ed with great regularity and caution, first seizing the watchman at the mill, and placing guards at every neighbouring cottage, threatening death to any who should attempt to give alarm, and then forcibly entering the mill, they completely destroyed the machinery. In the following night, notwithstanding the precautions adopted, the buildings belonging to Messrs. Dickinsons, in Leeds, were forcibly entered, and the whole of the goods there, consisting principally of cloths, were cut to pieces. Many other persons in Leeds were threatened with similar treatment, and the proceedings at this place are represented to have had for their object the destruction of all descriptions of goods prepared other wise than by manual labour. At Leversedge, near Hockmondwicke, which is in the neighbourhood of the Moors dividing Lancashire and Yorkshire, an attack was made early in the morning of the 12th of April by a body of armed men, represented to have been between two and three hundred in number, on a valuable mill belonging to Mr. Cartwright. The mill was defended with great courage by Mr. Cartwright, the proprietor, with the assistance of three of his men and five soldiers, and the assailants were at length compelled to retire, being unable to force an entrance into the mill, and their ammunition probably failing. Two of the assailants were left on the spot desperately wounded, and were secured, but died of their wounds. Many others are suppos ed to have been also wounded, and information was afterwards obtained of the death of one of them. When the assailants retired, they declared a determination to take Mr. Cartwright's life by any means. One of the wounded men who was left on the spot was only nineteen years of age, and son of a man in a respectable situation in the neighbourhood; but neither this man nor the other prisoner would make any confession respecting their confederates in this outrage. The neighbouring inhabitants, who assembled about the mill, after the rioters had retired, only expressed their regret that the attempt had failed. A vast concourse of people attended the funeral of the young man before described, who died of his wounds; and there was found written on walls in many places, "Vengeance for the blood of the innocent." The threats against Mr. Cartwright's life were attempted to be put into execution on the 18th of April, when he was twice shot at in the road from Huddersfield to Rawfold. About the same time a shot was fired at a special constable on duty at Leeds, and a ball was fired at night into the house of Mr. Armitage, a magistrate in the neighbourhood, and lodged in the ceiling of his bed-room. Colonel Campbell also, who commanded the troops at Leeds, was shot at in the night of May 8, upon returning to his own house, by two men, who discharged their pieces at him within the distance of twenty yards, and immediately after, a third shot was fired, directed towards the room usually occupied by Colonel Campbell and his family. At Horbury, near Wakefield, valuable mills were attacked on the 9th of April by an armed body, supposed to consist of 300 men. The machinery and considerable property property were destroyed. The men who committed the outrage were seen on the road between Wakefield and Horbury, marching in regular sections, preceded by a mounted party with drawn swords, and followed by the same number of mounted men as a rear guard. They were supposed to have assembled from Huddersfield, Duesbury, Hickmondwicke, Guildersome, Morley, Wakefield, aud other places. In many parts of this district of country the well-disposed were so much under the influence of terror, that the magistrates were unable to give protection by putting the watch and ward act in execution, and the lower orders are represented as generally either abettors of, or participators in, the outrages committed, or so intimidated, that they dared not to interfere. At Sheffield the storehouse of arms of the local militia was surprised in the month of May, a large proportion of the arms were broken by the mob, and many taken away. This disturbance, however, seems to have been followed by no further consequences, and the remainder of the arms were secured. But during the months of May and June depredations of different kinds,and particularly the seizure of arms, continued to be nightly committed in other parts of Yorkshire; and it is represented, that in the neighbourhood of Huddersfield and Birstall the arms of all the peaceable inhabitants had been swept away by bands of armed robbers. In consequence of these outrages the vice-lieutenant of the West Riding, the deputy-lieutenant, and magistrates, assembled at Wake field on the 17th of June, and came to a resolution, "That the most alarming consequences were to be apprehended from the nightly depredations which were committed by bodies of armed men." At the same time this remarkable circumstance was stated, that amongst one hundred depositions taken by the magistrates of the facts of robberies committed, there was only one as to the perpetrator of the crime. During the latter part of this period, it is represented that nightly robberies of arms, lead, and ammunition, were prevalent in the districts bounded by the rivers Air and Calder, and that the patroles which went along both banks of the Calder, found the people in the ill-affected villages up at midnight, and heard the firing of small arms at short distances from them, through the whole night, to a very great extent, which they imagined proceeded from parties at drill. In the corner of Cheshire, touching upon Yorkshire and Lancashire, in the neighbourhood and to the eastward of Ashton, Stockport, and Moultram, nocturnal meetings were more frequent than ever, and the seizure of arms carried on with great perseverance. Peculiar difficulties are stated to exist in this quarter from the want of magistrates. Your commitee have not thought it necessary to detail, or even to state, all the outrages which have been committed in different parts of the country, but have selected from the great mass of materials before them, such facts only as appeared to them sufficient to mark the extent and nature of these disturbances. The causes alleged for these destructive structive proceedings have been Their proceedings manifest a degree of caution and organization which appears to flow from the direction of some persons under whose influence they act; but it is the opinion of a person, whose situation gives him great opportunities of information, that their leaders, although they may possess considerable influenee, are still of the lowest orders; men of desperate fortunes, who have taken advantage of the pressure of the moment, to work upon the inferior class, through the medium of the associations in the manufacturing parts of the country. and it is established by the various information to which the committee has before alluded, that societies are formed in different parts of the country; that these societies are governed by their respective secret committees; that delegates are continually dispatched from one place to another, for the purpose of concerting their plans; and that secret signs are arranged, by which the persons engaged in these conspiracies are known to each other. The form of the oath or engagement administered to those who are enlisted in these societies, also refers expressly to the existence of such secret commit The object of this oath is to prevent discovery, by deterring through the fear of assassination those who take it from impeaching others, and by binding them to assassinate those by whom any of the persons engaged may be impeached. These oaths appear to have been administered to a considerable extent; copies of them have been obtained from various quarters, and though slightly differing in terms, they are so nearly the same, as to prove the systematic nature of the concert by which they are administered. The oath itself is of so atrocious a nature, that your committee have thought it right to insert the form, as it appears in one of those copies: "I. A. B. of my own voluntary will, do declare, and solemnly swear, that I never will reveal to any person or persons under the canopy of heaven, the names of the persons who compose this Secret Committee, their proceedings, meeting, places of abode, dress, features, features, connections, or any thing else that might lead to a discovery of the same, either by word or deed, or sign, under the penalty of being sent out of the world by the first brother who shall meet ine, and my name and character blotted out of existence, and never to be remembered but with contempt and abhorrence; and I further now do swear, that I will use my best endeavours to punish by death any traitor or traitors, should any rise up amongst us, wherever I can find him or them, and though he should fly to the verge of nature, I will pursue him with increasing vengeance. So help me God, and bless me to keep this my oath inviolable." The military organization carried on by persons engaged in these societies, has also proceeded to an alarming length; they assemble in large numbers, in general by night, upon heaths or commons, which are numerous and extensive in some of the districts where the disturbances have been most serious; so assembled, they take the usual military precautions of paroles and countersigns; then muster rolls are called over by numbers, not by names; they are directed by leaders sometimes in disguise; they place sentries to give alarm at the approach of any persons whom they may suspect of meaning to interrupt or give information of their proceedings; and they disperse instantly at the firing of a gun, or other signal agreed upon, and so disperse as to avoid detection. They have in some instances used signals by rockets or blue lights, by which they communicate intelligence to their parties. They have procured a considerble quantity of arms, by the depredations which are daily and nightly continued; they have plundered many places of lead for the purpose of making musket balls, and have made some seizures of gunpowder. Their progress in discipline appears from the representation before given of the two attacks upon the mills of Rawdon and Henbury; and the money, which has been in many instances obtained by contribution or plunder, answers the purpose of support, and may serve as an inducement to many persons to engage in these disturbances. The system of intimidation, produced not only by the oaths and engagements before mentioned, or by threats of violence, but by the attack and destruction of houses and factories, by actual assassinations in some instances, and attempts at assassination in others, under circumstances which have hitherto generally baffled all endeavours to discover and bring to justice the offenders, all tend to render these proceedings greatly alarming to the country. In many parts the quiet inhabitants consider themselves as enjoying protection only as far as the military force can extend its exertions, and look upon the rest of the country, where the disturbances took place, as at the mercy of the rioters. The legal proceedings at Nottingham checked the disposition to disturbance in that quarter, but this effect did not extend to other parts of the country; and though the proceedings under the special commissions since issued, and the convictions and executions at Lan caster caster and Chester, appear to make a considerable impression, they have been far from restoring peace and security to the disturbed districts. A great military force has been assembled; the local militia has been in many places called out, and has done good service; the yeomanry corps have been active and highly useful. Many of the magistrates have zealously exerted their powers, some of them at great personal hazard. In many places great numbers of special constables have been appointed from amongst the more respectable inhabitants, and the Watch and Ward Act has been in some places put in force, though attempted without effect in others, or abandoned from circumstances already stated. All these efforts have proved insufficient effectually to put down the spirit of disturbance: and it is therefore the decided opinion of your committee, that some further measures should be immediately adopted by parliament for affording more effectual protection to the lives and properties of his Majesty's subjects, and for suppressing a system of turbulence and disorder which has already proved destructive of the tranquillity, and highly injurious to the property and welfare of some of the most populous and important districts of the country, and which, unless effectually checked, may lead to consequences still more extensive and dangerous. the 31st of July, 1812: present, his royal highness the Prince Regent in Council: It is this day ordered, by his royal highness the Prince Regent, in the name and on the behalf of his Majesty, and by and with the advice of his Majesty's privy council, that no ships or vessels belonging to any of his Majesty's subjects be permitted to enter and clear out for any of the ports within the territories of the United States of America, until further order; and his Royal Highness is further pleased, in the name and on the behalf of his Majesty, and by and with the advice aforesaid, to order, that a general embargo or stop be made of all ships and vessels whatsoever, belonging to the citizens of the United States of America, now within, or which shall hereafter come into any of the ports, harbours, or roads, within any part of his Majesty's dominions, together with all persons and effects on board all such ships and vessels; and that the commanders of his Majesty's ships of war and privateers, do detain and bring into port all ships aud vessels belonging to the citizens of the United States of America, or bearing the flag of the said United States, except such as may be furnished with British licences, which vessels are allowed to proceed according to the tenor of the said liceuces; but that the utmost care be taken for the preservation of all and every part of the cargoes on board any of the said ships or vessels, so that no damage or embezzlement whatever be sustained; and the commanders of his Majesty's ships of war and privateers are hereby instructed to |