"That the petitioners have learnt with apprehension and regret that measures subversive of our free constitution have been submitted to parliament by the ministers of the crown, on the pretext of conspiracy for the destruction of all religion, government, and property within the realm; for the defeat of so monstrous a design, did the petitioners believe in its reality, they would be most anxious to employ all the means that they possess; but while such an alarm rests merely upon unauthenticated or anonymous statements which have been submitted to no investigation (however countenanced by the turbulent conduct and inflammatory writings of some misguided or evil-minded men), the petitioners cannot perceive the necessity of any abridgment of our liberties; deeply lamenting the prevalence of discontent, the petitioners humbly recommend to the House, as its only proper cure, a sincere and earnest endeavour to remove all just ground of complaint, and, sensible of the inconveniences arising from frequent large assemblages, and from the want of respect and affection between the magistracy and the people, they respectfully submit that a constitutional remedy might be found in the establishment of a due representation and liberal municipal constitutions, agreeable to the ancient usage and analogy of our government, for those places in which population has extensively accumulated, but which do not yet enjoy them; that the petitioners fully participate in the disgust excited by some late publications hostile to the christian religion and the public peace, yet, as they immediately became the objects of general detestation, and could have been at once submitted to the judgment of the laws, and as they bear an infinitely small proportion to those productions which are favourable to knowledge, virtue, and religion, they seem to the petitioners to afford no reason for subjecting the press to enactments calculated to harass all who are connected with it, to destroy its freedom, and to prohibit some of its most useful labours; that the petitioners trust therefore, that at a time when they anxiously expected an investigation into transactions which have recently called forth an expression of general disapprobation, and hoped for such a redress of grievances and reform of abuses as might allay the irritated feelings of the people, the House will not hastily, and without inquiry, during the prevalence of an unfounded

or exaggerated alarm, pass laws on account of a partial and temporary evil, tending permanently and universally to affect the liberty of the subject, and to produce increased irritation, while they are inefficient as to the purposes for which they are designed; the petitioners therefore humbly pray, and earnestly entreat, that should however some measures be thought necessary for the preservation of the public peace, that the House will adopt such only as shall be limited in their extent and duration, and that the next care of the House may be (rejecting the desperate counsels of those who would refuse all concession) to apply itself to the effectual correction of those abuses and defects which have given rise to the prevailing discontent."

The petition was read, after which, Mr. Alderman Wood observed that, in moving that it be laid on the table, he should say a very few words. He could not, however, consent to give a silent vote upon these bills: he had attended with the utmost diligence to the protracted debate upon them, and had not heard a single argument to convince him that an inquiry ought not to be granted before they were passed. After commenting on the statement made by lord Castlereagh, of the immense number of stones found on the place of meeting at Manchester, the day after the meeting had occurred, and after treating as absurd the supposition of the noble lord, that the reformers had marched thirty or forty miles with these stones in their pockets, he proceeded to argue, that great advantage had been derived to the supporters of ministers from the candid manner in which another noble lord (Stanley), had expressed his sentiments on the fatal events of the 16th of August. Both in the House and out of the House it had been supposed that that noble lord had spoken of the facts to which he alluded, from his own personal knowledge, whereas he had fairly acknowledged that he only spoke upon information derived from others. himself (ald. Wood) had heard nothing but opinions upon this subject: he had heard no facts; and facts were the most important points in this discussion. There were, however, some points on which they were all agreed; and one of these was, the existence of great distress in the nation. Hence arose our existing discontents; and what, he would ask, were the means which had been taken to

He

allay them, or to remove the cause from which they originated? A committee had, indeed, been appointed, to take into consideration the state of the poor laws. What had been the result of their labours? Why, they had done nothing more than bring forth some new regulations regarding the law of settlements. What might they not have done, and yet what had they really done, with regard to Ireland? It was in evidence before the House, that in that country, there were above six millions of acres uncultivated. Had one of them been put into cultivation? No. And yet the House had voted during the last session 50,000l. for the use of those who were willing to emigrate to the Cape of Good Hope. The streets of the various towns in this country were filled with numbers of the lower Irish, who deprived our own population of employment to a certain degree. Surely, it would be as well to send some of them back to their own country, and employ them upon the millions of acres which it contained in an uncultivated state, and yet of a nature fitted for cultivation. This would be a means of relieving part of the existing distress. Other gentlemen would be able to devise other methods; and therefore he implored the House to institute, as soon as possible, a committee of inquiry regarding the most effective way of relieving the miseries of the unfortunate poor. During the course of the debate, none of the speakers, except some of those on his side of the House (indeed from the other side it would be quite idle to expect it), had entered into the cause of their distress; he therefore had great delight in seeing several hon. gentlemen with whom he generally acted, and among them the member for Durham, determined to force upon the House, and not to blink the question of parliamentary reform. Reform was now an object dear to the people: reform they would have; and all the House could do, either by restrictions on public meetings, or restrictions on the press, would be useless. The people would meet, and do as he himself had seen done in manufactories in France and Italy: one person would read to twenty, and the whole twenty, though they might read less than they did before, would certainly hear more read to them. The effect, too, of what was read would be stronger, from the different comments which would be made upon it. Those comments would lead the parties to attach

themselves together more closely in private societies; and those societies would eventually prove much more dangerous than the late tumultuary meetings.

Mr. Alderman Thorp expressed his satisfaction that ministers had at last determined to render these measures temporary. In saying this, he did not mean to admit that a case had been made out for even a temporary enactment of them. He thought that an exaggerated degree of alarm had been excited, by the large meetings which had been recently so common throughout the country, as many persons attended them from distress, and not from seditious motives. It was his opinion, that the House would have done more to conciliate the people by granting an inquiry, than it could ever do by resorting to measures of severity and coercion. He hoped the bills would receive further modifications when they were in the committee.

Mr. Alderman Waithman expressed his decided approbation of every sentiment contained in the petition, and his firm conviction, that, if the evil were so great as had been represented, it would increase, and not diminish, under the present restrictions.

Ordered to lie on the table.

Mr.

MAGISTRACY OF NORFOLK.] Wodehouse rose for the purpose of making a communication to the House on a subject connected with lord Suffield, the lord-lieutenant of the county of Norfolk. He should abstain from making any comment upon the documents which he was going to read, and should commence, as a matter of public duty, by reading a letter which he had yesterday received from lord Suffield. The hon. member then read the following letter:-"Gunton, Dec. 4. Dear Wodehouse,-I am exceedingly obliged to you for your letter of yesterday, in reply to which I beg leave to say, that I am not conscious of having acted with any partiality respecting the insertion of gentlemen in the commission of the peace, of which I think the commission itself, with the additions made to it, affords pretty strong evidence. I recollect to have had some conversation with Mr. Coke at general Money's on the subject of the commission, but am not aware of a promise on my part to insert any gentleman Mr. Coke might name; nor, had I been so disposed, did Mr. Coke give me an opportunity, for I never had the honour of receiving an application

names of such of his friends as he (Mr. Coke) should recommend, he had left certain names at the office of the clerk of the peace for the county; and was afterwards informed that not one of the gentlemen whose names he had so left was appointed to the magistracy. Having made this application, as far as he could recollect, upon the most gracious declaration of lord Suffield, he was not a little surprised at the refusal which he experienced; and he therefore subsequently applied to the lord Chancellor for the same purpose. The lord chancellor advised him to make another application to the lord lieutenant; but under such circumstances as he had described, every body would see that such a proceeding was impossible. When, therefore, he came to town in the ensuing spring, he wrote to the lord chancellor on the subject, who appointed him a meeting in his private chamber in the House of Lords, where he had never been before, and where he had never been since. The lord chancellor told him, that he would turn the subject in his mind, for he was fully convinced that he (Mr. Coke) would not recommend any individual as a fit person to be appointed a magistrate who was unworthy of the situation. Whether lord Eldon had paid the lord lieutenant of the county the compliment of communicating with him on this point, he could not tell; but this he knew, that all the persons whom he recommended were within four months inserted in the commission, except, indeed, one hon. gentleman, now a member of the House. Whether the memory of lord Eldon had failed him, was not for him to determine: if it had, so much the worse for the suiters of the court in which his lordship presided. But he himself well recollected all these points. As to the impartiality which lord Suffield was said to display in the exercise of his magisterial duties, he must say that, for one, he doubted it. He firmly believed that several of the magistrates had merely been put into the commission for party purposes, and that several of his (Mr. Coke's) friends had been rejected merely because they were his friends. This was the kind of influence which would be exercised in all parts of the kingdom, if the present bills were to pass: it would be extended not only to the magistrates, but to the sheriffs in every county. He did not mean to say that it was extended so far at present; by no means: there had recently been a splendid

meeting of the freeholders of Norfolk at Norwich; and too much praise could not be given to the high sheriff of the county for his conduct on that occasion. He had there stated, that it was his firm opinion, that the government were themselves most strongly implicated in the events at Manchester [loud cries of Hear!] It was his opinion, and he could not change it. It was his opinion, because they set their faces against all inquiry, for fear, he supposed, of something coming out which would deeply implicate them selves. Having taken parson Harrison in London without a riot, they were determined to kick up a riot, rather than not have a reason for enacting measures like the present.

The Speaker said, that before the conversation went any farther, he could not help pressing upon the notice of the House its irregularity, and the dangerous consequences which it might tend to produce. He ought, perhaps, to have stopped the hon. member who commenced it, but he was not aware of the length to which he would go. After he had allowed the hon. member to proceed through the whole of his statement, it would have been an act of gross injustice to have thrown any impediment in the way of the hon. member who had just sat down. He hoped the House would pardon him for saying, that the conversation had already gone far enough, and farther even than the most lax practice allowed. It was not, perhaps, necessary that their laws and regulations should always be observed to the letter; but unless the spirit of them was preserved, they would not be able to preserve their own dignity, or to carry on the business of the public with that celerity and regularity which was absolutely necessary.

The conversation then dropped.

PENRYN BRIBERY BILL.] Sir C. Burrell rose to make his promised motion respecting the Borough of Penryn. He said, he felt it his imperative duty again to bring the subject under the consideration of parliament; he trusted that hon. members would turn their attention to his bill of last session, that he might be enabled to carry it through all its stages. Alterations had been suggested to him in the provisions of it, but he had not seen any reason for adopting them. There had been several instances in which the elective franchise had been extended, and