make their way to the capital in the manner leaft liable to fufpicion, under the difguife of thofe trades and occupations in which the Irish, commonly reforting hither, are principally engaged. Their object is reprefented to have been that of co-operating with the Correfponding Society in effecting an infurrection in London at the time of the rebellion breaking out in Ireland, for the purpofe of diftracting the military force, and preventing reinforcements being fent to that country; and the plan is faid to have failed from the Correfponding Society fhrinking from the execution of it. About the fame period another project was fecretly formed (of which your Committee have received more diftinct information) for collecting at one point, a chofen body of the most determined from among the United Irish employed on the river Thames, to whom a new oath of fecrecy, obedience, and fidelity, was to be administered, large rewards were to be promifed; they were to be kept wholly ignorant of the precife fervice they were intended to perform till the moment of its execution, which was to take place as foon as an attack on some part of the coaft was announced on the part of the French: they were then to be privately armed with daggers, to be put under leaders of known talents and courage, and formed into three divifions; and were to make an attack, by furprise, at the fame moment, on both Houfes of Parliament, on the Tower, and on the Bank.

The intelligence obtained from time to time by Government, refpecting the proceedings and plans of the confpirators, the feizure and detention of fome of the intended leaders, and perhaps the timidity or reluctance of fome of the parties concerned, prevented any open attempt to realize thefe extravagant defigns when they were firft in contemplation.

But, notwithstanding the continuance of every precaution, and although thefe confpirators cannot be ignorant of the prepared and formidable force, and the determined fpirit and general loyalty with which fuch an enterprife would be immediately refifted, your committee have received undoubted proof that plans of this nature are now, more than ever, in agitation. Attempts are actually making, by agents from Ireland, to concert with the French government the time for a fresh and general infurrection in Ireland. Intelligence has been received, that in the ports of France the utmoft diligence is ufed in preparing another expedition to co-operate with the rebels in that kingdom. The time for making this attempt feems to be in a great measure fixed. The expecta

tion

tion which appears to be generally entertained among the traitors in Ireland tallies, in this refpect, with the intelligence which has been laid before your committee; and this expectation has been particularly communicated from thence to their confederates in this country. It feems to be intended, at the same time, to attempt a diverfion by another French force on different parts of the coasts of this kingdom. The manner in which such expeditions are likely to be calculated to advance the ends of the confpirators, both in Great Britain and Ireland, and the fpecies of warfare which the French have had in contemplation, will be fufficiently evident from a reference to the inftructions of Tate, who was made prifoner in Wales (which are printed in the Appendix to the Report made laft feffion, on the treatment of prifoners of war), and to thofe of Humbert, who commanded the force which landed last year in Ireland, and who had also been deftined to command an expedition against Cornwall, which are inserted in the Appendix to this Report (Nos. 27 and 28). For the purpose of co-operating with these attempts, and particularly with the fame view as that to which the measures before enumerated were directed in the beginning of 1798, that of preventing, if poffible, reinforcements being fent from hence to Ireland; it is also part of the plan, that an effort should be made to create an infurrection in the metropolis, and in fome other parts of the kingdom where these focieties are most numerous. Your committee are fully confident, that while plans of this nature continue to be traced and known, and while Government retains the means which it at prefent poffeffes, fuch wild and defperate projects may be expected to lead only to confequences deftructive to their authors; but your Committee are, at the fame time, fo forcibly struck with the view they have had of this part of the fyftem, and with the peculiar danger continually arifing from the Society of United Irifhmen, which they deem to be in its nature incompatible with the secure maintenance of public tranquillity, that they have thought it neceffary to bring it thus diftinctly under the immediate confideration of the House.

SECT. VIII. Societies at Hamburgh.—In addition to this. mass of treason in Great Britain and in Ireland, your committee find, that, for the purpose of more convenient communication between France and Ireland, a committee of United Irishmen has been formed at Hamburgh. That place has long been the receptable of thofe difaffected perfons who have fled from Great Britain or Ireland, either

from

from apprehenfion of the confequences of the treasonable practices in which they have been engaged, or for the purpofe of affifting the confpiracies carried on against their refpective countries; and with the latter view it has been the centre of a correfpondence which has long fubfifted among the British and Irish focieties eftablished at that place, as well as in London and Paris; and this correfpondence with Great Britain and Ireland has frequently been covered by the pretence of commercial tranfactions, or of communicating intelligence for the public newspapers.

Hamburgh has also been the refort of the difaffected of every other country, whose intrigues are conftantly directed to the object of fpreading the principles of Jacobinifm in Holstein and the North of Germany, and generally in all the northern parts of Europe. Many emiffaries, English, Scotch, and Irish, have been dispatched from time to time from Hamburgh to Great Britain and Ireland, and to various parts of the continent, as circumstances required. There has recently been established at Hamburgh, Altona, and the neigh bourhood, a fociety called "The Philanthropic Society," for the purpose of correfpondence with the republicans of all countries, upon the plan of the Correfponding Societies eftablished in Great Britain and Ireland; and whofe avowed object is the reform of all kingdoms and states. The leading members of this fociety, who direct all the reft, compofe a committee of about twenty persons, British, French, Dutch, and Germans. The members of the fubordinate societies at Hamburgh and Altona are all under the control of the committee, or principal fociety before-mentioned. This committee conftantly correfponds with Great Britain and Ire land, and all parts of Germany. It has fecretaries fkilled in different languages, and correfponding agents in different towns, particularly in London. It may become a formidable engine in the hands of the French Directory, and it appears to be making confiderable progrefs; but there is reafon to hope that it has at length attracted the notice of the governments of those places.

Conclufion.-Upon a review of all the circumftances which have come under the confideration of your committee, they are deeply impreffed with the conviction-that the fafety and tranquillity of thefe kingdoms have, at different periods from the year 1791 to the prefent time, been brought into im minent hazard, by the traiterous plans and practices of focieties, acting upon the principles, and devoted to the yiews, of our inveterate foreign enemy:

That

That although the fociety of United Irishmen in Ireland has alone been enabled to attain its full ftrength and maturity; yet the focieties inftituted on fimilar principles in this country had all an undoubted tendency to produce fimilar effects, if they had not not been checked by the general demonstrations of the zeal and spirit of his Majesty's faithful fubjects, and by the timely and judicious ufe of those extraordinary powers, which Parliament has, in its wif dom, from time to time, confided to his Majesty's govern

ment:

That either directly or indirectly, a continual intercourfe and connection has been maintained between all these focieties in Great Britain and Ireland, and that the real objects of the inftigators of thefe proceedings, in both kingdoms, were no other than the entire overthrow of the British conftitution, the general confifcation of property, and the erection of a democratic republic, founded on the ruins of all religion, and of all political and civil fociety, and framed after the model of France.

The vigorous refiftance oppofed to the rebellion in Ireland, the fuccefs of the measures which have been employed for detecting and defeating the defigns of the confpirators here, and the general and ardent spirit of loyalty and attachment to the laws and constitution, have hitherto counteracted the progress of the mischief, and averted impending danger; but even these circumstances by no means appear to your committee to justify the hope that the mischief is eradicated, or the danger paffed.

The principles and views of the confpirators remain unchanged. Their reliance on the affiftance and co-operation of France, by which they expect ultimately to effect their purposes, continues undiminished: and the fyftem of those fecret focieties which are at once the inftruments of feditious confpiracy at home, and the channel of treasonable correspondence with France, though in many parts broken and interrupted, is by no means destroyed.

Your committee have already referred to the pofitive information laid before them, ftating that hoftile preparations are now making, with extraordinary vigour and exertion, in fome of the ports of France, for the invafion of this country, or of Ireland. The activity of feditious and treasonable societies, in their correfpondence with France, and in their endeavours to gain profelytes here, keeps pace with the preparations of the enemy; and the principle of fecrecy, generally enforced by unlawful paths, which is the great charac

teristic

teristic of these focieties, peculiarly fits them for the most defperate enterprifes, and by holding out a profpect of fe curity, increases the means of feduction. It has, at the fame time, an obvious tendency to elude detection in the first inftance, and to defeat legal inquiry in the next. To this principle therefore, in the opinion of your committee, fuch further measures, as Parliament in its wifdom may think fit to adopt for the public fafety, fhould be more immediately and decifively pointed.

Your committee have feen with fatisfaction, the powers which, in conformity to the ancient practice and true principles of the conftitution, have from time to time, as the urgency required, been confided to his Majefty's Govern ment; and they feel it their duty to remark, that the power of arrefting and detaining fufpected perfons (a remedy fo conftantly reforted to by our ancestors in all cafes of temporary and extraordinary danger) has, under the prefent new and unprecedented circumstances, been found particularly efficient. It has greatly interrupted and impeded the cor refpondence with the enemy, and has checked from time to time, the progrefs and communication of fedition and treafon at home. But from particular circumstances which have come under the obfervation of your committee in the course of their inquiry, they feel it their duty to remark, that the good effects of this meafure would be rendered more compleat, and the public tranquillity better fecured, if the leading perfons who have been, or may be hereafter, detained on fufpicion of treafonable practices fhall hereafter be kept in cuftody in places fufficiently diftant from the metropolis. :.

The whole of the fecret information which has been laid before your committee has strongly confirmed them in their opinion of the neceflity of confiding thefe extraordinary powers to his Majefty's Government; and the very circumftances which created this neceflity, and which continue at this time to operate more powerfully than ever, have rendered it their peculiar duty to abstain from difclofing, in its full extent, the particular information, of which they have stated to the House the general refult, and on which their judgment is founded; but they trust that they have laid before the House fufficient grounds to justify their perfuafion, that the multiplied and various attempts, by which the enemies to their country carry on their dangerous confpiracies, can only be defeated by a correfponding vigilance on the part of Government, and by the exercife of fuch additional powers, No. 31. 7 R