SO] ANNUAL REGISTER, 1817. 



CHAPTER II. 



Singular Circunutance respecting the Committee of the Lords. — Bill 

 for the Suspension of the Habeas Corpus, moved by Lord Sidmouth 

 in the House of Lords. — Debates. — Protest. — Lord Castlereagh in the 

 House of Commons moves for Bills, for the more effectually preventing 

 Seditious Meetings and Assemblies; for the better prevention and 

 punishment of attempts to seduce persons i7t his Majesty's forces by Sea 

 and Land from their allegiance ; and for making perpetual parts of an 

 act, for the safety and presentation of his Majesty's person ami govern- 

 ment, including those of the Prince Regent. — Debates. — Different 

 Clauses of the Seditious Meetings Act gone through. — The same bill in 

 the House of Lords. — Protest. 



SINGULAR CIKCUMITAWCB IN 

 TH« LORDS. 



A REMARK ABLE circum- 

 stance occurred, respecting 

 the report of tlie Secret Committee 

 drawn up by the House of Lords. 

 Mr. Cleary, secretary to the Lon- 

 don Union Society, having seen in 

 a report laid before their Lord- 

 ships, a clause relative to the 

 above society, which appeared to 

 connect it with the societies of 

 Spencean Philanthropists, was in- 

 duced to present a petition to the 

 House, in which he gave a cor- 

 rected statement of the society and 

 its pioceedings. This petition was 

 put into the hands of Earl Gros- 

 venor, who, on February 2l6t, 

 read it to the House, as follows : 



" To the Right Hon. the Lords 

 Spiritual and Temporal of the 

 United Kingdom of Great Bri- 

 tain and Ireland in Parliament 

 assembled. 



" The Petition of Thomas Cleaiy, 

 Secretary to th; London Union 

 Society, 

 " Humbly showeth. That it is 



with great reluctance, as well as 



humility, that your petitioner of- 

 fers himself to the notice of, and 

 prays for a hearing from your 

 right honourable House ; but that 

 your petitioner", though a veiy 

 humble individual, feels himself 

 impelled by a sense of im|)erious 

 duty, to beseech your right ho- 

 nourable House to pause, and to 

 hear further evidence, before your 

 right honourable House proceed 

 to adopt legislative measures upon 

 the report, now on the table of 

 your righthonourable House, from 

 your late secret committee. 



" Your petitioner begs permis- 

 sion humbly to state to your right 

 honourable Hous.e, that he has 

 read in the aforementioned report 

 of the secret committee of your 

 lordships, the following passage, 

 to wit : 



" 'Others of these societies are 

 called Union Clubs, piofessingthe 

 same object of parliamentary re- 

 form, but under these words un- 

 derstanding universal suffrage and 

 annual parliaments — projecta which 

 evidently involve not any qualified 

 or partial change, but a total sub- 

 version of the British constitution. 



It 



