APPENDIX TO CHRONICLE. 247 



in the general conspiracy ; whilst 

 the lenity shown to the deluded, 

 was gratefully felt by the indivi- 

 duals themselves, and restored 

 quiet and subordination to the 

 district, which had been the 

 principal scene of disturbance. 



In the course of the autumn, 

 a gradual reduction in the price 

 of provisions, and still more an 

 increased demand for labour, in 

 consequence of a progressive im- 

 provement in the state of agricul- 

 ture, as well as of trade and 

 manufacture in some of their 

 most important branches, afforded 

 the means of subsistence and 

 employment to numbers of those, 

 who had been taught to ascribe 

 all the privations to which they 

 were unfortunately subjected, to 

 defects in the existing constitu- 

 tion. 



Your committee see fresh cause 

 to be convinced of the truth of 

 the opinion expressed by the first 

 secret committee, which sat in 

 the last year, of the general good 

 disposition and loyalty of the 

 great body of the people; and 

 they advert with pleasure to the 

 confirmation afforded by the late 

 trials at Derby, of the testimony 

 borne in the report of the last 

 committee, to the exemplary 

 conduct of the mass of the popu- 

 lation, in the country through 

 which the insurrection passed. 

 They have no doubt, that the 

 numbers of those who were either 

 pledged, or prepared to engage 

 in actual insurrection, has gene- 

 rally been much exaggerated by 

 the leaders of the disaffected, 

 from the obvious policy, both of 

 giving importance to themselves, 

 and of encouraging their followers. 

 It is however, impossible to cal- 



culate the extent to which any 

 insurrection, not successfully op- 

 posed in its outset, might have 

 grown in its progress through a 

 population, in a state of reduced 

 employment, of distress, and of 

 agitation. In such a state of 

 things, opportunity would, no 

 doubt, have been afforded to 

 active and plausible demagogues, 

 for seducing into acts of violence 

 and outrage, persons altogether 

 unaware of the nature and conse- 

 quences of the measures to which 

 they were called upon to lend 

 their assistance ; that these con- 

 sequences would have involved 

 the destruction of the lives and 

 property of the loyal and well- 

 affected, in the event of any 

 decided, though temporary, suc- 

 cess of the insurgents, is suffici- 

 ently evident, from the designs 

 which have in some instances 

 been proved. 



It was therefore the duty of 

 the magistracy, and of the go- 

 vernment, not only to prepare 

 the means of effectual resistance 

 to open force ; but, where they 

 had the opportunity, to defeat 

 the danger in its origin, by ap- 

 prehending the leaders and insti- 

 gators of conspiracy. Your com- 

 mittee indulge the hope, that the 

 hour of delusion among those 

 who have been misled into disaf- 

 fection, may be passing away ; 

 and that some, even of the delu- 

 ders themselves, may have seen, 

 and repented of their error. But 

 your committee would deceive 

 the House, if they were not to 

 state it as their opinion, that it 

 will still require all the vigilance 

 of government, and of the magis- 

 tracy, to maintain the tranquillity, 

 which has been restored. It will 



no 



