RESTRICTIONS ON PUBLIC LIBERTY.
On the 3rd of February a message was communicated to both houses, announcing that the prince-regent had ordered the production of papers which contained an account of certain meetings and combinations held in various parts of the country, tending to disturb public tranquillity, to alienate the affection of the people from his majesty’s person and government, and to overthrow the whole frame of the laws and constitution. His royal highness recommended these papers to the immediate consideration of parliament; and they were accordingly referred by each house to a secret committee. It was expected that coercive measures would be adopted; but in the face of this a mob, headed by Henry Hunt and others, met in Spa-fields on the 10th of February, under the pretext of petitioning for parliamentary reform. The reports of the secret committees were presented on the 18th of February; and, on their recommendation, stringent acts were passed to correct the evil. The first consequence of these reports was the apprehension of the elder Watson, Preston, Hooper, and Keene, who were committed to the Tower on a charge of high-treason; a reward of five hundred pounds was also offered for the apprehension of a man named Thistlewood; and he was also taken and lodged with his associates. The measures adopted by parliament for the security of the public peace, were the suspension of the Habeas Corpus Act until the 1st of July next; an extension of the act of 1795, for the security of the king’s person, to that of the regent; the revival of an act of 1795 against corresponding societies; and a reenactment of that regarding the seduction of soldiers and sailors from their allegiance. Petitions were presented against these restrictions on public liberty, and they were opposed in every stage by the opposition; but they were carried in both houses by large majorities. Although these acts appeared to infringe on the public liberty, yet they were effectual in saving the country from violence and bloodshed, if not from the horrors of anarchy. Powerful measures are required for the restraint of hydra-headed faction. The suspension of the Habeas Corpus struck an unexpected blow against the hopes and plans of the apostles of reform; and Mr. William Cobbett, who at this period figured as one of the most ardent reformers, deemed it prudent to retire to America, promising, however, to return as soon as England should be again under the protection of her constitution, and in the meantime to transmit his weekly register from the land of his voluntary exile.
On the assembling of the peers after the Easter recess, it was ordered, on the motion of Lord Grey, that a copy of the circular-letter recently addressed by the secretary of state for the home department to the lord-lieutenants of counties, relative to seditious or blasphemous publications, be laid before the house. In this document Lord Sidmouth had stated, as it was of the greatest importance to prevent, if possible, the circulation of the blasphemous and seditious pamphlets and writings then distributed in great numbers through the country, he had thought it his duty to consult the law-officers of the crown, whether a person found selling, or in any other way publishing such writings, might be brought immediately before a justice of peace by warrant to answer for his conduct; and the law-officers had given their opinion to the effect, that a justice of the peace might issue his warrant for the apprehension of a person charged before him, on oath, with the publication of such libels, and compel him to give bail to answer such charge. Under these circumstances the attention of the lord-lieutenants was earnestly called to the subject; and they were requested to notify such opinion to the chairman of the quarter-sessions, in order that magistrates might be led to act upon it. When this circular was produced Lord Grey addressed their lordships in a speech, in which he contended against the principle that a justice of the peace might be called on by any common informer to decide what was, or what was not a libel, and to commit or hold to bail, on his sole judgment, the accused party. His lordship argued that such a specific intimation to magistrates regarding the mode in which they were to construe the law, even supposing the law itself to be clear and undisputed, was a high offence against the constitution. He moved for the production of a case that had been submitted to the law-officers; but it was negatived on a division by a majority of seventy-five against nineteen. A similar motion was made in the commons by Sir Samuel Romilly, and a similar decision given. As towards the close of the session the spirit of disaffection throughout the country was not subdued, a further suspension of the Habeas Corpus Act to the 1st of March, 1818, was carried by a large majority.