wanted then was a more clear and defined power in the magiftrate, to difperfe and put an end to all meet ings likely to be productive of confequences fuch as were already mentioned: he by no means meant this power of difperfion to extend to meetings obviously lawful, and held for legal purposes; but that in every cafe of a numerous meeting of whatever nature, or under whatever co lour, notice should be given, so as to enable the magiftrate to keep a watchful eye over their proceedings to recognize the power of the magiftrate to be prefent at fuch meetings, and to enforce penalties on those who fhould obftruct him in doing fo; and, on whatever pre. text the meeting might be held, if it appeared to be of a kind that was likely to promote fedition against government, to invest the magiftrate with power to apprehend the perfons on the fpot-to make any obftruction to the magiftrate felony and to make a provifion, that if arrefting fhould not be found fuffi. cient to difperfe the meeting, they fhould be difperfed in the fame manner, and under the fame penalties, as thofe contained in the Riot Act. This fummary power in the magiftrate, while it would ftill leave to the people the fair right to peti tion, on the one hand, would, on the other, prevent the abufe of it. This, he faid, was the outline of the bill he meant to propose.

Under the other defcription of meetings, through which the minds of the people were poifoned, fell thofe of public lecturers, who made the diffemination of fedition the fource of a livelihood. To them he thought it would be proper to apply regulations, fomewhat like thofe that paffed, about fourteen years before, in an Act which was called Mansfield's Act, and by

which all houfes wherein improper meetings were held on a Sunday, were to be treated as diforderly houses. And, to avoid evafion, the claufe fhould apply to every houfe wherein any people meet, "exceeding, by a certain number to be stated in the Act, the real family of the houfe." "So convinced am I," faid he, "that there can be but one feeling, and one opinion, that fome measure of this kind is neceffary; [here a cry of "hear!" on the oppofite fide] and fo little am I fhaken in that conviction by the adverfe vociferation of "hear! hear!" that I am fure I fhould but fhew a diftruft of the cause if I faid any more. I will therefore only move,

"That leave be given to bring in a bill for the more effectually preventing feditious meetings and affemblies."

When the speaker had read the motion, Mr. Fox rofe, and faid that he felt as much horror at the attempt which had been made against his majesty as any man in this kingdom; but he did not think he fhould exprefs well his feelings, if he declared that his indignation at what happened even on that day, was more than equal to what he felt from what he had heard that night. The chancellor of the exchequer ought to fhew the neceflity of the bill he proposed; if he meant to ground the neceffity upon the af fumption that what happened on the first day of the feffion was in confequence of what paffed at the meetings to which he had alluded, he believed he would fail in the attempt. It was faid there was a feditious meeting held fomewhere in the neighbourhood of the metropolis a few days before the meeting of parliament; that at fuch meeting very alarming proceedings had taken place, ftriking at the very

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If

existence of parliament itself. fuch meetings were held, and fuch fpeeches were made, the speakers were amenable to the law, and, when proven guilty, were liable to adequate punishment. But this bill was to proceed upon the flimfy pretext that all the violence and outrage that had been offered to his majesty was the refult of this meeting; of which there was not the colour of a proof.

It had been asked, whether the houfe fhould not endeavour to prevent the repetition of fuch an infult? Undoubtedly it fhould. But then it should be upon evidence; and here the right of perfons meeting any where, to confult on public measures, was to be affected in confequence of what happened to his majesty on the first day of the feffion, although there was no evidence to prove that the outrage arofe from any proceedings that were had at any public meeting previous to that day. Whatever fome perfons might think to the contrary, the proclamation was not evidence: many had thought proclamations to be the acts of minifters for certain purposes of their own, for the increase of power.

The right honourable gentleman who propofed the bill, fpoke with eafe on the rights of the fubject, as if he intended fo bring the public to fubmit to the most rigid defpotifm. In that detail, Mr. Fox faid, he fhould never take a fhare, for he would never attend the detail of a meafure which in its effence was deteftable. He contended, that public meetings for the difcuffion of public fubjects were not only lawful, but the very effence of the conftitution, and of the liberties which Englishmen enjoyed. The mover of the bill had faid that these meetings were not to be prevented,

they were only to be regulated. "Attend," said Mr. Fox, "to his regulation. I thought I knew the rights of man, and the rights of Englishmen. [Here was a great cry of hear! hear!] What," faid he, "is it a flip, do you suppose, and that the rights of man is a sentence without a meaning? Have men no natural rights? If fo, Englishmen's rights can have no existence. The rights of man, I fay, are clear: man has natural rights; and he who denies it, is ignorant of the basis of a free government; he is ignorant of the first principles of ours, for these rights are naturally connected with the best parts of the history of our country."

The people, he faid, had always a right to difcufs their grievances, and to petition, for redress, not only the houfes of parliament, but even the king himself; but now, it feems, they are not to do so, unlefs notice be given to a magistrate, that he may become a witnefs of their proceedings. This attendant magiftrate, this jealous witnefs, was empowered to arreft any perfon whom he in his wifdom thought had uttered any thing feditious. Not only fo; he had power to diffolve the meeting at his own will. "Say, at once," faid Mr. Fox, "that a free conftitution is no longer fuitable to us; conduct yourfelves at once as the fenators of Denmark did: lay down your freedom, and acknowledge and accept of defpotifm; but do not mock the underftandings and the feelings of mankind, by telling the world that you are free. Can a meeting, under fuch reftrictions as the bill requires, be called a meeting of free people? Is it poffible that the feelings of the people of this country should be thus infulted? Is it poffible to make the people of this country believe,

that

that this plan is any thing but a total annihilation of their liberty?" Mr. Fox then adverted to what had fallen from Mr. Pitt refpecting "Mansfield's Act," and obferved, that from this the hon. gentleman thought himself authorized to bring in a bill to prevent the difcuffion of queftions on any day; and this was to be applicable to all places where money was to be taken, merely on an allegation that fuch queftion might produce mifchief. But this was not to be all-it was applicable, it feems, to places where no money was to be taken, because in truth perfons might be admitted by means of tickets; and they muft not amount to a number beyond a certain one which the minifter fhould be pleased to infert in his bill, unlefs duly licensed by a magiftrate. He would ask again-Was this, or ask was it not, to prevent all political difcuffion whatever?

try: if this were their real motive, how could they think to avoid fuch an evil by proceeding upon a plan which has no refpect for the liberties of the people, no esteem for the experience to be derived from a perufal of our history? Good God, Sir!" exclaimed Mr. Fox, " I have feen and have heard of revolutions in different ftates: but they were not owing to the freedom of popular opinions, nor to the facility of popular meetings; they were owing to the very reverse of thefe; therefore we ought to put ourselves in a state as different from them as poffible. But, unfortunately, the prefent minifters are leading us into a fituation as nearly fimilar as they can to thofe in which these revolutions happened; particularly to that which at this hour is moft interefting to us, the reign of Charles the First."

"Behold," faid he, "the ftate of a free Englishman! Before he can difcufs any topic which involves his liberty or his rights, he is to fend to a magiftrate, who is to attend the difcuffion-that magiftrate cannot prevent the meeting; but he can prevent the fpeaking, because he can allege that what is faid has a tendency to disturb the peace and tranquillity of this realm. He hoped the people would be alarmed at the danger their liberties were then in, and affemble, while they might, to difcufs the best means of preferving them from the encroachments of the propofed bill, and ftate their abhorrence of the principle of this proceeding. Thofe who did not take this step, he should pronounce traitors to their country. Suppofe, for a moment, that the only object which the authors of this measure have in view, be to prevent revolution in this coun

Mr. Fox next adverted to the French revolution, and defired Englifhmen to obferve, what brought about the revolution there; and they would find that it was not to be attributed to the facility of public meetings, but on the contrary to their lettres de cachet, and other means which were employed to prevent the public from manifefting their opinions on the affairs of government.

We fhould, therefore, to avoid diftrefs fimilar to theirs, avoid the caufe that occafioned it. If the complaints of the people be unfounded, there can be nothing to fear; for the more vehemently and loudly they exprefs them, if they be groundless, the lefs effect will they ultimately produce; but if a ftop be put to this vent for the ill-humour of the body politic, there can be no alternative between abject fubmiffion and violent refiftance. He concluded by obferv. ing, that, if this bill was brought in,

he fhould think it his duty to move for a call of the house.

Mr. Stanley obferved, that if this bill paffed into a law, we were upon the eve of a revolution. He expreffed his aftonishment at the blindnefs of minifters in adopting fuch a measure; men were not fo blind, he said, if laws were properly administered, and their happiness even partially fecured, as to fly in the face of evil, and risk all the danger and infecurity confequent upon public diforder. The cele brated Montefquieu had afferted that the fureft proof of a country's verging on deftruction was an enor, mous increase of penal laws; on that ground alone, if there were not numerous others more powerful, he fhould oppofe the bill. The exifting laws were, he thought, every way fufficient to arm the magiftrate with proper power for the fuppreffion of illegal meetings. Mr. Stanley confidered the prefent bill as a libel on the loyalty of Eng. lifhmen, and concluded with declaring his affection for that conftitution which he had been taught from his earliest infancy to admire, and which he now feared was about to be fubverted; a measure which would make him abhor the authors of it for the remainder of his life.

Sir William Pulteney faid, gentlemen would do well to enquire whether the prefent measure was likely to produce fuch an infringement upon the privileges of the people as had been alleged, before they gave it a bad colour with the pub lic.

Sir William agreed that the

measure would militate against li. berty, if it prevented free difcuffion: but he thought that the bill did not go to fupprefs the liberty of the prefs, which was a mode of difcuffing all popular and political topics, fully adequate to all the purpofes of the community, and which he should be forry to fee furrendered. That alone was fufficient to maintain the bleffings of the conftitution; and that could not exift in a republican form of go. vernment, in an abfolute government, or in any form of govern ment which he knew, except a li mited monarchy, fuch as we hap pily enjoyed. In fuch inflamma. tory affemblies as thofe in question, where fedition was copioufly dealt out to the multitude, there ought to be fomething to fave the public mind from imbibing the infidious poifon. The great danger of fuch meetings was, that they only heard one fide of a queftion; and their ignorance and want of information led them on to action, without con. fidering what ought to be faid on the other fide.

The regulations of policy and law, he faid, ought to be fuited to circumftances and times; at one time a people might be rafl, as in the prefent inftance; at another, fluggish; it was then the bufinefs of legiflators to apply their remedy to the occafion. He attempted to fet Mr. Fox right in his affertion that fuch a measure was never reforted to in any free country. Even in America no meeting of the people could be held without the prefence of the magistrate *. It was

proper

proper that fuch a power fhould be given to the magiftrate, to fet fuch affemblies to rights; if treasonable proceedings were the avowed intention of any bodies of men, treafon ought not to be tamely fuffered in this or any country. If the magiftrate exceeded his powers, he might be punished; there was no fear that liberty would be furrendered in a country where the juries were judges whether a publication was a libel or not. He gave his fupport to the bill, because he thought it would remedy an evil, without infringing the rights and liberties of the people.

the object of their prefent difcuffion, he was furprised and alarmed. Becaufe a riotous and ftarving mob infulted his majefty, and appeared to aim at his life on a certain day,a mob evidently exafperated by perfonal fufferings, calling to the common father of his people for peace and bread,-are their outrages to be attributed to a peaceable affembly of perfons, whofe behaviour was in every refpect tranquil and exemplary,-who, the day before, had been convened to deliberate on the means of legally reftoring their political rights? There was not the flighteft fymptom, or the most diftant hint infinuated, that those mean and despicable perfons who infulted his majesty on the first day of the feffions, had been seen at the peaceable meeting held near Copenhagen houfe. He had no hefitation in declaring that the alarm, fo induftriously fpread in the latter end of 1792, against the different focieties united for the purpose of procuring a parliamentary reform, was very confiftent and natural to an administration who were about to adopt the very measures they had reprobated in their predeceffors. The calling out of the militia at a moft unufual feafon, of apprehending fundry perfons, and feizing a voluminous mafs of papers, under the pretence that the conftitution was in danger, was admirably well calculated to annihilate the most diftant hopes of thefe focieties in future, and commence a reign of terror which no fucceeding oppo fition would have been able to fhake. After a long lapfe of time, the perfons imprifoned were brought to trial: but, thank God, the integrity of a jury empanelled in the metropolis, in the very vortex of minifterial influence, fuddenly difperfed the tremendous cloud, and left nothing for minifters but the miferable

Mr. N. B. Halhed expreffed his unwillingness to prefs forward to claim the notice of the house. But when a town was befieged, he faid, the most peaceful inhabitant muft come forward to handle the mufquet or line the battery; he had long contented himself in the filent enjoyment of the ineftimable privileges of a free-born Englishman. He difagreed with the majority of the houfe with refpect to the war but there he stopt. He approved of the first proclamation, offering a great reward for the apprehenfion of those who so notoriously infulted the king in his way to parliament. If any flagitious mifcreant had been feen to throw a ftone at the king's carriage, the investigation ought to have been followed up with the utmoft degree of exactnefs; but he appealed to the breaft of every gentleman in that houfe, whether, with this clue to a perfect knowledge of the cafe, it would not have been more proper to have purfued that investigation upon the grounds of information upon oath, than to have turned fhortly round into a totally new path of refearch, and fhifted the fufpicion to a quite different quarter. He owned, that when he faw the third proclamation,

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