276 ANNUAL REGISTER, 1794. 



4 



constitution was so far gone, as to 

 be irretrievable, and the people 

 become so degenerate, as to have 

 lost all ideas of asserting llieir rights. 

 What were the objects of the harsh 

 measures already adopted, and of 

 the scill harsher, so explicitly threat- 

 ened ? Was total silence to be 

 imposed upon th.e British nation 

 on the imprudence and misrranage- 

 inent of their rulers r Were arrr ics 

 ol informers to be let loose on the 

 community, to discover what pre- 

 parations were making against their 

 emplwyers ? But, without such 

 odious and despicable instruments, 

 ■why did not ministers, if they re?lly 

 apprehended that arms were fabri- 

 cating against them, apply for in- 

 formation to some of the chief ar- 

 mourers in the metropolis ? without 

 v'hose knowledge no fabrication to 

 any large amount could possibly 

 take place. 



. The IMarquis of Lansdowne was 

 replied to h,y the Lord Chancellor, 

 who,' among other reasonings, al- 

 leged, that the coi;stant mention of 

 a parliamentary reform by the so- 

 cieties, could no n:ore clear thtm 

 of illegal intent, as their proposed 

 convention, than the expression of 

 God save the King, at the bottom 

 ■of a seditious libel, could clear it of 

 sedition. Tlie ir.dividuals cumpo- 

 sing those societies, he asserted ('o I<c 

 ten times as num.ercus as those 

 conctvned in the riocs of the year 

 1780. 



After the adjournment moved 

 by Lord Laudeidaie had been nega- 

 tived, a motion for the third rcid- 

 ing of the bill w; s opposed by hiiu 

 as irregular, and violating the stand- 

 ing order of the House, chat no 

 bill should go tv. ice through a read- 

 ing on the same day. Such yix- 

 •ipitaticn, he sa'd, would im^rcvs 



the public with a belief that it was 

 intended to prevent a petition 

 against the bill : but his opposition 

 was over-ruled, not however with- 

 out a spiri-tcd protest asrainst the 

 bill by the Duke of Bedford, and 

 the Earls of Albcunarle, Stanhope, 

 and Lauderdale. 



An address being mo"ed, on the 

 13th of June, by Lord Grenviile, 

 to assure the King of the House's 

 loyalty ar.d determination to punish 

 the participaters in the conspiracy 

 laid before it, and to invent hitn 

 with additional power for the sv.p- 

 pression of attempts against govern- 

 ment, it was warmly opposed by 

 Lord Lauderdale, but carried and 

 stnt to the Commons for thdr con- 

 cnrrence. 



On Mr. Pitt's motion for an ad- 

 dies'; to the King, similar to that to 

 the House of Lords, Mr. Lambton 

 took occasion to condemn the me- 

 thods used in framing the repoit 

 of the secret comm.ittce. Partial 

 selections and extracts from the 

 letters and papers of the societies 

 could not, he said, be considered as 

 fair proofs of the charges alltged 

 against them. He appealed to the 

 words of Algernon Sidney on his 

 trial, ' That if quotations were suf- 

 fered to be mavigled and d^sguis'^d 

 to answer party pnyjcses, he would 

 prove from tlic Bible itself That 

 tl-.ere was noGod." Partial extracts, 

 wirl.oiit anv overt act, were not 

 evidence in a ccurt of law, and 

 could not theiefore be- admitted as 

 proofs by the court of parliament. 

 1 be statements in the report were 

 ir.consibteiit and cohfiised : it men- 

 tioned tliat arn.s hud been pve- 

 pp.rtd : tluy amounted on a speci- 

 ticat!t>ii to eighteen pike-headf, ten 

 batile-.'xes, aiid twenty sword-' 

 rilades. Such were the warlike 

 preparitioivs 



