taken from it by no statute; yet on this occasion, the said grand inquest of all England, by which name it was heretofore known, was designated by the judge as the grand jury for Middlesex, and described as local in its jurisdiction, and incompetent to receive the indictments preferred by the petitioner; that as the petitioner, verily believes the said criminal parties, for the purpose of securing their own impunity, have made false representations to his majesty's government by which they obtained the thanks of the Prince Regent, while the ministers of his Royal Highness, with a view to support their own basty proceedings in so thanking the said criminal parties, have submitted their false statements to the House as authentic documents worthy of the respect and credence of the House, but the petitioner hereby declares, that within his knowledge, the greater part of the said statements, as relating to the proceedings at Manchester, are utterly false; and he therefore earnestly prays, that he may be called to the bar of the House, and there permitted to prove all and every the allegations contained in this his humble petition, which he is anxious to do, not only by his own testimony but which he respectfully pledges himself (if permitted, to confirm beyond the possibility of doubt, by the testimony of numerous respectable persons of family, fortune, and character, totally unconnected with the reformers in any way whatever."

On the question, that the petition be printed, there was a loud cry of "No, no!" and there appeared a momentary disposition to divide, but it was abandoned and the petition was ordered to be printed.

On the

COMMITTEE OF SUPPLY.] motion of the Chancellor of the Exchequer, the House resolved itself into a committee to consider of a motion for granting a Supply to his Majesty. The Chancellor of the Exchequer moved a resolution," that a Supply be granted to his Majesty."

Mr. Grenfell observed, that he had seen in the public papers that there had been a deficiency in the revenue in the last quarter to the amount of eight millions. The amount was so great that he confessed it staggered him. It, however, required some explanation, and he requested his right hon. friend would have the goodness to give it.

The Chancellor of the Exchequer said,

that the alleged deficiency was not an actual deficiency, unless the sum issued to make good the deficiencies of former periods could be so called. There was an actual surplus. Since the incorporation of the treasuries of Great Britain and Ireland two millions and a half had been borrowed in the Spring from the consolidated fund for the service of Ireland. To this was added six millions for the purpose of making good the deficiencies he had already described. Instead of any deficiency having taken place in the quarter ending the 10th of October last, there was an increase. It was true, however, that the surplus in that of every year was generally considerable; and, comparatively considered, the surplus of the quarter ending on the 10th of last October, was not so great as that of the corresponding quarter of the preceding year, it being only 300,000l. The total amount of the deficiency of that quarter, as compared with the corresponding quarter of the year immediately preceding, was 1,100,000., although it exceeded the amount of the corresponding quarter of the year 1817. Of that 1,100,000l. of comparative deficiency, 920,000l. was under the head of Customs, which was chiefly attributable to the stagnation of trade, of which so much had been said in the discussions last session in the Bank committee, and in some degree proceeding from the consolidation of the customs in the last session, which occasioned a larger sum to be paid in preceding quarters by those who were desirous to avoid the increase of duty caused by that consolidation. The comparative deficiency in the excise was nearly 200,000. He was happy, however, to say, that in the period which had elapsed between the 10th of October, and the meeting of parliament, a very considerable improvement in the revenue had manifested itself.

The resolution was then agreed to.

SEDITIOUS MEETINGS PREVENTION BILL.] On the motion of lord Castlereagh, the clerk read the following passages from the Speech of his royal highness the Prince Regent, on the opening of the session:

"I regret to have been under the necessity of calling you together at this period of the year; but the seditious practices so long prevalent in some of the manufacturing districts of the country, have been continued with increased acti

of the people. He had an individual pride (individual, he meant, as he was connected by birth and education with that part of the empire), in stating, that as far as Ireland was concerned, she had never experienced a greater degree of tranquillity, and he might add prosperity, than at this moment. There were, perhaps, one or two exceptions, but they were of a very trifling nature. Long might she continue in that state! Long might she continue to feel the value and importance of that constitutional position in which she had at last had the good sense to place herself, and which be doubted not would prove the source of numerous benefits to her, while it entitled her to the entire confidence of the sister country. In Great Britain, also, he was happy to state that the great body of the agricultural interests never enjoyed a greater state of repose than at this moment; and he hoped he might add, that it was fast recovering from that depression into which it had unhappily fallen. When he said this, he was not insensible to the difficulties with which the landed interest had still to contend; but comparing its present situation with that in which, at no distant period, it had been, he thought he was warranted in expressing himself in the language which he had used. Considering nothing so important as that the subject should be stripped of all exaggeration, he was bound to state, that even in the manufacturing districts, he believed the loyal were sufficiently strong to put down, by themselves, the disaffected; but this could not be accomplished without risk of great devastation, ruin, and misery. It was not for the state therefore that he trembled, but it was for the inhabitants of certain districts, who had claims on the government for protection, and for the deluded reformers themselves; and on those grounds he called on parliament to support the law and to guard against the evils of a threatened rebellion. the causes of the discontent and dissatisfaction which prevailed, he did not feel inclined to enter at present; on a future occasion he should not shrink from discussing thein; but all that he should now say was, that as far as his inquiries went (and they had not been scanty), he could not discover that the market for our industry had been narrowed either at home or abroad. At home it had certainly increased, and abroad there was no defalcation but in one instance, which was well

tical institutions which had hitherto constituted the pride and security of the country, but also at the subversion of property, and of course of all those rights on which society depended, which, if not speedily checked, was calculated to overthrow the principles upon which the property and happiness of society rested. These facts be had a right to consider as fortified by the speech of the right hon. member who moved the amendment to the address, as well as by the statements of several of the hon. members who supported it. That right hon. member had admitted, that there had gone abroad a wild and impracticable spirit of reform, which menaced not only the happiness of society generally, but more particularly the interests of the poor deluded persons who possessed it, and with several of his friends, had pledged himself to uphold the constitution against such doctrines to the utmost of his power. He was also confirmed in the statement which he had just made, by the opinions which had been formed by a set of gentlemen best calculated to judge of the situation of the country-he meant the magistracy and the grand juries of Cheshire and Lancashire, and of several other counties. If he wanted any farther authority on the subject, he had it in the statement of the noble lord who represented the county of Lancashire, a county containing a million of inhabitants, and possessing a large portion of the wealth and commerce of the country. In that county, according to that noble lord's statement, there existed a spirit of disaffection bordering on rebellion. The hon. member for Taunton also had mentioned the order of things in some of the manufacturing districts to be such as that either the House must put them down without delay, or else they would overpower the constitution, and further, that there were no interests more at stake than those of the poor deluded people by whom such opinions were entertained. From these statements he felt he had a right to assume the existence of that danger which induced his majesty's government to bring forward such measures as they in their consciences believed to be imperatively called for, and most effectual in rescuing the country from its perilous situation. In the statement he was about to make, he should be sorry to make any impression on the country that could be considered as imputing disaffection to the great mass

Into

collect that the law provided against a bellum levatum, as well as a bellum percussum; that meetings even without arms were not allowed to assemble to the terror of his majesty's subjects; and that the magistracy were bound by their oaths to protect the lives and properties of the people, under such circumstances, as far as lay in their power. This fallacious doctrine, however, he was glad to say, was refuted by the late debates in that House, and if no other result had followed from the assembling of parliament, the late discussion was calculated to produce the most beneficial effects in the country. The house and the country were deeply indebted to a right hon. and learned gentleman opposite, for the able and eloquent manner in which he had stated that point on a former evening. Independently of his high legal authority (and higher there was none), there was something so clear and sound in the opinion he gave on the illegality of such meetings, that he must have removed all doubt on the subject. That right hon. and learned gentleman had well said, that although the rights of a British subject allowed him to do every thing which the law did not forbid, he was not permitted to contravene or to trench upon the rights of another. He did not wish to say any thing complimentary of the stream of eloquence which came from his own side of the House; but was there no inference to be drawn from the silence which had prevailed on this subject among the learned and hon. gentlemen opposite? There were occasions when silence was as eloquent, if not more eloquent, than words; and he conceived the present to be one of that nature. He certainly did suppose, that a gentleman of high legal talents on the other side (Mr. Scarlett), notwithstanding his explanations, had pronounced as decided an opinion as was possible, upon the illegality of that meeting, and that be had followed up his argument by making a complaint against his majesty's ministers for suffering several meetings like it (and he had instanced that of Smithfield) to take place subsequently. Another hon. and learned gentleman, who followed in the debate, seemed rather disturbed by the explicitness of this opinion, and therefore introduced into the discussion the swords of the cavalry, which he asserted to have been sharpened for the occasion. That, however, was now exploded. The noble lord opposite had (2 C)

law or with common sense, to assert that the people (and, for the sake of the argument, he was at liberty to assume the whole of the people), might meet at one place, and to say that the magistrates were to stand quiet after the meeting was assembled, until some positive damage was done? If such a principle existed, it proved that the law was, on the face of it, an absurdity, totally ineffectual for the purpose of preserving the lives or liberties of the people. If this were the case, the House must allow him to say, we were living in a country whose government was degraded and debased. If this were the case, then the magistrates must on all occasions have recourse to the aid of the military, of the exercise of whose power the country was so naturally jealous. Was it to be tolerated, that in a country whose constitution was so justly the envy and admiration of other nations, the whole of its industry was to be convulsed-the quiet part of the population were to be alarmed, not with childish fears, but with just terror-that they were to be driven from their business-obliged to close their shops-that the public mind was to be kept in a state of continual ferment and agitation, by a set of itinerant orators, who marched large bodies of men 25 miles through the country, in military array? The minds of the lower orders in this country, were inflamed by artful tales about sinecures and pensions, and they were told that if these were done away, all their grievances would be at an end. He would take upon himself to say, that if the sinecures which had not yet been abolished, were done away-if the whole pension list were surrendered to their wishes, that the benefit derived would not in ten years give the Manchester cottonspinner, who could earn 30s. a week, the 5s. which he wasted in one day of idleness to attend a reform meeting. This he could prove to demonstration, and with equal ease could he show, that if the reformers could succeed in their dishonest and destructive scheme of annihilating the national debt, that the withdrawing of the interest of 29,000,000l. of money from general circulation, though it might relieve some who now contributed largely to the taxes, would depress the markets of the country, augment the general distress, and carry ruin to the humble cottage as well as to the mansion of the great. The gentlemen who advocated the doctrine of Thistlewood, ought to re(VOL. XLI.)