98] 



ANNUAL REGISTER, 1813. 



CHAPTER X. 



Domestic Occurrences. — Termination of internal Disorders.'— Public 

 Interest in the Transactions respecting the Princess of Wales. — Affairs 

 of the Roman Catholics. — Orange Societies in Enpland.— Bible Asso- 

 ciations. — East India new Charter. — Reduction of the Price of Pro- 

 visions. 



FEW years have passed in 

 which more internal public 

 tranquillity has been enjoyed by 

 the people of these islands than 

 the present. There has, indeed, 

 been a lamentable frequency of 

 private crimes, many of an atro- 

 cious nature, which may lead to 

 the apprehension that the long 

 continuation of a state of war, and 

 the wants and distresses of the 

 lower classes, have communicated 

 a tinge of savageness to the na- 

 tional character; but scarcely any 

 acts have occurred of open resist- 

 ance to the authority of law and 

 government. Much of this quiet 

 and submission has doubtless been 

 owing to the vigorous exertions 

 made for the suppression of that 

 spirit of riot and depredation which 

 had arisen to so alarming a height 

 in the last year, and had rendered 

 necessary some unusual measures 

 of restraint and severity. A few 

 instances of the destruction of 

 frames and other outrages by the 

 people called Luddites were re- 

 ported in the early part of the 

 year ; but the execution of the 

 murderers of Mr. Horsefall, and 

 afterwards that of fourteen rioters 



tried by special commission at 

 York, struck a terror which put 

 an end to all further disturbances 

 of that kind. 



For a considerable period, the 

 public feelings were much agi- 

 tated by the transactions which 

 took place with respect to the 

 Princess of Wales. In our account 

 of parliamentary affairs a relation 

 has been given of all the occur- 

 rences in the great assembly of 

 the nation which had a reference 

 to this delicate and interesting sub- 

 ject, and of the causes which 

 brought it under discussion ; and 

 among the State papers will be 

 found some of the documents pro- 

 duced on the occasion. In the 

 progress of the inquiry, a very 

 general impression was made on 

 the public, that an illustrious 

 stranger, a woman and a mother, 

 had been treated with harshness 

 and injustice, and even that mea- .1 

 sures of additional severity were 

 meditated against her ; and with 

 that zeal in favour of the oppressed 

 which is one of the fairest traits of 

 the British character, defenders of 

 the honour and safety of the Prin- 

 cess, started up on all sides. Of , 



