HL Deb 18 February 1817 vol 35 cc411-20
The Earl of Harrowby,

President of the Council, presented the Report of the Committee of Secrecy, which he moved should be read. It was accordingly read by the clerk at the table; and is as follows:

By the LORDS COMMITTEES appointed a Secret Committee to inquire into certain Meetings and Combinations endangering the Public Tranquillity, and to report to the House as they shall see Occasion:

Ordered to report, that the Committee have met, and have proceeded in the examination of the papers referred to them.

Their attention was in the first instance directed to those which relate to the metropolis; and they have found therein such evidence as leaves no doubt in their minds that a traitorous conspiracy has been formed in the metropolis for the purpose of overthrowing, by means of a general insurrection, the established government, laws, and constitution of this kingdom, and of effecting a general plunder and division of property.

In the last autumn various consultations were held by persons in the metropolis engaged in this conspiracy. Different measures of the most extensive and dangerous nature were resolved upon; partial preparations were made for their execution, and various plans were discussed for collecting a force sufficient for that purpose. But at a subsequent consultation another plan was adopted, which was, to get a great number of men together to see what force could be raised; and it was agreed that the best way to get them together would be to call a public meeting.—Spa-Fields was fixed upon as the place affording the greatest facilities for entering the town, and attacking the most important points in the city. In pursuance of this design, and in order to assemble in the neighbourhood of London a great number of the poorer classes of the community, and particularly of those in whose minds the pressure of the times might be supposed to have excited disaffection and discontent, advertisements were inserted in newspapers, and hand-bills were industriously distributed, inviting the distressed manufacturers, mariners, artisans, and others to assemble at that place on the 15th of November. A large body of people accordingly assembled at the time and place prescribed. The most inflammatory language was there held to the multitude, having a direct tendency to excite them to outrage and violence; and the meeting was in fact followed by some acts of plunder and riot. A petition to his royal highness the Prince Regent was agreed to at that meeting, and an adjournment to Palace-Yard on the first day after the meeting of parliament was proposed; but the second of December was subsequently fixed upon (on the proposition of one of the persons concerned in the plans already § described) for another meeting in Spa-Fields; and that day appears to have been determined upon for the execution of their design.

Various schemes were formed for this purpose. Amongst them was a general and forcible liberation of all persons confined in the different prisons in the metropolis; into some of which, in order to facilitate its execution, an address to the prisoners was introduced, assuring them that their liberty would be restored under a new government; announcing the intended attack upon all the prisons for that day; apprizing the prisoners that arms would be ready for them; exhorting them to be prepared with the national tricolor cockade, and to co-operate by the most violent and sanguinary means to ensure success.

It was also proposed to set fire to various barracks, and steps were taken to ascertain and prepare the means of effecting this purpose. An attack upon the Tower and Bank, and other points of importance, was, after previous consultations, finally determined upon. Pikes and arms to a certain extent were actually provided, and leaders were named, among whom the points of attack were distributed. It further appears that the interval between the two meetings was employed with unremitting assiduity by some of the most active agitators in taking regular circuits through different quarters of the town. In these they either resorted to the established clubs or societies, or laboured in conversations, apparently casual, at publick houses, to work up the minds of those with whom they conversed into such a state of ferment and irritation as to render them, when collected in sufficient numbers, for whatever ostensible purpose, the fit and ready instruments for the execution of any project, however rash and desperate. In the course of these circuits one of their chief objects appears to have been to take every opportunity of attempting to seduce from their allegiance the soldiers of the different guard and at the barracks. The principal persons concerned in this plan actually proceeded to Spa-Fields on the second of December, some of them with concealed arms, and with ammunition previously prepared; they had also provided themselves with tricolor flags, and with a standard bearing the following inscription: "The brave soldiers are our brothers; treat them kindly;" and also with tricolor cockades, evidently adopted as the signal of revolution. After much inflammatory language a direct invitation was by one of these persons addressed to the multitude to proceed immediately to actual insurrection. And it appears quite certain, that the acts of plunder which were perpetrated for the purpose of procuring arms, and the other measures of open insurrection which followed, were not accidental or unpremeditated, but had been deliberately preconcerted, as parts of a general plan of rebellion and revolution. There appears also strong reason to believe that the execution of those projects at that particular time was expected by some of the associations in distant parts of the country. The conspirators seem to have had the fullest confidence of success; and a persuasion has subsequently been expressed amongst them, that their plans could have been defeated only by casual and unexpected circumstances. Even after the failure of this attempt, the same plans appear not to have been abandoned.

Your committee are deeply concerned to be compelled, in further execution of their duty, to report their full conviction that designs of this nature have not been confined to the capital, but have been extended and are still extending widely in many other parts of Great Britain, particularly in some of the most populous and manufacturing districts.

At the meeting of the second of December in Spa-Fields, that part of the assembly which had not engaged in the acts of plunder and insurrection before-mentioned, came to a resolution to adjourn the meeting to the second Monday after the meeting of parliament, namely, the tenth of February; and it appears by the papers referred to the committee, that meetings in various parts of the country, conformably to a plan settled by the leading persons in London at an early period, were intended to be held on the same day.

It appears manifest that the persons engaged in various parts, both of England and Scotland, in forwarding the plans of revolution, have constantly waited for the example of the metropolis. Intelligence of the event of the meeting there on the second of December was anxiously expected; and as the first report of the beginning of the disturbance excited in a high degree the spirits of the disaffected, so its speedy suppression produced the expression of strong feelings of disappointment. Had it even partially suc- ceeded, there seems much reason to believe that it would have been the signal for a more general rising in other parts of the kingdom. Since that time it appears to be the prevailing impression amongt the leading malcontents in the country, that it is expedient for them to wait till the whole kingdom shall, according to their expression, be more completely organized, and more ripe for action.

What is meant by completely organizing the country is but too evident from the papers before the committee. It appears clearly that the object is, by means of societies or clubs, established or to be established in all parts of Great Britain, under pretence of parliamentary reform, to infect the minds of all classes of the community, and particularly of those whose situation most exposes them to such impressions, with a spirit of discontent and disaffection, of insubordination, and contempt of all law, religion, and morality, and to hold out to them the plunder and division of all property, as the main object of their efforts, and the restoration of their natural rights; and no endeavours are omitted to prepare them to take up arms on the first signal for accomplishing these designs.

It is on these grounds that your committee have been led to look with particular anxiety to the formation, principles, and conduct of those societies or clubs by which the ends of the disaffected have been hitherto so much forwarded, and are expected by them to be finally accomplished. Many of these societies pass under the denomination of Hampden Clubs. Under this title societies of very various descriptions appear to have been formed, all professing their object to be parliamentary reform. This name and their professions may have induced many persons to become members of such societies who may not be aware of the ultimate intentions of many of their leaders; and the committee would by no means ascribe to all these societies the same practices and designs which they have found to be but too prevalent amongst a large number of them; but they find that, particularly among the manufacturing and labouring classes, societies of this denomination have been most widely extended, and appear to have become some of the chief instruments of disseminating doctrines, and of preparing for the execution of plans, the most dangerous to the public security and peace.

Others of these societies are called Union Clubs, professing the same object 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 hand-bill 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 procured by individual members of these societies in considerable quantities, which can only have been 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 these 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 fund holder as a still greater evil; and both have been described as rapacious creatures, who take from the people fifteen-pence 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, particularly in London, by profane and seditious songs and parodies of parts of the liturgy, in which the responses are chanted 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 irreligion 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 representative 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 claims 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 suppression 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 tranquillity.

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.

The Earl of Liverpool moved, that the report be taken into consideration on Friday, and that the Lords be summoned.

Earl Grosvenor

said, that he felt it impossible, and he thought their lordships must feel it impossible, to come to any determination upon the mere report of a committee, however unanimous that committee might be. He hoped they would see the propriety of requiring not only, that the report should be laid before them, but that all the papers and documents upon which that report was founded, should in like manner be submitted to the investigation of parliament. Whatever disaffection existed, or whatever outrages had taken place, be was persuaded the House would feel that the laws of the country were sufficient to put them down. No man could, he thought, be considered a friend to his country, who, without a case of the most urgent necessity to justify him, could recommend the adoption of measures injurious to the liberty of the subject.

The Earl of Harrowby

said, that on this occasion the course had been adopted which had, under similar circumstances, been adopted on former occasions. He had always understood, that one of the objects of parliament in referring papers to a committee of secrecy was, that a greater degree of trust might be reposed in such a committee than in one constituted in the ordinary way; and that it was to be left to the discretion of the committee whether the evidence ought or ought not to be laid on the table. In many cases it was obvious, that the production of the information on which the report was founded might have the effect of counteracting the objects which parliament might have in view in adopting this course of proceeding.

The House was ordered to be summoned for Friday.