GENERAL HISTORY. 



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I 



the plunder and division of all 

 property, as the main object of 

 their efforts, and the restoration 

 of their natural rights ; and no 

 endeavours are omitted to prepare 

 them to take up ai ms on the first 

 signal for accomplishing these de- 

 signs. 



It is on these grounds that your 

 committee have been led to look 

 with particular anxiety to the for- 

 mation, principles, and condnct 

 of those societies or clobs by 

 which the ends of the disaffected 

 have been hitherto so much for- 

 warded, and are expected by them 

 to be finally accomplished. Many 

 of these societies pass under the 

 denomination of Hampden Clubs. 

 Under this title societies of very 

 various descriptions appear to have 

 been formed, all professing their 

 object to be parliamentary reform. 

 This name and their professions 

 may have induced many peisons 

 to become members of such so- 

 cieties who may not be aware of 

 the ultimate intentions of many 

 of their leaders ; and the com- 

 mittee would by no means ascribe 

 to all these societies the same 

 practices and designs which they 

 have found to be but too prevalent 

 amongst a large number of them ; 

 but they find that, particularly 

 among the manufacturing and 

 labouiing classes, societies of this 

 denomination have been most 

 widely extended, and appear to 

 have become some of the chief 

 instruments of disseminating doc- 

 trines, and of preparing for the 

 execution of plans, the most dan- 

 gerous to the public security and 

 peace. 



Others of these societies are 

 called Union Clubs, professing the 

 same object of parliamentary re- 



form, but under these words 

 understanding universal suffrage 

 and annual parliaments : projects 

 which evidently involve not any 

 qualified or partial change, but a 

 total subveision of the British 

 constitution. 



It appears that there is a Lon- 

 don Union Society, and branch 

 Unions corresponding with it, 

 and affiliated to it. Others of 

 these societies have adopted the 

 name of Spencean Philanthro- 

 pists ; and it was by members of 

 a club of this description that the 

 plans of the conspirators in Lon- 

 don were discussed and prepared 

 for execution. 



The principles of these last as- 

 sociations seem to be spreading 

 rapidly among the other societies 

 which have been formed, and are 

 daily forming, under that and 

 other derjominations in the coun- 

 try. Among the persons adopt- 

 ing these principles, it is common 

 to disclaim parliamentary reform 

 as unworthy of their attention. 

 Their objects are avowed in a 

 hand-bill dispersed by the society 

 of that descriplion in Lcmdon, 

 and in numerous other publica- 

 tions. These objects are, " A 

 Panichial partnerskip in land, on 

 the principle that the landholders 

 are not proprietors in chief; that- 

 they are but the stewards of the 

 public ; that the land is the peo- 

 ple's farm ; that landed monopoly 

 is contrary to the spirit of Chris- 

 tianity, and destructive of the 

 independence and morality of 

 mankind." 



The societies under these dif- 

 ferent names are so numerous, 

 and so various, that it has been 

 difficult to obtain a complete view 

 of all of them, or to compre- 

 hend 



