officer, in case of his not proceeding after a certain time upon an information, might be compelled either to go on or to enter a nolle prosequi? He wished likewise to be informed, whether any provision was introduced into the bill for the purpose of enabling the court to grant a copy of an information or indictment to the defendant, at the public expense? As, according to what had been stated by the noble and learned lord, the defendant was to be hurried on to his trial much more rapidly than at present, it seemed more than ever necessary that some provision should be made, by means of which he should be enabled to know the precise nature of the charge against him. If this were not the case, the bill would appear to do every thing for the prosecution and nothing for the defendant.

The Lord Chancellor said, that what was called imparling in civil actions, was more generally known by the name of traversing in cases of prosecution for misdemeanor, and it was the right arising out of this practice, which it was the object of the bill to take away, except in those cases where, from special circumstances, the court, either of king's-bench or at the sessions, should deem it advisable to allow the party the benefit of traversing. Respecting ex officio informations, there was no provision in the bill, but it would be, of course, competent to any noble lord, in the progress of the bill, to move any clause he might think requisite. Neither was there any provision in the bill with regard to the granting of copies of informations or indictments to defendants at the public expense. Every court, however, would of course feel it to be a duty that a defendant (who must of course, know the general nature of the charge against him) should be made acquainted with the precise nature of the charges against him contained in any information or indictment on which he was to be tried.

The bill was ordered to be printed.

BLASPHEMOUS LIBELS-SEIZURE OF ARMS TRAINING PREVENTION BILLS.] Lord Sidmouth rose to call the attention of their lordships to the measures which the ministers of his royal highness the Prince Regent thought it necessary to propose in the present situation of the country. He trusted that their lordships would find those measures to be such as would suit the necessity of the case, with

out going beyond it; and to combine a due regard to the right of the subject, with that consideration which was due to the safety of the state. It was unnecessary for him to go into any detail of the danger in which the country was placed; that was admitted: it was known, that a conspiracy existed for the subversion of the constitution and of the rights of property; and that it was intended to subvert the fabric of the constitution in church and state. Among the means adopted for the accomplishment of this end, it was with grief he had to state, that the press was one of the principal. It had greatly contributed to produce the danger against which their lordships had to guard. It was a subject of most melancholy regret that the free press, which had hitherto been the glory of this country, and had contributed so much to its greatness from a shield and guard of liberty, should become an instrument of its destruction. Yet this was what their lordships had witnessed. That act which was calculated to instruct and console, was perverted to rob mankind of all hope of future happiness; because it was supposed, that when the people of this country were deprived of all the consolations of religion, they would be the better prepared to throw off their allegiance, and lose their accustomed respect for the laws and the constitution.

He should now state to their lordships, as accurately as possible, the nature of the measures which were at the present crisis thought necessary to meet the enormous evil he had described. It was the great character of a free press that its productions were not interfered with before publication; but that when the publication took place, if it should be considered to be injurious to morals, to religion, or to the good order of society, it then became liable to prosecution. In the bill which he was about to describe to their lordships, as one of those to be submitted to their consideration, this great principle, on which the free press was founded, was not invaded. It had been, indeed, in consideration, but for a moment only, whether some step ought not to be taken preliminary to publication; but that idea was immediately discarded, as inconsistent with the principle to which he had referred. The bill he had first to propose to their lordships, had not in view to visit offenders with increased punishment in the first instance; but, in case of

the repetition of any seditious or blasphemous libel, it was thought advisable that an additional punishment should be inflicted. It was therefore proposed, that any person, having been tried, convicted, and punished for a seditious or blasphemous libel, should, on conviction of a second offence, be liable, at the discretion of the court, to the punishment of fine, imprisonment, banishment, or transportation. It was also proposed that, in such cases of second conviction, a power should be given to seize the copies of the libel in the possession of the publisher: the copies so seized to be preserved until it should be seen whether an arrest of judgment was moved, and then to be returned to the publisher, if the judgment of the court should be in his favour. These were the chief provisions of a bill which he should have the honour to submit to their lordships; but he might here be permitted to advert to what was intended to be proposed in another place, in order that a distinct view might be obtained of the whole of the measures which his majesty's ministers thought it their duty to recommend. The principle of the bill which he had next to explain, he must acknowledge, was not similar to that which he had just described. It was intended to propose, that all publications, consisting of less than a given number of sheets, should be subject to a duty equal to that paid by newspapers. This might, perhaps, be said to be breaking in, in some degree, on the principle laid down in introducing the previous bill to the knowledge of the House. It would be for their lordships, however, to consider the necessity of the occasion, and to say, whether this degree of infringement of the principle was not indispensable, in order to check the progress of blasphemy and sedition. Another provision of this bill would be, that persons putting forth a publication of the kind to which he had adverted should be required to enter into recognizances, or give security of their ability to pay any penalty which might be inflicted on them. A great feature in the evil which their lordships were called upon to correct, arose from the assemblages of great bodies of people. Those assemblages were influenced by seditious publications and itinerant demagogues, who availed themselves but too successfully of the present state of the laws, in order to bring great bodies of people together from dif ferent parts of the country. As the law

now stood, any individual might issue his mandate to bring together all the idle and curious part of the population of the country at any time, or in any place he pleased. The persons who had called these meetings considered themselves empowered (whether legally or not was not at present the question) to attend them with martial music, flags, and banners, all of which ensigns, independently of that flagitious standard displayed at Manchester, and which was so indicative of the designs of those who bore it, were of a nature calculated to produce disorder and alarm. He should now state to their lordships, what were the provisions of the bill by which it was proposed to obviate the danger arising from such tumultuous and seditious meetings. In the first place, he could assure them, that it was not intended to interfere with the right of the subject to petition the Prince Regent or parliament, or to meet for the discussion of any grievance under which the people might conceive that they were labouring; but it would be seen, by reference to the bills on the table, that one of the principal causes of the agitation, alarm, and disorder which at present prevailed in the country, was, in addition to the licentiousness of the press, the assembling of great bodies of people to hear the harangues of itinerant orators. Nothing would be introduced into the bill that would tend to impede or interrupt meetings regularly called by a sheriff, boroughreeve, or other magistrate; but it would be proposed to enact, that if any parties should be desirous of meeting for the consideration of subjects connected with the church or state, their intention should be notified by arequisition, signed by seven householders, and that it should be illegal for any person not usually inhabiting the place for which such meeting was called to attend it. In another provision, it was proposed to give to the magistrates the power, with some limitations, of appointing the place and time of the meeting.

These, according to the best of his recollection, were the leading provisions of the bill relative to public meetings, which, with the preceding bill, would be introduced in another place. He had now to call their lordships attention to another measure which he should have to submit to their consideration. It appeared, from the correspondence now before parliament, that the persons who agitated the country by large assemblages, emboldened

threatened the subversion of the constitution and every thing valuable in the existing order of society. Whatever differences they might have, let them in the mean time go hand in hand in this great object, and not only endeavour to avert the danger of the present moment, but, as far as possible to, secure the constitution against future attacks. He assured the noble lord that his great object was, that the government should be administered according to the constitution; that the country should never be placed under a military government, but should always enjoy the government of the laws. He proposed that the bills he had prepared should now be read a first time. On Thursday he would move the second reading, and in the mean time they would be printed.

Earl Grey said, he should object to so early a day as Thursday being fixed upon for the second reading of these bills. The noble secretary had, indeed, prefaced the proposition of his new measures with a statement which contained the grounds on which he meant to support them; and, by the connected view which he gave of the whole system, had enabled the House to understand the extent of the demands to be made upon it; yet their lordships would necessarily expect more information than had yet been given, before they proceeded to legislate, and would require that the introduction of each bill should be accompanied with a clear exposition of the reasons which rendered it necessary, or justified its enactment. On that day the House was summoned to the discussion of the bill brought in by the noble and learned lord on the wool-sack, which contemplated, as was rightly stated by the noble and learned lord, a most important alteration in the existing law of the land, an alteration which could not be allowed to take place without the fullest investigation, and the evidence of its necessity. With the prospect of this discussion on the second reading of the noble and learned lord's bill, their lordships would not, he was convinced, consent to appoint the second reading of three other important bills on the same day. The noble secretary had called upon their lordships to support his proposed measures, from a consideration of the dangers by which they were surrounded; and if he could be prevailed upon to think that the bills now before the House could meet and repress the evils described, he would be the first

to obey the call, and lend them his cordial support. But, viewing as he did their character in a different light from the noble secretary; having a different conception of the danger, looking upon it as arising from causes and requiring remedies which were little attended to, if not entirely overlooked by his majesty's government; and believing that the system of force, coercion, and terror, which was now attempted to be established in this once free and happy country, was calculated rather to irritate and inflame the discontents that existed, than to allay or repress them; to increase the danger rather than to diminish it; and to confirm rather than to remove that settled distrust and want of confidence between the people and legislature, which, he was sorry to say, the proceedings of parliament were calculated to spread throughout the land!thinking and believing in this manner, he would declare, that instead of promising his concurrence in those measures called for by the noble secretary, he must take the earliest opportunity of protesting against them, and state his conviction, that instead of saving, they would produce ruin to the country. He could not but view the encroachments now attempted on our most valuable rights with the utmost regret and alarm. The proposed bills went to impose restraints on the right of public meetings for petitioning, which, he allowed might, in some cases, be abused, but which restraint could not be established consistently with the maintenance of the right. The restraints about to be imposed on the press, he had heard with the utmost dismay. They were absolutely incompatible with the freedom which the noble secretary admitted had produced so much advantage to this country; which had protected those institutions and diffused that spirit which constituted its boast and its glory. The noble secretary had stated, that the seditious and blasphemous publications were one main source of the dangers with which the country was now threatened; but, bad he ascertained that the destruction of the freedom of the press was the only mode of checking its abuses; and had he reflected on the evils which restriction would bring along with them? To the freedom of the press this country owed the preservation of its liberty, which could not be long maintained without such an alloy, and with its liberty, its strength, its happiness, and its glory. When, there