sures of conciliation would do more to bring back the country to peace and tranquillity than the present bills, and give it more strength and security than any system of restraints, or laws of severity and coercion.

The Earl of Liverpool said, he did not rise for the purpose of entering on the discussion of any of the bills which had been submitted to the House. The question now was as to the first reading; and to this there seemed to be no objection. But he could not allow the speech of the noble earl to go forth to the world without some reply, as it was calculated, if left uncontradicted, to produce a false impression. The noble earl had treated the proposed measures as a system of coercion; whereas he (lord Liverpool) was prepared to maintain that they composed a system of protection. If they prevented those acts which endangered the existence of our rights, they were the best safeguards of those rights. He was prepared to deny that any one of them, with the exception of the bill relative to the search of arms, went to affect the proper, legal, and wellunderstood privileges of Englishmen. The bill for preventing seditious meetings, so far from having any tendency to abridge the right of petition, was its best protection by putting a stop to those tumultuous assemblages which had grown out of a good, but which might endanger that good, by disgusting every Englishman with such an exercise of it. The bill before the House would thus give the right of petition tenfold additional se curity. It was a bill not to prevent meetings of the people in their own districts, but to put a stop to the assembling of great multitudes collected from distant parts, and guided by demagogues, who stimulated their minds to a hatred and contempt of every thing dignified or venerable. If such evils were allowed to proceed to greater inveteracy, how could they be put down? Why, by military force. And would any good man, or lover of his country, wish such a result? No; therefore such disorders must be checked and put down in time. Those were the best friends of the right, who prevented its abuse. The other bill regarding restraints on the press, he was prepared to contend, must be viewed in the same light. the noble earl had not understood the extent of the evil of seditious and blasphe mous publications, or the power of the law as it at present stood in checking them. (VOL. XLI.)

The present laws were not adequate to check the mischief. They had been tried; they were now in a course of trial; but unless some more effectual enactments were added, the evil would continue. The severity of the proposed measures did not justify the complaints of the noble earl. The extent of the proposition before the House did not go to alter the law, as far as respected first convictions. It merely said that a person who had been tried, convicted, and punished for a blasphemous and seditious libel, might, on a second conviction be subjected to greater severity of punishment, by imprisonment, banishment, or transportation, at the discretion of the court. The other measure affecting the press, which would go to impose a duty on a certain class of publications, could scarcely be regarded as any change of the law; it was rather an enforcement of an existing law which had been evaded, than the enactment of any new law. Nor did he see any thing particularly objectionable in the bill which required the printer and publisher to lodge securities, against any fine that might be imposed on him for the abuse of the freedom of the press. Was it to be endured, that these men should be allowed to scatter their poison about, without being known who were responsible for them? The noble earl had spoken of moral tracts; but with respect to them, some satisfactory resolution would be introduced into the bill. The only other law in what was called this system of coercion, namely, that authorizing a search for arms, was merely a re-enactment of the statute against Ļuddism. Having said thus much, he would not trespass longer on their lordships' attention than merely to speak of the arrangements for the second readings. His noble friend had fixed Thursday for the second reading of all the bills; if they could not be discussed then, along with the bill introduced by his noble and learned friend on the woolsack, the debate might be postponed to another day. He could assure their lordships, that there was no disposition on the part of ministers to prevent the fullest examination and discussion. He would wish that the training and search bills, as they were of imperious necessity, should be first discussed. He would suggest, that the lord chancellor's bill might be read a second time on Friday.

The training and search for arms bills were ordered to be read a second time on (2A)

Thursday; the lord chancellor's bill a second time on Friday; and the blasphemous a second time on Monday next.

HOUSE OF COMMONS.

Monday, November 29.

PRINCE REGENT'S ANSWER TO THE ADDRESS.] Mr. Speaker reported the Prince Regent's Answer to the Address, as follows:

"Gentlemen: I receive with sincere pleasure this loyal and dutiful Address. The determination of the House of Commons firmly to support at this important conjuncture the laws and constitution of the country, cannot fail to inspire every loyal subject with confidence: Their declaration on this occasion is most acceptable to me, and I receive it with the highest satisfaction, as the surest pledge that the public tranquillity will be effectually and permanently maintained."

REVENUES OF THE COLONIES.] Mr. Hume said, that towards the close of the last session, he had submitted several motions to the House respecting the state of the colonies; but as the lateness of the period did not allow them to be properly gone into, he now rose to renew his notice for the present session. The object he had in view was, to obtain a just account of the expenditure of the different colonies, which would be comprised in his motion. Preparatory to that step, he should now move for a correct account of the civil and military establishments in certain of our islands, in the years 1793, 1805, and 1818, in order to see what increase had been made therein, and to ascertain whether any and what benefit had been derived from those settlements. He should also move for another return respecting those which were denominated "King's colonies." He meant those colonies that were exclusively governed by the Crown, and did not partake of the benefits of British law and British legislation. It appeared to him to be a question of great importance, whether those colonies should remain, as they at present were, governed by orders in council, or be subjected to the system which prevailed in the other colonies; the more especially as the money derived from them was, he believed, expended in a manner little conducive to the interests of this country. He particularly alluded to Ceylon, the Mauritius, the Cape of Good

Hope, and the Ionian islands, as far as this country was concerned. The state of these colonies had never been investi., gated; and he would, in the course of the session, bring the question before the House, in order that parliament might decide, whether they should continue under the government of the king in council, or be admitted to reap the benefit of a participation in British laws. He should move for a return of the civil and military expenditure of the islands of Ceylon, Malta, Gazo, the Cape of Good Hope, and the Mauritius, to the latest period to which it could be made up. The hon. member then moved "for a return of the amount of revenue collected in the island of Ceylon, from the period when the said island came into our possession to the latest time to which the same can be made up, with the several items of expenditure of every kind, civil and military; also an account of civil offices, the salaries affixed to which exceed 250l. per annum, with the names of the officers filling them, the persons by whom they were appointed, and stating whether the duties were performed personally or by deputy; likewise an account of the military staff-officers, distinguishing their pay and emoluments.” A similar motion was made respecting the Mauritius, the Cape of Good Hope, Malta, and Gazo, and the Ionian Islands; and also for an account of the civil and military establishments in the West Indies, in North America, and Canada, from 1792 to 1818, distinguishing the increase since 1797. The motions were severally agreed to.

BOROUGH OF CAMELFORD.] Mr. D.. W. Harvey said, the House had, in the last session, agreed to certain resolutions respecting the borough of Camelford. One of those resolutions was, that the Speaker's warrant for a new writ for that borough should not be issued until ten days after the commencement of the next session, which period would expire on Thursday next; and another pledged the House to take into consideration the report of the committee on the Camelford election. He wished that the issuing of the warrant should be postponed until the report was considered; and, with that view, he would to-morrow move, that the order for not issuing the warrant until ten days after the meeting of parliament should be discharged, and that the Speaker be directed not to issue the same until the re

port should have been taken into consideration.

PUBLIC DEBT.] Mr. Hume rose to move for an account of the public debt of Great Britain and Ireland, to which he had called the attention of the House last session. The account which he was about to move for would, if produced, show the total amount of the funded and unfunded debt of this country, from the year 1786 to the year 1819, in a much more clear and correct manner than any that had ever been laid before the House. He then moved for "An account of the amount of the public debt of Great Britain and Ireland, and the interest thereon in British currency, as it stood on the 5th January in each year, from 1786 to 1819, in separate columns:-1. Debt redeemed, and interest thereon, Great Britain, including the Austrian and Portuguese loans:-2. Debt redeemed, and interest thereon, Ireland: -3. Total debt redeemed, and interest thereon, both countries:-4. Funded debt unredeemed, and interest thereon, including the Austrian and Portuguese loans, England:-5. Funded debt unredeemed, and interest thereon, Ireland :-6. Total funded debt unredeemed, and interest thereon, both countries:-7. Total funded debt, redeemed and unredeemed, and interest thereon, both countries :-8. Unfunded debt, and interest thereon, Great Britain (including all interest due, but not paid, on the 5th January 1819): 9. Unfunded debt, and interest thereon, Ireland (including all interest due, but not paid, on the 5th January 1819):10. Unfunded debt, and interest thereon, both countries (including all interest due, but not paid, on the 5th January 1819): 11. Total debt unredeemed, funded and unfunded, and interest thereon, including all interest due, but not paid, both countries:-12. Total debt, redeemed and unredeemed, funded, unfunded, and interest thereon, both countries, including amount of annuities paid in each country, and the expenses of management."-Ordered.

MANCHESTER MEETING.-PETITION FROM MANCHESTER RESPECTING THE CONDUCT OF THE MAGISTRATES.] Mr. Bennet said, he rose for the purpose of presenting a petition signed by a large body of merchants, manufacturers, tradesmen, and other inhabitants of the town of Manchester, praying the House to institute an inquiry into the fatal trans+

| actions of the 16th of August. The signatures of between 6,000 and 7,000 persons were affixed to this petition, which bore the names of many eminent merchants, manufacturers, and tradesmen. It was, indeed, signed most respectably, and he thought that it spoke, in the moderation of its tone, and the propriety of its prayer, the sentiments of the great majority of the inhabitants of Manchester. It set forth, that which was unfortunately too well known to the House and to the country-that very great distresses had long prevailed in Manchester and its neighbourhood. Those distresses, which for some years past had weighed heavily on the lower classes, induced them to apply to parliament for relief; but their prayer not having been attended to, the consequence was, that a very general opinion had been entertained in that quarter in favour of parliamentary reform, as the only mode by which their situation could be ameliorated. In that opinion, he entirely concurred. He conceived that reform was necessary; but to what extent, or by what means it ought to be carried into effect, he did not at that moment presume to determine. The petition went on to state, that various meetings were held in that neighbourhood on the subject of reform, and at length one was called in the month of August last, which, in consequence of an illegality in the notice, did not take place. Another was convened for the 16th of that month. The result of that meeting, and the calamity which fell on many of the persons who were present at it, the House and the country were so well aware of, that he would not trouble them with any remarks on the subject. Notwithstanding what fell from the noble lord the other night, who thought fit to declare, that the whole case which had been made out on the part of the people, was found. ed in calumny-that it did not rest on the slightest evidence, he must say that he had read, and read most attentively, all the details of the transaction; and he pledged himself it would appear, that no less than eight or ten merchants and manufacturers, whose credit was perfectly unimpeached, had distinctly sworn to the truth of those allegations which the noble lord had attempted to disprove. When those statements, which were now only partially known, were laid before the public, containing, as they did, verbatim, the evidence of most respectable people, they would be found to corroborate much of