1797-] 
“SPATE 
Ro nieOsapring Ap mart 
oe PUBLLCAAFPALRS; 
In | June, 1797- 
GREAT Britain. 
{Fer ax Account of the Mutiny at the Nore, 
_ fee the latier part of this Magazine. | 
ONE of the moft important circum- 
ftances which has occurred in the 
‘courfe of the month, is the feceflion of 
the minority from both Houfes of Par- 
liament.—A meafure of the fame nature . 
was in agitation during the. American 
war, and of the nature, plan, and objet 
of that feceffion, we expect to be enabled, 
in the courfe of the fucceeding month, to 
afford our readers a fatisfactory account. 
Previous to this feceflion, however, 
Mr. Fox conceived it a duty to his coun- 
try to fubmit to the Houfe of Commons, 
on the 23d of May, a motion for the re- 
peal of the Treafon and Sedition Bills, 
which were paffed into laws near the 
end of. the year 1795. With re{peé to 
the firft of thefe Bills, namely, that which 
came from the Houte of Lords, he did not 
trouble the Houfe at much length, but 
confined himfelf to obfervations upon two 
points, 1ft, That the Bills unneceffarily 
extended the laws of Treafon, becaufe 
the Statute of Edward the Third, in the 
- plain, fimple, and obvious conttruction of 
It, was entirely adequate to the prevention 
or punifhment of that offence. The life 
of the king was guarded as carefully as 
the valuable life of the chief magiftrate 
of the country could be. Secondly, thae 
another part of the Bill is produétive of 
the moft ferious confequences; he meant 
that part where all publications of libels 
upon a fecond conviction, enable the 
judges to go far beyond what they have 
ever been aliowed to go before. If fuch 
a law had been pafled a hundred years 
ago, fome of the greateft ornaments of 
the country, whofe writings have been 
admired, and whofe principles have in- 
ftructed us, might have been tranfported 
to Botany Bay. There might have been 
times, he faid, in which, upon the nodern 
principles, a great part of the works of 
Locke would have been conftrued to haye 
had a tendency to bring the government 
of the country into contempt.. Mr. Fox 
then referred tothe cafe of Mr.Witkes, 
who had been profecuted for repeated 
libels ;,if the Bills in queftion, he faid, 
had exifted before the prefent reign, 
Mr. Wiitkes would, upon the fecond 
convi¢tion, have been fent to Botany Bay. 
We are told that a part of this ifland, the 
North, was fubjeét to that barbarous law, 
which was fo lately introduced into this 
country ; Mr. Fox faid, he had been — 
prefent at debates that took place upon 
this fubjeét, and had read other docu- 
ments which clearly convinced him, 
“¢ that fuch was not the law of Scotland, 
and that thofe who had infliéted fuch 
‘fentences, would meet with the day of 
juft retribution.” But whether it was 
the law of Scotland, or not, he knew 
that we had minifters here, who were re- 
folved to fend men to Botany Bay for fo 
vague acrime as that of fedition; who 
would have facrificed the lives .of men 
for their political opinions—facrificed 
them for what proceeded from an excefs 
of love for the conftitution of Great 
Britain—for carrying opinions, which 
were right in their principle, to a degree 
of extravagance which might deferve 
cenfure. Such was the crime; the 
punifhment was to fend perfons, who 
might have been excellent men in other 
re{peéts, to die in diftant climes, to tran~- 
{port perfons of extraordinary learning 
and abilities, fuch as Mr. GERRALD 
pofieffed, and to mix them with the moft | 
illiterate and abandoned of the human 
race; fuch was the conduét of minitters, 
Upon the fecond Bill, Mr. Fox obferv- 
ed, that the fundamental Rights of the _- 
People were, to {peak their minds freely, 
to ftate their grievances to legal authori- 
ties, and, by fo ftating them, to procure 
redrefs. This is recognizedin the Bill 
of Rights, refpecting the power of the 
fubject to petition the Crown. The 
Bill in queftion, he contended, went to 
abridge and diminifh the exercife of the 
right the people had to petition the 
Crown and Parliament. It tended even 
to circumfcribe the right; it left us in 
full enjeyment of it, as far as relates to 
laws that were pending, but it clogged 
it in every thing that refpeéted griey- 
ances felt from the laws that have paffed ; 
it made a diftinétion between affemblies 
called by fheriffs, and affemblies called by 
other individuals; a diftinétion of the 
moft dangerous kind, becaufe it made a 
difference between thofe who had an 
eleétive franchife, and thofe who had 
not. He farther: contended, -that the 
Bill added greatly to the power of the 
magiftrates, and that there feldom had 
been fo many refufals to convoke meet- 
ing, as fince the paffing of this Bill. 
The fheriff of Suffolk, when requefted to 
convene a meeting, gave as a realon for 
not doing it, ‘‘that the points had been 
3 Pz often 
