10] 



ANNUAL REGISTER, 1817. 



hend them under any general de- 

 scription. 



The country societies are prin- 

 cipally to be found in and in 

 the neighbourhood of Leices- 

 ter, Loughborough, Nottingham, 

 Mansfield, Der!)y, Chesterfield, 

 Slieffield, Blackburne, Manches- 

 ter, Birnnngham, and Norwich, 

 and in Glasgow and its vicinity ; 

 but they extend and are spreading, 

 in some jiarls of t!ie country, to 

 almost every village. In addition 

 to ail the arts of seduction, 7-esort 

 is also liad to a system of intimi- 

 dation, and threats are held out 

 to those who refuse to join. Their 

 combinations are artfully con- 

 trived to secure secrecy in their 

 proceedings, and to give to tlie 

 leading membei's undisputtd au- 

 thority over the rest. Oaths of 

 secrecy have been frequently ad- 

 ministered, some of which are of 

 the most atrocious and dreadful 

 import. 



They do not, however, trust to 

 this security alone to prevent tlis- 

 covery; their proceedings aie sel- 

 dom reduced to writing ; they 

 pass and are communicated by 

 Avord of mouth. Tlie more nu- 

 merous meetings delegate all au- 

 tliority to a managing committee; 

 and by that committee, and by 

 meetings of delegates from the 

 committees of different societies, 

 every tiling of impTrtance is trans- 

 acted. 



The committees themselves are 

 al^o cautious of reducing any of 

 their piocoedings to writing, com- 

 municating with each other only 

 by delegates and missionaries. 



It apjjears th.at, in some jiarts 

 of the country, arms have been 

 lately procured by individual mem- 

 bers of these societies in consi- 



derable quantities, which can only 

 have been done with a view to the 

 use of force. Subscriptions are 

 also generally requiied, whichj 

 although the amount paid by each 

 individual maybe very small, may 

 produce, from the large numbers 

 of the contributors, no inconsi- 

 derable fund. 



The destructive objects which 

 the leading members of these so- 

 cieties havs in view are demon- 

 strated by their publications and 

 by their proceedings, all equally 

 calculated to inllame the minds of 

 the members, and in general of 

 the poorer classes of the commu- 

 nity. At the ordinary meetings 

 of these societies, which are often 

 continued to a late hour, their 

 time is principally employed in 

 listening to speeches tending to 

 the destruction of social order, 

 recommending a general equali- 

 zation of property, and at the 

 same thne endeavouring to corrupt 

 the morals of the hearers, and to 

 destroy all reverence for religion. 

 The landholder has been repre- 

 sented as a monster which must 

 be hunted down, and the fund- 

 liolder as a still greater evil ; and 

 both have been described as ra- 

 ])acious creatures, who take from 

 the people fifteen-pence out of 

 every quartern loaf. They have 

 Ijeen told that parliamentary re- 

 form is no more than a half- 

 measure, changing only one set 

 of tliieves for another : and that 

 tliey must go to the land, as no- 

 thing short of that would avail 

 them. Another principal employ- 

 ment of their time is, to listen to 

 publications of tlie same descrip- 

 tion as the speeches, containing 

 the same doctrines, and leading to 

 tlie same purposes ; and the meet- 

 ings 



