128] ANNUAL REGISTER, 1800. 



be viewed as so implicated in the 

 guilt, that the legislature would be 

 fully justified in takiug such steps as 

 would prevent the machinations of 

 such men, whose measures must en- 

 danger the safety of the community. 

 His lordship said, he spoke upon the 

 most conscious persuasion, that, if 

 this suspension act had not passed, 

 their lordships would not have been 

 at this time within that house to de- 

 liberate on this or any other act; or, 

 at least, that their existence would 

 have been endangered. The noble 

 lord had argued, that none should 

 be apprehended but such as could 

 be brought to trial ; but his lord- 

 ship should know that cases might 

 occur, as they had already occur- 

 red, in which, for want of two wit- 

 nesses, persons could not be legally 

 convicted, when, at the same time, 

 no doubt could remain of their guilt. 

 Let noble lords recollect what had 

 passed in Ireland : there, where the 

 law in cases of high treason only 

 required one witness, a person, (his 

 name he had forgotten) feeling that 

 he had embarked in a project ruin- 

 ous to his country, and founded on 

 the breach of every political duty, 

 had the merit (for so he would call 

 it) of being the informer ; a circum- 

 stance which had led to the detec- 

 tion of the whole conspiracy. But 

 would the noble lord say, because, 

 in this country, a person could not 

 be put upon his trial for high trea- 

 son without the testimony of two 

 witnesses, that, therefore, no danger 

 existed ? With regard to what had 

 passed at Maidstone, would the no- 

 ble lord argue, that, because no 

 sufficient legal proof could be 

 brought against any but one of the 

 men who were put upon their trial, 

 the legislature should have sat still, 

 and not endeavoured to prevent the 



mischief, where there were such 

 grounds for suspicion, that the 

 French directory were tampering 

 with disaffected men to destroy the I 

 constitution of this country .'' In a 

 case of that new description so dan- 

 gerous, and the plot so artfully com- J 

 bined, was he to shut his eyes " 

 against the danger arising to the 

 country, or refuse to make a legis- 

 lative provision, of a nature as tem- 

 perate as circumstances would ad- 

 mit.? He would vent urfc to say, 

 that to the suspension of ti«e habeas 

 corpus act was owing the preser- 

 vation of the crown to the house of 

 Hanover ; and by this very act, late 

 and former conspiracies had been 

 broken to pieces. But he must ob- 

 serve, that the lenity of former reigns 

 and governments was not to be 

 compared with what had taken 

 place in this reign. It was this 

 which gave value to the British 

 constitution, that it was not found- 

 ed on that theory, which God never 

 intended man should adopt as the 

 rule by which he should act, as if 

 he was a perfect creature. The 

 law of England looked on man as 

 encompassed with faults and vices : 

 it went on this principle, that, in 

 general, the existing provisions 

 should be such, as to secure, to the 

 utmost, the liberties of the coun- 

 try ; but, in pursuing this object, it 

 considered also that it had to do 

 with men as they are, and that it 

 was the duty of the community to 

 submit to a temporary deprivation 

 of privilege, in order the more ef- 

 fectually to enjoy the liberties of 

 the British constitution. 



The question for the third read- 

 ing of the bill was then carried by 

 30 against 7 : and by the royal as- 

 sent, on the twenty-eighth of Fe- 

 bruary, passed into a law. 



