70] ANNUAL REGISTER, 1817. 



tended by persons calling them- 

 selves delegates from otlier prin- 

 cipal towns of that district; and 

 also from Leicester, from Bir- 

 mingham^ and from Nottingham. 

 At this meeting reports were 

 made by the diffeient delegates of 

 the strength Avhich could be col- 

 lected from the districts which 

 they represented. The numbers 

 were stated as very large ; but 

 the committee are well aware of 

 the exaggeration to be expected in 

 such cases. It was about this 

 time that the period for another 

 general rising appeals to have 

 been fixed for as early a day as 

 possible after the discussion of an 

 expected motion for reform in 

 Parliament. Nottingham appears 

 to have been intended as the head- 

 quarter! upon Avhich a part of the 

 insurgents were to maich in the 

 first instance. They were ex- 

 pected to be joined there, and on 

 their march towards London, by 

 other bodies with such arfns as 

 they might liave already provided, 

 or might procure by force from 

 private houses, or fiom the dif- 

 ferent depots or barracks of which 

 the attack was proposed. 



At various subsequent meetings 

 at different places, reports nre 

 stated to have been made of a 

 great increase of numbers, so 

 great that it was said on one oc- 

 casion that tliey were obliged 

 daily to extend their divisions, 

 and enlarge tlreir committee. 



Concurrent information from 

 many of the quarters from whence 

 these delegates were said to be 

 depirted, confirms the expectation 

 of a general rising about the time 

 above mentioned, ami states its 

 subsequent postponement to the 

 ninth or tenth of June, for which 

 various reasons were assigned. 



The latest intelligence from 

 those quarters had made it highly 

 probable that the same causes 

 which have hitherto thwarted the 

 execution of these desperate de- 

 signs, viz. the vigilance of govern- 

 ment — the great activity and in- 

 telligence of the magistrates — the 

 ready assistance afforded under 

 their orders by the regular troops 

 and yeomanry — tire prompt and 

 eflicient arrangements of the offi- 

 cers entrusted with that service — 

 the knowledge which has from 

 time to time been obtained of the 

 plans of the disaffected, and the 

 consequent arrest aiid confinement 

 of the leading agitators, would 

 occasion a still further postpone- 

 ment of their atrocious plans. 

 Subsequent intelligence leaves no 

 doubt that the plan, in its full 

 extent, has for the present been 

 frustrated ; but the correctness of 

 the information which had pre- 

 viously been obtained has been 

 confirmed by the recent appear- 

 ance of bodies of men in arms at 

 the precise period whicli is stated 

 to have been fixed upon, and par*- 

 tictdarly in one of the districts, 

 which had latterly been repre- 

 sented as determined to act with- 

 out waiting for a general insur- 

 rection. 



The committee think it highly 

 important to state, that the reports 

 received from many of the most 

 active magistrates, and from per- 

 sons whose stations, both civil 

 and military, have enabled them 

 to collect the most extensive in- 

 formation, and to form the most 

 accuiate judgment irs to the state 

 of the country, concur in attri- 

 buting in a very considerable 

 degree the disappointment of the 

 attempts already made, and the 

 hopes of continued tranquillity, to 



the 



