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cause of the Parliament being called together earlier than usual.

"The state of irritation which the circumstances of the time produced drove the people into clubs and associations to obtain peace, reform, and cheap bread. Those who associated were fully persuaded that by causing as great a ferment as possible the Government would be overawed, and concede what they requested. Mr. Grey had said in his place in Parliament, the House will never reform itself or destroy the corruption by which it is upheld by any other means than those of the resolutions of the people acting on the prudence of the House. That point they could only accomplish by meeting in bodies as recommended by the Ministers in 1782.

"This was firmly and reasonably believed by vast numbers of the people, who were, however, mistaken in supposing the time was come when the people could act on the prudence of the House so as to obtain a reform."1

"In this state of irritated feelings," continues Place, "The London Corresponding Society called a public meeting of the people in a field near Copenhagen House, near Islington, on 26th October 1795."

"This," he characterises as "an injudicious proceeding." Many persons shared his views, and were against holding a meeting, but he says: "Almost everybody with whom I talked were persuaded that the House of Commons would be induced to consent to a radical reform in the state of the representation, and on this notion the Society proceeded."

In The History of Two Acts an account of this meeting is given. "The indifference with which the late Address from this Society to the King was treated; the rapid approximation of national destruction; the continuation of the present detestable war; the horrors of an approaching famine; and, above all, the increased corruption, and inquisitorial measures pursued and pursuing by those who hold the country in bondage, obliged this Society to appeal once more to their fellow-countrymen, and their common friends the advocates of reform, in order to obtain, by an open and explicit discussion of those several topics, a precise and unequivocal declaration of the

1 Place, MSS., 27,808, p. 36.

public opinion, upon objects so essential to the present good and future glory of this country."

This time "Citizen" John Binns was chairman.

"The number of people at the meeting was very great (150,000 it was said, but that of course was an exaggeration). There were three Platforms, called tribunes, erected at what was supposed a convenient distance; each of these was surrounded by a vast number of persons; so great indeed was the number, that not half of the spectators could get near enough to hear a single word of what was said by the speakers on either side of the tribunes." "Precautions were taken to frustrate the efforts of persons hired to promote disorder at the meeting, for which purpose several thousand handbills were circulated in the numerous avenues leading to the place of meeting, and on the ground, recommending orderly and peaceable behaviour."

Another Address to the Nation was adopted, "the reading of which was from time to time interrupted with such loud applauses as are but seldom heard, even in public places."

"What is the cruel and insatiate monster that thus piecemeal tears and devours us? Wherefore, in the midst of apparent plenty, are we thus compelled to starve? Why, when we incessantly toil and labour must we pine in misery and want? What is this subtle and insinuating poison which thus vitiates our domestic comforts, and destroys our public prosperity? It is Parliamentary Corruption which, like a foaming whirlpool, swallows the fruit of all our labours, and leaves us only the dregs of bitterness and sorrow.

"Those whose duty it is to watch over the interests of the nation, have either proved themselves indifferent to its welfare, or unable to remove the pressure of these intolerable grievances. Let them, however, be aware in time. Let them look to the fatal consequences. We are sincere friends of Peace. We want only Reform, because we are firmly and fully convinced that a thorough Reform would effectually remedy these formidable evils; but we cannot answer for the strong and all-powerful impulse of necessity, nor always restrain the aggravated feelings of insulted human nature. IF EVER THE BRITISH NATION SHOULD LOUDLY DEMAND STRONG AND DECISIVE MEASURES, WE BOLDLY ANSWER, "WE HAVE LIVES! AND

ARE READY TO DEVOTE THEM, EITHER SEPARATELY OR COLLECTIVELY, FOR THE SALVATION OF OUR COUNTRY."

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This time a "Remonstrance to the King was adopted, as their previous Address had not been attended to, again urging peace and Parliamentary reform, annual Parliaments, and universal suffrage. "Listen then, Sire, to the voice of a wearied and afflicted people, whose grievances are so various that they distract, so enormous that they terrify. Think of the abyss between supplication and despair."

Several resolutions were also passed, one "That in order the more effectually to obtain the co-operation and assistance of the whole country, deputies shall be sent from the Society to the principal towns in the kingdom, for the purpose of explaining to our fellow-countrymen the necessity of associating, as the only means of procuring Parliamentary reform." Another, "That the only hope of the people is in themselves." Numerous speeches were made, and a little after five o'clock the meeting broke up, "when the immense company that was present separated and proceeded to their respective homes. The utmost harmony, regularity, and good order prevailed during the whole time, each and every individual seeming to be impressed with the idea that it was a day sacred to liberty.”

It has been necessary to give at some length the description of these meetings, as they constitute the first Platform campaign by the civic industrial population of this country. The details are instructive, as showing both the spirit and the style of these earlier efforts at agitation by the Platform, and they enable us practically, I think, for the first time, to understand what it really was the Government had to deal with.

Three days after this meeting, Parliament was opened, and there was an enormous crowd to see the King going there in state to deliver the Royal Speech. He was violently hissed and hooted and groaned at; cries of "No war," "No Pitt," "No famine," "Peace, peace!" proceeded from some in the crowd; but no violence of any sort was offered until he arrived opposite the Ordnance Office, when a small pebble, or marble, or bullet, broke one of the windows of his carriage. Later in the day he was again mobbed, but the Guards were speedily brought up, and he was enabled to proceed.

The occurrence sent a thrill of excitement through the

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country. The Ministers immediately threw the whole blame upon the Platform, and asserted that this attack on the King was the direct result of the meeting near Copenhagen House. A Proclamation was forthwith issued against seditious and unlawful assemblies. "Whereas it hath been represented to us that immediately before the opening of the present Session of Parliament, a great number of persons were collected in the fields in the neighbourhood of the metropolis by advertisement and handbills, and that divers inflammatory discourses were delivered to the persons so collected; . . . and whereas such proceedings have been followed by acts of tumult and violence, and by daring and highly criminal outrages in direct violation of the public peace, to the immediate danger of our Royal Person, and to the interruption of our passage to and from our Parliament. And whereas great uneasiness and anxiety hath been produced in the minds of our faithful subjects by rumours and apprehensions that seditious and unlawful assemblies are intended to be held by evil-disposed persons, and that such other criminal practices as aforesaid are intended to be repeated.

"We do hereby enjoin and require all Justices of the Peace, Constables, etc. etc., to use the utmost diligence to discourage, prevent, and suppress all seditious and unlawful assemblies."

Proclamations, however, cannot alter or make laws, and as the existing laws were deemed insufficient to check such proceedings, fresh legislation was an urgent necessity. Two Bills were therefore forthwith introduced into Parliament— one for the safety and preservation of his Majesty's person and Government against treasonable and seditious practices and attempts; the other for crushing the Platform and silencing free speech, or, as the Bill described itself, "for the more effectually preventing seditious meetings and assemblies."

The former was introduced into the House of Lords by Lord Grenville (Secretary of State), who said that "the late violent attack upon the person of his Majesty demanded some necessary measures for the prevention of a return of similar abuses, and that attack he suspected to have been made in consequence of the licentious proceedings which had of late been suffered without any notice or restriction. Indeed, the treasonable 1 4th November 1795, Parliamentary History, vol. xxxii. p. 243.

and seditious speeches and writings, which had of late been so assiduously disseminated at public meetings, together with the number of libels otherwise circulated, were so general and notorious, as most particularly to call for the interference of Parliament.1

"The dangerous doctrines held forth at such meetings tended to inflame the minds of the infatuated multitude. . . . If they were suffered to continue scattering firebrands where there was much combustible matter, their lordships and his Majesty's Ministers would have to answer to themselves and to their country for the effect that might follow." 2

The measure he introduced need not have been noticed here were it not that part of it lent itself, in the hands of the Government, to a serious interference with freedom of speech and public discussion-the part which enacted that persons who should "maliciously and advisedly by writing, printing, preaching, or other speaking, express, publish, utter, or declare, any words or sentences to incite or stir up the people to hatred or contempt of the person of his Majesty, or the government and constitution of this realm, as by law established," should, on conviction, be liable to such punishment as might be inflicted in cases of high misdemeanour, and for a second offence should be liable to banishment or transportation for seven years.

The Bill "for the more effectually preventing seditious meetings and assemblies" was introduced into the House of Commons on the 10th of November by Pitt. From the moment the suspension of the Habeas Corpus Act was taken off, he said, "All the plans of the Societies revived and continued in a progressive state till the meeting of Parliament." 4

He contended that "they should adopt some means to prevent these seditious assemblies, which served as vehicles to faction and disloyalty, which fanned and kept alive the flame of disaffection, and filled the minds of the people with discontent. . . . His motion was directed to prevent those meetings, to which all the mischiefs he had mentioned were attributable.

1 Parliamentary History, vol. xxxii. p. 245.

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