of the name of Patterson, who had a fhop at Manchester, kept a tilted cart, over which he fuperfcribed the names of Pitt and Patterfon. The man, who was known to have no partner in his trade, was asked what he meant by the name of Pitt on his cart, as he had no fhare in his business? "Ah," replied he, "if he has no share in the business, he has a large share in the profits of it." On this he was taken up, committed to Cold Bath Fields prison, but some time after liberated, with a strict order not to go within thirty miles of Manchester. Ridiculous as this appeared, it proved ferious to the man, and was the ruin of his bufinefs! On all the circumftances no new case had been made out why this act should be continued, but many have shown that it fhould be repealed. Gentiemen should at least defer the farther confideration for a few days, until in decency they could make out fome means that would appear plaufible, and give, at least, a formal pretext for their proceedings.

Mr. ELLISON faid, he should not prefume to follow the honourable gentleman who had just spoken on the other fide of the Houfe through all the topics of his eloquent speech; he should rather follow the example of an honourable Member for a northern County (Mr. H. Lafcelles), and exprefs the real fentiments of an independent country gentleman, not regarding the effect of being expofed to the wit of the honourable gentlemen on the other fide of the Houfe; for he would not allow the dread of ridicule to prevent him from honeftly expreffing his feelings. He did not with to speak often, and that for two reafons: the one was, that he wifhed to hear others who were wiser than himself; and the fecond was, that he might not be exposed to raillery, în which some gentlemen were willing to indulge, without much regard to the feelings of others; but there were times and seasons when a sense of duty was to fuperfede all other confiderations: fuch he deemed to be the cafe at this inftant. Gentlemen on the oppofite fide of the Houfe were in the habit of accufing him and others with conftantly fupporting the prefent Administration: he fupported this Adminiftration, because he was convinced in his confcience, that by fo doing he was rendering to his country effential service; this was his firm conviction, and he believed the great mafs of the people of this country agreed with him in fentiment upon this fubject. He believed in his confcience we had fome bofom traitors, and he believed there were among us fome who were endeavouring to create He should not at prefent go much at large into his reasons for voting for the fufpenfion of the Habeas Corpus Act. Thofe who differed from him did not know him, if they had any doubt of his having a real regard for the pure principles of true Liberty,

more.

:

or if they doubted that he knew the diftinction between Jacobinifm and Liberty neither did they know him if they believed that he had not an esteem for the Habeas Corpus Act, as being one of the great bulwarks of our Conftitution; it certainly was valuable— most valuable to this country; it was a medium between the prerogative of the Crown and the exceffes of the People; it ftood between the King and his People, and was a great fecurity for both in times that were common; but in extraordinary times there might be reasons for fufpending the operation of that great law for the common fafety of the body politic. The prefent, in his opinion, was that time. The people, if they thought fit, had a right to fufpend that law, and the people, in his opinion, spoke their fentiments in that Houfe; for the people were fairly represented in that House, at least he thought fo. Having faid this, he should affign a few reasons for the vote he was to give in favour of this bill for the fufpenfion of the Habeas Corpus A&t. First then, he would afk, was there any great or material change in the contest in which we were engaged fince the time when Parliament had in its wisdom determined that the Habeas Corpus Act fhould be fufpended? Gentlemen might fay, as they often had faid, that there was no neceffity for this fufpenfion, that there was no plot against the Conftitution, no number of any confequence of those who were difaffected. Men might tell a story that had no foundation in truth fo often, that by the force of mere repetition they might at last work a belief of it in themfelves, and therefore, Crede quod volo, they wished others to believe it; they wifhed others to take it upon their will, and therefore he might add, Stat pro ratione voluntas. But he took neither the opinions nor the wills of others for his guide, while he had as his guide experience and the evidence of facts. that evidence he was led to think, that the common enemy had not ceased to wish for the deftruction of this country. After what we had all feen with our own eyes, and heard with our own ears, he owned it was to him a matter of astonishment, if any gentleman could put his hand upon his heart, and fay, that fuch a measure as that now before the Houfe was not neceffary for the fafety of this country. We all knew that a plan had been laid for our utter deftruction as a nation it was true, indeed, that those who wished to accomplish our destruction were few; but it was not the number but their power that we ought to be apprehenfive of, if there were no fuch precautions as this put into the hands of the Executive Government. A great deal had been faid, which might have been spared, about Cold Bath Fields; for it appeared to him to have no real bearing upon the fubject now before the House. The queftion was, whether

By

this bill was or was not a measure fit to be adopted? He thought it was; he believed it was a measure that would do, as it had done, much good to the country; he believed the people of England thought fo, and that they wished it to pafs into a law; not, indeed, to enable Ministers to carry on the war for the restoration of the House of Bourbon to the Throne of France; but they wished it to be carried into a law, the better to enable Minifters to bring about a peace that fhall be a bleffing, not fuch a peace as we could obtain now; for in his confcience he believed, that if any peace were made at this moment, and he were to go down to his conftituents, he fhould find it his duty to addrefs them thus:-"Gentlemen, you have a peace indeed; but do not rejoice, for it is not a bleffing, but rather a curfe." But he had fuch confidence in His Majesty's present Minifters, that they would put him in a fituation to address his conftituents in fuch a manner as this, whenever peace shall be made by them:"Set afide your apprehenfions of danger, lay by your fwords, take up your inftruments for cultivating the arts of peace; for now you have a peace upon which you may depend."

:-)

Mr. CANNING faid, he was extremely happy that he gave way to the honourable gentleman who had just spoken; for he had delivered a great deal of good fenfe, and he spoke the sense of the great mass of the people of England, who, happily for themselves, and happily for the rest of mankind, were not tainted with those principles, for the prevention of the mischief of which the bill now before the House was introduced. The fallacy of his honourable friend (Mr. Sheridan) throughout the whole of his eloquent speech was this he had confounded the whole mafs of the people of England with the objects of this bill; and he had under that fallacy argued, that the bill was a coercion on the people of England. There was no fuch coercion intended-thank God, there was no fuch need; but because there was no difpofition in the people to render fuch coercion neceffary, it did not thence follow that there fhould be no fuch bill as this; for the objects of this bill, although few, were nevertheless fit objects for the coercion of it, and the House would be remifs if they did not provide a remedy for the evil, which would be felt if such persons were under no restraint. His honourable friend, who had fo ftrenuously opposed this bill, had failed to make out many of the pofitions he laid down, and he himfelf was aware of it. He brought forward the teftimony of the two Reports of the Parliament of England and of Ireland upon the fubject of the difaffection and treasonable purfuits of various perfons in the two countries. The Report of the Irish Parliament he gave credit to, but the Report of the English Parliament he re

garded as waste paper. Now, upon that fubject, he knew of no fair ground of preferring the character of the Irish Parliament to that of the English for integrity, nor did he know of any ground for preferring any body of men upon earth to the Parliament of Great Britain for integrity. The manner in which his honourable friend had quoted the language of the great and learned Judge before whom the ftate trials took place, was not intended to have any effect, except as a pleafant fally; for his honourable friend did not expect any grave attention to be paid to it: in truth, he had put into the mouth of that learned Judge words which that great lawyer never uttered; and yet these were the facts, as they were called, on which repeatedly expreffed fentiments were to be set aside; and by such obfervations as these his honourable friend expected that the good fenfe of the people of this country was to be carried away, that they were to believe that a formal acquittal of a perfon charged with a fpecific crime could not, in the nature of things, poffibly leave behind it any fufpicion of moral guilt; and all this while we recollected that we but narrowly efcaped deftruction from the machinations of those very perfons and their affociates. Then his honourable friend proceeded to obferve, that there was now no danger, because what had happened in France had opened the eyes of all mankind. He should be glad to know, if this conviction had taken place, how it happened that it did not take place fooner? We all knew the pre-eminence of Bonaparte-few doubted the fuperiority of his talents-none queftioned that his power was at this hour as great, if not greater, than any that ever was poffeffed by any other man; and yet gentlemen who faid the eyes of all mankind were now opened by what had happened in France, feemed to have forgotten the progrefs of the French Revolution. During the progrefs of Briffot, one of the great regenerators of the human race, and thence downwards until we come to the present moment, the series was uniform; but fomehow or other gentlemen had not, until very lately, feen that French principles had opened the eyes of mankind. He would take a short view of this part of the fubject. He would fuppofe that many men might have believed, and innocently believed, there was, at the time of Briffot, discovered a mode of conducting public affairs fo entirely new, the like to which was never thought of before, and fo excellent that it tended to making both nations and individuals more happy even than they were before. Suppofe a leader in fuch a scheme were to hold a conference with any other person who knew nothing of his plan, but who was willing to hear a difcourfe upon it; and fuppofe that the advocate for this plan were to fay, "We have discovered VOL. X.

40

1

the means of removing all the political evils of this world; if we are not interrupted, its beneficial effects will foon be visible; let not the prefent established powers of the earth interpofe; let us have a fair experiment upon the efficacy of it-let us try it."-Suppofe the perfon to whom this was addreffed were to fay, "Be it so, we fhall not interpofe; try your experiment; but as we all know that, in the usual courfe of things, men who are fond of experiments do not stop fo foon as lefs adventurous perfons would with to do, (for although they fay they will rifque the half of their eftate, frequently the whole is devoted before the experiment is given up,) and that every man who purfued the difcovery of the Philofopher's ftone was fure to become a beggar; therefore let us have fome boundary, beyond which your experiment fhall not go in the event of its being fuccefsful."-If fuch a dialogue were to take place, he should like to know whether any man, even one who was most partial to expetiments upon politics, would before hand affent to going the length which was witneffed on the 10th of August, and the 2d and 3d of September, when organized affaffination became the order of the day in Paris? Would not any man fay, if any of these things were ftated to him before-hand as parts of the experiments of this new plan for the happiness of the human race, "God forbid we should go this length!-I can never affent to any plan which requires fuch experiments to be made before its utility is completely proved."— And yet the advocates of the French Revolution went the whole length of fupporting French principles until this actually happened, and even long after they all happened; and these French principles were long after this endeavoured to be introduced into Great Britain and Ireland. What had fince happened to open the eyes of mankind? Why truly nothing, except that fome gentlemen thought that we ought to negotiate for peace. What was the great evil of the French Revolution? The facility with which ambition might gratify itself at the expence of millions of the human race. Were he to define what ambition was, he would fay it was that quality in the human mind that altered its colour as circumftances might alter, but whofe nature was invariably the fame, and led to good or to evil according to the temper and purfuits of the perfon who poffeffed it. The ambition in his right honourable friend, for inftance, led him forward in a career of virtue-The ambition of a Jacobin was to procure and preferve power by profcription, by plunder, by confifcation, and by death; or by the utter deftruction of all eftablishments, civil or religious, and by the erection of that hideous anarchy in which order is buried, and confufion triumphs in the ruins. Such had been, with various fhades of difference, the ruling prin