proper to apply to parliament; but a simultaneous proceeding in parliament and in the courts below could not be admitted without violating every principle of justice. the officers, Nadin and Andrews, who both declared that they considered the yeomen to have been overpowered. At this moment an individual exclaimed, "For God's sake save the yeomen!" and, in consequence, the 15th Dragoons were The noble lord had said it would be ordered to charge the mob, who were al- improper to pass such measures as were most immediately dispersed. The whole now in contemplation, without due consiperiod between the advance of the cavalry deration. This was very true; but miand the dispersion of the meeting was not nisters would rest their justification on more than ten minutes. He believed the the papers laid before the House, comyeomen (he spoke of them as a body, and bined with the notoriety of the facts did not mean to answer for any individual) narrated in them, which were well did not remain longer on the ground than known to every person in the country. was necessary to complete the business, The noble lord might take objection to or do any act that was not absolutely ne- insulated parts of an affidavit, but he becessary. He stated these circumstances lieved a more complete body of evidence, for their lordships' consideration, and be taking the whole of it together, was defied any man to point out any part of never laid before parliament. Here was the conduct of the magistrates in this case information, derived not merely from to which blame could be fairly attached. the Manchester magistrates (for the paHe protested that, if he had been in their pers were not laid on the table for their situation, he did not know one point in the justification) but from individuals of the whole of the proceeding where he thought highest respectability. They had the auhe could have acted better himself. But thority of the grand jury of the county of if there were objectionable points-points Lancaster, which was as respectably on which more prudence might have been composed as any in the kingdom. It displayed, still, when they recollected the comprised individuals not only of high danger which threatened them at the mo- property and consideration in that ment, no impartial man would say that an county, but who entertained political error occasioned by inadvertence should opinions extremely different from each be visited with censure. This again other. They had also the statement of brought him to the question of inquiry, the respectable individual who filled the and he felt, as he had stated before, that situation of lord-lieutenant of the county. this was not the place for such a proceed- He could speak of that individual's coning. In fact, the case had in some degree duct from experience when he held the proceeded to inquiry already, because the situation of secretary of state for the finding of bills against Hunt and others home department, and he never knew a was, as far as it went, a species of inquiry, person who discharged the arduous duty through the medium of which the legality of a lord-lieutenant in a more exemplary of the meeting would be decided. He or abler manner. For many years it had would say farther, that when certain parties been found of the greatest benefit to the preferred bills against five of these yeo- county of Lancaster, that it possessed so men, which bills were rejected, it was an excellent a lord-lieutenant as the earl of ex parte justification of their conduct. The Derby; a nobleman whose services could noble lord said, it was not in the power of not be too highly appreciated, and who, the persons injured to obtain redress. although a zealous opponent of his maThis was not correct: they could proceed jesty's ministers, had conducted himself by criminal prosecution or civil action, in such a manner as to induce them, at Was it then fair, when a judicial investi- any critical period, to congratulate themgation might be had, to set aside all the selves that such a man was at the head of ordinary course of justice and to demand a remote district. In addition to the auan inquiry in parliament? The noble lord thorities he had quoted, they had also alluded to the case of Porteus, in Scot- the statement of the grand jury of land, which underwent an investigation in Chester, and of the lord-lieutenant of parliament. But then the fact was, that that county; and having thus briefly adthe magistrates had not done their duty, verted to them, he would ask whether and parliament was the only place in which there ever was so complete a mass of a remedy could be obtained. Where evidence laid before a secret committee cases of that kind arose, it was certainly of that House. From the conviction sures. This subject was under the serious consideration of the Prince Regent's government, who were as convinced, as he was, that the alteration was indispensably necessary for the administration of justice. Those who consider the increase of the population must feel with him, that the legal machinery, which 200 years ago might have answered every purpose, could not prima facie be calculated for the present state of things. He again repeated, that with the exception of one measure authorizing the search for arms, which was of a temporary and local nature, all the others which had been introduced by his noble friend last night, were consistent with the existing laws and principles of the British constitution. Those measures, were, indeed, proposed in furtherance of the principles of the constitution, and for the purpose of protecting the people of this country against a series of evils, which, if not checked, must subvert their rights and liberties. If they looked to this question in a proper point of view, they would see that whatever they might have gained by commercial exertions, whatever benefit they might have derived from the persecutions which had driven individuals from other countries, it was possible that they might be deprived of them all, if they did not guard against the persecutions of a mob. The fear of the mob invariably led to arbitrary government; and the best friends of liberty were therefore those who put down popular commotion, and secured the inhabitants of a country in the peaceable enjoyment of their rights. which ministers felt that this evidence, was correct, they thought that laying it on the table would be sufficient to prove, that a state of things existed in the country which called for the interference of the legislature. The noble lord, on that and former occasions, had made a charge against the government for not having prosecuted a sufficient number of those infamous libels with which the country at present teemed. He would venture to say, that prosecutions, inopportunely taken up, were always productive of more evil than good. This was a subject, however, which for months past had most anxiously occupied the attention of government. Their lordships were aware that several prosecutions were instituted in Michaelmas term last year, particularly with respect to Sherwin's Register. If the noble lord thought they were dropped through neglect, he was mistaken. It was not from the supineness of government, but from the deficiency of the law as it now existed, and which their lordships had it in their power to remedy, that the proceedings were slow or unsuccessful. He could state that up to the present day, it was not in the power of the law-officers of the Crown to bring one of those libels home to Sherwin himself. It was, however, true, that fifty prosecutions had been instituted, some of them several months ago, not against himself, but against other persons, for publishing his register; and he believed that a prosecution was commenced against Carlile, for a letter on the subject of assassination, so long back as Christmas, 1818, but the forms of the law as it at present stood prevented it from being brought forward till Michaelmas term last, when it was further postponed, at the request of the defendant. They would have another time to go into this subject; but he wished now to put it to their lordships, whether it was fit that such a state of law should exist in this country, as enabled individuals to circulate libellous publications for nine or twelve months before they were subjected to legal punishment. Their lordships had on their table a most important measure connected with this subject. It was an alteration of the existing law respecting traverses which he deemed indispensable. He did not, however, mean to say that it would answer the intended purpose, The House then divided, when there apunless it was combined with other mea-peared:-Contents-Present, 35; Proxies The Earl of Darnley said, he should support the motion, and contended, that this was a subject on which the minds of the people required to be satisfied, and on which an inquiry was absolutely neces sary. The Marquis of Lansdowne replied. He was perfectly ready to admit that he was favourably disposed to the principle of some of the measures about to be adopted; but to others of them he was decidedly adverse. Whatever opinion might be entertained of them could not affect the propriety of the inquiry he proposed; which would be honourable to the House, satisfactory to the country, and would give to the magistrates an opportunity of vindicating their conduct. HOUSE OF COMMONS. Tuesday, November 30. Mr. Stuart Wortley said, he was extremely unwilling to occupy the attention of the House by any thing that respected himself personally, and he felt that, on the preceding evening, he had put an entire end to a misrepresentation that had taken place with reference to what he had said a few days ago. He had since been charged with saying, that at some meeting in the West Riding of Yorkshire, resolutions had been passed on the part of the Radical Reformers, in which the property of earl Fitzwilliam had been pointed at for partition. He explained to the House yesterday, that he never said that such resolutions had been passed; but that, in the course of a meeting held within the West Riding of the county of York, the property of the noble earl was directly pointed at for partition. There was a material difference between the two statements; because, if the Reformers had come to resolutions of such a nature, the persons concurring in them would have been implicated in their adoption, as much as the persons by whom they were proposed. What he ori ginally said was, if gentlemen wished to MANCHESTER MEETING - PETITION FROM READING.] Mr. Fysche Palmer presented a petition from the inhabitants of the town of Reading. It was numerously and respectably signed, he said, and related chiefly to the affair of Manchester on the 16th of August last. In consequence of information obtained by the petitioners, of the particulars of that day's transactions, not only furnished by the newspapers, but also by several respectable men in their neighbourhood, who had subsequently visited the scene, the petitioners were led to believe that the meeting was perfectly legal and constitutional, and that the conduct of the persons assembled was exemplary for good order and propriety; that an indiscriminate attack was made on this legal and orderly meeting, whereby not only the leaders and audience part of the meeting, but those who had been attracted by mere curiosity, suffered extreme cruelty and outrage. The petitioners were convinced that this attack was a violent infraction of the right of meeting, to discuss and petition for redress of public grievances, which right was fully warranted, and the exercise of it protected by the constitution. The petitioners thought that those who advised the Prince Regent to thank the magistrates and yeomanry for their conduct on that occasion were guilty of great harshness and injustice, and showed a disposition to stifle inquiry into the most calamitous events which could befal a free people. Mr. Serjeant Onslow did not rise to oppose the bringing up of the petition; but the declaration of the petitioners, that the Manchester meeting was perfectly legal and constitutional, was one which he felt it to be his duty to protest against. The pretence of exercising the right of petitioning, could not, in his opinion warrant the military parade and banners used on that occasion. He thought, indeed, that the meeting was directly illegal, seditious, and dangerous to the public peace. The demand for " annual parliaments, universal suffrage, and vote by ballot," inscribed on one of the flags, was utterly unconstitutional. Liberty or Death," on another of the flags, proved the intention entertained of maintaining the first-mentioned claim at the hazard of life. This was riotous and treasonable; it was nonsense to confound such proceedings with the legal right of petitioning. Ordered to lie on the table, and to be printed. MANCHESTER MEETING-PETITION OF SAMUEL BAMFORD]. Mr. Bennet said, he held in his hand a petition from a person of the name of Samuel Bamford, of Middleton, in the county palatine of Lancaster. It was drawn up in a manner extremely decorous in every point of view, and furnished one of the most singular specimens of the talents and good sense which were to be found among persons in the petitioner's rank of society. The petitioner set forth that he was one of those who conducted a large body of individuals to the meeting at Manches ter of the 16th of August. He stated that he was intimately acquainted with the motives which induced individuals to attend that meeting, that he was perfectly cognizant of the propriety of the means which they intended to use to accomplish their objects, and that he was most solicitous to appear at the bar of that House to be examined. As he (Mr. Bennet) had had two long conversations with the petitioner, he had no hesitation in saying that the information which it was in his power to give was of the highest importance, and he should like nothing better than to have the petitioner examined at the bar in order to demonstrate what he thought the petitioner capable of demonstrating, that many of the accusations brought forward against the people were very highly coloured, if not altogether unfounded. As the petition would be read, it was not his intention to enter into any detail of its contents. The petitioner, as far as he had been able to learn, bore the reputation of being an honest, moral, wellmeaning man. As to his political opinions, they certainly were dissimilar from those which he held; but he was yet to learn that there was any thing treasonable or seditious in his entertaining sentiments which had, at different times, been upheld and avowed by the great and powerful in this country, and, amongst others, by the duke of Richmond. Under these circumstances, he begged leave to offer his petition to the consideration of the House and he sincerely hoped the House would grant the prayer of the petitioner, and hear what he had to say on the different points which the petition embraced. The petition was then read, setting forth, "That the petitioner having read the papers relative to the internal state of the country, presented to both Houses of Parliament by command of the Prince Regent, and printed at the London Gazette Office, and which papers, the petitioner is informed, have been delivered to the members of the House as the foundation of certain legislative measures, tending to alter the laws and constitution of this realm, and abridge the rights and liberties of the people, and knowing that many of the allegations contained in those papers are untrue, and many of the circumstances described as facts are grossly misrepresented, while the proceedings and intentions of the people are unfairly discoloured and distorted in many of the documents contained in the said papers: the petitioner humby requests, that, for the purpose of disproving the allegations and representations contained in the said papers, be may be examined at the bar of the House, and confronted in person, or, by evidence, with the persons who have thus traduced a large body of his majesty's loyal subjects, whose sole design, as must be well known to the petitioner, was to address his Royal Highness, humbly to represent their various grievances, and petition for such reforms as might have a tendency to remove them; that the petitioner, from an honest conviction that the greater part of the grievances under which the people labour might be removed by such a reform as would restore to the people their right of suffrage, and diminish the amount of taxation, by lessening the expenses of the state, and conceiving that he was amply protected by the laws in exercising all those rights of a freeman which the constitution has conferred upon him, has never hesitated to unite with is neighbours in furthering every measure which tended in a legal manner to bring about the said reforms, and nothing further has ever been in the contemplation of the petitioner, nor, he believes, in that of his neighbours, although the petitioner freely acknowledges that he has been a willing and active participator, from a sense of public duty, in most of the measures which are so grossly misconstrued and perverted, in the papers which have been so presented to the House; that, in regard to the system of pretended training for military purposes, to the preparation of flags, to the marching in a body from Middleton to Manchester, and to all the legitimate and justifiable objects of such measures the petitioner is prepared to speak at large, and to demonstrate by his own, and various evidence, that, so far from their involving any design to break the public peace, they were instituted for the very purpose of its preservation, and of giving that unity of action and feeling to every individual as should most effectually secure the harmony and good order of the great meeting of the friends of reform then meditated at Manchester; all which explanations of the petitioner would, if made at the bar of the House, fully satisfy its members, and the nation at large, that the friends of reform in Lancashire have been basely traduced and calumniated in the papers so presented as aforesaid: that the petitioner humbly trespasses further on the time of the House, to state, that he attended, with great numbers of his fellow townsmen and inhabitants of the adjacent villages, at the meeting held at Manchester on the 16th of August, for the sole and lawful purpose of giving their personal vote and countenance to an address to the Prince Regent for redress of grievances, and for certain reforms tending thereto; that the petitioner, and his neighbours as aforesaid, walked in procession to the said meeting, after the manner in which the procession of benefit clubs and other associations take place in Lancashire and other parts of England, and, to enable the said parties to move with due decorum, a couple of flags were provided, in accordance with the manners and customs of the people of England from time immemorial for purposes of the like nature, whether for elections or any other peaceable and lawful object, which flags were provided with such inscriptions or mottoes as, in the humble judgment of the persons who directed their construction, were suitable, and as are to be found in the works of the best moral and political writers; a band of music being also provided to aid in the purposes of the flags, and to confer cheerfulness and hilarity on the people; all which appurte nances usually characterise similar processions for every variety of peaceable or social design in that country, and are in like maner believed by the petitioner to be characteristic of the peaceable manners and customs of the entire population of these realms; which several circumstar.ces have been unfairly and unjustly described in the papers alluded to as aforesaid; that the petitioner and his neighbours arrived at the proposed place of general meeting at Manchester, for the purpose aforesaid, in the greatest hilarity and good order, intending mischief to none, and suspecting none towards themselves, therefore wholly unprepared with means of offence or defence, and many of them affording an indubitable plege of their sincerity and sense of security, by taking in their company their wives and female relatives; and that after they had been on the ground half an hour, and within ten minutes after the chairman had taken his station on the hustings, without any previous notice, riot, tumult, or disturbance, the assembly, consisting as is supposed of above a hundred thousand men, women, and children, who, as the petitioner believes, had been collected under similar circumstances, with similar views, to those which directed the petitioner and his neighbours, found themselves suddenly assaulted by a charge of the Manchester yeomanry cavalry, who sabred, rode down, and trampled upon every individual who could not escape them; by which, as the petitioner be |