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 SUBSTANCE 
 
 OP 
 
 THE SPEECH 
 
 OF THE 
 
 Right Hon. LORD GRENVILLE, 
 
 IN 
 
 THE HOUSE OF LORDS, 
 
 NOVEMBER 30, 1819, 
 ON THE MARQUIS OF LANSDOWNE'S MOTION, 
 
 THAT 
 
 A SELECT COMMITTEE BE APPOINTED TO INQUIRE INTO THE 
 STATE OF THE COUNTRY, AND MORE PARTICUL A RLY INCOTHE 
 DISTRESSES AND DISCONTENTS PREVALENT IN THE MANUFAC- 
 rURING DISTRICTS, AND THE EXECUTION OF THE LAWS WITH 
 RESPrXT TO THE NUMEROUS MEETINGS WHICH HAVE TAKEN 
 I'LACE. 
 
 SECOyiD EDITION. 
 
 LONDON : 
 JOHN MURRAY, ALBEMA RLE-STREET. 
 
 1820.
 
 SUBSTANCE 
 
 OF THE 
 
 SPEECH, 
 
 m THE HOUSE OF LORDS, 
 
 November SOth, 1819, 
 The Marquis of Lansdovvne moved, 
 
 That a select Committee be appointed to inquire into 
 the State of the Country, and more particularly 
 into the Distresses and Discontents prevalent in 
 the Manufacturing Districts, and the Execution 
 of the Laws with respect to the numerous Public 
 Meetings which have taken place. 
 
 After some Debate, Lord Grenville spoke to 
 the following effect : — 
 
 My Lords, 
 
 THE admission with which my Noble Friend 
 fthe Marquis of Lan:,down^,J commenced his tem- 
 perate and able speech, reHeves those who may 
 follow him in this debate from all necessity of ex- 
 
 B
 
 patiating on the painful circumstances of our pre- 
 sent danger. lie sees and ackiio\\ ledges its exist- 
 ence ; he is deeply sensible botli of its mag- 
 nitude and its urgency ; and the glowing co- 
 lours in which hehas rej)resented our present situ- 
 ation, must have made the strongest impression 
 on the minds of all your Lordships. For my- 
 self, iinquestionaidy, I need not say what is 
 my own conviction on this subject. Often 
 has it been my painful duty to express, in this 
 House, the continued and increasino; anxiety with 
 ^vhich I have regarded the attacks nnceasiiigly 
 directed against the whole frame and fabric 
 of our Government. Often have I laboured, 
 and laboured ineffectually, to impress these feel- 
 ings on the minds of others. My apprehensions 
 have been considered as visionary, originating 
 much more in a fond and solicitous attachment to 
 the interests which I conceived to be endanoered, 
 than in any just view of the actual condition, or 
 future prospects, of my country. And would to 
 Heaven that it were so ! Joyful indeed would this 
 hour have been tome, if 1 could now rise and 
 confess my error ; if 1 could say to those from 
 whom it has been my misfortune to differ on these
 
 questions, '' INI}' apprehensions were vain ; your 
 " security Mas well grounded.'^ 
 
 The reverse unhappily is true. Durinj-alarge 
 portion of a long- public hfe, now closed, I 
 have watched tlie destructive tendency of these 
 revolutionary projects, — I have marked their 
 unremitted activity, — their growing- confidence, 
 — their extended influence, — their fast advanc- 
 ing progress. But the evil has outrun my 
 apprehensions. Never, at any former period, has 
 il presented so tierce and menacing an aspect ; 
 n ?ver yet has it so imperiously required, from the 
 wisdom and firmness of my country, the most 
 immediate, vigorous, and determined resistance. 
 
 It is this persuasion which alone induces me ; 
 it is this which irresistihiy compels me, contrary 
 to all my expectations and all my wishes, once 
 more to solicit your indulgence in the discharge 
 of duties which I thought had been for ever 
 closed. 
 
 Let me, then, in the outset of these delibera- 
 tions, entreat your Lordships continually to bear 
 in mind that the mischief against which we are now 
 called upon to defend our country, is not merely 
 of the present day ; no, nor of the present year.
 
 Its true origin must be traced much farther back, 
 — its real causes must be sought much deeper, — 
 its remedies must be applied with a foresight and 
 pohcy extending far beyond that pressure of tem- 
 porary distress to which alone my Noble Friend is 
 willing to ascribe it. Even in the course of this 
 debate, your recollection has been called to those 
 measures which, in the year 1795, now nearly 
 five-and-twenty years ago, it had already become 
 necessary to adopt for the defence of our laws 
 and government. And it was then that iMr. Burke 
 declared, and he has consigned the sentiment to 
 posterity in his immortal writings, that the grounds 
 of that necessity did not originate among us even 
 with the French Revolution, although that terrible 
 convulsion of the world did, undoubtedly, call 
 them forth, increase them, and give fresh vigour to 
 their operation. 
 
 In what manner your security was then pro- 
 vided for, and how it was maintained during the 
 long and arduous contest which ensued, I will not 
 now detain you by examining. We all remem- 
 ber, that from the happy restoration of peace in- 
 creased confidence was felt, increased assurance 
 drawn by many, for the permanent and undis-
 
 tiirbed continuance of our domestic tranquillity. 
 From lliat very date the mischief has on 
 the contrary been constantly increasing'. Every 
 successive period, down even to the moment in 
 which I now address you, has brought us oidy 
 fresh menace, augmented violence, more open 
 and more ostentatious defiance of the public au- 
 thority in all its branches. And I now call ^^ith 
 earnestness on all who hear me, to reflect, how 
 rarely the history of any country lias exhibited 
 so rapid a progress of such a danger within so 
 short a time ! 
 
 Unquestionably, when such designs are enter- 
 tained, and such projects are pursued, the distress 
 of any part of our po{)ulation must alwajs give 
 great opportunity and advantage to the pro- 
 moters of sedition. It is the most power- 
 ful engine by which they can operate ; the sti- 
 mulant by which they inflame the passions of the 
 ignorant, and drive their deluded victims on to 
 acts of desperation, which, instead of alle- 
 viating, can serve only to aggravate, and to 
 prolong their difficulties. But occurrences 
 like these are the instruments, not the causes of 
 the mischief. Much of this evil exists where these
 
 distresses have had comparatively little operation. 
 Many are most forward in the sedition whom the 
 pressure has least affected ; while those on whom 
 it has most severely borne, have, in many cases, 
 conducted themselves with exemplary patience 
 and resolution, untainted by this pernicious con- 
 tagion, obedient to the lavAS, and inviolably at- 
 tached to those institutions which have so long 
 been the glory and happiness of Englishmen. 
 
 If then it were possible, by any measures 
 within the reach of human legislation, to alleviate 
 their difficulties ; if, by any operation of law or 
 government, we could hope to mitigate the pre- 
 sent distresses of our manufacturing population, 
 most readily would ! enter on the discussion of 
 any such proposal, and most earnestly, I am 
 sure, would it be pursued by Parliament. We all 
 deplore, in common, these melancholy effects of 
 causes which we cannot control ; we deeply 
 sympathize in the afflictions of our fellow-sub- 
 jects; and not our interest and policy alone, but 
 every higher feeling which animates the heart 
 of man, would lead us to embrace with joy, and 
 to follow up with perseverance, the remotest ex- 
 pectation of contributing to their relief. Even
 
 * 
 those general principles of legislation to which 
 
 we are most bdintl to adhere, because by them 
 the permanent prosperity of the whole com- 
 munity is Ijest promoted ; even these, 1 would con- 
 sent, on such an occasion, to disregard for a time ; 
 could 1 be persuaded, that in tiiat course an 
 etfective and adequate remedy could be found 
 against the present pressure. 
 
 But my Noble Friend, in the very act of pro- 
 posing such an inquiry, has but too well ena- 
 bled us to judge how little real benefit we can 
 derive from its result. He felt too justly what 
 belongs to his high rank, and still higlier sta- 
 tion, in this country ; he followed too closely 
 the dictates of his own exalted and honourable 
 mind, to countenance those vague and groundless 
 insinuations, \\hich, not indeed within these walls, 
 but in popular assemblies, and in seditious pub- 
 lications, have been profusely poured out against 
 the Firitish Legislature. He condescends not so 
 to delude the multitude. He imputes not to 
 Parliament the blame of events which are be- 
 yond the control of man; nor does he charge 
 upon his political opponents the neglect of a 
 duty, which he well knows that no Govern-
 
 8 
 
 meut, and no Legislature, could possibly per- 
 form. He has stated, on the contrary, in the 
 language, and with the science, of a Statesman, 
 the true causes in which he considers the pres- 
 sure to have originated ; causes far removed 
 from affording the smallest grounds for any 
 such imputation. And he has, with no less 
 candour than ability, distinctly enumerated the 
 only measures to which, in his judgment, this 
 House could even now resort, with any hope of 
 rendering oui- interposition honourai)le to our- 
 selves, and beneficial to our Country. 
 
 Through these details I will endeavour shortly 
 to follow him. The interest of the subject will 
 apologize for what may be tedious in the discussion. 
 
 With respect, then, to Ihe origin of the present 
 distress, we must, no doubt, in some degree, as- 
 cribe it to temporary causes of depression, to 
 which so complicated a system of commerce and 
 manufacture must always be liable. The pro- 
 ducts of our industry cannot be so exactly calcu- 
 lated as never to exceed the demand for 
 them ; nor do the markets themselves remain 
 unaltered. Fashions vary, other productions 
 enter into successful competition with ours, and
 
 9 
 
 the occasional distresses of foreign nations lessen 
 their powers of purchase and consumption. It is 
 then that the necessity of transferring- capital and 
 labour to more profitaijie emplojnient becomes 
 urgent and difficult. Hazardous and groundless 
 speculations are made ; and even the most skilful 
 commercial enterprises are affected I)y disappoint- 
 ments and embarrassments, to the production of 
 which they have in no degree contributed. 
 
 But in any more permanent view of our pre- 
 sent situation, nearly all, I think, that my Noble 
 Friend has stated, and certainly all that I should 
 venture to press upon your attention, may be 
 referred to the operation of one general and lead- 
 ing principle of Political (Economy. In Peace, 
 and under the happy influence of domestic tran- 
 quillity, the capital of every civilized commu- 
 nity, especially if permitted to find for itself 
 its most profitable employment, tends naturally 
 to increase in a more rapid proportion than the 
 population : and the efiect of this its augment- 
 ed and growing preponderance, is felt in the 
 correspondent increase of all ^^hich constitutes 
 national prosperity. But it operates most imme- 
 diately, and visibly, to the benefit of the lower
 
 10 
 
 classes of Society. It is by the application of capi- 
 tal alone that any employment is evei- found for 
 their industry ; by augmented capital additional 
 emplo}ment is provided; and hence again arises 
 a new and growing demand for labour, and a 
 continually progressive improvement in the re- 
 gard and the condition of the labourer. 
 
 'Ihe tendency of \\ ar is, in all respects, oppo- 
 site to this ; especially of such a War as that 
 which this Country, in common with every other 
 European State, has recently and unavoidably 
 been compelled to sustain. In war, large amounts 
 of capital are continually and utterly destroy ed. 
 Much is also diverted to channels of employ- 
 ment, wholly, or comparatively, unproductive ; 
 from whence, on the return of Peace, it cannot 
 again be transferred into its natural course, ^^ith- 
 out much difficulty, delay, and loss. 
 
 It is, tlierefore, to a lung continuance of this 
 great calamity, that we must ascribe our present 
 distress, and that of so many other nations, who 
 unhappily share it with us. The implacable hos- 
 tility, the inordinate and insatiable ambition of 
 the successive revolutionary governments of 
 France, are the true causes which have extended
 
 11 
 
 this, with so many other incalculable evils, to 
 every quarter of the globe. Hence arose the call 
 for exertions., unexampled in duration and extent ; 
 the sacrifices required indispensably for national 
 independence; and the necessity of those united 
 efforts, by the unparalleled magnitude of ^^llich, 
 alone, the contest could have been successfully, or 
 safely terminated. Who can doubt how much all 
 these causes, aided also in this, and in other coun- 
 tries, by the unhappy error of an excessive and 
 forced paper currency, must, in a long course of 
 more than tv.entyyears, have contributed to arrest 
 the natural increase of capital, and perhaps, in some 
 of the last of those years, to effect an actual dimi- 
 nution of it? But the population of our own 
 country, instead of experiencing- any corre- 
 spondent diminution, has, on the contrary, during 
 this wiiole period, been continually, and greatly 
 augmented. The result, probably, not only of our 
 insular situation, and comparative exemption 
 from the direct calamities of war, but also of the 
 artificial and improvident system of our Poor 
 Laws, established more than two centuries ago ! 
 But whatever be the cause, the fact is certain. 
 1 he proportion which before existed, between our
 
 u 
 
 capital and our population, has been essentially 
 varied. And the conclusion follows irresistibly. 
 No art, no wisdom, no power of man, can make 
 our diminished capital equally productive as be- 
 fore, of employment and subsistence for our aug- 
 mented numbers. 
 
 Where, then, shall we look for the remedy? 
 There only, where it is placed by Providence, in 
 the admirable disposition of moral, as well as of 
 natural, causes. To the flow of the same tide which 
 has already ceased to ebb ; to those altered cir- 
 cumstances which now^ again operate in a favour- 
 able direction; to that returning' and rapid accu- 
 mulation of capital, which reason and experience 
 teach us again to expect ; when the science, and 
 enterprise, and industry, of a great and enlightened 
 nation are protected in peace, and secured in do- 
 mestic tranquillity. 
 
 In addition, however, to this firm and sure hope 
 of progressive improvement, there eire three mea- 
 sures, or rather subjects of inquiry, which my 
 Noble Friend suggests for the examination of a 
 select Committee of this House, wilh a view to 
 more immediate and present relief. As brought 
 forward by him, they are entitled to our respectful
 
 ]3 
 
 attention ; they would animate all our exertions 
 if the}' held out any just expectation of promoting 
 the purpose for which he proposes them. 
 
 But the first of them he does not himself re- 
 commend to your adoption, unless you enter- 
 tained a hope, which neither he feels, nor can you 
 venture to encourage. If you believed that this 
 pressure was the effect only of some sudden and 
 transient calamity, and likely, therefore, to he 
 very speedily removed^ you might, he thinks, be 
 inclined to discuss the question of giving tempo- 
 rary aid to the sufferers, by grants drawn fi'oni 
 the national credit, or national finance. And, un- 
 doubtedly, there have been cases of that descrip- 
 tion, where our feelings, prevailing perhaps over 
 our belter judgment, or at least overruling our 
 general principles of legislation, have induced us 
 so to act. But to those examples, our actual con- 
 dition bears no resemblance, either in the nature 
 or in the causes of the pressure, in its present ex- 
 tent, or in its probable duration. Nor must we 
 forget what has been, even in those less objection- 
 able cases, the true operation of such interference. 
 Arrangements of this description, however plau- 
 sible and popular, make no real addition to the
 
 u 
 
 wealth of the nation ; the} furnish, therefore, no 
 new means of employment for its industry. Capital 
 is not created by them, but transferred. It is for 
 the most part diverted from that channel, in which 
 it furnishes profitable employment to one portion 
 of our people, and forced into another course, in 
 ^^ hich the labour which it sets in motion, is 
 avowedly less productive to its employer, and 
 consequently less beneficial to the community. 
 
 Touching", therefore, but lightly on this sugges- 
 tion, on which he himself manifestly places no 
 reliance, my Noble Friend passed to his two 
 other more general subjects of investigation ; 
 both of them, undoubtedly, well entitled to the 
 fullest consideration of Parliament, but both, as it 
 seems to me, extending very far beyond those 
 bounds, which could be embraced by the labours 
 of a Select Committee. 
 
 The first of these includes the whole wide 
 circle of our finance, lie would examine, whe- 
 ther the means could not be found of levying a 
 revenue equal to that by which we now provide 
 for the public faith and public safety, but col- 
 lecting this amount in some mode of less un- 
 popular or less burthensome taxation. An
 
 15 
 
 inriniry of almost infinite detail ! To be entered 
 upon, not in the gross, but \\i(b a careful and 
 scrutinizing' survey of each particular change 
 which may be recommended : and even in this 
 course, the only one in which it can be usefully 
 pursued, leading' ue almost imjuediately to the 
 most intricate and complicated combinations! 
 In the present state of a revenue, composed of 
 so many various branches, mutually bearing upon 
 each other in almost innumerable relations, \^hat 
 questions of g! eater ditiiculty, of wider compass, 
 and more hazardous decision, can be proposed 
 to any statesnum ? There niight, for example, 
 taking" the very instance which my Noble Friend 
 alleges ; there might be reason to believe, that 
 by a diminution of duty, and a consequent in- 
 crease of consumption, foreign wines might be 
 made to yield their present amount of revenue 
 at a lovAcr rate of taxation. I think it probably 
 would be so. lUit, for practical purposes, the 
 inquiry must not stop here. Before this mea- 
 sure could safely be adopted, its operation must 
 be deeply considered with reference to the 
 other weighty considerations which it involves, 
 both of commerce and of revenue. We must ascer-
 
 16 
 
 tain, if indeed it be possible to ascertain before- 
 hand, in what manner, and 1 6 wM't decree,"' the 
 increased use of foreign wines which we should 
 thus promote, would affect the production and 
 sale of the many other articles of analog'Oiiii'c'On- 
 sumption, which are so important to our trade 
 and 'td'our agriculture, and from every one of 
 which so large a revenue is derived. "' •'" 
 
 It is far from my purpose to discourage the due 
 examination of any such projects. The attiention 
 both of Government and of Parliament would be 
 well directed to them ; and never would I 
 dissuade you from the task. Rut it is ne- 
 cessary, on this occasion, and with reference to 
 the motion which we are now considering, to re- 
 mind you of its great extent and difficulty ; of the 
 impossibihty of pursuing it usefully through the 
 inquiries of a Select Committee; and, above all, 
 of the utter hopelessness of looking to it for any 
 present or sensible effect in relieving distress; or 
 appeasing discontent. 
 
 The same remarks apply, but still more forcibly, 
 to a similar examination with which it is propos- 
 ed that this Select Committee should be charged, 
 as to the whole system of our commercial legisla-
 
 17 
 
 tioii, susceptible, undoulitedly, of great improve- 
 ment. On that subject my Noble Friend and I 
 are, as I believe, fully agreed in principle. We 
 both consider that policy as erroneous, which pur- 
 ports to encourage domestic industry by the pro- 
 hibition of foreign commodities. We botli believe 
 that such devices, instead of promoting, have ob- 
 structed our commercial prosperity, exactly in pro- 
 portion as they limit the free, and therefore most 
 profitable, employment of capital. We are both 
 persuaded that, besides this general mischief, these 
 regulations directly counteract their own purpose, 
 by narrowing the only means which the foreign 
 merchant has both of purchase and of return ; 
 and by thus closing the markets of the world 
 against those very manufactures, whose prosperity 
 we are labouring to advance. I will add, that, 
 in the particular case which he instanced, that of 
 the discouragements now opposed to the import 
 of timber from the Baltic, I am myself as much 
 satisfied of their impolicy, as it is possible to be 
 w khout minute and detailed inquiry. Other errors 
 of a similar description might, I fear, very easily 
 be pointed out. But every Session offers the op- 
 portunity of bringing these, distinctly' and s^epa- 
 
 c
 
 18 
 
 rately, under the view of Parliament; and they 
 would be thus much more safel), because much 
 more deliberately, corrected, than by any general 
 inquiries instituted in the form now proposed, 
 and with reference to the urgency /:{fj, present 
 distress. 
 
 For in truth there can scarcely be any sub 
 ject on which deliberation is more necessary, or 
 where greater dangers would result from incon- 
 siderate haste. Our prohibitory code in this 
 respect closely resembles the system of our Poor 
 Laws. Both are, as it is now generally acknow- 
 leged, prejudicial to the public welfare, though 
 the latter no doubt is by far the most injurious 
 to our labouring population. But both are of 
 very long standing in our statute book ; closely 
 interwoven with all our interests, deeply in- 
 grafted into our system, both of Commerce and pf^ 
 Agriculture, and in our actual condition inse- 
 parably connected even with the subsistence of 
 a very great proportion of our People. They 
 are. both therefore to be approached only with 
 the utmost solicitude and caution ; to be touched 
 only with the most delicate and tender hand. 
 The same enlightened policy which now cou-
 
 10 
 
 (Jemns their principle, the same jiister views of 
 benevolence and patriotism which have taught 
 us ' ttJ' • regret their establishment, teach lis 
 also that in a state of our Society which they 
 have mainly contributed to make what it now 
 is, there can be no safety in their removal, 
 otherwise than by a long succession of temperate 
 and well-considered measures, uniformly, but 
 slowly, directed to the ultimate object of a bet- 
 ter legislation. 
 
 It is obvious, therefore, that from this source 
 nothing is to be drawn by which present distress 
 can be alleviated. Gradual improvement may 
 be made, and future benefit derived. But sud- 
 den and extensive changes in our Commercial 
 code would always be dangerous, and might in 
 the present moment lead us to destruction. 
 They would infallibly increase the existing' pres- 
 sure, they might possibly aggravate it almost 
 beyond endurance. '^ 
 
 ■^And let rti^ farther remind Your Lordships 
 with respect to both these proposed investiga^ 
 tions, that their inconvenience and hazard arise 
 not merely from the extent which they em- 
 brace, or the results to which they might pos^ 
 
 c2
 
 20 
 
 siblv lead, but also from the very nature- of the 
 subjects which they propose for discussion. I 
 am far from agreeing in the opinion which has 
 been stated to us, that these inquiries, even if 
 unproductive of any practical good, would still pro- 
 duce conciliatory and tranquillizing impressions. 
 From such a disappointment of hopes so raised, 
 1 should fear a directly contrary effect. I know 
 of no policy more injurious, none more dangerous 
 to the public Peace, than that of exciting, in mo- 
 ments of pressure, expectations which we cannot 
 realize. r 
 
 But much more is such an experiment to be 
 deprecated, when the very questions which it 
 involves are such as cannot even be proposed, 
 without exciting to mutual opposition and con- 
 test many and powerful conflicting interests. 
 We are arrived, I trust, at the end of the painful 
 duty of taxation. If its burthen can be alleviated 
 without affecting its produce, happy will those be 
 to whose lot it may fall to confer so great a benefit 
 upon their country. But without the certainty of 
 this result, let us not tamper with the revenue, nor 
 trifle with the feelings of those who contribute tp 
 it* Unkss the advantage of change be indisputa-
 
 ble, the Tery proposal of change is in itself iuju- 
 
 As to our commerce, we have now the oppor- 
 tunity of considering, under the happy auspices of 
 pehc^V Jiow it may he liidsf certainly, and most 
 beneficially, extended. The removal of prohibi- 
 tions, and the reduction of prohibitory duties, on 
 foreign produce and manufactures, are pointed 
 out by my Noble Friend as the best measures for 
 that purpose. They imcpiestionably are so, and 
 they are the fittest to be gradually adopted. But 
 let us not forget that they are also, however 
 unjustly, the most repugnant to the prejudices 
 of every People ; and the most likely to irritate 
 and to inflame, instead of appeasing, the dis- 
 contents of those classes of our own population 
 whose present sufterings we lament, and whose 
 feelings we are solicitous to sooth and to con- 
 ciliate, by every practicable measure by which 
 
 ,. ., .ill, ;.-„.. 
 
 real kindness can best be manifested. ".'^'^^ 
 ffijrvjpagg ^ijgjj to the second part of my Noble 
 Friend's motion, that which more directly relates 
 to the internal situation of our country,' aiid to 
 the threatened interruption of its domestic tran- 
 <juillity. On many parts of this subject, we are
 
 22 
 
 all agreed. If, by whatever means, either of pre- 
 vious preparation, or present distress, evil-minded 
 men are endeavouring to plunge us into the un- 
 measurable calamities of civil discord, our duties 
 cannot be doubtful. To our Sovereign, and to 
 our Country, to the British Nation, and to the 
 whole civilized world, we are answerable for 
 the preservation and maintenance of our re- 
 ligion and morals, of our laws and government. 
 To our peaceable and loyal fellow -subjects, we 
 owe the defence and security of their rights, pro- 
 perties, and lives. To the deluded victims of 
 these machinations, we have also a duty to dis- 
 charge ; a duty of protection and kindness. 
 We owe it to them, and it is the greatest of 
 all benefits which can be conferred upon them, 
 to rescue them, if it be still possible, from 
 the seduction and treachery by which they are 
 beset; and to remove from their paths and dwell- 
 ings, the snares unceasingly laid for their de- 
 struction. This is the office of their true friends ; 
 their bitterest enemies are those ^^ ho are labour- 
 ing to inflame their sufferings into disaffection and 
 treason.
 
 23 
 
 fvr^oirthe execution of these ^^reat and awful 
 tnlsts, let us then apply ourselves with diligence 
 and resolution : neither disguising from ourselves 
 tlie real extent of the evil, nor shrinking from the 
 rfertiedies, unpleasing as they may be, which it 
 must unavoidably require. Our danger is no 
 longer to be searched for in hidden consultations 
 or secret conspiracies. It courts our notice, it 
 obtrudes itself on our attention. We are daily 
 assailed with undisguised menace, and are little 
 removed from the immediate expectation of open 
 violence. Let us, then, attentively review the 
 steps which have brought us to this situation. 
 Observe their beginnings, consider well their ra- 
 pidly accelerated progress. You will find them in 
 near conform itv to all that led to the subversion 
 and misery of France. A close and striking re^ 
 semblance, a servile, vet ostentatious imitation, 
 which it is of the utmost importance that we should 
 forcibly impress upon our minds ! If such a parallel 
 were found, even in the remotest history, yet, of 
 the remotest history what better use could we 
 make, than to draw from it whatever conclusions 
 it affords of policy or wisdom, applicable to our
 
 ^24 
 
 own condition ? Shall we, on the contrary, now in 
 the hour of our own peril, strive to banish from our 
 thoughts and counsels all memory of this recent 
 and forcible example ! We, the nearest specta?- 
 tors of that dreadful convulsion, our miuds still 
 shuddering- at its crimes, our hearts still bleeding 
 at its miseries, shall we turn aside from the pain- 
 ful but instructive lesson, and in wilful blindness 
 close our eyes against the prophetic mirror which 
 exhibits to ourselves, in the progress of the same 
 machinations, the fearful advance of the same de- 
 struction ? No, my Lords, let not the warning 
 voice have been heard in vain ! We have shared 
 deeply in that widely-extended calamity ; the bit- 
 ter draught which France prepared for herself, 
 has overflowed into our cup. Let us at least 
 derive from it the benefits of an experience 
 so dearly purchased ! Observe what were the 
 beginnings of that great catastrophe ; follow up 
 its progress ; mark by what course it reached its 
 terrible consummation ; trace it through subvert 
 sion and ruin, through plunder and confiscation, 
 through slaughter and massacre, till all was 
 swallowed up in military despotism ! 
 
 What first occurred ? The whole Nation was in-*
 
 25. 
 
 uutluted \^ itli iiiilauiniatoiy and poisonous publi- 
 cations. Its very soil was deluged with sedition and 
 blasphemy. No effort was omitted of base and dis- 
 gusting* mockery, of sordid and unblushing ca- 
 'Jainny, which could vilify and degrade whatever 
 that People had been most accustomed to love 
 and venerate. No artifice, no incitement, was 
 left untried, which could stimulate the deluded 
 multitude to the most savage acts of insult and 
 outrage, of violence and fury, against the Ministers 
 of their Religion, and the dispensers of their Go- 
 vernment and Law ; against all who were emi- 
 ?nent for birth or rank, for talent or for virtue, 
 and against those most especially who had been 
 ^;inost distinguished as their kindest friends, pro- 
 Itectors, and benefactors! i i>tnt h^wnft-r-qg^jv i»aci 
 g3n;Who is there that is not struck with the resem- 
 ablance of this picture ? Who can be ignorant 
 how closely this detestable and malignant wicked- 
 ; ness has been imitated in our own country, how 
 long it has been pursued, and to what a height 
 ,. it has now attained ? You heard the papers read 
 i. to you this night by my Noble Friend, and you 
 shuddered at the recital. Exhortations to murder 
 and treason, from which the heart recoils, and
 
 26 
 
 the blood turns back to its fountain I' If these 
 were only a few and extraordinary instances, 
 exceptions to the general character of the pub- 
 lications daily obtruded on all the lower classes 
 of your community, yet against theseyieiio 
 doubt, you would call down the vengeance of 
 the Law, against these the arm of justice would 
 be directed with universal concurrence and ap*. 
 probation. But it is from a torrent and deluge 
 of such mischief that you are now called upon 
 to protect your Country. The poison has been 
 profusely scattered throughout the land: it has 
 pervaded not only your towns and manufactoi 
 ries, but your peaceful villages and farms. Its 
 malignity is hourly increasing, and fresh activity 
 is employed in its diffusion. This, my Lords, is 
 the true root and source of all your danger ^ 
 against this, no social institutions can possibly 
 maintain themselves; it is incompatible with 
 all peace, all security, all pu])lic, and all private 
 happiness. It is of power, and it openly boasts 
 itself to be of power, to overthrow all thatJ is 
 now standing in this country ; and to level in 
 the dust all your prosperity, and all your glory, 
 involved in one common ruin nilh the maiiuifi-
 
 27 
 
 cent and splendid falnic of the noblest govern- 
 ment which has ever yet provided for the welfare 
 of any society. ,j li it>iiit.«4 ,tjv M:j.jii-< 
 
 In this unbounded licentiousness of an inflam- 
 matory press, pointing continually the poisoned 
 weapons of sedition and blasphemy against all 
 that constitutes human happiness in present pos- 
 session, or in future hope, shall we content our- 
 selves with asking, as my Noble Friend has done, 
 why the voice of the law has been silent, and the 
 terrors of its arm unnerved ? We must now, in- 
 deed, all regret the too sparing exercise of powers, 
 which our ancestors had, with more provident 
 wisdom, interwoven into our Constitution; we 
 must lament the too reluctant discharge of duties, 
 of which no discouragement could ever justify the 
 dereliction. But we must also confess, that this 
 forbearance is of no recent date. Indulgent as 
 your laws have been, in all that affects this 
 subject, their execution has, for a long tii)]e 
 back, been yet more tolerant, even of acknow- 
 ledged wrong. And happy is that coudition of 
 society, in which the mildest laws may, without 
 injury to the public interests, be still more mildly 
 iidiuini^tcrcd ! 'l\ui> had been our lorlunate situ-
 
 28 
 
 ation ; and tliis, in consequence, liati been citir 
 practice. May both speedily return to us ! Soon 
 may we again be enabled to boast, as En^Hshitieri, 
 not only of the unexampled freedom of our press," 
 but also of its comparative exemption from those 
 enormous evils to which such freedom Mf?^teslW 
 its benefits, does, in its abuse, open so wide a field. 
 But such, unhappily, is not our present state. We 
 feel, too sensibly, its altered character. ^^ l^i^^^'ft 
 with the deepest affliction ; lamenting the change 
 which I have witnessed, and deploring the neces- 
 sity to which it leads. But we must not forget, 
 that it is to the actual condition and exigencies of 
 every society, that its legislation must conform 
 itself, and that when new evil arises, it Vntist-W 
 met by new remedies. 
 
 When this current of mischief, uncontrolled, 
 and bearing down before it every barrier of public 
 authority or law, had thus far succeeded to sap the 
 foundations of civil society, what next ensued ? 
 The next step has been the same here as in the 
 French Revolution. The formation of local socie- 
 ties, clubs, and unions, of various description, 
 sedulously contrived and organized, for the dif- 
 fusion of these imjjious and destructive doc-
 
 29 
 
 trines, by frequent and familiar intercourse, and 
 for the establishment of an extensive concert and 
 co-operation in the prosecution of the only practi- 
 cal i*esu|^s to A\fhich such principles can lead. ^'^ 
 
 And when at last, by the unremitted effect of all 
 this seduction, considerable portions of the niulti- 
 tu^ejiad been deeply tainted, their minds prepared 
 for acts of desperation, and familiarized with the 
 thought of crimes, at the bare mention of which 
 they would before have revolted, then it was that 
 they were encouraged to collect together in 
 large and tumultuous bodies ; — then it was that 
 they were invited to feel their own strength ; 
 to estimate and to display their numerical force ; 
 and to manifest, in the fiice of day^ their in- 
 veterate hostility to all the institutions of their 
 country, and their open defiance of all its 
 authorities. 
 
 The question therefore on which we are nowcom- 
 pelled to deliberate is nothing less than this, whe- 
 ther Parliament shall continue to disregard this fast 
 accumulating danger, conscious of its progress, and 
 certain of its inevitable tendency ; or shall oppose 
 to it a vigorous and effectual resistance, before it
 
 30 
 
 reaches the gates of the sanctuary, and shakes the 
 pillars of the commonwealth ? 
 
 If, indeed, this resistance be not now made, one 
 other period only of resistance can remain ; that in 
 which the evil shall have reached its last stage, 
 shall have assumed its last hideous form of open 
 insurrection and declared rebellion. Then, in- 
 deed, it will be resisted, and I have no doubt effec- 
 tually. The British nation is not of a character 
 to suffer its government to be overwhelmed by a 
 tumultuous populace, by whatever artifices ex-' 
 cited against it. The great and enlightened 
 body of the inhabitants of this Country, the 
 People of England, truly so called, will never 
 submit themselves to see, by the effect of such 
 machinations, their laws subverted, their pro- 
 perty confiscated, and their lives made the sport 
 and prey of some ferocious and sanguinary de-^ 
 magogue. But to meet and to subdue the 
 danger, if once sufiered to assume this shape, 
 force must be opposed to force. Recourse must 
 unavoidably be had to those means of re- 
 pression and defence at the thought of which 
 every British heart bleeds. I will not dwell
 
 o 
 
 1 
 
 upon them ; the task would be too painful. 
 Sure I am that the bare imagination of such 
 aa-noontest, aye, and the very circumstances 
 with which success itself must be attended, 
 wiU be the strongest of all inducements to urge 
 and to compel your Lordships, by provident 
 and timely interposition, to avert that dreadful, 
 but otherwise inevitable, necessity. 
 
 The resistance which you may now make is 
 of a very diti'erent character ; resistance by 
 Law ; by the authority of the Legislature ; by 
 the intervention of the Civil Government. Can 
 it be doubtful which we should prefer ? But 
 the crisis is arrived in which this option must 
 finally be made ; the decision must now be 
 taken, and must now be acted upon. If it be 
 still postponed, the choice may probably no 
 longer rest with ourselves. And yet, placed as 
 we are in such circumstances as these, deliberating 
 on the exigencies of such a moment, in what 
 manner is it that we are advised to commence our 
 measures for the repression of those enormities 
 which threaten to involve us in civil bloodshed? 
 By suspicion and distrust, directed not against 
 the authors of the mischief, l)ut against those by
 
 whom it has been hitherto successfully, though 
 imperfectly, counteracted : by inquiries into the 
 conduct of our Magistrates, and of those who 
 have supported them in the discharge of th^ir 
 painful duties. Shall we accede to this propo* 
 sal ? Do we wish to debilitate all our eftbrts ; 
 to cast away from us our readiest and surest 
 resources; to undermine the best bulwarks of 
 our defence ; and to shake to its foundations all 
 hope of mutual confidence, and united exertion ? 
 If such were our desire, most powerfully would 
 this course contribute to its accomplishment. My 
 Noble Friend, 1 am certain, has no such wish : far, 
 very far, is it from his intention to produce so great 
 an evil. I am well assured of it. But I am not the 
 less convinced that such would be the unfailing- 
 consequence of your adopting this suggestion. 
 
 For I entreat your Lordships to ask yourselves, 
 what has been the real character, and what the 
 immediate object, of these tumultuary assemblies, 
 to which the present Motion refers, and against 
 which your Magistrates have finally been com- 
 pelled to exert the full extent of their consti- 
 tutional authority. Examine them in all their 
 circumstances ; mark their previous preparation,
 
 and their actual conduct ; the emblems displayed, 
 the language held, the resolutions adopted : and 
 let it then be explained, if any such explanation 
 can be given, for what other purpose such pro- 
 ceedings were intended, but for menace and in- 
 timidation, — the most powerful of all revolutionary 
 engines, the very instruments by which in France 
 all religion, law, and government, were levelled 
 to the earth ! To strike terror into the peaceable 
 and well-affected ; to deter them from supporting 
 the public authorities in the hour of danger ; to 
 alarm and to dispirit those authorities themselves, 
 and to drive them, if it were possible, to a de- 
 sertion of their highest duties: — Such, and such 
 alone, were the consec[uences naturally to be ex- 
 pected by those with whom these projects origi- 
 nated ; and such, we are informed by the papers 
 on our table, are the effects which have already, 
 ill some degree, been actually produced. 
 
 Hence it is, that we cannot hesitate to pro- 
 nounce, as far as our present information of these 
 facts extends, that, not only the meeting which 
 was dispersed at Manchester, but many other 
 similar meetings, held both before and after that 
 invent, have been decidedly illegal. Doctrines, new
 
 54 
 
 to my ears, have indeed been recently promulgated 
 on this subject. The notion, wild as it is, seems 
 actually to have prevailed in some quartei^s^^jj^gt 
 no assembly of any part of the people of this realm 
 can be deemed illegal, be they armed or unarmed, 
 arrayed or unarrayed, from whatever quar^^rs 
 collected, in whatever numbers, or under whatever 
 previous or attendant circumstances ; unless the 
 fact of present violence, or, at least, theiiite|ition 
 of present violence, can be proved against them. 
 I have no pretensions to deep skill in the science 
 of our law ; but directly opposite is this doctnne 
 to all which I either learnt in my youth, or have 
 at any time since collected, either from books, or 
 from living authorities ; utterly repugnant to any 
 lights which our own experience or history afford, 
 and in manifest contradiction to the plainest prin- 
 ciples, by which all civil societies are connected 
 and upheld. I have been taught that, indepen- 
 dently of actual or meditated violence, every sort 
 of menace, intimidation, and array of force, are 
 in themselves abundantly sufficient to, stamp on 
 such proceedings the plainest characters of 
 jUegality. Every assembly held in terrorem 
 popuii, the English law, as 1 have always been
 
 • 35 
 
 instructed, does in express terms dtclare to be 
 unlawful. No such menace, no such intimi- 
 dation, no such array, have ever yet been 
 %lei'ated under the British Government. And it 
 is among the first elements of all political science, 
 that men combine in civil society, to obtain for 
 themselves and for their families, not only the safe 
 enjoyment of life, and property, and peaceful 
 Occupation, but also the full and undisturbed 
 confidence and assurance of that safety. Banish 
 this principle from the British Constitution, 
 establish the contrary doctrine, if any one can 
 now be found to maintain it, and your Govern- 
 ment must thenceforth, in self-defence, assume an 
 attitude purely military, armed in never-ceasing 
 preparation to meet a danger perpetually arrayed 
 against it ; while your people must for the same 
 cause, revert to the condition of savages, relying 
 for personal security, not on the warranty of law, 
 and the protection of a common government, but 
 on the exertions of individual strength, or on the 
 separate support of partial associations. 
 
 If then so many of these meetings must thus, 
 in reason and in law, be regarded as illegal, my 
 Noble Friend asks, and it is one of the first objects 
 
 D2
 
 S6 
 
 of his proposed inquiry, whence it arose that one- 
 alone amongst them all has been dispersed by 
 public authority ? The law he thinks should have 
 been more equally, more uniformly, administered; 
 On fuller consideration, he will perhaps himself 
 be sensible, that an exact similarity and corre- 
 spondence of practice on this subject is neither 
 necessary, nor easily attainable. The interference 
 of the Magistrate with any such assembly, must 
 always be in some degree discretionary. No two 
 of these cases can be exactly similar; and were 
 they so, the mere differences of place and time 
 would still essentially distinguish them. Much, 
 therefore, must unavoidably be left to the judgment 
 of those who are intrusted with the public peace. 
 And we must all feel, were it only from what 
 we have heard this night, how painful is the 
 responsibility which these cases sometimes im- 
 pose upon them. The question is to be deter- 
 inined respecting each particular assembly, whe- 
 ther there be just cause of apprehension, to men 
 of firm and constant minds, that the public tran- 
 quillity will be disturbed; or the safety of the 
 King's peaceful subjects endangered : a ques- 
 tion in some of these cases abundantly clear,
 
 37 
 
 iu otijers perhaps of nicer and more difticult 
 decision. It admits of no fixed line of demar- 
 cation, no rule, no definition previously laid 
 down. The principle is the same as in the 
 case of an individual, who claims the protec- 
 tion of the Law against apprehended or threat- 
 ened violence. The Magistrate has there no 
 Book which he can take down from his shelf, 
 to draw from it an unerring rule of conduct. 
 He cannot say to the complainant, here is the 
 precise boundary of Law : if these words were 
 used, I can interpose in your defence ; but if 
 the same meaning was differently expressed, I 
 have no such power: If your adversary raised 
 his arm thus high, it was a menace, but if one 
 inch lower, it was none: If a dagger was point- 
 ed at your breast, the Law will protect you ; but 
 if it was only a clasp-knife, you must defend 
 yourself. Our Law deals in no such subtleties. 
 The general and broad principle is unequivocally 
 laid down: Actual safety, and full assurance of 
 safety, are alike the right of all ; the right of the 
 individual, and the right of the Public. It is for 
 Magistrates, and Courts, and Juries, to apply this 
 universal rule to the infinitely-varying circum- 
 stances of each particular occasion.
 
 33 
 
 Where such a discretion was lo be exercised 
 by so many different persons, and in so tnani^ 
 Tarious instances, we cannot be surprised to' 
 find some seeming- contrariety both of opiniort^ 
 and of conduct ; the result, sometimes perhaps of 
 real differences between cases apparently similar," 
 and sometimes of the opposite judg'ments formed' 
 on the same circumstances, even by the most' 
 enlightened men. The mere want of uniform- 
 ity affords therefore no ground for censure, 
 nor any presumption of misconduct. But I will 
 not disguise my own impressions on the sub- 
 ject. The facts themselves are not fully known 
 to us : we cannot, therefore, speak decisively of 
 the conduct to which thev led. It does, how- 
 ever, appear to me that the indulgence of the 
 Magistrate has, in almost all these instances, 
 been carried to the very utmost extent, which 
 was consistent with the public safety ; and on 
 more than one occasion, I think it has been 
 pushed to an extreme, productive of considerable 
 evil. It is no light matter, to have witnessed 
 these repeated and ostentatious defiances of Law 
 and Government, even where they have not as yet 
 been followed by actual violence. It is no pleasing 
 recollection, that our greatest nmnufacluriii'^
 
 .39 
 
 towns, and this Metropolis itself, tlie capitjil and 
 seatofour Empire, have, even for the shortest time, 
 been placed, as it were, in a state of siege : their 
 business interrupted, their induvstry suspended ; 
 ^l^iting in fearful expectation of impending tu- 
 mult, or looking for protection to troops col- 
 lected with difficulty, and harassed with pre- 
 parations and marches, as in the presence of 
 
 an Enemy. 
 
 .^The wisdom of this forbearance may well be 
 questioned, though I am sure we all sympathize 
 in the kind and benevolent feelings in which it 
 originated. But it would be a strange perversion 
 of reasoning to maintain, that because it had been 
 pushed thus far, it was in future to have no limit; 
 that because so much had been tolerated, all was 
 thenceforth to be permitted. We have neglected 
 the out-works, must we therefore surrender the 
 citadel? We have disregarded the approaches of 
 the storm, must we take no measures of security 
 when it rages with redoubled violence ? Where 
 danger was less imminent, your Magistrates had 
 been content to overlook it. Doe^ it therefore 
 follow, that no menace, no defiance, no hostility, 
 no nearer and more urgent peril, could Justify
 
 40 
 
 their final resolution, to interpose for the 
 safety of a great commercial town, and fo^ 
 the tranquillity of a populous and wealthy? 
 district? If such be your opinion, the whole 
 foundations of our Government are already 
 broken up ! Let it then be openly avowed ! Let us 
 not deceive our Country with the semblance of 
 authorities, which are no longer to exist. Let it 
 be declared and known that the King's Com- 
 mission of the Peace is henceforth to be un^ 
 attended with any power, or any duty, to give 
 protection to his faithful and loyal subjects ! q 
 Far different is the light in which these Gen- 
 tlemen have considered their office, and dis- 
 charged its obligations. They have proceeded 
 on the long established principles by which it 
 has always hitherto been governed ; they have 
 acted in conformity, 1 trust, and in obedience, to 
 the laws which they undertook to administer. 
 And is it for this conduct that you will visit them 
 with parliamentary inquiry ? 
 „f« On the first night of this Session 1 expressed, 
 by my vote, and on such grounds of knowledge as 
 1 then possessed, my decided disapprobation ofour 
 adopting any such proceeding. Since that time I
 
 4* 
 
 have been strongly confirmed in the same opniion. 
 Much more has been stated to the Public of these 
 transactions; many most important and satisfactory 
 circumstances have been brought forward, resting-, 
 as it should seem, on indisputable authority. As 
 the facts now stand before the world, on the asser- 
 tions of those best qualified to explain them, the 
 conduct of the Mag'istrates, who sat at Manchester 
 on the 16th of August last, appears to me not only 
 free from blame, but highly meritorious. And 
 should the case be ultimately established, such as it 
 now appears to be, I am confident they will deserve, 
 and I trust they will receive, a complete and au- 
 thoritative approbation of that conduct. 
 
 I say a complete and authoritative approbation, 
 because I cannot at all consider in that light the 
 letter of the Noble Secretary of State, of which 
 so much has been said. Neither can I see any 
 resemblance between that communication and 
 the resolutions promulgated on this subject, by 
 the meetings, held, first, I believe, in this metro- 
 polis, and afterwards in various counties through- 
 out the Kingdom. Those proceedings are, in my 
 judgment, most deeply to be regretted. While the 
 Courts of Justice were completely open to all
 
 42 
 
 complaints respecting these transactions ; while 
 criminal proceedings upon them had already beeni 
 instituted, and were, in some cases, still actually 
 depending, before the regular tribunals appointed 
 for that purpose by our laws and constitutiorrv^^ 
 what could be more unfortunate than the populaii 
 and extra-judicial agitation of such questions? 
 Little real knowledge could be obtained by sudB^ 
 meetings, even from report, of the facts most essentia 
 tial to the case; and great misapprehensions were 
 likely to prevail there, as to the legal conclusions 
 to which such facts would lead. The citizens of 
 London, the freeholders, or the inhabitants of a 
 distant county could have no authority to prorjr 
 nounce on such occurrences ; no cognizance of 
 the crimes reciprocally imputed ; no means of 
 proof ; no power either of condemnation or ac- 
 quittal. Was it for them to hc^ld public delibera- 
 tions on the guilt or innocence of their fellowrr; 
 subjects ? Do we wish that a habit should thus 
 be established of anticipating, by the excitation 
 of popular feeling, the trial and decision of ac- 
 cusations which our CJonstitution has reserved for 
 judicial cognizance? No greater calamity could 
 possibly befal us. No other course could more
 
 45 
 
 certainly tend to erase, not only from our prac- 
 tiiedy but even from our recollection, the sacred 
 principles of criminal justice, and those in- 
 violable provisions for its temperate and im^ 
 partial administration, which have hitherto been 
 the peculiar glory and blessing-of our country. i« 
 Far different was the situation of the Kings 
 Ministers : they had a regular and constitutional 
 duty to perform. It would, in them, have been, 
 not only an unworthy and base abandonment of 
 all honourable feeling, but a positive dereliction of 
 official trust, if they had withheld from the Magis- 
 trates their judgment upon the conduct pursued 
 in circumstances so critical. That judgment they 
 were bound to form, and they were bound to act 
 upon it ; they were responsible for it to Parliament 
 and to the laws ; and it was their duty to commif^ " 
 nicate it to those whom the Constitution has placed 
 under their direction. If your Lordships could 
 doubt this principle, I would entreat you to con- 
 sider the reverse of the proposition. Imagine, then, 
 for a moment, that, instead of a rehu tant interpo- 
 sition for the maintenance of the public peace, 
 against a tumultuary and menacing array, there 
 had been the most open and wanton violation
 
 44 
 
 of unquestionable right : that the Magistrates, 
 for instance, had dispersed by force the Free- 
 holders of their county, peaceably and regularly 
 assembled under the authority of the Sheriff, and 
 in obedience to the King's writ, for the choice of 
 their representatives in Parliament. Would your 
 Lordships endure to be told that, in such a case, 
 the King's Secretary of State had remained silent? 
 Would you not require it to be proved to you, that 
 not a moment had been lost by the Servants of the 
 Crown, both in condemning and in repressing this 
 outrageous infraction of the Constitution ? And if 
 it be the duty of persons placed in such stations to 
 convey censure where censure is due, who will be 
 found to argue that the more pleasing duty of 
 expressing merited approbation is alone to be 
 withheld from them ? 
 
 And in this view of the case, my Lords, let me 
 now beseech you to turn your attention for a 
 moment from its general principles, such as I 
 have hitherto endeavoured to establish them, to 
 the actual situation, and real conduct, of the indi- 
 viduals most concerned in it : of those Gentlemen 
 who have received from the iMinisters of their 
 Sovereign this testimony of public gratitude, but
 
 45 
 
 whom it is now proposed to yonr Lordships to 
 holdout to the world as the first objects of your 
 suspicion and jealousy. «j 
 
 <»*lf there be one amonff the many noble institutions 
 of this country, which can with more confidence 
 than any other be exhibited to foreign nations as 
 a matter of exclusive triumph to the British name, 
 it is the manner in which local justice is admi- 
 nistered, especially in our counties, by the per- 
 sons who gratuitously undertake that task, under 
 the King s commission of the Peace. I need not 
 describe, and no words could magnify, the labour, 
 the self-devotion, the pure benevolence, the un- 
 spotted integrity, with which this duty is dis- 
 charged. The fact is universally admitted ; all 
 men of liberal and enlightened minds repose the 
 fullest confidence in the proceedings of this np- 
 right and truly honourable magistracy. The law 
 itself establishes in their behalf, from long ex- 
 perience of their conduct, a presumption of pure 
 intention, and even a favourable construction of 
 error, such as may occasionally, though it rarely 
 does, arise from unprofessional education, or from 
 human infirmity. ^* 
 
 But the merit of the individuals, whom this
 
 46 
 
 iVlotion would place almost in a state of accusa- 
 tion, does not rest merely on this general ground 
 of habitual and honourable service. It was ek- 
 plained to us in our last debate, but it is 
 of the utmost importance to be repeated, 
 that this duty was undertaken and performed 
 by them in no common manner. During the 
 course of last summer the two great counties 
 of Lancashire and Cheshire were exposed to im- 
 minent danger of tumult and violence from the 
 effect of those seditious and traitorous machina- 
 tions of which I have already spoken. In such 
 a situation, their security, and most especially the 
 security of the town and neighbourhood of Man- 
 chester, required a more than usual degree of 
 vigilance, a constant and unremitting attention 
 and superintendence. And for this special ser- 
 vice, a committee was formed out of the whole 
 body of the truly respectable magistracy of those 
 counties. It must be remembered that the danger, 
 though more urgent in a few particular places, 
 was not confined to them, but was extensively 
 and widely diffused. In such circumstances, there- 
 fore, tliese Gentlemen, in the same manner as all 
 the other peaceable and loyal inhabitants of this
 
 47 
 
 wliole district, had the deepest interest in watching-, 
 each of them over the tranquillity and safety of 
 th^ir own immediate neighbourhood. In a season 
 of so much alarm, the care of their own properties, 
 the protection of their own houses, families, and de- 
 pendants, would naturally demand their constant 
 presence, and personal exertions. But these con- 
 siderations they disregarded ; their houses and their 
 families they left to the protection of their country; 
 they assembled at Manchester ; and there they 
 continued to hold their sittings, because there was 
 Iji^ chief root of the evil— there the scene of 
 greatest peril— there the utmost certainty of be- 
 nefitting the public by their patriotic and vo- 
 Jjuntary labours. With such feelings, and such 
 conduct, your Lordships may well believe that 
 personal danger was the subject which least occu- 
 pied their thoughts. But they also knew that 
 there were other perils to be encountered ; they 
 could not but feel the heavy responsibility to 
 which they would thus be subjected ; they could 
 not be ignorant, that if the painful necessity should 
 arise of employing force for the maintenance of 
 the public peace, no industry would be spared, 
 no artifice, no calumny untried, which could excite
 
 48 
 
 the prejudices, or inilaiiie the feelings of a humane 
 and generous people. They were sure that their 
 motives would he misrepresented, their actions 
 vilified, their characters defamed. But thev suf- 
 fered no such apprehensions to deter them from 
 rendering' to their country what they justly deemed 
 a most important and necessary service. They 
 relied, first, on the uprightness of their own in- 
 tentions, and on the consciousness of that pure 
 and public spirit, by which alone they were ac- 
 tuated ; they thought perhaps that they might 
 securely trust to the dispassionate and im- 
 partial judgment of their fellow-subjects ; they 
 certainly looked with confidence to the honour- 
 able feelings of your Lordships, and to the well- 
 earned favour and protection of the British Par- 
 liament. 
 
 In the execution of this service, the time at 
 length arrived when forbearance could no longer 
 be maintained. To have neglected to interpose 
 against the dangers justly apprehended from the 
 meeting of the 16th of August, would, in their view 
 of honour and duty, have been a manifest viola- 
 tion of both, and a total abandonment of the
 
 49 
 
 awful trust Avliich they had undertaken under cir- 
 cumstances of such peculiar obligation. They 
 were well apprized of the nature and extent of the 
 previous preparations made for that assembly ; 
 they were eye-witnesses of its menacing array ; no 
 doubt was left on their own minds of its real cha- 
 racter and tendency; their apprehensions of its too 
 probable result were confirmed and strengthened 
 by those of the peaceable inhabitants of Man- 
 chester ; their protection was demanded, and it 
 could not legally be refused : And, had they hesi- 
 tated on that day to assert and to enforce the Law, 
 he must, indeed, be a bold man who will venture 
 to affirm that the consequences of sucli an error 
 could ever have been retrieved. 
 
 The tumultuous and insurrectionary spirit 
 which produced that Meeting, was not, however, 
 extinguished by its dispersion. There was no 
 hope that it could be so. The mischief continued 
 to extend itself, and the dangers in which so large 
 and so important a district of this Kingdom was 
 thus involved, have made it ultimately necessary 
 that Parliament should be assembled to provide 
 eflfectually for our common security. 
 
 In this situation we are now met. The eyes of
 
 50 
 
 all are upen us. There is no state in Europe 
 which does not feel its own security involved in 
 that of the British Government. There is no in- 
 dividual, capable of appreciating the real interests 
 of society, — no friend of order, — no lover of virtue, 
 —but looks with anxious solicitude to the conduct 
 of Parliament in this great conjuncture. What, 
 then, would be the impresssions of mankind ; — what 
 would be the appearance which we should exhibit 
 to this Country, and to the World, if our first 
 step for the security of lawful Government should 
 be to discredit and to degrade our upright and 
 honourable Magistracy? What would be thought 
 of our Wisdom, — what of our Justice, — should we 
 turn aside our eyes from the violators of the public 
 peace, and fix them with jealous suspicion on its 
 champions and asserters ; exerting the great 
 powers, with which we are invested for the public 
 safety, not against the savage depredators of the 
 fold, but against its faithful and intrepid guar- 
 dians ? I have heard of many instances of public 
 ingratitude : History is full of unrequited merit, — 
 of services repaid by oppression and injury. But, 
 I trust, we shall suffer no such example to stain 
 our own records, — no such stigma to be fixed on
 
 51 
 
 the proceedings of this day. No, my Lords ! 
 Respect the feelings of honourable men, who have 
 well discharged an arduous and painful duty! Treat 
 with affection and kindness those branches of the 
 public defence, to which you are already so much 
 indebted! Inspire them with fresh confidence in 
 themselves, and with fresh attachment to the Con- 
 stitution and Legislature of their Country ! On 
 them is our firmest reliance ; in their zeal, — in 
 their exertions, — is our best hope of security 
 against every difficulty which now surrounds us, 
 and against every danger which we may still be 
 destined to encounter. 
 
 Nor let it be said that, by refusing this in- 
 quiry, you preclude the regular and legal inves- 
 tigation of any error which the most jealous and 
 adverse scrutiny can possibly discover in these 
 proceedings. If any intemperance of zeal, 
 in the execution even of the most justifiable 
 and necessary directions, — if any heat, excited b}' 
 tumult and contest, — if any other feelings, be they 
 what they may, have betrayed even a single indi- 
 vidual into a conduct unworthy of his cause, the 
 Courts are open, — the Laws will do justice to all ! 
 Not twenty-four hours have elapsed since we 
 
 E 2
 
 haye seen how readily such complaints were re- 
 ceived and inquired into, and I am happy to add, 
 how satisfactorily they were answered. By re- 
 jecting this Motion you can do no injury : No- 
 thing' is prejudged ; nothing closed against any 
 complainant. 
 
 Need I sav what would be the effect of its 
 adoption ? You would teach the whole Magis- 
 tracy of your Country, that, when in the hour of 
 peril they have discharged their public duties 
 with intrepidity and firmness, yet if unjust pre- 
 judice,— if groundless clamour, — be raised against 
 them, they must look to no protection from the 
 Government or the Legislature. After all their ex- 
 ertions, and all their sacrifices, they must prepare 
 themselves to meet unfounded suspicion, and ha- 
 rassing inquiry ; to appear, perhaps, as culprits in 
 this place, defending themselves against the vindic- 
 tive malice of those very criminals, whose guilt 
 they may have exposed and punished. Thus dis- 
 'credited, thus degraded, what would be their re- 
 source? They might appeal, perhaps, to your- 
 selves against your own decision. They might 
 remind us that the discretion which they exercise, 
 and the duties which they perform, are committed
 
 55 
 
 and enjoined to them by law ; by that law of 
 which they are the ministers, your Lordships the 
 high and hereditary guardians. And they might 
 ^confidently claim, from your justice, that you 
 should suffer them to enjoy, unmolested, its full 
 protection for their own conduct and character, 
 while they are engaged in uprightly adminis- 
 tering it to others. But, whatever were the re* 
 suit of such proceedings, never, I trust, would they 
 be induced for any cause to deprive their Country 
 of the inestimable advantage of services which 
 they alone can render to it. Under whatever cir- 
 cumstances they can be placed, in grief, in depres- 
 sion, in dismay, their characters assailed, their feel- 
 ings wounded, their authority impaired, may there 
 always be found a spirit in the Magistracy of Great 
 Britain resolutely to persevere in the discharge of 
 their duties ! Should that hope fail us, should it ever 
 happen that the landed Gentry of this Kingdom 
 were driven, by whatever discouragement, to relin- 
 quish their high trust, and to leave to other hands 
 the faithful administration of our Laws, and the 
 vigilant defence of the Religion and Governmenl 
 of their forefathers, our condition would, jnde^^ 
 be desperate.
 
 54 
 
 Look also to another class of voluntary ex- 
 ertions ; not less honourable, scarcely less useful. 
 Do you wish to shake the confidence which the 
 armed Yeomanry of Great Britain now repose in 
 the justice and gratitude of Parliament? You 
 know what efforts have been made, what calumnies 
 employed, to inflame the passions of the People 
 against that portion of this force which was em- 
 ployed at Manchester ; You have seen what inr 
 dustry has been exerted to intimidate those indi- 
 viduals from persevering in their honourable 
 service, and to deter all others from venturing to 
 associate for the same loyal and constitutional 
 purposes. Nor can you be surprised that it 
 should be so. Could these objects be accom- 
 plished — could this establishment be discounte- 
 nanced, this force disbanded, much, indeed, would 
 have been done for the cause of disaffection. 
 But still more complete, much more miex- 
 pected, and unhoped for, would be the triumph 
 of that cause, should the conduct of this House 
 be found to have contributed to it. Far be it 
 from us! 1 trust we shall accede to no proposal 
 that can have such a tendency. If there be suf- 
 ficient ground to impute to any man, charged
 
 56 
 
 with the execution of a painful duty, even a 
 single act of wanton and needless violence, 1 repeat 
 it, the law is open to all. Let the facts be legally 
 examined, let them be judicially determined. 
 The previous interposition of this House, in such 
 a case, if any such there were, could operate only 
 to the prejudice of impartial justice; but it would 
 have the farther mischief of sanctioning those 
 indiscriminate calumnies which have for their true 
 object, not the conduct of any individuals, but the 
 character of the institution itself. To that insti- 
 tution the fullest protection, the warmest encou- 
 ragement, is due from Parliament. I acknowledge 
 that on this point I speak with strong personal 
 feeling". I had much share in the original formation 
 of that establishment; I earnestly promoted it both 
 by counsel and by personal exertion : and I look 
 back to it with unqualified satisfaction, as to one 
 of the most useful services of a public life now 
 brought to its conclusion. Great advantage, I say 
 it with full experience and knowledge of the fact, 
 did then arise from the exertions of those 
 meritorious and patriotic bodies ; and still greater 
 we shall, 1 trust, derive from them in the present 
 exigency. Nor let these benefits be considered a?
 
 56 
 
 merely occasional, calculated only to meet the 
 pressure of some momentary danger. A much 
 more solid and permanent good, and of far wider 
 influence on the highest interests of our society, 
 has already resulted, and will, I am confident, 
 continue to result from this institution. It has 
 habituated the middle classes of our community, 
 under the authority of the Sovereign, and with the 
 guidance and co-operation of the magistracy and 
 gentry of their neighbourhood, to take an active 
 share in defending our free and happy Govern- 
 ment against all its foreign and all its domestic 
 enemies. What can be in principle more consti- 
 tutional, in practice more beneficial? It was, in 
 its origin, and it will ever be, both in its impres- 
 sion and effect, a pledge of mutual confidence 
 between these diff*erent orders of the State ; most 
 honourable on both sides to those who have of- 
 fered it, and on both sides most gratifying to 
 those by whom it has been received. It has been, 
 and may it long continue to be, a strong, I trust an 
 indissoluble, link p.nd bond of union between 
 them, in the support of that cause which is com- 
 mon to us all ! 
 
 And shall this be called arming our fellow-
 
 o7 
 
 subjects against each other? No ; we are arming 
 them in their own defence against lawless vio- 
 lence ; we are arming them for the protection of 
 their peaceful dwellings against plunder and de- 
 vastation. We are arming the People of England 
 itself against designs, which, if they could be 
 realized, would leave not a trace behind of all that 
 has made the British name respected, admired, 
 and honoured, among the nations of the 
 earth. 
 
 On whom then does the imputation justly rest 
 of arming our fellow-subjects against each other ? 
 Is it not on those who, in the midst of peace, 
 have lighted up among us the torch of discord? 
 Who have deluded the ignorant, and inflamed 
 the discontented : Who have drawn aside their 
 unhappy followers from habits of tranquil in- 
 dustry, to designs and practices ruinous to them- 
 selves, and destructive of the public safety ; who 
 have animated them against the very persons 
 from whose skill and enterprise their subsistence 
 was derived ; and by instigations, incessantly re- 
 peated, inciting them to the foulest crimes, have 
 at length, in the very centre and heart of our 
 greatest commercial establishments, impaired the
 
 58 
 
 security of property, and the security of life 
 itself! 
 
 And this, my Lords, brings us back to that 
 consideration of present and local distress with 
 which my Noble Friend commenced thisdiscussion. 
 Whatever be the remoter origin of that distress, 
 we all acknowledge for its immediate causes the 
 diminution of commerce, the suspension of manu- 
 facture, the cessation of employment. And what, 
 let me ask your Lordships, what could tend more 
 effectually than the present disordered and fearful 
 state of your great manufacturing districts, to 
 subject them, and, through them to subject 
 every part of the Kingdom, to the continued 
 operation of these calamities? Already you are 
 told what is the condition of Manchester. Indi- 
 viduals are retiring, capitals are withdrawn, and 
 establishments about to be transferred from that 
 scene of disturbance and alarm. It could not 
 be otherwise. It is of the nature of commerce to 
 flourish only under the shelter and protection of 
 law ; its blossoms will not expand themselves, 
 much less will it mature its fruits, except in se- 
 cure and undisturbed tranquillity. It shrinks 
 from the rude blast of power : it is instantly
 
 50 
 
 withered by the tempestuous hurricanes of popular 
 commotion. Let us not deceive ourselves. Never 
 can our commercial prosperity maintain itself 
 under the lawless dominion of self-constituted 
 and tumultuary assemblies. Never can it endure 
 the rapacious and vindictive despotism of mutually 
 conflicting demagogues. To other shores, to 
 more peaceful countries, to better-ordered com- 
 munities, the trade and manufactures of Great 
 Britain would, in such circumstances, speedily 
 remove themselves. They were first attracted to 
 this happy Country by that security which our 
 institutions alone could then afford to them : 
 Greatly have they flourished under a government, 
 which has defended them alike from the unjust 
 aggression of power, and from the capricious 
 tyranny of the multitude : They would vanish like 
 a dream at the first aspect of revolutionary terror ; 
 they would fly far away from tumult and violence, 
 from plunder and confiscation, from massacres, 
 and from judicial murders ! 
 
 They would vanish ! and what would then be 
 the condition of your manufacturing population ? 
 What means would then remain of alleviating 
 their present distress, what hope of terminating 
 their future misery ?
 
 60 
 
 If, therefore, on no other ground ; if, from no 
 larger and deeper views of policy and justice, 
 such as may best become the Legislators of a 
 mighty Empire ; yet, for the single purpose of 
 preventing these unhappy men fi'om aggravating 
 and perpetuating their own distress, let me im- 
 plore your Lordships to step between them and 
 their betrayers. Interpose your high authority to 
 rescue them from this destruction. Take speedy, 
 take effectual measures to give peace and security 
 to those disturbed and agitated districts of your 
 Country. On peace and security depends the 
 prosperity of all ; there is no other prospect of 
 reviving commerce to the manufacturer, no other 
 hope of renewed employment to the artisan. 
 
 In every view which can be taken of our situ- 
 ation, there is but one course which you can now 
 pursue. Do you think that present distress is the 
 sole cause of all this evil ? What, then, must be 
 the first steps towards its removal ? The dis- 
 continuance of alarm ; — the punishment of se- 
 dition ; — the vigorous and instant suppression of 
 all that produces, and all that threatens, dis- 
 turbance. Do you look to the permanent pro- 
 tection of vour Constitution and Government? 
 Then, also, must the same determination be
 
 ■.AL LIBRARY FACILITY 
 
 llllllllllll tllllll 
 
 ^^ AA 000 564 015 6 
 
 adopted. You must give energy and vigour to 
 the Laws: you must uphold and strengthen the 
 authority of Magistrates and Courts of Justice : 
 you must protect the well- affected, encourage the 
 loyal, and animate the whole body of the British 
 nation, by the best of all exhortations — the ex- 
 ample of your own resolution and constancy ! 
 
 And, with this opinion, thus decidedly enter- 
 tained, thus unreservedly expressed, let me finish 
 what 1 had to submit to your Lordships on the 
 present occasion. 1 little expected to have 
 troubled you so much at length. But I have 
 obeyed the impulse of an irresistible duty; the 
 last, perhaps, that I may ever be called upon to 
 discharge within these walls. Whether it will be 
 so I know not ; for, who can now anticipate the 
 events which are impending over us ? But how 
 can I, under any circumstances, better close my 
 long service in this place, than by an effort, 
 earnebt, however weak, to uphold the Laws, and 
 to preserve the tranquillity, of my Country ? 
 With what sentiment nearer to my heart can I 
 conclude these labours, than by finally conjuring- 
 your Lordships to guard, as you have hitherto 
 done, with unremitted vigilance, with unshaken
 
 62 
 
 firmuees, the sacred deposit of the British Con^ 
 stitiition ? It has been the work of ages ; formed 
 on no preconcerted plan of human policy ; resting 
 on no delusive principles of imagined right ; the 
 happy result of a long series of unforeseen and 
 uncontrollable events ; the produce of many jar- 
 ring and contending elements, combined and 
 harmonized by the tried experience, by the un- 
 wearied diligence, and by the traditional, yet 
 cautious wisdom of a Legislature better adapted 
 than any other yet known in the history of man- 
 kind, to promote the happiness of the commu- 
 nity, whose interests it administers. Such is our 
 Government ; the boast of Englishmen, — the ad- 
 miration and envy of the world ! Such may it 
 long continue ! And wise, indeed, should that 
 man be, who hopes to improve it by the pre- 
 conceived theories, and baseless speculations, of 
 his own imagination ! 
 
 THE END- 
 
 PrinMd by W. CLOWES, Norlhiimlwrlind-ooiirt, Strand.