42] ANNUAL REGISTER, 1818. 



inviiation to it by ministers. This 

 complicated violation of" all law, 

 in seizing papers, in punishing 

 before any guilt was established, 

 in treating suspected libellers 

 like convicted felons, was to be 

 traced to lord Sidmouth's Circular 

 Letter ; and a stronger instance 

 could hardly exist of the mischief 

 of government's interfering with 

 magistrates, and prompting them 

 as to the mode in which they 

 were desirous that their judicial 

 functions should be exercised. 

 An hon. friend of his (Mr. 

 Lambton) had called this bill the 

 winding up of that system of 

 injustice which the ministers had 

 been acting upon. He wished it 

 could be so considered. To 

 himself it rather appeared as a 

 prelude to farther exertions of 

 power, and to future denials of 

 justice. The reports of the com- 

 mittee of both Houses declared, 

 that it would be necessary for the 

 magistrates to persevere in the 

 same exertions as they had 

 hitherto made. It has been" there- 

 fore necessary to violate the law ; 

 fresh violations of it by the 

 magistrates will be necessar}^ 

 and a better ground is thus laid 

 for a bill of Indemnity in the 

 next session for those illegal acts 

 of authority which the magistrates 

 seem thus encouraged to commit. 

 Let it be recollected that all this 

 has taken place under the mild 

 government of king George 3rd, 

 exercised by a viceroy in his 

 name, and by his authority. 



It remained for him to speak 

 of the third object of the 

 bill ; the protecting those who 

 had given information to govern- 

 ment, from supposed danger. In 

 England this was a policy quite 



new and unheard of. It was 

 true, that in the bill of 1801, an 

 act in which a similar recital was 

 found, as in this ; but the circum- 

 stances of those times were quite j 

 different from the present. The * 

 traitorous designs then spoken of, 

 were an alleged correspondence 

 M'ith a foreign enemy, and the 

 information received was said to 

 be from persons then in the 

 power of that enemy. But the 

 danger that it is pretended now 

 exists is from popular outrage or 

 private revenge, against those 

 who may have dared to give evi- 

 dence against offenders. But 

 what symptom has ever yet dis- 

 covered itself of any such feeling 

 in this country ? No complaint 

 of the kind has ever been made : 

 no alarm respecting it has ever 

 been expressed: none of the re- 

 ports of the Secret Committees 

 make any mention of, or have any 

 allusion to it. At Derby, in 

 London, at York, there appeared 

 no unwillingness in any witness 

 to give his evidence ; and nothing 

 had happened to impede, in any 

 way, the due administration of 

 justice. It was plain, then, that 

 this was an unfounded pretext. 

 It was not that the government 

 supposed there was any danger, 

 but they were desirous of con- 

 cealing the unworthy means which 

 had been used to obtain infor- 

 mation, and of sanctioning the 

 future recourse to this new 

 system of employing spies and 

 informers. 



Sir S. Romilly then took 

 notice of Mr. Canning and Mr. 

 Bragge Bathurst, and digressed 

 to the humble agents of ministe- 

 rial vengeance, Castles, Oliver, 

 and their accomplices. He con- 

 cluded 



