§ Mr. C. Calvertrose to present a petition against the coercive measures now in progress through parliament, from the inhabitant householders of the borough of Southwark. It was signed by 900 individuals out of 6,000, and would have received many more signatures if a longer time had been allowed. Indeed, many persons applied to 1027 sign it after it had been placed in his hands. Not having had an opportunity of delivering his sentiments on several late occasions, (a circumstance easily accounted for, when they considered that the House consisted of 658 members, some of whom were not content with speaking once on the same subject), he would now take the opportunity of expressing his opinion on recent events. He viewed with abhorrence the affair that took place at Manchester, and he thought the measures proposed by ministers were rigorous in the extreme, and at the same time unnecessary. If that meeting, large as it was said to be, could be dispersed in a few minutes; if a body of from 50,000 to 70,000 persons, as they had been described, were dispersed, under the existing laws, in a quarter of an hour, he would ask, where was the necessity for enacting severe measures? What was the course government ought to pursue? If he did not receive an answer, he would give an answer himself. They ought to act, not with vigour, but with clemency. A little more allowance ought to be made for the distresses of the manufacturers, all of whom ought not to be looked on as radical reformers.
§ Sir R. Wilsonsaid, the petition was signed by a number of persons, who, whilst they were friends to peace and good order, wore, at the same time, lovers of the law and constitution. Whatever sacrifices might be called for, they were determined to defend that constitution which gave to Lords and Commons their power, and also to the people the legitimate source of that power, their sacred and inalienable rights. The people saw, in the bills now before the House, a new revolution in the frame of government—powers calculated to abolish their rights, to endanger their safety, and to outrage the feelings, and even the decencies of society. They saw a code, possessing all the characteristics of that despotism which some persons thought necessary for the proper government of man, but which, he thanked God, never had prevailed, and he hoped never would prevail, in this country. They saw, in three of those measures, a spirit foreign to British legislation. In the Libel bill they perceived a determination, not to remove the reasons which gave rise to sedition, but to fix an enormous penalty on the vague and undefined offence of libel. In another bill, they saw a power 1028 to abolish the right of meeting when and where the people pleased, for the purpose of discusing their grievances. Lastly, they deplored those domiciliary visits, which no just plan of government ever tolerated, which formed the most atrocious features of the reign of terror, and which were never introduced into any country without causing the most melancholy effects. He trusted his hon. friend the member for Cork who would that night make his motion to exclude Ireland from the operation of the bill, would state some of the abuses which were perpetrated in that unhappy country when a similar bill was in force there. Heretofore, the maxim was "That an Englishman's house was his castle;" the elements might whistle round it—the elements might enter it—bat the king could not, and dare not. What would be the fact, after the passing of this bill? On mere suspicion, an officer might force a man's bolts; he might break his rest, and expose every female in his family to the rude gaze, indecent violence, and brutal lust of nocturnal invaders. Whatever amendments might accompany this bill, he never would submit to have the peace of his family interrupted by such nocturnal violence. The petitioners hoped that ministers would be declared unworthy the confidence of the Prince Regent for their conduct; but, if that House gave them its confidence, they had two consolations; first, that the fetters which were forged for them would fret, chafe, and gall the people, so that they never would be reconciled to them; and next, that the effect must be a great and successful stand against the duration of such measures.
§ Ordered to be printed.