those who thought and fpoke as he had done, and who reprobated the measures, which, after he had fo bitterly complained of them in that fpeech, he had now thought proper to adopt.

A reply was made to Mr. Erfkine by Mr. Anftruther and lord Mornington. The first repeated the various arguments adduced in favour of the bill, and the fecond produced a variety of paflages out of feveral publications, in order to prove its propriety. The latter was violently arraigned on this account by Mr. Sheridan,

The bill was defended by Mr. Dundas, who took occafion to obferve, that no member of that houfe had fo frequently diftinguished himfelf by appeals to the people as Mr. Fox, combating minifters in popular meetings one half of the day, and attacking them with equal fervour in parliament during the remainder. He had acted the fame part during the American war to as little purpose, however, as it would appear he had done at prefent. Mr. Dundas inveighed, with great afperty, against fome particulars in his political conduct and connections, which he exerted himself to describe in the most disadvantageous colours.

These reproaches drew a fevere anfwer from Mr. Fox, who pointedly reminded him of the maxim held forth by his coadjutor Mr. Pitt, that popular harangues were "the best and moft ufeful duty, which reprefentatives in parliament could difcharge to their conftituents." In appealing to the public he had done no more than his duty, which enjoined him, whenever the conduct of minifters appeared in a queftionable light to inform the people of his fentiments relating to &

their defigns. The bill he expli citly defined, a daring attempt to overthrow the fundamental principle on which the conftitution food; the univerfal freedom of difcuffion. With regard to the inefficacy of his remonftrances against the American war, he readily admitted that he had uniformly, and on all occafions, condemned that war from first to last, and that all his remonftrances againft it, as the honourable gentlemen had juftly obferved, had been to no purpole. But whether this ought to be made matter of shame or reproach to himfelf, or of triumph to the honourable gentleman, he left the house, the world, and even the honourable gentleman, to judge.-A deep filence at thefe words took place for a few moments on both fides of the house, and every eye was turned on Mr. Dundas, who, contrarily to his ufual manner, difcovered, or at least was thought to difcover, fymptoms of difcompofure. The debate clofed with two hundred and thirteen votes for the fecond reading of the bill, and forty-three against it.

The fecond reading of the bill, for the better fecurity of the king's person, was moved in the house of commons on the nineteenth of November; when the queftion being put, Mr. Fox oppofed it on account of the abfence of many members; but the motion paffed by fixty-four against twenty-two.

In the mean time, the public was no lefs occupied than parliament itself, in the difcuffion of the two bills pending in both houses. The novelty of the measures propofed, their inimical tendency to the long established ufages of the nation, their direct aim at its liberty, and the daringnefs of minifters in bringing forward fo undeniable an infringement

fringement of rights, that had been refpected by all preceding adminiftrations: thefe combined motives excited an alarm, which was felt in every part of the nation. All people, without exception, cordially avowed their loyalty to the fovereign, but as vehemently protefted against the pafling of the two bills, as unconftitutional, and clearly fubverfive of the main foundation of English liberty, the right of the people to affemble and to communicate their fentiments reciprocally upon thofe fubjects, which they thought neceflary to bring into difcuffion, and to frame petitions upon them to the king and the legiflature. The determinate fteadinefs and perfeverance of the public on this critical occafion was the more remarkable, that every effort was used by the minifterial party to prevent thole popular exertions against the defigns in agitation; but thefe were viewed with fo fufpicious an eye, that every argument in their juftification vanifhed before the difcontent they feemed to have univerfally excited. Numbers even of thofe who did not difapprove the conduct of minifters in other refpects, could not bring themfelves to approve the two bills in contemplation, Thofe even who fupported them, as requifite during the fermentation at prefent pervading all claffes, frankly acknowledged them to be contrary to the principles of the English conftitution, the freedom of which, however, unless reftrained by fome temporary regulations, threatened to become licentioufnefs, and to precipitate the public into all thofe miferies that had been fo woefully experienced by their unhappy neighbours, the French. But thofe who thus maintained the ncceffity of these bills, pleaded only for a

limited duration of them. As they were indubitably an abridgement of national liberty, they ought, it was ftrongly afferted, to lait no longer than the occafion that gave rife to them. When the difputes of the day, and the feuds they produced were at an end, they ought inftantly to be repealed, and the full exercife of the ancient liberties of the nation, to be refiored without the least diminution upon any pretence. Thus argued the majority of thofe who favoured the bills.

But a far fuperior majority would admit of them on no pretence whatever. They were, it was indignantly affirmed, the component parts of a fyfiem that began to unfold itfelf in too vifible a manner not to be perceived, and too alarming a one not to be refifted by every real friend to the liberty of his country. This refiftance was indeed propofed by fome to be carried to the moft refolute extremity; and had not the immenfe power of govenment been prudently weighed, the propofal would, in the opinion of numbers, have been carried into execution: but though a refiftarce of fo dangerous a nature gave way to the cool reflections of the better advifed, every other fpecies of oppofition took place against the two bills in queftion. Meetings and confultations, both private and public, were held every where. Clubs and affociations were formed for the purpofe of oppofing them by every method not liable to the cognizance of the w. Never had there appeared, in the memory of the oldeft man, to firm and decided a plurali y of adverfaries to the minifterial meafures as on this occafion: the intereft of the public feemed fo deeply at flake, that individuals, not only of the decent, but of the [D4]

moft

moft vulgar profeffions, gave up a confiderable portion of their time and occupations in attending the numerous meetings that were called in every part of the kingdom, to the profefled intent of counteracting this attempt of the miniftry.

The whig club, comprifing not a few individuals of the firft rank and property in the kingdom, led the way in this celebrated oppofition. It met on the eleventh of November, and was prefided by the duke of Bedford. All the members of both houfes of parliament belonging to the club attended on this occafion. The fpeeches and opinions delivered were uncommonly fpirited and refolute After mature deliberation, it was unanimoufly refolved, that they would give every aid to the civil magiftra e in detecting, and bringing to punishment, the perfons concerned in the daring attack made upon the king, in his pailage to parliament, on the first day of the feffion: that, lamenting, as they did, this nefarious act, they faw, with the utmoft concern, that it had been ufed as a pretext for introducing into parliament a bill, ftriking at the liberty of the prefs, and the freedom of public difcufiion, in fubftance and effect deftroying the right of the fubject to petition the branches of the legislature for redcefs of grievances, and utterly fubverive of the genuine principles of the conftitution; and for propofing arother measure, calculated to produce fimilar effects, by means fill more exceptionable. That it was therefore highly expediat, that meetings of the people, in their refpective diftricts, fould be immediately called, to confider this important fubject, and for the purpofe of petitioning parliament again the faid bill, or any other meafure which

10

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might tend to infringe the juft rights of the people of Great Britain.

The correfponding fociety's numerous members, together with an immenfe multitude of their adherents and well-wishers, aflembled on the twelfth of November, in the fields near Copenhagen-houfe. Here they folemnly denied allintentions of railing commotions, and difproved, by the frongeft arguments they could adduce, the charge brought against them by miniftry, of being concerned in the outrages committed against the king. They framed three petitions, one to the king, and the two others to the lords and commons; ftating them to be the unanimous petitions of nearly four hundred thousand British fubjects, met together to communicate their fentiments, and exprefs them freely, as authorifed to do by the bill of rights, on the measures of miniftry, which tended to invade the liberties vefted in them by the conftitution. They fupplicated, therefore, the king to exert his royal authority, in the prefervation of his people's rights, directly threatened by the two bills brought forward by his minifters; and they requested the two honfes to interforc in behalf of the public, against the minifterial attempt to procure their paffing.

The livery of London, the electors of Weiminiter, and the freeholders of Middlefex, agreed to remontrances and petitions of the like nature, and were followed by a number of counties, and almoft every town of note in the kingdom. In the public meetings, held for thofe purpofes, people were nearly unanimous in their oppofition to the bills: but they were fecretly counteracted by the agents of miniftry, who circulated clandeftinely

counter

counter-addresses in their favour. It was ftrongly afferted, at the time, that thele were figned by none but ministerial dependents, fuch as officers of the customs and excife, and military men. So great was the repugnance of the people at large afferted to have been, that the fignatures of youth at school was reforted to. But with all thefe exertions, the petitions, on the fide of the miniftry, did not exceed fixtyfour fubfcribed by about thirty thoufand individuals of the above defcription, while the addrefles against the bills, amounted to near one hundred, and the fubfcribers to upwards of one hundred and thirty thousand.

Among thofe who fignalized their adherence to miniftry, were the members of the affociation, formed, with the countenance and aid of government, by Mr. Reeves, at the clofe of 1792, and the commencement of 1793, against republicans and levellers. They flood forward on this occafion, with extraordinary zeal, in fupport of the two bills, of which they expreffed the highest approbation in the addrefs which they prefented to the king.

But, notwithstanding the difproportion of numbers against them, miniftry perfifted, with unremitting refolution, in carrying forward their defigns. However, oppofed by the Bajority of the nation, they were lecure of a fupport in parliament, that would enable them to compafs the point propofed. The popular. opinions were, in the mean time, reprefented by thofe who argued in defence of the bills, as the mere ebulitions of party zeal, and dictated to the people by the leaders of parHamentary oppofition, who hoped to excite fuch complaints and clamours against the conduct of government,

2

as might deter it from the profecution of its plans. Thefe, they afferted, were, in the opinion of the judicious and the more refpectable part of the community, neceffary for the internal tranquillity of the kingdom, and could only be difapproved by thofe factious and difaffected people, who fought, for malicious purposes, to throw the country into confusion.

While the nation at large was thus agitated, its reprefentatives were taken up with no less violent debates on the petitions now prefunted to them from every quarter. That from the correfponding fociety was laid before the houfe on the twenty-third of November, by Mr. Sturt, who warmly exculpated that fociety from the imputations of treafon or fedition. In order to fhew at the fame time, the malevolent intentions of miniftry, and its partizans, he produced a performance, attributed to Mr. Reeves, the framer and prefident of the affociations against republicans and levellers, wherein it was unequivocally maintained, "that the government of England was a monarchy; that the monarch was the ancient ftock from which have fprung those goodly branches of the legiflature, the lords and commons; that these, however, were still only branches, and that they might be lopped off, and the tree be a tree ftill, fhorn indeed, of its honours, but not, like them, caft into the fire."

So flagrant a violation of the fundamental principles of the Englith conftitution, excited the indignation, not only of the oppofition, but of many of the members friendly. to minifters. The public loudly proclaimed it, a ftab aimed at the vitals of the conftitution, and loaded the author with the moft opprobri

ous epithets. So univerfal was the deteftation of the principles contained in this performance, that it was judged requifite, in order to appeafe the public, formally to vote it a libel on the conftitution, and to direct the attorney-general to profecute the author. But fo weak and faint was the profecution, in the opinion of the public, that they figmatifed the profecutors, as acting knowingly under the controul of directors, who certainly would not fuffer fo valuable an inftrument of their defigns, to fuffer an injury for having acquitted himself fo much to their fatisfaction.

On the twenty-fifth of November, a motion was made, by Mr. Curwen, to poftpone, one week, the difcuffion of the two bills. He fpoke, with marked vehemence, against the bill for preventing feditious meetings, as tending, in its infallible effects, to change the whole conftitution. It was only in popular meetings, he obferved, that the real fentiments of the people could be manifefted; and thefe fentiments, thus freely expreffed, had hitherto, though affectedly flighted by minifters, proved an effectual restraint on their power, and stemmed that torrent of corruption with which they endeavoured to overwhelm all refiftance to their measures. Were this ftrongest, and almoft only remaining, bulwark of the conftitution to be demolished, all oppofition muft fall with it, both within, as well as without, the houfe; as the commons, when no longer fupported, by the concurring voice of the people, would quickly experience a diminution of their own confequence, which, they must be confcious, refted entirely on the confequence of the people. Were thefe to be filenced, how could their re

prefentatives, confiftently, pretend to deliver the opinion of their conftituents? The influence of the crown had, of late years, overweighed all the importance of the democratic part of the conftitution, by depriving it of fo alarming a proportion of its property, and annexing it to the aritocracy, through the creation of fuch a number of peers. If the remaining friends to the democracy valued its exiftence, and confidered it as the only folid foundation of liberty, a truth not to be denied, they would rally around it, without delay, and exert their whole ftrength to preferve it from the ruin with which it was now menaced, more obviously, and more dangerously, than ever.

In the courfe of the memorable fpeech, which he made on this day, Mr. Curwen took occafion to bring, to the recollection of the houfe, an expreffion that had fallen, two days before, from Mr. Windham, in a debate on the bill, for fecuring the king's perfon against popular infults. This gentleman, in anfwering a fpeech of Mr. Fox, had given him to understand, in explicit terms, that minifters were determined to exert a vigour beyond the law. So fingular an expreffion did not fail to ftrike the whole house with aftonifhment. By the enemies to miniftry, it was conftrued into an inadvertent avowal, that they were refolved to pay no regard to the laws in the execution of their projects, and would destroy fuch as stood in their way; and it was, in fact, blamed by both fides of the house, as equally imprudent, and intemperate.

Mr. Curwen's animadverfions, on thefe words of Mr. Windham, were extremely fpirited and fevere. He rebuked him, forcibly, for prefum