On the 7th of February a communication was made by Lord Castlereagh from the prince regent, stating that out of sympathy to a suffering people he had determined upon a cession of £50,000 per annum of that part of his income which related to his personal expenses, during the continuance of the existing distress. At the same time his lordship communicated the intention of ministers to dispense with one-tenth of their official incomes, while the necessities of the state should require such a sacrifice. Lord Camden, also, one of the tellers of the exchequer, relinquished, pro tempore, the whole of his large profits with the exception of £2,500, the regulated income of the other tellers. On the reduced scale the expenditure of the year was estimated at £6,500,000 less than that of the preceding year, and a further saving of upwards of £1,000,000 was calculated upon for the year 1818. On the same day that Lord Castlereagh made the above communication to the house, he moved for the appointment of a committee of inquiry respecting the income and expenditure of the state. The first report of this committee was made on the 5th of May, when Mr. Davies Gilbert stated that, in recommending the suppression of certain offices, it was at the same time necessary that his majesty should be enabled to reward meritorious persons, by the power of granting pensions according to merit and length of service. A bill, entitled “the Civil Services Compensation Bill,” was accordingly introduced, with another for abolishing the offices of wardens and justices in Eyre, both of which passed the houses with very little opposition. About the time this bill passed Mr. Abbott resigned the speakership, and was created Lord Colchester, with a pension of £4000 to himself and his immediate successor. He was succeeded by Mr. Charles Manners Sutton, eldest son of the Archbishop of Canterbury.
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.
COMMITTEE ON THE POOR-LAWS, ETC.
During this session a committee on the poor-laws, with Mr. Sturges Bourne for its chairman, was appointed. This committee made its report in July; but not much new light was thrown upon the subject, as the object of the members seemed to be that of neutralizing every topic as much as possible; probably from ministerial instructions, as the cabinet were averse to making experiments. On the 9th of July Mr. Wilberforce moved for an address to the prince regent, submitting in dutiful, but urgent terms, the expression of our continued solicitude for the universal and final abolition of the slave-trade amongst the European powers, which was agreed to nem. con. On the same evening a discussion of considerable interest took place upon a series of resolutions on finance, which had been brought forward by Mr. Tierney; and after a debate of great length the previous question was carried upon each of these resolutions, and counter resolutions, moved by Mr. Grant, adopted in their stead. The last important debate of the session took place in the commons on a motion made by Mr. Brougham, for an inquiry into the state of the nation; a motion introduced chiefly for the purpose of enabling the mover, as the organ of opposition in the lower house to enter a protest, in detail, against the whole of the acts and proceedings of ministers. In exposing the false system on which parliament had long legislated on the subject of commerce, Mr. Brougham remarked:—“The period is now arrived when, the war being closed and prodigious changes having taken place throughout the world, it becomes absolutely necessary to enter on a careful but fearless revision of our whole commercial system, that we may be enabled safely, yet promptly, to eradicate those faults which the lapse of time has occasioned or displayed; to retrace our steps where we shall find that they have deviated from the line of true policy; to adjust and accommodate our laws to the alteration of circumstances; to abandon many prejudices, alike antiquated and senseless, unsuited to the advanced age in which we live, and unworthy of that sound judgment which distinguishes this nation.” The motion was negatived without a division.