"Ah me! They little know How dearly I abide that boast I made; While they adore me on the throne of hell!" Thus have I stated a few of the remarks which press upon me in the present posture of affairs. I ardently hope that the result will be a general pacification, in which the interests of the civilized world will be duly consulted: if it should be necessary to continue hostilities, may we contend, as we have fought, during the last campaign, with matchless strength, arising from the firmness of the indissoluble union of the allies, whose cause is, and whose exertions ought to be one. May Great Britain still maintain that dignity of station, and support that grandeur and liberality of design, upon which she has hitherto acted! May she continue the unoppressive guardian of the liberties that she has vindicated, and the disinterested protectress of the blessings that she has bestowed! The motion was agreed to. SEDITIOUS MEETINGS BILL. FEBRUARY 24th, 1817. THE order of the day having been read for taking into consideration the Report of the Committee of Secrecy; LORD CASTLEREAGH moved, "That leave be given to bring in a Bill for the more effectually preventing Seditious Meetings and Assemblies." MR. CANNING rose and said: It has often been remarked, Sir, that no creed is so extravagant as the creed of unbelief; that those who are the most incredulous themselves are apt to draw most largely on the credulity of others: but never in my life have I seen this so strongly exemplified as in the present debate, by the argument of some of the honourable gentlemen opposite. They utterly disbelieve all that has been reported to the House, by the Secret Committee-a Committee comprehending friends of their own, who were unanimous in giving their sanction to that Report; and they call upon the House, instead of placing credit in the Report so framed, and so sanctioned, to adopt the extrava gant fiction-that all the matter of the Report was a plot invented by Ministers. The object of this ingenious and diabolical invention, it seems, was to defeat the efforts of the mighty phalanx which is combined to investigate our conduct, and drive us from our seats. And for this purpose we have, it is supposed, gone through the following elaborate but compendious system of operations. We have first devised or resuscitated a set of extravagant and pernicious principles, hostile alike to the peace of nations, and to the welfare of mankind, which we have caused to be circulated throughout the country, and particularly throughout the distressed and suffering parts of it. We have next selected a certain number of desperate, but trustworthy incendiaries to act upon these principles, to the full extent of direct physical resistance and rebellion -risking their own lives, but keeping our counsel all the time. Next, so secure have we felt in the framing and jointing of our conspiracy against ourselves so confident that nothing would appear that should betray the secret of its fabrication-that we have ventured to submit it to the inspection of a Secret Committee, composed, as I have stated, and as we all know that Committee to have been and so entirely has the event justified our confidence, that we have been enabled to procure a Report-an unanimous Report from that Committee, affirming the existence of the : plot, but without a hint at the suspiciousness of its origin. Why, Sir, all this sounds very foolish: and it is so. But it is the creed, real or pretended, of those who say that the plot is the plot of Ministers and it is, as I have said, the ordinary course of those who hardly deny what, according to all fair rules of evidence, they cannot avoid believing, to take refuge in some extravagant hypothesis, by which the most implicit credulity would be staggered. But there is another sense in which the Government are held responsible for the plot, and another charge which we are required to answer. It is said to be very extraordinary that, as appears from the Report of the Committee, Government had information of some of the proceedings which are the subject of it, in the month of Novemberand that yet, notwithstanding this information, they advised the Prince Regent to prorogue the Parliament till January. What is there extraordinary in this? Though certain circumstances connected with the subject of the Report, had come to the knowledge of Ministers in the month of November, yet does it appear that at that period, the designs of the conspirators wore that alarming aspect which they assumed in subsequent stages? Does it appear on the face of the Report, that up to the first, or even the second meeting at Spa-fields, Ministers had reason to believe that those who took the most prominent part at those meetings, were engaged in a plan for the subversion of the state? For aught that was then brought to the knowledge of Government, the real plotters and leaders of the conspiracy might then have been as little prepared to attempt an insurrection, as that unhappy man whose petition has this day been laid on the table (Mr. Hunt), and who, it should seem, mounted the temporary rostrum prepared for him, in the innocence and vanity of his heart; and, only intending to make a splash, unconsciously forwarded the views of rebellion. The members of the Government, like every other individual in the nation, could not but know that a very strong and alarming inquietude and agitation had been excited in the metropolis and throughout the country. They knew that in a time of public distress certain classes of the people were liable to be operated upon by designing men, in a way likely to lead to much practical mischief, and to the misery and ruin of those who were led astray. They knew these things; but with such knowledge, would it have been wise to call the members of this and the other House of Parliament (composing so considerable a part of the resident gentry of the country), from their homes, where it might reasonably be hoped that their presence would tend most effectually to check the practices of the dis |