sumption was. The whole amount had been thrown out against an individual of the manufactures was little short with whom he was nearly connected. An of 40 millions a year. The bill should hon. gentleman had observed, that the extend to the linen and woollen ma- | individual in question had not introduced nufactories, as the hours of confinement the bill till after he had acquired his wealth, were in them equally long. The medical and abandoned the trade. So far the men, whose opinion had been quoted, had hon. gentleman was perfectly correct in never been in the cotton factories, and a his facts. The hon. gentleman had stated, medical man had told a friend of his, six that the magistrates had complained of months ago, that within six months he the manner in which the establishment would be a dead man. He mentioned with which the individual in question was that, to show that medical men were not concerned, was conducted; but he had infallible. In 1802 the hon. baropet had stated this without qualification as to the opposed a measure similar to the present, time of such complaints. This referred on the ground that it was impracticable to a period so far back as 1784, and For himself, he should allow no one stage again in 1796; and it was in conseto pass without discussion, and he must quence of these complaints that the bill express his regret, that on a question of of 1802 was introduced. A great change such importance, none of the ministers had taken place in the manner of conshould be present.

ducting that manufactory since that peMr. Peel wished to observe, that the riod. Before the application of steam, bill now proposed to be brought in, was it was necessary to select situations where introduced in 1815: it was then with falls of water could be had; these sidrawn, as it was contended, that there tuations were frequently mountainous, was not sufficient evidence on the subject and the population thin, and children before the House. In 1816, a committeesat were obtained as apprentices from large for the purpose of investigation. A bill was towns; but now these manufactories were not introduced last year from the indisposi- in populous neighbourhoods. The indition of the mover; but that was no reason viduals in question finding that in his own why one should not be introduced now. It establishment abuses had taken place, and was no argument against such a bill that were kept from his knowledge by the some factories were well regulated. If overseer, and learning that the same same factories were well regulated at pre- abuses took place in other manufactories, sent, that was a reason for the House gave a proof of his sincere wish to remedy adopting the regulations on which those the evil by bringing in the bill of 1802. factories were conducted. With respect Mr. Philips, in explanation, observed, to the instance of misconduct in Lan. that the bill of 1802 was completely a cashire, which had been alluded to, it was dead letter, but that the manufactories proved that children were employed there were now in a far better state than they fifteen hours a day, and after any stop- were at that time. The hon. member paid page, from five in the morning till 'ten in several compliments to the worthy barothe evening-seventeen hours, and this net who had introduced the bill. often for three weeks at a time. On the Mr. Curwen observed, that at the pass. Sunday they were employed from six in ing of the bill in 1802, the manufactories the morning till twelve, in cleaning the were conducted most infamously, but he machinery. The medical men examined could now state, from actual observation, by the committee were some of them re- that they were much better managed. lated to manufacturers, and well acquaint- The present measure did not appear to ed with factories. It was on evidence, him to have been well digested; for inthat children had even been employed at stead of weighing the whole of the matan age as early as five, and some were ters it was intended to embrace, the hon. employed under the age of seven. Could baronet appeared contented with weighany person say, that a child of seven years ing parts." He thought he might be alof age ought to be employed fourteen lowed to put the question, whether it was hours ? Was it necessary to have the possible that individuals in the situation evidence of medical men to prove that to of parents, who, it must be generally ademploy a child of seven years of age was mitted, had some portion of the milk of unfavourable to health? At the same time, human nature where their offspring was he allowed that the subject was not with concerned, should seek to wear away the out difficulty. A sort of personal reflection health and spirits of thetr children by

a

over exertion. Dr. Blane, previous to He had had much conversation upon the his examining some of the factories, had subject with many persons connected expected to find a great degree of sick with cotton mills, and particularly with ness, and was greatly astonished at finding the conductor of the establishment at the very reverse.

What, then, could New Lanark, and the general opinion have produced effects so striking, but was, that something was necessary to be that improvement in the system of pre- done. He hoped, therefore, that the bill serving health which had been found so would be carried through the House. It

. efficacious in many of his majesty's gaols? came from an excellent quarter, for it was In fact, no set of persons could be more impossible to select a person more expehealthy than the children so employed, rienced in the business than the hon. baand he could have wished, before the ronet. House had been called upon to legislate, Sir James Graham was of opinion, that that a committee had been appointed to if children who were apprenticed were reexamine into the real state of the case. strained from working sixteen hours a day, Before he sat down, he thought it right the House ought not to put any restraint to remark upon the propriety of legislat- upon free labour. As far as went to the ing between the parent and the child: it relief of apprentices, it was proper to lewent to say, that those of the poorer gislate ; and he should be ready to go as order were not fit to be trusted with the far as any one in forming any measure for management of their own children. Let their amelioration. The House must be the House not disguise from itself, that aware, that a committee upon this subject the moment it was ascertained that the was appointed in 1815, but nothing final was hours of labour were to be reduced, that agreed upon. In 1816 the same commitmoment there would be an outcry for an tee again sat, and their inquiry was proincrease of wages. It had been said, that ceeding when the session closed. The the parties themselves would consent to committee was not able to lay any report a diminution of wages, and farther, that before the House, but they expected to the measure would be the means of call. be called upon to resume the inquiry. ing a greater number of persons into em- As nothing had resulted from the labours ployment. But then the consequences of that committee, the present bill was must be, that if the earnings of persons founded upon an ex parte exposition of were lessened in point of hours, there the subject. The hon. baronet was not must be some means found for increasing perhaps aware of this fact, but it was one their wages. In that case it must be which, in his opinion, ought to weigh with ruinous to the individuals and hurtful to the House. He would not oppose the the country: for the well-being of the bringing in of the bill, but he would take cotton manufacture must depend on our every means of obstructing its progress foreign relations, and the ultimate effect upon every point which interfered with must

be, that the trade would be destroyed, free labour. and a number of persons thrown out of The bill was brought in, and read a employment. On a former occasion, he first time. concurred in opinion with those who thought an alteration in the system not PETITIONS only proper, but necessary; but since OPERATION OF THE HABEAS Corpus then he had had many opportunities of SUSPENSION Act.] Lord A. Hamilton becoming more practically acquainted presented petitions from William Robertwith the details and with the real facts; son of Meikle Govan, and from William and he now felt confident, that to legi Murray and David Smith in Calton of late at all upon the subject, would be Glasgow, complaining of the Operation of

ruinous to the trade, and injurious to the the Habeas Corpus Suspension Act, and · parties who were intended to be relieved. praying for redress.

Sir John Jackson thought, as the House Mr. Finlay said, that these persons had had given their attention to the ameliora. mistaken the fact. They had not been taken tion of the situation of slaves abroad, that up under the Habeas Corpus Suspension they could not in reason neglect their act, for no person whatever had been so confellow-subjects at home. It was totally fined. He had seen a gentleman who had impossible that children kept at.work for lately come from Glasgow, who stated to 80 many hours could be brought up with him, that these persons had been examina due impression of their moral duties. ed before magistrates, after they had been

COMPLAINING

OF

THE

GAMBLING SUPPRESSION BILL.] Mr. Ogle moved the order of the day for the second reading of this bill.

Mr. Bankes, conceiving that the bill would not tend to suppress the vice of gaming, moved that it be read a second time on that day six months.

HOUSE OF LORDS.

Monday, February 23.

REPORT OF THE SECRET COMMITTEE OF THE HOUSE OF LORDS ON THE INTERNAL STATE OF THE COUNTRY.] The Duke of Montrose presented the following

REPORT of the Secret Committee of the House of Lords, appointed to examine into the matter of the several Papers, sealed up, presented to the House by command of the Prince Regent.

BY THE LORDS COMMITTEES appointed a Secret Committee to examine into the matter of the Papers presented to this House, in Sealed Bag, by the command of his Royal Highness the Prince Regent, and to report to the House as they shall see cause; And to whom were referred Additional Papers (sealed up,) also presented to the House by the command of his Royal Highness the Prince Regent.

In execution of this duty they have proceeded, in the first place, to consider such of the said papers as contained information as to the state of those parts of England in which the circumstances detailed in the two reports of the former committees appear to have arisen.

Sir F. Flood said, that so far from putting down gaming, this bill went to encourage it. This was evident from the title of the bill, for it professed to have for its Ordered to Report:-That the Comobject to regulate houses kept for the pur-mittee have proceeded to examine the poses of play; and regulation, he observ- papers so referred to them. ed, was not suppression. He thought nothing could be more injurious to property, reputation, and life than the vice of gaming. It had brought many individuals to ruin, had produced great private misery,and had deprived the country of many persons who might otherwise have been useful and valuable members of society. Upon these considerations, it ought to be suppressed but this, he repeated, was a bill which professed to regulate, and not to suppress. He should, therefore, vote for the amendment, for he could never consent to license the practice, as was done in France, both for gaming and brothel keeping.

Mr. Lockhart said, it was impossible to give effect to this bill, for at common law a gaming house was a nuisance, and there was no power vested in magistrates to grant a licence under such circumstances. Mr. Ogle remarked on the extent of gaming houses in London. There were more than a thousand of them creating all sorts of mischief. He didnot think that the bill would interfere with the common law of the land, he would, however, consent to withdraw it.

The amendment was then agreed to.

In the last of those reports, presented to the House on the 12th of June last, it was represented that the period of a general rising, of which the intention and object were stated in the reports, appeared to have been fixed for as early a day as possible after the discussion of an expected motion for reform in parliament; that Nottingham appeared to have been intended as the head quarters, upon which a part of the insurgents were to march in the first instance; and that they expected to be joined there, and on their march towards London, by other bodies with such arms as they might have already provided, or might procure by force from private houses, or from the different depôts or barracks, of which the attack was proposed That concurrent information, from many quarters, confirmed the expectation of a general rising about the time above-mentioned, but that it was subsequently post

f

poned to the 9th or 10th of June, for their march, many of their body felt
which various reasons had been assigned. alarmed at the atrocious projects in which
The report added, that the latest intelli- they had engaged, which had actually led
gence from those quarters had made it to a cruel and deliberate murder ; they
highly probable that the same causes which found that their confederates had not ar-
had to that time thwarted the execution rived to their support, as they had been
of those desperate designs, yiz. the vigi- led to expect; and in the villages through
lance of the government, the great activity which they passed, a strong indisposition
and intelligence of the magistrates, the being manifested towards their cause and
ready assistance afforded under their or- projects, some of them threw away their
ders by the regular troops and yeomanry, pikes and retired, before the military force
the prompt and efficient arrangements of appeared; and on the first show of that
the officers intrusted with that service, forceļ the rest dispersed, their leaders at-
the knowledge which had from time to tempting in vain to rally them, many were
time been obtained of the plans of the taken prisoners, and many guns and pikes
disaffected, and the consequent arrest and were seized.
confinement of the leading agitators would This insurrection, of small importance
occasion a still farther postponement of in itself, is a subject of material conside.
their atrocious plans

ration, as it was manifestly in consequence
It now appears chat in the night of the of measures detailed in the two reports
9th of June last, a rising took place in above-mentioned, and appears to have
Derbyshire, headed by a person who went been a part of the general rising proposed to
for that purpose from Nottingham, and was take effect on the 9th or 10th of June, as
therefore called “ The Notiingham Cap. stated in the last of those reports.
tain." The insurgents were not formida. At the assizes at Derby, in the month
ble for their numbers, but they were ac- of July following, the grand jury found
tuated by an atrocious spirit. Several of bills of indictment for high treason against
them had fire arms; others had pikes pre. forty-six of the persons charged with hav.
viously prepared for the purpose: and as ing been engaged in this insurrection ; and
they advanced towards Nottingham they several of those persons having been taken
plundered several houses of arms, and in were arraigned upon the indictment be-
one instance a murder was committed. fore a special commission issued for that
They compelled some persons to join them, purpose, which sat at Derby in the month
and endeavoured to compel others by of October following. Four of the prin.
threats of violence, and particularly by cipal offenders were separately tried and
the terror of the murder which had been convicted; three of them were executed !
committed ; and they proposed to reach and the capital punishment of the fourth
Nottingham early in the morning of the was remitted, on condition of transporta-
10th of June, and to surprise the military tion. The conviction of these four induced
in their barracks: hoping thus to become nineteen of the other persons indicted,
masters of the town, and to be joined by whose conduct had been deemed in the
considerable numbers there, and by aparty next degree most criminal, to withdraw
which they expected would be assembled their pleas of not guilty, and to plead
in Nottingham Forest, and which actually guilty to the indictment, in hopes of thus
did assemble at that place, as after stated. avoiding a capital punishment; and the
The disposition to plunder, the resistance sentence of death on these persons was
they met with, and other circumstances, afterwards remitted, on different conditions.
so delayed their march, that they had not Against all the other persons indicted,
arrived near their place of destination at a who were in custody, the law officers of
Jate hour in the morning: and the coun- the Crown declined producing any evi-
try being alarmed, a military force was as-dence and they were accordingly acquit-
sembled to oppose them.

ted. The rest of the persons included in The language used by many person the indietment, had fled from justice, and engaged in this enterprise, and particularly have not yet been taken. by their leaders, leaves no room to doubt The fact of this actual insurrection first that their objects were the overthrow of proved to the satisfaction of a most resthe established government and laws; ex- | pectable grand jury of the county of travagant as those objects, were, when Derby, who found the bill of indictment, compared with the inadequate means and afterwards proved in open court, to which they possessed. In the course of the satisfaction of the several juries, sworn

on the four several trials of the persons night of the 9th, induced the magistrates convicted; proved also, by the acknow- to send for a military force from the bar. ledgment of the same guilt by those who racks; and order being quickly restored, withdrew their pleas of not guilty, and the military returned to their barracks, pleaded guilty to the same indictment, and and were not again called out, until the thus submitted themselves to the mercy morning of the 10th, when they were reof the Crown, appear to the committee to quired to assist in dispersing the Derbyhave established beyond the possibility of shire insurgents, who were then on their à doubt, the credit due to the information march. mentioned in the last report, respecting Connected with these disturbances in the plans of more extended insurrection, Derbyshire and Nottinghamshire, a diswhich had previously been concerted, and position to similar conduct was manifested respecting the pastponement of these in a part of the West Riding of Yorkplans to the 9th or 10th of June.

shire. On the 6th of June a meeting of But this insurrection in Derbyshire was delegates was assembled at a place called not the only circumstance occurring since Thornhill Lees, near Huddersfield ; and the period described in the last of the two at this meeting it was understood, that reports before-mentioned, which demon- the time to be fixed for a general rising strates the correctness of the information would be announced. The persons ason which the committee who made that sembled at that meeting were surprised report proceeded, in representing such a by the magistrates, assisted by a military general rising to have been intended, and force, and some were taken into custody. to have been postponed; and that Not- This arrest deranged the plans of the distingliam was the head quarters upon which affected; and the greater part of the disa part of the insurgents were to march in tricts in that part of Yorkshire, in which the first instance, and that they were ex- a general rising had been proposed, re. pected to be joined there by insurgents mained quiet. But in the neighbourhood from different quarters.

of Huddersfield, in the night of the 8th Early in the same night on which the of June, a considerable body assembled, Derbyshire insurgents began their opera- some with fire arms, and others with scythes tions, the town of Nottingham was in a fixed on poles, and proceeded to various state of considerable agitation. It appears outrages, plundering Houses for arms, from the evidence given upon the trials at and firing on the head.constable of Hud. Derby, that during the 'march of the dersfield, and upon a person of the YeoDerbyshire insurgents towards Notting- manry cavalry, who went out of the town ham, one of their

leaders, afterwards con- to learn their objects. Indictments were victed of high treason, was sent forwards preferred both for the felonies and the on horseback, to obtain intelligence. On burglaries at the assizes at York in the his return to the main body of the Derby• month of July. The facts of the outshire insurgents, it was pretended that the rages there committed appears to have state of Nottingham was favourable to been established by the finding of the their designs; the actual state of Notting- bills by the grand jury; but sufficient ham and its neighbourhood, appears from evidence was not produced on the trial the evidence given on the trials at Derby. to bring the crimes home to any indiviIn the night of the 9th of June, some duals. persons, stated to be in number about one From the evidence given at the trials at hundred, had assembled on the race Derby, it appeared that the Derbyshire course, in Nottingham Forest, where the insurgents had expected a considerable Derbyshire insurgents, according to their reinforcement from this part of Yorkshire, original plan, were to have arrived at an believing that a general rising would take early hour on the morning of the 10th, place at the time to be fixed for that purand expected to be joined by such a party. pose; and it appears likewise, that in This party was seen about twelve at night ; Yorkshire, as well as in all the other disthey were drawn up in line, two deep, tricts where these designs were carrying and a part of them were armed with pikes on, great reliance has uniformly been or poles. They remained assembled on placed upon the hope of powerful support the race ground until past two o'clock in and co-operation from London, however the morning, about which time they dis- erroneous such an expectation may have persed. Some appearances of disturbance been, with respect to the extent to which in the town of Nottingham early in the it was supposed to have existed.