REPORT FROM THE COMMITTEE OF SECRECY, ON PAPERS, which were presented (Sealed up) to The House, by Lord Viscount Castlereagh, on the 3d day of February, by Command of His Royal Highness The PRINCE REGENT. Ordered, by The House of Commons, to be Printed, REPORT. THE COMMITTEE OF SECRECY, to whom the several PAPERS, which were presented (Sealed up) to The House, by Lord Viscount Castlereagh, on the 3d day of February, by Command of His Royal Highness The PRINCE REGENT, were referred, and who were directed to examine the Matters thereof, and report the same, as they should appear to them, to The House ;-HAVE agreed upon the following REPORT. HE First Object of Your Committee, in examining the Papers which have been internal State of the Country, from the period when the Second Report of the Secret Committee, in the last Session of Parliament, was presented, to the present time. The Insurrection, which broke out in the night between the 9th and 10th of June, on the borders of Derbyshire and Nottinghamshire, shortly before the close of the sitting of that Committee, was the last open attempt to carry into effect the Revolution, which had so long been the object of an extended Conspiracy. The arrest of some of the principal Promoters of these treasonable designs, in different parts of the Country, had deranged the plans, and distracted the councils, of the Disaffected; occasioned delays and hesitation in the appointment of the day for a simultaneous effort; and finally, left none, but the most infatuated, to hazard the experiment of Rebellion. The suppression of this Insurrection (following the dispersion of the partial rising which had taken place the night before in the neighbourhood of Huddersfield,) the apprehension and committal of the leaders for trial in the regular course of law,. under the charge of High Treason, and the detention of several others of the most active delegates and agitators, under the authority of the Act of the last Session, frustrated all further attempts at open violence. But the spirit of disaffection does not appear to have been subdued; disappointment was frequently expressed by the disaffected, at the failure of an enterprize, from the success of which a relief from all distress and grievances had been confidently predicted; and the projected Revolution was considered as not less certain, for being somewhat longer delayed. In the course of the succeeding month, Bills of Indictment for High Treason were found against forty-six persons, at the Assizes at Derby; which must have tended still further to check the progress of Sedition, by apprizing the wavering of the danger to which they were exposed, and over-awing the remainder of the more: determined leaders. On the Trials which took place in October, twenty-three were either convicted by the Verdict of the Jury, or pleaded guilty; against twelve, who were mostly young men, and related to some of the Prisoners already convicted, the Law Officers of the Crown declined offering any evidence. The remaining eleven had succeeded in absconding, and have not yet been apprehended. The result of these Trials, and the examples which followed, seem to have had the effect which might be expected, of striking a terror into the most violent of those engaged in the general conspiracy; whilst the lenity shown to the deluded, was gratefully felt by the individuals themselves, and restored quiet and subordination to the district, which had been the principal scene of disturbance. 69. A 2 In 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 improvement in the state of agriculture, as well as of trade and manufactures 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 Constitution. 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 population, 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 generally been much exaggerated by the leaders of the disaffected, from the abvious policy, both of giving importance to themselves, and of encouraging their followers. It is, however, impossible to calculate the extent to which any insurrection, not successfully opposed 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 consequences of the measures, to which they were called upon to lend their assistance; that these consequences would have involved the destruction of the lives and property of the loyal and well-affected, in the event of any decided, though temporary, success of the insurgents, is sufficiently evident, from the designs which have in some instances been proved. It was therefore the duty of the Magistracy, and of the Government, 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 apprehending the leaders and instigators of conspiracy. Your Committee indulge the hope, that the hour of delusion, among those who have been misled into disaffection, may be passing away; and that some, even of the deluders 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 Magistracy, to maintain the tranquillity, which has been restored. It will no less require a firm determination among the moral and reflecting members of the community, of whatever rank and station they may be, to lend the aid of their influence and example, to counteract the effect of these licentious and inflammatory publications, which are poured forth throughout the Country, with a profusion heretofore unexampled. Your Committee have hitherto applied their observations to the lately disturbed districts in the Country. In adverting to the state of The Metropolis, during the same period, they have observed, with concern, that a small number of active and infatuated individuals have been unremittingly engaged, in arranging plans of insurrection, in endeavouring to foment disturbances that might lead to it, and in procuring the means of active operations, with the ultimate view of subverting all the existing establishments of the Country, and substituting some form of Revolutionary Government in their stead. Your Committee however, have the satisfaction to find, that, notwithstanding the desperation and confidence of the leaders, the proselytes that have been gained to their cause are not numerous. The sensible improvement in the comforts and employment of the labouring part of the community, has tended to diminish at once the motives of discontent, and the means of seduction. The mischief does not appear to have extended into any other rank of life, than that of the persons referred to in the First Report of the Secret Committee of last year, nor to have received countenance from any individuals of higher condition. Eager as these agitators are, to avail themselves of any popular assemblage, still more, of any occasion that might happen to arise of popular discontent, and capable as they appear, from their own declarations, to be of any act of atrocity, Your Committee see no reason to apprehend that the vigilance of the Police, and the unrelaxed superintendence of Government, may not, under the present circumstances of the Country, be sufficient to prevent them from breaking out into any serious disturbance of the public peace.. The |