purpose of procuring arms, and the other measures of open insurrection which followed, were not accidental or unpremeditated, but had been deliberately pre-concerted, as parts of a general plan of rebellion and revolution. There appears also strong reason to believe that the execution of those projects at that particular time was expected by some of the associations in distant parts of the country. The conspirators seem to have had the fullest confidence of success; and a persuasion has subsequently been expressed a mongst them, that their plans could have been defeated only by casual and unexpected circumstances. Even after the failure of this attempt, the same plans appear not to have been abandoned.

Your committee are deeply concerned to be compelled, in further execution of their duty, to report their full conviction that designs of this nature have not been confined to the capital, but have been extended and are still extending widely in many other parts of Great Britain, particularly in some of the most populous and manufacturing districts.

At the meeting of the second of December in Spa-Fields, that part of the assembly which had not engaged in the acts of plunder and insurrection before mentioned, came to a resolution to adjourn the meeting to the second Monday after the meeting of Parliament, namely, the tenth of February; and it appears by the papers referred to the committee, that meetings in various parts of the country, conformably to a plan settled by the leading persons in London at an early period,

were intended to be held on the same day.

It appears manifest that the persons engaged in various parts, both of England and Scotland, in forwarding the plans of revolution, have constantly waited for the example of the metropolis, Intelligence of the event of the meeting there on the second of December was anxiously expected; and as the first report of the beginning of the disturbance excited in a high degree the spirits of the disaffected, so its speedy suppression produced the expression of strong feelings of disappointment. Had it even partially succeeded, there seems much reason to believe that it would have been the signal for a more general rising in other parts of the kingdom. Since that time it appears to be the prevailing impression amongst the leading malcontents in the country, that it is expedient for them to wait till the whole kingdom shall, according to their expression, be more completely organized, and more ripe for action.

What is meant by completely organizing the country is but too evident from the papers before the committee It appears clearly that the object is, by means of societies or clubs, established, or to be established, in all parts of Great Britain, under pretence of parliamentary reform, to infect the minds of all classes of the community, and particularly of those whose situation most exposes them to such impressions, with a spirit of discontent and disaffection, of insubordination, and contempt of all law, religion, and morality, and to hold out to them

the

the plunder and division of all property, as the main object of their efforts, and the restoration of their natural rights; and no endeavours are omitted to prepare them to take up arms on the first sigual for accomplishing these de

It is on these grounds that your committee have been led to look with particular anxiety to the fornation, principles, and conduct of those societies or clubs by which the ends of the disaffected have been hitherto so much forwarded, and are expected by them to be binally accomplished. Many of these societies pass under the denomination of Hampden Clubs. Under this title societies of very varaus descriptions appear to have been formed, all professing their ect to be parliamentary reform. Is name and their professions may have induced many persons to become members of such societies who may not be aware of the ultimate intentions of many of their leaders; and the committee would by no means ascribe to all these societies the same practices and designs which they have found to be but too prevalent amongst a large number of them; but they find that, particularly ng the manufacturing and lauring classes, societies of this dermination have been most

y extended, and appear to have become some of the chief merraments of disseminating doctrines, and of preparing for the execution of plans, the most dangerous to the public security and

prace.

Others of these societies are raced Union Clubs, professing the same object of parliamentary re

form, but under these words understanding universal suffrage and annual parliaments: projects which evidently involve not any qualified or partial change, but a total subversion of the British constitution.

It appears that there is a London Union Society, and branch Unions corresponding with it, and affiliated to it. Others of these societies have adopted the name of Spencean Philanthropists; and it was by members of a club of this description that the plans of the conspirators in London were discussed and prepared for execution.

The principles of these last associations seem to be spreading rapidly among the other societies which have been formed, and are daily forming, under that and other denominations in the country. Among the persons adopting these principles, it is common to disclaim parliamentary reform as unworthy of their attention. Their objects are avowed in a hand-bill dispersed by the society of that description in London, and in numerous other publications. These objects are, "A Parochial partnership in land, on the principle that the landholders are not proprietors in chief; that they are but the stewards of the public; that the land is the people's farm; that landed monopoly is contrary to the spirit of christianity, and destructive of the independence and morality of mankind."

The societies under these different names are so numerous, and so various, that it has been difficult to obtain a complete view of all of them, or to compre

hend

scription.

The country societies are principally to be found in and in the neighbourhood of Leicester, Loughborough, Nottingham, Mansfield, Derby, Chesterfield, Sheffield, Blackburne, Manchester, Birmingham, and Norwich, and in Glasgow and its vicinity; but they extend and are spreading, in some parts of the country, to almost every village. In addition to all the arts of seduction, resort is also had to a system of intimidation, and threats are held out to those who refuse to join. Their combinations are artfully contrived to secure secrecy in their proceedings, and to give to the leading members undisputed authority over the rest. Oaths of secrecy have been frequently ad ministered, some of which are of the most atrocious and dreadful import.

They do not, however, trust to this security alone to prevent discovery; their proceedings are seldom reduced to writing; they pass and are communicated by word of mouth. The more numerous meetings delegate all authority to a managing committee; and by that committee, and by meetings of delegates from the committees of different societies, every thing of importance is transacted.

The committees themselves are also cautious of reducing any of their proceedings to writing, communicating with each other only by delegates and missionaries.

It appears that, in some parts of the country, arms have been lately procured by individual members of these societies in consi

have been done with a view to the use of force. Subscriptions are also generally required, which, although the amount paid by each individual may be very small, may produce, from the large numbers of the contributors, no inconsiderable fund.

The destructive objects which the leading members of these societies have in view are demonstrated by their publications and by their proceedings, all equally calculated to inflame the minds of the members, and in general of the poorer classes of the community. At the ordinary meetings of these societies, which are often continued to a late hour, their time is principally employed in listening to speeches tending to the destruction of social order, recommending a general equalization of property, and at the same time endeavouring to corrupt the morals of the hearers, and to destroy all reverence for religion. The landholder has been represented as a monster which must be hunted down, and the fundholder as a still greater evil; and both have been described as rapacious creatures, who take from the people fifteen-pence out of every quartern loaf. They have been told that parliamentary reform is no more than a halfmeasure, changing only one set of thieves for another: and that they must go to the land, as nothing short of that would avail them. Another principal employment of their time is, to listen to publications of the same description as the speeches, containing the same doctrines, and leading to the same purposes; and the meet

ings are frequently terminated, particularly in London, by profane and seditious songs and parodies of parts of the liturgy, in which the responses are chanted by the whole company. By such means, and by the profession of open infidelity in which some of the members indulge in their speeches, the minds of those who attend their meetings are tainted and depraved; they are taught contempt for all decency, all law, all religion and morality, and are thus prepared for the most atrocious scenes of outrage and violence.

Amongst the most effectual means of furthering these dangerous designs, the committee think it their duty particularly to call the attention of the House to the unremitting activity which has been employed throughout the kingdom in circulating to an unprecedented extent, at the lowest prices or gratuitously, publications of the most seditious and inflammatory nature, marked with a peculiar character of irreligion and blasphemy, and tending not only to overturn the existing form of government and order of society, but to root out those principles upon which alone any government or any society can be supported.

The committee cannot but consider the late attack upon his royal highness the Prince Regent, on his way from opening the present session of parliament, as an additional and melancholy proof of the efficacy of this system to destroy all reverence for authority, and all sense of duty, and to expose to insult, indignity, and hazard the person of the immediate representative of the sovereign,

even in the exercise of one of the most important parts of his royal functions.

It appears to be an essential part of the system to take advantage of the opportunities afforded by public meetings, convoked either by the leaders of these societies, or by others, in the metropolis, and in populous places and districts, to address the multitude in terms of unprecedented license and violence, amounting even in some instances to an open declaration that, in case of non-compliance with their petitions, the sovereign will have forfeited his claims to their allegiance. These proceedings are subsequently printed and circulated, and thus become a fresh vehicle for sedition and treason.

By the frequency of these meetings, and by the new practice of continuing them (under various pretexts) by frequent adjournments, the minds of his majesty's well-disposed and peaceable subjects are held in a state of perpetual agitation and alarm. The appointment of such public meetings in a variety of different places on the same day appears to be considered as the most effectual means of accomplishing the designs of the disaffected, and must evidently in a high degree embarrass and impede the exertions of all civil powers applicable to the suppression of disturbances, distract the attention of government, and oblige them so to subdivide and harass the military force which it may be necessary

to call in for the assistance of the

civil power, as to render it inadequate to the maintenance of public tranquillity.

Such

Such a state of things cannot be suffered to continue without hazarding the most imminent and dreadful evils; and although the committee do not presume to anticipate the decision of parliament as to the particular measures to be adopted in the present emergency, they feel it to be their duty to express their decided opinion that further provisions are necessary for the preservation of the public peace, and for the protection of interests in which the happiness of every class of the community is deeply and equally involved.

House of Commons.

The Committee of Secrecy, to whom the several Papers, which were presented (sealed up) to the House, by Lord Viscount Castlereagh, on the 4th day of February, by command of his Royal Highness the Prince Regent, were referred, and who were directed to examine the matters thereof, and report the same, as they should appear to them, to the House;-have unanimously agreed to the following Report:

It appears to your Committee, from the most attentive consideration of the several documents referred to them, that attempts have been made, in various parts of the country, as well as in the metropolis, to take advantage of the distress in which the labouring and manufacturing classes of the community are at present involved, to induce them to look for immediate relief, not only in a reform of parliament on the plan of universal suffrage and annual election,, but in a total overthrow of all

existing establishments, and in a division of the landed, and extinction of the funded property of the country.

This hope and prospect of spoliation have been actively and industriously propagated by several societies, openly existing in the metropolis, distinguished by the name of Spenceans; a title which they have assumed in consequence of having revived the principles, with some variation, of a visionary writer of the name of Spence, which first appeared in a publication of his near twenty years ago.

It appears that at some of these societies, held during the last month, the question was discussed, whether the meetings for parliamentary reform are calculated to mislead or enlighten the public. In the course of the debates upon which question, it was strongly urged that parliamentary reform was only a half measure, that they must look to the land, for nothing short of that would ever avail them that we had no constitution, there being no book in which it could be found, nor any man that could tell what it was." In another discussion upon the question, "whether the practical establishment of Spence's plan be an effectual remedy for the present distresses," one of the doctrines maintained was, that "the landholder was a monster to be hunted down; but that they should not suffer themselves to be amused; that there was a greater evil, namely, the fundholder; that these were the rapacious wretches, that took fifteen-pence out of every quartern loaf.”

It further appears, that in these meetings the most blasphemous expressions