GENERAL HISTORY. 



[81 



of success ; and though it has been 

 stated to your committee, that 

 a delegate from the country has 

 recently been attending a meeting 

 of delegates in London ; no spe- 

 cific information has been laid be- 

 fore your committee of the exist- 

 ence of any body of nien^ associ- 

 ated in the metropolis, with whom 

 the disaffected in the country ap- 

 pear to be acting in concert, or to 

 hold communications. Their hopes 

 arise from their own niimbers, 

 which if they could be excited to 

 simultaneous movement, would 

 distract their opponents, and 

 would procure the means for car- 

 rying their utmost designs into 

 execution. It is hoped, by them, 

 that the timid and irresolute would 

 thus be encouraged to stand for- 

 ward ; and they flatter themselves, 

 that efficient leaders would not be 

 wanting to put themselves at the 

 head of a successful insui'rection. 



Your committee cannot con- 

 template what has passed in the 

 country, even since the date of 

 their former Report, without the 

 most serious apprehension. Du- 

 ring this period, the precautionary 

 measures adopted by Parliament 

 have been in force ; many of the 

 most active promoters of public 

 disturbance have been apprehend- 

 ed j the immediate projects of the 

 disaffected have been discovered 

 and deranged ; yet nothing has 

 deterred them from a steady pm- 

 suit of their ultimate object. 

 Thnugli hitherto checked, the 

 least advance towards the attain- 

 ment of that object could not but 

 be attended with the utmost ha- 

 zard to the lives and properties of 

 his Majesty's suljccts. 



In the late insurrection on the 



Vor.. LIX. 



borders of Derbyshire and Not- 

 tinghamshire, the mass of the 

 population, through which the 

 insurgents passed, evinced the 

 utmost abhorrence of their designs 

 and projects. — In other instances, 

 wheie the inhabitants have been 

 called upon to aid the civil power, 

 tiiat call has been answered with 

 alacrity and zeal. Such conduct 

 increases the claim of the peace- 

 able and loyal inhabitants of the 

 disturbed parts of the country to 

 the most efficient protection. 



Your committee find that it is 

 the concurrent opinion of many 

 of those entrusted with the pre- 

 servation of the peace, and best 

 acquainted with the state of the 

 disturbed districts, as well as the 

 admission of the disaffected them- 

 selves, that the suppression of the 

 attempts at insur-ection hitherto 

 made, may, in a great degree, be 

 ascribed to the existence of the 

 extraordinary powers entrusted by 

 Parliament to the executive go- 

 vernment, fven in cases where it 

 has not been found necessary to 

 call them into action ; and that 

 the tranquillity of the country 

 would be put to hazard, if those 

 powers were now withdrawn. In 

 this opinion your committee fully 

 concur; and, confidently as they 

 rely on the loyalty and good dis-- 

 position of tiie great body of his 

 Majesty's subjects, (even in those 

 parts of the country in which the 

 spirit of disaffisction has sliown 

 itself in the most formidable 

 shape) they cannot but express 

 their conviction, that it is not yet 

 safe to rely entirely, for the pre- 

 servation of the public tranquil- 

 lity, ujion the ordinary powers 

 of the law, 



LG] On 



