple that the civil power wished to apvestigation to be set on foot with respect proach, for a particular purpose. If such an intention had been made known to that remained very well." He was asked Mr. Hunt, he had declared that he would "Did you make them very sharp ?" The himself have made way, and submitted answer was, "Yes." It was next demandat once to the civil authority. This was ed, "Were the swords ever brought to proved by what occurred when Mr. Hunt you to be sharpened before ?" He anwas apprehended. He immediately asked, swered, "From time to time they were "Have you a warrant ? I will yield to the brought to me to be cleaned, but not to civil power; but I will not recognize mi- be sharpened." "Did any of those swords litary authority." The magistrates did, want repairing?" "Some of them," said most unconstitutionally, order an armed Kennedy, "might, but they were sent to body to advance against an unoffending be sharpened." He was then asked, "Did multitude, composed of reformers and they want sharpening?" He answered, non-reformers, of spectators as well as "They were as sharp as swords usually actors. This was undeniable. But whe- are." If this evidence could be disprovther the military conducted themselves ed, it must be done by information not with temper-whether they exercised that yet before the House. As no judicial sound discretion which they ought-whe- inquiry was likely to be obtained under ther they advanced with due caution-whe- existing circumstances- -as there was no ther they were accompanied by a civil chance that justice would be done to the officer-and whether, having flourished parties injured, in the county of Lancastheir swords about their heads, they ad- ter, and inquiry ought to be instituted in vanced rapidly, killing a constable and an that House. When, in the first instance, unfortunate woman and her child, over- the coroner's officer refused to proceed turning and trampling on a feeble old man, with the inquest-when one coroner had who was supported by a crutch, and maim- manifested a degree of indecency which ing in their course 400 or 500 persons he would not state to the House-when these things had not been inquired into, they saw another acting most improperly, and they were matters of too serious a as he had done-when they knew that 27 nature not to demand investigation. persons were kept in custody for eleven However the encomiums that had been weeks, and then discharged without any pronounced on captain Birley by his hon. offence being proved against them, and friend, and by the noble chairman of the without being held to bail, it was impossigrand jury, might have been deserved, ble not to conclude that the county of still nothing appeared in that gentleman's Lancaster, under the present circumevidence which controverted the statements stances, was out of the pale of the law. that had been made relative to the con- He therefore hoped, in common with his duct of the cavalry. He wished to say hon. friends around him (to whom he nothing to prejudge that individual's case, was bound by no party ties, whom he supbut he was certainly charged on oath with ported, because he thought they had the being one of the party who, on that occa- best interests of the country at heart), that sion, cut down a man near the hustings, the whole of the case would be minutely which man was supposed to be John Lees, investigated. He trusted his hon. friends and he was therefore implicated in the would persevere in the course they had business which was now pending before adopted, that they would place themselves the coroner. Another point of importance in the imminent deadly breach," and was the fact that the swords of the yeo- defend to the last the laws and constitumanry were sharpened. Notwithstand-tion of the country. He hoped they would ing all that had been said within the walls of that House, nothing had been adduced that could contradict this statement, which was fully borne out by the evidence given before the coroner. [Coughing, and other marks of impatience.] If gentle. men would have a little patience, he could substantiate his statement. Daniel Kennedy, who was the cutler employed on the occasion, gave the following evidence: "In the week ending the 17th of July, I had done 63 swords. Previously to the 16th of August I was told to sharpen those not allow any bill to go through that House which was calculated to trench on the liberty of the subject, until a full, fair, and impartial inquiry was conceded. Mr. Mansfield said, he had no opportunity, more than the gallant general who had just sat down, of forming an opinion on this subject; but, having read the papers that were submitted to the House, he was free to confess, that they had led him to form a conclusion very different from that which the gallant general had adopted. The gallant general had spoken son had somewhere observed, "that cases The petition was then brought up and read. It sat forth : "That for several years past a great proportion of the labouring classes in the district where the petitioners reside have been suffering very severe privations, arising partly from the want of employment, and partly from the inadequacy of their wages to afford them a comfortable subsistence, evils which they have attri of the yeomanry carrying their swords to be sharpened; but he must say, that he was far from being convinced by any thing that had fallen from him, that their swords were improperly sharpened. He admitted that they were sharpened; but it struck him that it would have been a more extraordinary circumstance if they were not sharpened. Because, if he rightly understood the papers in his hand, it appeared, not merely from the statement of the magistrates, and from the evidence given before them, but from the declaration of the grand jury of Chester, that meetings were held at which persons attended armed with pikes and pistols-weapons no doubt proper for the purposes of reform [Hear, hear!]. Could it be supposed that an immense multitude would assemble, armed, for any good purpose? When men met together to petition for their rights, was it necessary that they should carry a pike and a pistol ? Was it wonderful that the commander of a mi-buted in a principal degree to the great litary force, when called on to attend such a meeting, should ask his men, "In what state are your arms?" and should direct them to come properly prepared? The gallant general had laid a great deal of stress on what was said at the inquest at Oldham. He must, however, tell the gallant general, that he was very much disposed to disbelieve many of the persons who gave evidence, even on their oath, because several of them were present at the meeting, and had partaken largely of that stream of sediments and universal suffrage are necestion, impiety and blasphemy, which flowed through the country, and which taught men to treat our Saviour as an impostor. Would men who propagated or who cherished such doctrines be bound by the obligation of an oath? Assuredly not. Men who avowed a hatred to the magistrates, who were op-in view the forwarding of this object, posed to all order, who were desirous to pull down the constitution-such men had an interest in giving evidence of the description to which the gallant general had alluded. Without this explanation, it would be extraordinary if he refused to give credit to the evidence of many of those persons, on oath. In the last session an hon. gentleman (Mr. Bennet), whose philanthropy no man could doubt, brought a case of grievance before the House, which was very proper for inquiry. It was answered by his majesty's ministers; and in the course of the discussion the hon. gentleman said, Dr. John pressure of taxation consequent upon the inadequate representation of the Commons of Great Britain and Ireland in the House; that the same classes have therefore an earnest desire that a reform in the representation of the people may speedily take place; that the political bias of the labouring classes having, as it appears to the petitioners, been rendered more decisive by their personal sufferings, they have, to a great extent, publicly expressed their opinion, that annual parlia sary, in order sufficiently to guarantee the purity, the independence, and the integrity of the House of Commons; that into the consideration of this point the petitioners do not enter, but they state to the House, that within the last two or three years numerous public meetings, having have been held in Manchester and the neighbouring towns, all of which, except where an interference by, or by order of, the magistracy has taken place, have been conducted from their commencement to their termination in an orderly and peaceable manner; that in the latter part of the month of July last, a meeting was announced, by public advertisement, to be held on the 9th day of August, to take ' into consideration the most speedy and 'effectual mode of obtaining radical reform in the Commons House of Parliament, and also, to consider the propriety of the unrepresented inhabitants of Man 'chester electing a person to represent | a great distance from the place of meet'them in parliament, and the adopting ing, in consequence of which eight per• Major Cartwright's bill;' which meeting having, in consequence of the purpose for which it was called together, been publicly declared by the magistrates acting in and for the division of Manchester to be illegal, was immediately given up by its projectors, and a new notice issued for a meeting to be held on the 16th of August, in order to consider of the propriety of adopting the most legal and 'effectual means of obtaining a reform in the Commons House of Parliament;' that for several days before the 16th of August this notice was publicly and widely circulated; that as no intimation whatever was given, or, as the petitioners presumed, could legally be given by the magistrates, that the intended meeting was contrary to law, on the day appointed very numerous bodies of persons from most of the circumjacent towns and villages entered Manchester, walking with considerable regularity in parties of from three to six or eight abreast, accompanied by many women and children, and having along with them bands of music, and also various flags bearing different mottoes or inscriptions, and some of them surmounted with caps of liberty; that all these parties proceeded peaceably by different routes to the place of meeting, viz. the area near St. Peter's church, where, at about a quarter past one o'clock, the chair was taken by Mr. Hunt; that within ten or fifteen minutes after his arrival, and before he had entered upon the question for the consideration of which the meeting was called together, the corps of Manchester yeomanry, acting as the petitioners believe, under the order of the magistrates, or of some of them, rode impetuously into the immense crowd, many of whom were trampled upon by the horses, or cut by the sabres of the men, and surrounded the hustings, where eight or ten persons, including the chairman of the meeting, and several of those who were most active in calling it together, were, under a warrant issued immediately before by the magistrates, who were then assembled in an adjacent house, taken into the custody of the civil power; that the corps of Manchester yeomanry, together with the regiment of Cheshire yeomanry, and a body of the fifteenth hussars, both of which had by this time come upon the field, did then charge upon the people in all directions, and to ; sons have lost their lives, and not less than four or five hundred of his majesty's loyal, though suffering subjects, including all ages, from old men and women of seventy-five to young boys and girls of fourteen, were grievously crushed, trampled upon, bruised, maimed, or sabred that had the only object of the magistrates been to take into custody the persons against whom legal process had been issued for any real or supposed offence by them committed, such object might easily have been obtained without the intervention of any military force, and without injury to any of his majesty's subjects; that the petitioners understand and believe, and indeed many of them are by personal observation enabled positively to assert, that no act whatever, giving to the meeting the character of a tumultuous and riotous assembly had at the period of this violent incursion of the cavalry been committed; that in the absence of any breach of the public peace, or of any act having a direct, manifest, and unquestionable tendency thereto, it does not appear to the petitioners that the large discretionary powers given to the magistrates by the statute of 1 Geo. 1, c. 5, commonly called the Riot act, can legally be called into action; that, admitting, however the right of the magistrates, in the exercise of their best discretion, to make proclamation commanding the meeting to disperse, the petitioners are induced to believe that at the meeting of the 16th of August no such proclamation was made; because they understand that at none of the inquests held on the bodies of persons who lost their lives upon the occasion was any proof of its being made given; and because neither themselves, nor any person with whom they have conversed upon the subject, ever heard it; that even if the rumour of the reading of the Riot act should turn out to be true, the petitioners have still no hesitation in asserting, that it was not read according to the spirit and intention of the statute, that means were not taken to give due publicity to the circumstance of its having been read, or to induce the people peaceably to depart without incurring its penalties; and further, that not one third of the time allowed by law for the dispersion of an assembly had elapsed between the opening of the business of the meeting and the period at |