, HISTORY OF EUROPE. 
fringement of rights, that had been 
respected by all preceding admini- 
strations: these combined motives 
excited an alarm, which was felt 
in every part of the nation. All 
people, without exception, cordially 
avowed their loyalty to the’ sove- 
reign, but as vehemently protested 
against the passing cf the two bills, 
as unconstitutional, and clearly sub- 
versive of the main foundation of 
English liberty, the right of the 
people to assemble and to communi- 
Cate their sentiments reciprocally 
upon those subjects, which they 
thought necessary to bring into dis- 
cussion, and to frame petitions upon 
_them to the king and the legislature. 
The determinate steadiness and 
perseverance of the public on this 
critical occasion was th? more re- 
markable, that every effort was used 
by the ministerial party to preyent 
those popular exertions against the 
designs in agitation : but these were 
viewed with so suspicious an eye, 
that every argument in their justifi- 
cation vanished before the discon- 
tent they seemed to have universally 
excited. Numbers even of those 
who did not disapprove the conduct 
of ministers in other respects, could 
not bring themselves to approve 
the two bills in contemplation. 
Those even who supported them, as 
Tequisite during the fermentation at 
present pervading all classes, frankly 
acknowledged them to be contrary 
to the principles of the English con- 
Stitution, the freedom of which, 
however, unless restrained by some 
temporary regulations, threatened 
to become licentiousness, and to 
precipitate the public into all those 
miseries that had been so woefully 
experienced by their unhappy 
neighbours, the I’rench. 
who thus maintained the necessity 
of these bills, pleaded only for a 
But those ° 
[39 
limited duration of them. As they 
were indubitably an abridgmen 
of national liberty, they ought, it 
was strongly asserted, to last no 
onger than the occasion that gave 
rise to them, When the disputes 
of the day, and the feuds they pro- 
duced were at anend, they ought 
instantly to be repealed, and the 
full exercise of the ancient liberties 
of the nation, to be restored with- 
out the least diminution upon any 
pretence. Thas argued the majo- 
rity of those who favoured the bills, 
But a far superior majority would 
admit of them on no _ pretence 
whatever. They were, it was in- 
dignantly affirmed, the component 
parts of asystem that began to un- 
fold itself in too visible a manner 
not to be perceived, and too alarm- 
ing a one not to be resisted by every 
real friend to the liberty of his 
country. This resistance was in- 
deed proposed by some to be carried 
to the most resolute extremity ; and 
had not the immense power of go- 
vernment been prudently weighed, 
the proposal would, in the opinion 
of numbers, have been carried into 
execution: but though a resistance 
of so dangerous a nature gave way 
to the cvol reflections of the better 
advised, every other species of op- 
position took place against the two 
bills in question. Meetings and 
consultations, both private and pub- 
lic, were held every where. Clubs 
and associations were formed for the 
purpose of opposing them by every 
method not liable to the cognizance 
of the law. Never had there ap- 
peared, in the memory of the ‘oldest 
man, so firm and decided a plurality 
of adversaries to the ministerial, 
Measures as on this occasion: the 
interest of the public seemed so 
deeply at stake, that individuals, 
not only of the decent, but of the 
[D 4] most 
