Union Clubs, professing the same ob ject of parliamentary reform, but under these words, understanding universal suffrage and annual parliaments-projects which evidently involve not any qualified or partial change, but a total subversion of the British constitution. It appears that there is a London Union Society, and branch unions corresponding with it, and affiliated to it. Others of these societies have adopted the name of Spencean Philanthropists; and it was by members of a club of this description that the plans of the conspirators in London were discussed and prepared for execution.

The principles of these last associations seem to be spreading rapidly among the other societies which have been formed, and are daily forming, under that and other denominations, in the country. Among the persons adopting these principles, it is common to disclaim parliamentary reform as unworthy of their attention. Their objects are avowed in a handbill dispersed by the society of that description in London, and in numerous other publications. These objects are, "A parochial partnership in land, on the principle that the landholders are not proprietors in chief; that they are but the stewards of the public; that the land is the people's farm; that landed monopoly is contrary to the spirit of Christianity, and destructive of the independence and morality of mankind."

The societies under these different names are so numerous, and so various, that it has been difficult to obtain a complete view of all of them, or to comprehend them under any general description.

The country societies are principally to be found in, and in the neighbourhood of, Leicester, Loughborough, Nottingham, Mansfield, Derby, Chesterfield, Sheffield, Blackburne, Manchester, Birmingham, and Norwich, and in Glasgow and its vicinity;

but they extend and are spreading, in some parts of the country, to almost every village. In addition to all the arts of seduction, resort is also had to a system of intimidation, and threats are held out to those who refuse to join. Their combinations are artfully contrived to secure secrecy in their proceedings, and to give to the leading members undisputed authority over the rest. Oaths of secrecy have been frequently administered, some of which are of the most atrocious and dreadful import.

They do not, however, trust to this security alone to prevent discovery; their proceedings are seldom reduced to writing; they pass and are communicated by word of mouth. The more numerous meetings delegate all authority to a managing committee; and by that committee, and by meetings of delegates from the committees of different societies, every thing of importance is transacted.

The committees themselves are also cautious of reducing any of their proceedings to writing, communicating with each other only by delegates and missionaries.

It appears that, in some parts of the country, arms have been lately procu red by individual members of these societies, in considerable quantities, which can only be done with a view to the use of force. Subscriptions are also generally required, which, although the amount paid by each individual may be very small, may produce, from the large numbers of the contributors, no inconsiderable fund.

The destructive objects which the leading members of these societies have in view, are demonstrated by their publications and by their proceedings, all equally calculated to inflame the minds of the members, and, in general, of the poorer classes of the community. At the ordinary meetings of the societies, which are often continued to a late

hour, their time is principally employed in listening to speeches tending to the destruction of social order, recommending a general equalization of property, and at the same time endeavouring to corrupt the morals of the hearers, and to destroy all reverence for religion. The landholder has been represented as a monster which must be hunted down, and the fundholder as a still greater evil; and both have been described as rapacious creatures, who take from the people 15d. out of every quartern loaf. They have been told that parliamentary reform is no more than a half measure, changing only one set of thieves for another, and that they must go to the land, as nothing short of that would avail them. Another principal employment of their time is to listen to publications of the same description as the speeches, containing the same doctrines, and leading to the same purposes; and the meetings are frequently terminated, partiticularly in London, by profane and seditious songs, and parodies of parts of the Liturgy, in which the responses are chaunted by the whole company. By such means, and by the profession of open infidelity in which some of the members indulge in their speeches, the minds of those who attend their meetings are tainted and depraved; they are taught contempt for all decency, all law, all religion and morality, and are thus prepared for the most atrocious scenes of outrage and violence.

Amongst the most effectual means of furthering these dangerous designs, the Committee think it their duty particularly to call the attention of the House to the unremitting activity which has been employed throughout the kingdom in circulating, to an unprecedented extent, at the lowest prices, or gratuitously, publications of the most seditious and inflammatory nature, marked with a peculiar character of irreli.

gion and blasphemy, and tending not only to overturn the existing form of government, and order of society, but to root out those principles upon which alone any government, or any society, can be supported.

The Committee cannot but consider the late attack upon his Royal Highness the Prince Regent, on his way from opening the present session of parliament, as an additional and melancholy proof of the efficacy of this system to destroy all reverence for authority, and all sense of duty, and to expose to insult, indignity, and hazard, the person of the immediate represen➡ tative of the sovereign, even in the exercise of one of the most important parts of his royal functions.

It appears to be an essential part of the system to take advantage of the opportunities afforded by public meetings, convoked either by the leaders of these societies, or by others, in the metropolis, and in populous places and districts, to address the multitude in terms of unprecedented license and violence, amounting even in some instances to an open declaration that, in case of non-compliance with their petitions, the sovereign will have forfeited his claim to their allegiance. These proceedings are subsequently printed and circulated, and thus become a fresh vehicle for sedition and treason.

By the frequency of these meetings, and by the new practice of continuing them (under various pretexts) by frequent adjournments, the minds of his majesty's well-disposed and peaceable subjects are held in a state of perpetual agitation and alarm. The appointment of such public meetings, in a variety of different places, on the same day, appears to be considered as the most effectual means of accomplishing the designs of the disaffected, and must evidently, in a high degree, embarrass and impede the exertions of all civil powers applicable to the sup

pression of disturbances, distract the attention of government, and oblige them so to subdivide and harass the military force which it may be necessary to call in for the assistance of the civil power, as to render it inadequate to the maintenance of public tranquil lity.

Such a state of things cannot be suffered to continue without hazarding the most imminent and dreadful evils; and although the Committee do not

presume to anticipate the decision of Parliament as to the particular measures to be adopted in the present emergency, they feel it to be their duty to express their decided opinion, that further provisions are necessary for the preservation of the public peace, and for the protection of interests in which the happiness of every class of the community is deeply and equally involved.