121 



ANNUAL REGISTER, 1817. 



Such a state of things cannot 

 be suffered to continue without 

 hazaidiiig the most imminent and 

 dreadful evils ; and although the 

 committee do not presume to an- 

 ticipate the flecision of parliament 

 as to the particular measures to 

 be adopted in the present emer- 

 gency, they feel it to be their duty 

 to express their decided ojunion 

 that further provisions are neces- 

 sary for the preservation of the 

 public peace, and for the })rotec- 

 tion of interests in which the hap- 

 piness of every class of the com- 

 munity is deeply and equally in- 

 volved. 



House of Commons. 



The Committee of Secrecy, to 

 whoiu the several Papers, which 

 were pie-enteJ (sealed up) to 

 the House, by Lord Viscount 

 Castlereagh, on the 4th day of 

 February, by command of his 

 Royal Highness the Prince Re- 

 gent, were referred, and who 

 were directed to examine the 

 matters thereof, and report the 

 same, as they should appear to 

 them, to the House; — havetina- 

 nimously agreed to the follow- 

 ing Report : 



It appears to your Committee, 

 from the most attentive consider- 

 ation of the several docmnents le- 

 ferred to tliem, that attempts have 

 been made, in various parts of tlie 

 country, as well as in the metro- 

 polis, to take advantage of the dis- 

 tress in which the la()ouring and 

 nianufactuiinii' classes of the com- 

 munity are at present involved, to 

 induce them to look for imuiediate 

 I'elief, not only in a reform of 

 parliament on the j)lp.n of uni- 

 versal suftiage and anniial election, 

 but in a total o\erlhro\v of all 



existing establishments, and in a 

 division of the landed, and ex- 

 tinction of the funded property of 

 the country. 



This hope and prospect of spo- 

 liation have been actively and in- 

 dustriously propagated by several 

 societies, openly existing in the 

 metropolis, distinguished by the 

 niime of Spenceans ; a title which 

 they have assumed in conseqtience 

 of having revived the principles, 

 with some variation, of a visionary 

 writer of the name of Spence, 

 which first appeared in a publica- 

 tion of his near twenty years ago. 



It appears that at some of these 

 societies, held during »he last 

 mouth, the question was discussed, 

 whether the meetings for parlia- 

 mentary reform are calculated to 

 tuislead or enlighten the jjublic. 

 In the course of the del;ates upon 

 which question, it was strongly 

 urged " that parliamentary re- 

 form was only a half measure, 

 that they must look to the land, 

 for nothing short of that wcmld 

 ever avail them : that we had no 

 constitution, there being no book 

 in which it could be found, nor 

 any man that could tell what it 

 was." In another discussion upon 

 the question, " whether the prac- 

 tical establishment of Spence's 

 plan be an effectual remedy for the 

 jiresent distresses," one of the 

 doctrines maintained was, that 

 "the landholder was a monster 

 to be hunted down ; but that they 

 shoidd not suffer them--elves to be 

 amused ; that there was a greater 

 evil, nanu'ly, the fundholder; that 

 the-e were the rapacious wretches, 

 that took fifteen-penceout of every 

 quartern loaf." 



ft further appears, that in these 



meetings the most blasphemous 



expressions 



