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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

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It is on these grounds that your committee have been led to look with particular anxiety to the formation, principles, and conduct of those societies or clubs by whch the ends of the disaffected have been hitherto so much forwarded, and are expected by them to be finally accomplished. Many of these societies pass under the

mination of Hampden Clubs. Inder this title societies of very varnus descriptions appear to have been formed, all professing their fect to be parliamentary reform. Is name and their professions may have induced many persons become members of such soerties who may not be aware of the uit mate intentions of many of their leaders; and the comthee would by no means ascribe to all these societies the same pra tires and designs which they have found to be but too prevalent mongst a large number of them; at they had that, particularly ng the manufacturing and Ayat ng classes, societies of this nation have been most y extended, and appear to fuse become some of the chief matraments of disseminating doctraes, and of preparing for the ramuize of plans, the most dangerum to the public security and

Ebers of these societies are xed Union Clubs, professing the

of gert 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

hend them under any general description.

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 administered, 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

derable quantities, which can only 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 epen 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 entempt for all decency, all law, a. religion and morality, and are thus prepared for the most atrous scenes of outrage and vio

ence

Amongst the most effectual means of furthering these danreus designs, the committee

na it their duty particularly to call the attention of the House to the unremitting activity which has been employed throughout the kg in circulating to an unedented extent, at the lowest pters or gratuitously, publications of the most seditious and inflammary nature, marked with a

ar character of irreligion and Trap tưrmy, and tending not only serturn the existing form of ernment and order of society, ...to root out those principles spn which alone any government f any society can be supported.

The emittee cannot but conmder the late attack upon his royal Agness the Prince Regent, on ta way from opening the present son of parliament, as an ad**nal and tư lancholy proof of rétary of this system to dea. reverence for authority, a sense of duty, and to exme to insult, indignity, and azard the person of the immedirepresentative 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 violeuce, 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

accomplished, such signal honour on the British nation.

"In India, the refusal of the government of Nepaul to ratify a treaty of peace which had been signed by its plenipotentiaries, occasioned a renewal of military operations.

"My Lords and Gentlemen,

"I have the satisfaction of informing you that the arrangements which were made in the last session of parliament, with a view to a new silver coinage, have been completed with unprecedented expedition.

"I have given directions for the immediate issue of the new coin, and I trust that this measure will be productive of considerable advantages to the trade and internal transactions of the country.

"The judicious arrangements of the governor-general, seconded by the bravery and perseverance of his Majesty's forces, and of those of the East-India company, brought the campaign to a speedy and successful issue; and peace has been finally established upon "The distresses consequent upon the just and honourable terms of the termination of a war of such the original treaty. unusual extent and duration have "Gentlemen of the House of been felt, with greater or less se

Commons;

"I have directed the estimates for the current year to be laid before you.

"They have been formed upon a full consideration of all the present circumstances of the country, with an anxious desire to make every reduction in our establishments which the safety of the empire and sound policy allow.

"I recommend the state of the public income and expenditure to your early and serious attention.

"I regret to be under the necessity of informing you, that there has been a deficiency in the produce of the revenue in the last year but I trust that it is to be ascribed to temporary causes; and I have the consolation to be lieve, that you will find it practicable to provide for the public service of the year, without making any addition to the burthens of the people, and without adopt ing any measure injurious to that system by which the public credit of the country has been hitherto sustained.

verity, throughout all the nations of Europe; and have been considerably aggravated by the unfavourable state of the season.

"Deeply as I lament the pressure of these evils upon the country, I am sensible that they are of a nature not to admit of an immediate remedy; but whilst I observe with peculiar satisfaction the fortitude with which so many privations have been borne, and the active benevolence which has been employed to mitigate them, I am persuaded that the great sources of our national prosperity are essentially unimpaired; and I entertain a confident expectation that the native energy of the country will at no distant period surmount all the difficulties in which we are involved.

"In considering our internal situation, you will, I doubt not, feel a just indignation at the attempts which have been made to take advantage of the distresses of the country, for the purpose of exciting a spirit of sedition and

violence.

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