calculated to form the basis of such a settlement, leaving it to his Majesty's wisdom, at such time and in such manner as his Majesty, in his parental solicitude for the happiness of his people, shall judge fit, to communicate these propositions to his parliament of Ireland, with whom we shall be at all times ready to concur in all such measures as may be found most conducive to the accomplishment of this great and salutary work. And we trust that, after full and mature consideration, such a settlement may be framed and established, by the deliberate consent of the parliaments of both kingdoms, as may be conformable to the sentiments, wishes, and real inte rests of his Majesty's faithful subjects of Great Britain and Ireland, and may unite them inseparably in the full enjoyment of the blessings of our free and invaluable constitution, in the support of the honour and dignity of his Majesty's crown, and in the preservation and advancement of the welfare and prosperity of the whole British empire."

The question was carried for the Speaker's leaving the chair,

and the House then went into a committee upon the resolutions.

April 19, 1799.

THE House having resolved itself into a Committee of the whole House, to take into consideration the report of the secret committee relative to seditious societies,

MR. PITT rose, and spoke in substance as follows :

Ir is not my intention, Sir, on the present occasion, to detain the committee by enlarging upon the circumstances stated in the report, which is now the subject of consideration. Those circumstances detailed in the report itself are so important în their nature, and so plainly and forcibly stated, that to dwell upon them would be to weaken rather than to add to the impression they are calculated to make. I shall content myself, therefore, with laying before you the outline of the measure, which it is my in

tention to propose as the ground of the resolutions of the committee, on which, if they should meet its concurrence, will follow a motion, that the chairman be instructed to move for leave to bring in bills to enact their provisions. Should these propositions be adopted, another opportunity will occur for the discussion of their details. This much, however, I think I may venture to say, that there cannot be two opinions as to the necessity of continuing and enforcing those wise and salutary measures of precaution to which we are indebted for our safety, and by which we have been enabled to repress the efforts of the most desperate, wicked, and cruel conspiracy against our liberties, our constitution, and our peace, that is to be found in the history of this country. From the report of the committee, we perceive that among other things the utmost advantage has resulted from that great measure of precaution, the act empowering his Majesty to secure and detain persons suspected of conspiring against his person and government-a measure which has been attended with the most beneficial effects at moments the most critical, in breaking up the de. signs of the conspirers, when they approached nearly to the period of their execution. Previous even to the report, in which its necessity is so satisfactorily developed, the facts notorious to the world would have been sufficient to justify an application to parliament for prolonging the duration of the act suspending the habeas corpus. Following up at the same time the suggestions in the report, the first motion I'shall have the honour to propose will be to continue that measure, at the same time, adding to it a provision to render it more effectual, a provision founded as well upon its general propriety, as upon the particular circumstances which the report has explained. What I allude to is, to adopt a regulation empowering his Majesty to transfer persons arrested under this act to any place within the kingdom which may be deemed most eligible. I do not mean to enlarge upon the policy of such a provision. I shall only observe, that it will be notorious to the committee, from the report under consideration, and from another report lately presented to the house, that

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one of the principal features of that conspiracy which has been prosecuted in this country, but more particularly in the sister kingdom, where it actually led to so much calamity and bloodshed, has been that the designs of the conspirators have continued to be conducted under the direction of persons in custody on charges of being its authors, or guilty upon their own confession. How far the case here has been similar to that I have stated, it is needless at present to enquire. It will hardly be denied, that circumstances are such as to require that all doubts should be removed respecting the power of his Majesty to transfer persons in this situation to the most safe and proper place of confinement, and likewise to enable government to detain in custody here persons arrested in Ireland in the circumstances I have described. This provision arises out of the message received from his Majesty, respecting the persons brought from the sister kingdom, to be detained in confinement in Great Britain.

I feel likewise that it will not be sufficient to continue and enforce the laws already adopted for our security, if we did not adopt some precaution against the particular character of the mischief against which we are called upon to guard. I allude to that point so clearly established by the most powerful body of evidence before us, the existence, of secret societies totally un known in the history of this or any other country. Impressed with the observation in the report of the committee, that in the great struggle we maintain against jacobinism it is necessary to watch the symptoms of the malady, and to adapt the remedy to the appearance it assumes, we must feel ourselves bound to accommodate our precautions to the evil which we have discovered. It will at the same time be recorded to the honour of the British parliament, that while it did not neglect the salutary precautions which circumstances imperiously dictated, it did not pass beyond the bounds of that necessity; that, equally firm and temperate, it has recollected what was to be yielded to safety, and what was due to the constitution, that it night with just discernment and moderation accommodate the precaution to the danger. Considering the inveterate spirit and the invincible persever

ance of the enemy, with whom we have to contend, I do not think that any one measure could be warranted as sufficient to carry the constitution safe through that mighty struggle we have to maintain; to that haven of security and peace, which after a period of exertion and of perseverance, more or less protracted, we have a confident hope of attaining. For this arduous contest, however, be it shorter or be it longer, we must be prepared; we must be determined firmly to abide by the cause we have embraced, vigorously to continue the efforts we have exerted, to follow up wisely and vigilantly the provisions which we have hitherto employed, unless we are contented to yield to the superior vigilance, energy and perseverance of an implacable enemy, the pre-eminent blessings which we enjoy.

It is the duty of parliament, then, carefully to watch the symptoms of the malady by which we are assailed. The point which to-day seems most urgently to challenge our attention, is that of the secret societies I have mentioned, all of which possess a common distinguishing character. Wherever they have existed, they have been animated by the same spirit, dedicated to the same objects, and known by the same effects. They have spread themselves in Great Britain, in Ireland, throughout Europe. In the sister kingdom, we have seen them not merely threatening the mischiefs with which they are fraught, but at one moment scat, tering their baleful consequences, and openly attempting the overthrow of all established government. Even here, notwithstanding the prevalent loyalty of the great mass of the people, and the powerful obstacles with which they have had to contend, we have seen that invincible perseverance in a bad cause by which the spirit of jacobinism is peculiarly characterized, while in other parts of Europe, the existence of these secret societies has -uniformly been the forerunner, or the attendant of the progress of French principles and the ravage of French arms.

These societies, too, are in their nature totally repugnant to the genius of this constitution, and strange to the habits of this nation. They are clearly of foreign growth; and, while we are bound to discourage them, we can employ with the more sa

tisfaction the strong measures which are necessary to their suppression, because we must be sensible that we do not trench upon the principles or the spirit of that liberty we inherit from our ancestors;-that we do not impair those privileges which give sanction to the great right of petition to all recognised classes of men, and with none of which those new descriptions of persons can at all be confounded. Among the societies of this nature are The Corresponding Society, The United English, The United Scots, The United Britons, and The United Irish. These societies are now so clearly proved to be such an abuse of the privileges of this constitution-so entirely inconsistent with all government, that all must agree that they ought to be suppressed. In doing this there is one consideration which we ought to keep in view; we must be aware that, from the very outset, the leaders of these baneful societies distinctly anticipated in their designs all those horrors and calamities which have since been developed in their progress. Many individuals, however, there must have been who, not understanding the purposes for which they were to co-operate, or not foreseeing the evils to which they would lead, were lightly and inconsiderately drawn in to become members of such societies. Adopting this distinction, then, it is intended that the measures for suppressing these bodies shall only be prospective, that they shall not aim at punishment, but prevention. We shall do our duty in setting a mark on the house where the pestilential contagion prevails, and then let those who enter perish. In the first instance it shall be the mild and forgiving policy of the measures proposed, to separate the misguided from the criminal. At the same time I have no hesitation in saying, that after experiencing this signal exercise of mercy and forbearance, those who shall continue members of those societies, contract the guilt of adhering to designs of deliberate treason. As, however, the great object is to detect and to punish those who may be guilty of this offence, in its nature so deep and atrocious, I flatter myself that 3 summary conviction, followed by a summary punishment, would answer the desired effect. My intention, therefore, is to propose, that if any person after a day to be fixed shall continue