of the Dey, and of all the money received by him for the redemption of slaves since the beginning of the year; a public acknowledgement made, and pardon asked by the Dey of the British consul, in presence of his ministers and officers. The captives thus rescued were freely conveyed to their own shores, and the sums recovered were transmitted, untouched by the captors, to the courts of Naples and Sardinia. Great Britain performed this splendid service to Christendom, without stipulation and without reimbursement, magnanimously contenting herself with the pure and brilliant glory of such a victory, atchieved in such a cause.

A.D. 1817.

YEAR OF GEORGE III. 57 & 58.

PARLIAMENT, 5 & 6.

Prince Regent's Speech.-A Stone thrown into his Carriage.-Committees of both Houses to examine into seditious Practices. — Suspension of the Habeas Corpus. Acts to restrain Sedition. — Measures of Economy Mr. Manners Sutton proposed and frustrated. — Catholic question. elected Speaker.

Circular Letter of Lord Sidmouth to Lord-LieuteCommittee of Secrecy on nants animadverted on in Parliament. seditious Practices. Employment of Spies. - Fresh Suspension of the Habeas Corpus. · · Budget. Tumults in the northern and midland Counties.-Death of the Princess Charlotte.

- ·

THE domestic annals of this year commence inauspiciously, nor will their further progress be found to discredit the omen.

The session of parliament was opened on January 28th, by the Prince Regent in person. The leading topics of the speech were,—the continued assurances of amity received from foreign powers,-the splendid success of the bombardment of Algiers,—and the termination in a treaty, of a victorious campaign against the government of Nepaul. Passing to matters of finance, the House of Commons were informed by his Royal Highness, that the estimates for the year would speedily be laid before them, and that they had been formed with an anxious desire to make every reduction in the public establishments which the safety of the empire proand true policy would allow. A deficiency in the duce of the last year's revenue was acknowledged, but His Royal was vaguely ascribed to temporary causes. Highness then proceeded as follows: "In considering our internal situation, you will, I doubt not, feel a just

indignation at the attempts which have been made to take advantage of the distresses of the country for the purpose of exciting a spirit of sedition and violence.

"I am too well convinced of the loyalty and good sense of the great body of his Majesty's subjects, to believe them capable of being perverted by the arts which are employed to seduce them; but I am determined to omit no precautions for preserving the public peace, and for counteracting the designs of the disaffected. And I rely with the utmost confidence on your cordial support and co-operation, in upholding a system of law and government from which we have derived inestimable advantages; which has enabled us to conclude, with unexampled glory, a contest whereon depended the best interests of mankind, and which has been hitherto felt by ourselves, as it is acknowledged by other nations, to be the most perfect that has fallen to the lot of any people."

The Prince Regent then withdrew, and the peers ad. journed till five o'clock. On their reassembling, Viscount Sidmouth rose, and having announced an important communication, on which strangers were ordered to withdraw, he stated, that as the Prince Regent, on his return from the House, was passing at the back of the garden of Carlton House, the glass of the carriage had been broken by a stone, or by two balls from an air-gun, which appeared to have been aimed at his Royal Highness. In consequence of this notification, the Lords requested a conference with the Commons, and a joint address of congratulation to his Royal Highness, on his escape, was agreed upon. A proclamation was also issued, offering a reward of one thousand pounds for the apprehension of those persons or their abettors, by whom the passage of his Royal Highness to the House had been riotously interrupted, and his royal person endangered. No discovery, however, was made, and calmer investigation seems to have proved that the missile discharged at his Royal Highness was no other than a stone; and consequently, that insult, not assassination, was the purpose of the offender.

Earl Grey moved an amendment on the address in answer to the royal speech, chiefly for the purpose of expressing an opinion that his Royal Highness was under a delusion respecting the degree and probable duration of the pressure on the resources of the country, which was declared to be much more extensive in its operation, more severe in its effects, more deep and general in its causes, and more difficult to be removed, than that which had prevailed at the termination of any former war. To this declaration was added, a profession of regret that his Royal Highness should not sooner have been advised to adopt measures of the most rigid economy and retrenchment, particularly with respect to our military establishments; and a resolution that the House should go immediately into a committee on the state of the nation. The amendment, however, was negatived without a division.

On February 3d, a message from the Prince Regent was brought to both Houses, announcing that his Royal Highness had ordered papers to be laid before parliament, containing information of certain practices, meetings and combinations, in the metropolis and in dif ferent parts of the kingdom, evidently calculated to endanger the public tranquillity, to alienate the affections of his Majesty's subjects from his person and government, and to bring into hatred and contempt the whole system of our laws and government. On the motion of ministers these papers were referred by each House to a secret committee of its members. The reports of the two committees were delivered to their respective Houses on the 18th and 19th of February, and through them the following somewhat alarming statements were made to the public:-That a traitorous conspiracy had been formed in the metropolis, for the purpose of overthrowing, by means of an insurrection, the established government, laws and constitution of the realm; and of effecting a general plunder and division of property that traces appeared of a central committee in London, which communicated with clubs and associations in various parts of the country, but

chiefly in the manufacturing districts; some of which associations were bound together by secret and unlawful oaths that the late popular assemblages in Spa Fields were intended to subserve the purposes of the conspirators that the riotous attack upon the gunsmiths' shops in the city for the purpose of procuring arms, was the commencement of an insurrection which, if successful, was to have been followed by desperate attempts upon the Tower, the Bank, the barracks at Knightsbridge, and other points. It appeared, however, that no adequate preparations of any kind had been made for the execution of these designs; and that no person in the higher, and scarcely any even in the middle classes of life, had taken part in them. Much was also said of the dangerous notions disseminated by a political sect called Spenceans, respecting a community of lands, and of the seditious and blasphemous writings industriously dispersed among the lower classes. Both reports concluded by invoking the interference of parliament, to obviate dangers which the utmost vigilance of government under the existing laws, had been found inadequate to avert.

The first result of these proceedings was a motion by Lord Sidmouth in the House of Lords for the suspension of the habeas corpus act until the first of July next; which was carried by a great majority, but not without strong opposition from several eminent noblemen, and a protest signed by eighteen of the number; who dissented from the measure on the ground that the report of the secret committee had not stated such a case of imminent and pressing danger as might not be provided against by the existing laws, or one which warranted the suspension of the most important security to the liberty of the country. In the House of Commons, Lord Castlereagh made a motion to a similar effect; giving notice at the same time of farther measures for the protection of the country against the machinations of the disaffected. These were; first, the extending of the act of 1795 for the security of his Majesty's person, to that of his Royal Highness the Prince Regent; secondly, the embodying