GENERAL HISTORY. 



[27 



history of the revohitionary spirit 

 in this country^ it appeared to 

 have gradually descended from 

 the higher and better informed 

 ranks in which it formerly be- 

 trayed itself, to those lower orders 

 in which it was now principally to 

 be found. 



After some severe animadver- 

 sion upon those superior classes 

 of reformists, who appeared to 

 his lordship to have excited the 

 lower ranks to mischief, he went 

 on to give the House " a fair and 

 not exaggerated descfiption of the 

 dangers which now menaced the 

 country, and to direct its atten- 

 tion to the remedies to be pro- 

 posed by the ministers." He ob- 

 seived, that although the conspi- 

 rators had not been joined to the 

 extent that they expected, yet that 

 the general means they had pro- 

 vided, were sufficient to enable 

 them to make the attempt with a 

 rational prospect of success. It 

 would be confining the extent of 

 the peril within too narrow limits 

 to consider it as sprung from the 

 meeting of December 2d alone. 

 Others were at that very moment 

 going on under the pretence of 

 seeking parliamentary reform. 

 He would not deny that many in- 

 dividuals throughout the country 

 had such a reform actually in 

 view J but most of them looked at 

 it merely as a half measure, or a 

 veil to the prosecuting of their 

 designs. It had been cleatly made 

 out, that a wicked conspiracy ex- 

 isted in the country for the sub- 

 version of the constitution and 

 state ; and it appealed that the 

 individuals who were deeply im- 

 plicated in the crime of treason 

 had been the most active to pro- 

 cure meetings for the apparent 



purpose of parliamentary reform. 

 Such being the dangers against 

 which parliament had to contend, 

 they were now to be informed of 

 the measures which the King's 

 ministers had thought proper to 

 propose to them for meeting that 

 danger. These, after having been 

 commented on by his lordship 

 seriatim, were summed up in a 

 general statement. 



The measures, he said, which 

 he should propose as the wisest 

 which parliament could adopt, 

 were, 1. The temporary suspen- 

 sion of the Habeas Corpus. 2. 

 The extending the act of ]795, 

 for the security of his Majesty's 

 person, to his Royal Highness the 

 Prince Regent, as the person ex- 

 ercising the functions of royalty. 



3. To embody into one act the 

 provisions of the act of 179.5, re- 

 lative to tumultuous meetings and 

 debating societies, and the pro- 

 visions of the act of the 39th of 

 the King, which declared the 

 illegality of all societies bound 

 together by secret oaths, or if not 

 by secret oaths, which extended 

 themselves by fraternized branches 

 over the kingdom ; and to malve 

 it enact, that the nominating de- 

 legates or conmiissioners, under 

 any pretext, to any other societies 

 of the kind, should be considered 

 as sufficient proof of the illegality 

 of such societies or associations. 



4. To make such enactments as 

 should be thought most effectual 

 to punish with the utmost rigour, 

 any attempt to gain over soldiers 

 or sailors to act with any asso- 

 ciation or set of men, and with- 

 draw them fiom their allegiance. 



Lord CastJerecigh concluded with 

 moving, " That leave be given to 

 bring in a bill for the more effec- 

 tually 



