24] ANNUAL REGISTER, 1818. 



CHAPTER IV. 



Proceedings in the House of Lords respecting the Indemnity Bill. — 

 The same in fhe House of Commons. 



ON the 23rd of February the 

 duke of Montrose presented 

 to the House of Lords a report 

 of the Secret Committee of the 

 Lords appointed to examine into 

 the matter of the several papers, 

 sealed up, presented to the House 

 by command of the Prince Re#' 

 gent. 



The Committee were ordered 

 to report that they had proceeded 

 to examine the papers so referred 

 to them. 



" In ex-ecution of this duty 

 they proceeded, in the first place, 

 to consider such of the said pa- 

 pers as contained information as 

 to the state of those parts of 

 England in which the circum- 

 stances detailed in the two re- 

 ports of the former committees 

 appear to have arisen. 



In the last of those I'eports, 

 presented to the House on the 

 12th of June last, it was repre- 

 sented that the period of a gene- 

 ral rising, of which the intention 

 and object were stated in the re- 

 ports, appeared to have been 

 fixed for as early a day as possi- 

 ble after the discussion of an ex- 

 {)ected motion for reform in par- 

 iament ; that Nottingham ap- 

 peared to have been intended as 

 the head quarters, upon which a 

 part of the insurgents were to 

 march in the first uistance ; and 

 that they expected to be joined 



there, and on their march towards 

 London, by other bodies with 

 such arras as they might have 

 already provided, or might pro- 

 cure by force from private houses, 

 or from the different depots or 

 barracks, of which the attack was 



f>roposed. That concurrent in- 

 brraation, from many quarters, 

 confirmed the expectation of a 

 general rising about the time 

 above-mentioned, but that it was 

 subsequently postponed to the 

 9th or 10th of June, for which 

 various reasons had been assign- 

 ed. The report added, that the 

 latest intelligence from those 

 quarters had made it highly pro- 

 bable that the same causes which 

 had to that time thwarted the 

 execution of those desperate de- 

 signs, viz. the vigilance of the 

 government, the great activity 

 and intelligence of the magis- 

 trates, the ready assistance af- 

 forded under their orders by the 

 regular troops and yeomanry, the 

 prompt and efficient arrangements 

 of the officers intrusted with that 

 service, the knowledge which had 

 from time to time been obtained 

 of the plans of the disaffected, 

 and the consequent arrest and 

 confinement of the leading agita- 

 tors, would occasion a still farther 

 postponement of their atrocious 

 plans. 

 It now appears that in the 



night 



