24] ANNUAL REGISTER, 1817. 



he intimated the intention of the 

 present ministers, to renew some 

 measures of this kind. In fine, 

 he came to the direct point of the 

 suspension of the Habeas Corpus, 

 of which he said he was sincerely 

 grieved to be the instrument, 

 especially in a time of profound 

 peace. But it was one extraor- 

 dinary quality of the British con- 

 stitution, that the powers of the 

 executive government could be 

 enlarged, if by such means that 

 constitution would be better se- 

 cured. He required the suspen- 

 sion of the Habeas Corpus act, in 

 pity to the peaceable and loyal in- 

 habitants of the country, for the 

 protection of the two Houses of 

 Parliament, for the maintenance 

 of our liberties, and for the se- 

 curity of the blessings of the con- 

 stitution. It was not merely the 

 lower orders which liad united in 

 tliese conspiracies ; individuals of 

 great activity, resolution, and 

 energy, were engaged in the con- 

 test. 



The Marquis Wellesley said, that 

 when parliament was called upon 

 to alter the existing laws of the 

 land, ministers should be able to 

 lay before it a plain distinct case, 

 founded upon powerful and irre- 

 sistible evidence, in order that it 

 should be justified in doing that 

 which in ordinary circumstances 

 would be a direct infiingenient of 

 the public freedom. Unless the 

 ministers of the crown could un- 

 questionably prove, that such a 

 case cannot be restrained by the 

 ordinary course of law, they are 

 not warranted in demanding the 

 extension of extraordinary powers. 

 This subject led him to consider 

 what he must regard as the grand 

 and prominent part of the ques- 



tion, namely, a comparison be- 

 tween the present day, with the 

 period of 1795 ; of which there 

 was the leading and undeniable 

 distinction, that in the first case, 

 all the mischiefs against which the 

 enlargement of the powers of the 

 crown went to pro»'ide, sprung 

 mainly from the French revolu- 

 tion. From France the dangers 

 were apprehended, and to the 

 machinations of agents from that 

 country, the energies of the go- 

 vernment were directed. But to 

 what were the principles of our 

 modern system of policy directed, 

 when our army in Spain was en- 

 gaged in a succession of triumphs, 

 and when the nations of the con- 

 tinent, in imitation of our ex- 

 ample, were resolved to make a 

 determined struggle for their in- 

 dependence ? It was to this — that 

 we had actually extinguished the 

 spirit of Jacobinism, and that the 

 war had assumed a ditferent com- 

 plexion. The peace followed, and 

 it was one which the noble mar- 

 quis severely reprobated. To the 

 wa«t of stipulations in favour of 

 England, he attributed the revival 

 of Jacobinism; but how did it 

 happen, said he, that ministers, 

 when they had ascertained the ex- 

 istence of a presumed traitorous 

 conspiracy in the metropolis, and 

 were aware, as they now profess, 

 that the provisions of the law 

 were incompetent to control it, 

 did not at once resort to measures 

 to put it down ? 



After various other observations, 

 which it is unnecessary here to re- 

 peat, the Marquis concluded with 

 affirming, that he must conscien- 

 tiously declare, that up to the 

 moment he was then speaking, he 

 had not seen such evitience as 



convinced 



