GENERAL HISTORY. 



u 



ings are frequently ternjinatod, 

 particularly in London, by pro- 

 fane and seditious songs and pa- 

 rodies of parts of the liturgy, in 

 which the responses are chanted 

 by the whole company. By such 

 means, and by the profession of 

 open infidelity in which some of 

 the members indulge in their 

 speeches, the minds of those who 

 attend their meetiners aie tainted 

 and depraved ; they are taught 

 contenijit for all decency, ail law, 

 all religion and morality, and are 

 thus prepared for the most atro- 

 cious scenes of outrage and vio- 

 lence. 



Amongst the most effectual 

 means of furthering these dan- 

 gerous designs, the committee 

 think it their duty particularly to 

 call the attention of the House to 

 the unremitting activity which has 

 been employed throughout the 

 kingdom in circulating to an un- 

 precedented extent, at the lowest 

 prices or gratuitously, publications 

 of the most seditious and inflam- 

 matory nature, marked with a 

 peculiar characterof irreligion and 

 blasphemy, and tending not only 

 to overturn the existing form of 

 government and order of society, 

 but to root out those principles 

 upon which alone any goveinment 

 or any society can be supported. 



The committee cannot but con- 

 sider the late attack ujion his royal 

 highness the Prince Regent, on 

 his way from opening the present 

 session of parliament, as an ad- 

 ditional and melancholy jh'oof of 

 the efficacy of this system to de- 

 stioy all reverence for authoiity, 

 and all sense of duty, and to ex- 

 pose to insult, indignity, and 

 hazard the person of the immedi- 

 ate representative of the sovereign, 



even in the exercise of one of the 

 most important parts of his royal 

 functions. 



It appears to be an essential 

 part of the system to take advan- 

 tage of the opportunities aiforded 

 by public meetings, convoked either 

 by the leaders of these societies, 

 or by others, in the metropolis, and 

 in populous places and districts, 

 to address the multitude in terms 

 of unprecedented license and \io- 

 lence, amounting even in some 

 instances to an open declaration 

 that, in case of non-compliance 

 with their petitions, the sovereign 

 will have forfeited his claims to 

 their allegiance. These pi'oceed- 

 ings aie subsequently printed and 

 circulated, and thus become a 

 fresh vehicle for sedition and 

 treason. 



By the frequency of these meet- 

 ings, and by the new practice of 

 continuing them (under various 

 pretexts) by frequent adjourn- 

 ments, the minds of his majesty's 

 well-disposed and j)eaceable sub- 

 jects are held in a state of per- 

 petual agitation anil alaim. The 

 appointment. of such public meet- 

 ings in a variety of different places 

 on the same day appears to be 

 considered as the most effectual 

 means of accomplishing the de- 

 signs of the disaffected, and must 

 evidently in a high degiee em- 

 barrass and impede the exertions 

 of all civil powers applicable to 

 the suppression of disturbances, 

 distract the attention of gnvci'n- 

 ment, and oblige them so to sub- 

 divide and harass the military 

 force which it may be necessary 

 to call in for the assistance of the 

 civil power, as to render it inade- 

 quate to the maintenance of public 

 tranquillity. 



Such 



