80] ANNUAL REGISTER, 1817. 



cation to jioliticul purposes. Bat 

 they have since found reason to 

 believe, that those who are con- 

 cerned in instigating- the |)eo])le to 

 insurrection, have availed them- 

 selves of this powerful engine for 

 the more extended purposes of po- 

 litical innovation. 



Upon the whole, your commit- 

 tee have been anxious neither to 

 exaggerate, nor extenuate, tlie na- 

 ture and extent of the danger. 

 They have not been insensible to 

 tlie jealousy, with which the tes- 

 timony of persons, originally im- 

 plicated in the designs of the con- 

 spiiators, or even of persons who 

 never having engaged in those 

 designs, have attended their meet- 

 ings, in order to discover and re- 

 port their proceedings, ougljt to 

 be icceived ; but llie facts stated 

 by your connuittee, rest not only 

 upon confirmatory evidence, but 

 on distinct, substantive, and satis- 

 factory testimony; and althougli 

 yo\n' conmiittee have seen reason 

 to apprehend, that the language 

 and conduct of some jjersonsfrom 

 whom information has been de- 

 rived, may in some instances, have 

 had the effect of encou! aging those 

 designs, wliich it was intended 

 they should only be the instru- 

 ments of detecting ; yet it is per- 

 fectly clear to your connuittee, 

 that before any such encourage- 

 ment could ha\e been given, tl>e 

 plan of a simultaneous insurrec- 

 tion, in diffeient j)arts of the 

 country, had been actually con- 

 certed, and its execution fully de- 

 termined on. 



Your committe'. have the satis- 

 faction to continue to believe, as 

 thev have before stated, that the 

 danger, which they have described, 

 is to be found only among the 



lower order of the manufacturing 

 population, in particular parts of 

 the country, many of whom are 

 labouring xinder considerable pri- 

 vations, from tlie low rate of 

 wages, and the increasing price 

 of the necessaries of life ; tliough 

 your committee cannot but re- 

 mark that the most active arid de- 

 termined insurgents are in many 

 instances to be found amongst 

 those, whose earnings, even in 

 the present state, of the manufac- 

 tures, would enal/ie them to sup- 

 port their families in comfort. 

 They find that of the promoters of 

 these commotions, many have 

 either left the coimtry, or are pre- 

 ventetl from prosecuting their de- 

 signs. The disaffected appear to 

 want leaders to conduct such en- 

 terprises as they have conceived ; 

 are frequently disconcerted by 

 jealousy and distrust of each otlier, 

 and by the consciousness that their 

 plans are watclied ; and by the 

 arrests of the ringleaders. Great 

 as the numbers piobably are, 

 among whom disaffection, to an 

 alarming extent, has made con- 

 siderable progress, fomented at 

 first by popular harangues, and 

 still by the more powerful and 

 general excitement of seditious 

 publications, your committee are 

 fully aware, that the number of 

 those, who are now prepared to 

 take the lead in any project of 

 open insurre(;tion; is not to be 

 estimated by the exaggerated re- 

 ])orts of their delegates. Though 

 they have been all along taught to 

 look to London foi' countenance 

 and snjjport, though some of their 

 own innnediate emissaries have, 

 from time to time, affected to 

 bring them hopes of encourage- 

 ment from that quarter, in case 



of 



