have prevented the late atrocities, it was the opinion of government that these shocking occurrences afforded of themselves sufficient ground for enquiry. All intention of resorting to a military police was anxiously disclaimed, not only on account of the danger with which such a measure would be attended to the liberties of the country, but on account of its inefficacy to secure even those objects for which some timid persons might be willing to surrender their rights. It was remarked, that even in countries where the preservation of the peace is committed to the care of an armed police, furnished with all the powers of the most vigorous despotism, atrocities such as those which had thrown this country into a state of consternation, were frequently committed.-It was a melancholy fact, however, that, making all due allowance for the exaggerations which at this time prevailed, offences, though not of the deepest enormity, had been multiplied beyond the experience of former years; and it was this circumstance which imperiously called upon parliament to institute the proposed enquiry. The most prominent defects in the police establishment arose out of the improper appointment of weak and disabled persons for the nightly watch, many of whom, it was generally known, had procured their nominations to prevent them from becoming burdens upon the parish. It appeared that an improvement in the state of the watch had, in one instance at least, been attended with the most signal benefit. The parish of Christ Church, Spitalfields, which had formerly exhibited a scene of riot, uproar, and crime, had, by a parochial exertion tending to improve the nightly watch, become of late almost proverbial for its good order and regularity. But, at all events, a more proper course could not in such

a case be followed than the appointment of a committee composed of gentlemen possessing local knowledge, and vested with powers to collect all the information which could be brought together on the subject.

Sir Samuel Romilly, who is sometimes accused of being more partial to a fine theory, than to an obvious and practical remedy for an existing grievance, complained much of the narrow view of the subject which had been taken by government, and proposed that an enquiry should be instituted, not only into the state of the nightly watch, but into the causes of the alarming increase of felonies and crimes. He remarked, that there had been a great and alarming increase of late years in the trials for felonies of various kinds; a circumstance which was the more surprising, that in other countries, one advantage, at least, derived from a state of war, had always been a diminution in the number of crimes. He imputed this singular phenomenon partly to the frequency of capital punishments, but chiefly to the circumstance of promiscuous imprisonment; the youngest and the oldest felons are often confined together, and when dişcharged, no means of gaining a livelihood are provided for them. He thought that the late unusual discharge of convicts from the hulks had greatly increased the number of crimes; and that the evil had been greatly aggravated by many radical defects in the system of police. He disapproved of the rewards given to police officers for the detection of crimes of a certain magnitude, which gave them an interest to encourage the growth of offences, till they had attained that pitch when it might be convenient for the officers to put them down. Rewards ought not, in general, to be given to police officers; but, if given at all, should be confined to accessaries after the fact,

by means of whom useful discoveries might sometimes be made. He imputed the great increase of crimes, and the corruption of public morals, to the mischievous effects of the lottery, which was encouraged by government for the paltry revenue which it afford ed. He censured the familiarities said to exist betwixt the police officers and their prey; and stated, that the officers were accustomed to go into places open for the reception and entertainment of common thieves and other abandoned characters, much in the same way as a gentleman would go to that part of his manor where he expected to start game.-Mr Smith, who concurred with Sir Samuel Romilly, moved an amendment, to extend the power of the committee to an enquiry into the state of the police as well as of the nightly watch. Mr Perceval replied to these speakers; but declined entering the wide field of speculation which they had opened. He insisted that the proposed remedy, if a good one in itself, should not be disregard ed, because other plans might also be attended with advantage, and maintained, that, as the evil was pressing, it would be very absurd were the legislature to wander for the present in to an extensive and embarrassing enquiry, such as that which had been proposed by the preceding speakers. He ridiculed the notion of refusing immediate protection to the metropolis, because the surrounding country might afterwards suffer from the depredations of the expelled criminals; and wisely thought that the prospect of a future and contingent evil could afford no ground for refusing to correct one, which, in fact, had already grown to an enormous magnitude, and which the legislature had the power of at least alleviating. He protested against encumbering the present enquiry with the business of a commit.

tee of penitentiary houses, and with the grave and difficult question as to the expediency of granting rewards as a part of the police system. He remarked, that the supposed familiarity betwixt the officers and delinquents (which was at all events not new, since it been a subject of common-place conversation for a century past) could not have been the immediate causes of the late unprecedented outrages; and expressed some doubt, whether a refined expedient of Sir Samuel Romilly to enable police officers to take up persons, not for the crimes which they had actually committed, but on suspicion of others which they might possibly commit, could well be carried into effect.-Lord Cochrane ascribed the late atrocities to the pension list; and Sir Francis Burdett, who concur. red in opinion with him, thought that no adequate remedy could be provided for evils so great, except by the abolition of sinecures, and by a recurrence to the old and wholesome laws of Edward the First.-Mr Sheridan ridiculed the proposal to enquire into the state of the nightly watch, as totally inadequate to the object in view; he maintained, that the act already conferred all the powers which were necessary to make the watch efficient, and professed to discover in the proposition of Mr Ryder, a most alarming attempt to break in upon the charter of the city of London. He censured the conduct of the magistrates during the late enquiry; they had been foolish enough, he said, to countenance all the prejudices of the mob against Irishmen; they had shewn themselves so deficient in prudence, as to seize upon every one who had a torn coat and dirty shirt to justify suspicion.

The alarm of the country was great, the exigency was pressing, and the desire of government to provide a rëmedy was at least sincere; while the reme

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dy proposed by the ministers was one which had been found of great practical benefit in a parish in the metropolis in which it had formerly been introduced. These were strong reasons in support of the motion, while the necessity of dispatch, in a case in which the public feeling had been so strongly expressed, could admit of no dispute. The motion of Mr Ryder was, therefore, agreed to by the House; the committee was appointed; a large stock of useful information was obtained, and a solid foundation laid for those measures which the public safety at this period so strongly demanded

A very alarming disposition to riot and disorder had manifested itself in different parts of England towards the close of the last year. The commer. cial difficulties to which the country was at this time exposed, the scarcity of work, and the high price of provisions, might, in the first instance, have excited this unhappy spirit ; but there can be no doubt, that, when once raised, it was powerfully fostered and sustained by factious publications disseminated among the people, and by declamatory harangues which charged their sufferings upon the government, and attempted to justify the atrocities to which some deluded wretches had proceeded. The disposition to a sys tem of combined operations first manifested itself in the neighbourhood of the town of Nottingham, in the destruction of some newly-invented stockingframes by small parties of men, principally stocking-weavers, who had assembled from the neighbourhood. The first object of the rioters, therefore, was of the most detestable character, the destruction of an improved machinery, by which the manufacturers of the country obtained so great an advantage over those of other nations, both in the cheapness and quality of their goods. The rioters, however, suppe

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sing that the introduction of machinery had been the chief cause of the difficulty which they had felt in finding employment, proceeded with that ignorant fury which always characterises the operation of a mob, thus to destroy the very sources of public prosperity. By degrees they became more numerous and more formidable, and, having obtained arms, disturbed the whole country between Nottingham and Mansfield, destroying frames almost without resistance.-A new machine had been invented, by which the manufacturers were enabled to avail themselves of the assistance of women, for work in which men had been before employed; and this circumstance tended still further to inflame the spirit of riot and disorder. It is probable that the bands of rioters who first took the field, consisted of persons who had been actually thrown out of employment by the improvements of machinery; and their operations were, in the first instance, confined to the destruction of frames, owned or worked by those who were willing to labour at reduced prices. A vigorous resistance, however, was made to these outrages; an armed force, consisting at first of local militia and yeomanry, was assembled, to which were added about four hundred special constables; the rioters were dispersed, and it was hoped that the disturbances were at an end. But this expectation proved fallacious; for, about the end of November, the outrages were renewed in a more serious and systematic form; money was levied by the rioters on the villages in which they destroyed the frames; and as the number of the insurgents increased, the outrages were by the month of December, extended over Derbyshire and Leicestershire. New measures for suppressing the disorders were adopted; the armed force at Nottingham was increased, the command

ing officer of the district was ordered to repair to that place, and two of the most experienced police magistrates were sent down from London to assist the local authorities.

But the execution of the law was found to be very difficult; for the rioters were too well aware of the advantages of system in their operations, and had become too great favourites with the mob, to be either easily apprehended or convicted. At the spring assizes, however, in Nottingham, seven persons were convicted and sentenced to transportation. The ancient system of watch and ward was renewed in the disturbed counties, and the legislature interfered to increase the punishment for the destruction of frames. But the spirit of insur. rection and disorder still extended in spite of every precaution; at Stockport in Cheshire subscriptions were instituted for the persons in custody in Nottinghamshire; anonymous letters were circulated threatening still farther devastations on machinery, and attempts were made to carry these threats into execution. The spirit of disorder rapidly spread through the neighbourhood; inflammatory placards, inviting the people to tumults, were dispersed; illegal oaths were administered; riots were excited in various places; houses were plundered by persons in disguise, and a general rising was threatened early in the month of May. Aston-under-Line, Eccles, and Middletown, became scenes of confusion. At the last-mentioned place, a most daring attack was, on the 20th of April, made on the manufactory of a Mr Burton, in which the rioters were at first repulsed, and five of their number killed by the military assembled to protect the works; but a second attack was made two days afterwards, in which Mr Burton's dwelling house was burned to the ground.-At Stockport, the riots were renewed about the

middle of April, and a regular system of discipline was established among the insurgents. A meeting of rioters on a heath, about two miles from Stockport, for the purposes of military discipline, was discovered and dispersed on the morning of the 15th of April. Manchester now became a scene of disorder; on the 26th and 27th of April, some thousands of strangers appeared in the town; the local militia was called out, and a considerable military force assembled, but the strangers had dispersed by the 28th. Nocturnal meetings, however, were held for the purposes of military exercise; arms were seized in various places by the disaffected, and contributions in money were levied. Bolton in the Moors, Newcastle-under-Line, Wigan, Warrington, and other towns, exhibited symptoms of disturbance; a spirit of tumult also appeared at Carisle; and at Huddersfield, in Yorkshire, the proceedings of the rioters were marked with peculiar atrocity. A large manufactory at West Houghton, in the neighbourhood of Bolton in the Moors, was, with great dexterity, destroyed on the 24th of April, in spite of every effort which could be made for its protection. The plan of attack was in this instance executed with singular ability. The rioters first of all assembled; but, on the appearance of a military force, they immediately dispersed. The military having returned to their quarters, however, the rioters reappeared, assailed and forced the manufactory, set it on fire, and again dispersed, before the military could be brought to the spot.-At Huddersfield, in the west-riding of Yorkshire and throughout that neighbourhood, the destruction of dressing and shearing machines began early in the month of February; fire-arms were seized in the course of March; and a constable was shot in his own house. Various attempts were made to destroy

the mills in the neighbourhood, in some of which the rioters were successful; but they did not confine their operations to such objects. Mr Horsefall, a respectable merchant and mill owner in the neighbourhood of Huddersfield, was shot about five o'clock in the afternoon of the 28th of April, when returning from market, and died on the 30th of the same month; and although a reward of 20001. was offered for the apprehension of the murderers, a considerable time elapsed before any discovery could be made. When Mr Horsefall was shot, the populace surrounded and reviled him; and allowed the assassins to retire to an adjoining wood. To such a pitch were the atrocities of these miscreants carried, that they nearly killed a young woman in the streets of Leeds, hecause she had been seen near the spot where a murder was committed, and might have been able to give evidence to lead to the discovery of the murderers. At this place, also, the rioters determined on the destruction of all goods which had been prepared otherwise than by manual operation, and proceeded to execute their purpose with unusual dexterity. Some mills at Rawdon, a village about eight miles from Leeds, were, on the morning of the 24th of March, attacked by a body of armed men, who proceeded with the greatest circumspection to seize the watchmen, and to place guards at every neighbouring cottage; they afterwards entered the premises and destroyed the machinery. Other buildings were entered at this place and in the neighbourhood, and the goods which they contained were cut to pieces and destroyed. At Leversedge, in the neighbourhood of the moors which divide Lancashire from Yorkshire, an attack was made on the morning of the 12th of April by a body of two or three hundred armed men, on a valuable mill belonging to a Mr Cart

wright. The proprietor, however, with the assistance of three of his servants and five soldiers, defended the place with courage, and the rioters, probably from the want of ammunition, were compelled to retire. Two of their number were left in the fields desperately wounded, and were secured, but soon afterwards died: neither of these persons would make any confession. The rioters, when retiring, expressed their determination to take Mr Cartwright's life at all hazards; and the people in the neighbourhood joined in expressing their regret that the former attempt had failed. A vast concourse of persons attended the funeral of one of the men who died of his wounds; and there was found written on the walls in many places, "Vengeance for the blood of the innocent." On the 18th of April, Mr Cartwright was twice shot at on the high road; shots were also fired at a constable and magistrate; and several attempts were made to assassinate General Campbell who commanded the troops at Leeds.-On the 9th of April, about 300 armed men attacked some mills near Wakefield, and destroyed the valuable machinery and property. They were seen some time before this on the road marching in regular sections, preceded by a mounted party with drawn swords, and followed by the same number mounted as a rear-guard. The inhabitants were intimidated; the watch and ward act could not be put in execution; the lower orders were to a man either abettors of, or participators in, these outrages. The storehouse of arms for the local militia at Sheffield was surprised in the month of May, and the arms were destroyed and carried off.--In Yorkshire, the seizure of arms was carried to an alarming extent; and although the magistrates used their best efforts to discover the robbers, they failed almost in every instance.In the district which