der which those engagements had been formed, and by which the probability of their being completely fulfilled was from day to day diminishing. Nevertheless, as long as the war continued he could never prevail upon himself to give up that hope entirely; but he awaited in silence the final issue of events. Now that the preliminaries of peace are concluded on the conditions known to the public, without the prince of Orange having received any information that any thing has been stipulated with respect to himself, he thinks himself under the obligation of breaking the silence he had hitherto thought fit to observe, and considers it as his indispensable duty to recommend in the strongest and most pressing manner to the king's solicitude and powerful protection, at the approaching conferences for the formation of the definitive treaty, his own interest, those of his house, and of a considerable number of his countrymen, who are become the unfortunate victims of their unshaken zeal for his person and his cause, of their tried fidelity to the ancient constitution of their native country, and of their attachment to that system which so long and so closely united the republic of the United Province to Great-Britain. The prince of Orange thinks it would be injuring the generous feelings of his majesty and his government to dwell upon the motives which induce him to make this request. He has no doubt of his majesty's finding them in his own royal breast; and he flatters himself that the dispositions he hopes to fud on this subject will add still more to the manifest obligations he owes to the king, and of which he 1801. will never lose the grateful re membrance. The prince of Orange requests lord Hawkesbury to lay the present note before his majesty, and to inform him of his majesty's intentions with respect to its contents. He takes this opportunity to assure lord Hawkesbury of his perfect consi deration. Hampton Court Palace, 13th of October, 1801. (Signed) W. PRINCE OF ORANGE. First Report of the Committee of Se crecy, to whom the several Papers, which were presented (sealed up) to the House, by Mr, Chancellor of the Exchequer, upon the 1st and 2d Days of April, by his Majesty's Command, were referred; and who were directed to examine the Maiters thereof, and report the same, as they shall appear to them, to the House. Your committee have proceeded with the utmost diligence to the consideration of the matters referred to them; but, from the extent and variety of the information respecting different parts of the united king dom, which has been laid before them, they are under the necessity of requesting the indulgence of the house for a short time, before they can submit the result of their investi gation on all the points to which it has extended. Your committee, however, think it incumbent upon them to state, without delay, that they have re ceived the fullest proofs that the dangerous and trseaonable conspiracy for the subversion of the constitution and government, which in the year 1798, in concert with a foreign enemy, produced the horrid and sanguinary rebellion in Ire (M) land, land, and the progress and extent of which, in Great Britain, is detailed in the Report of the Committee of Secrecy in the year 1799, has never been abandoned. The hopes and activity of the disaffected were checked, and their intentions frustrated, by the vigilance of government, and by the effect of the laws which were adopted; but their principles and designs remain ed unchanged, and they have for some time, and more especially of late, been endeavouring to take advantage of the distress occasioned by the high price of provisions for carrying those wicked designs into effect. It has particularly appeared to your committee, that the instigators of these proceedings have, on repeated occasions, secretly expressed their wish for the aggration of those evils, which they every where endeavour to use as a pretext and engine for exciting popular discontent. They appear to have derived their principal encouragement from the pressure arising from the scarcity, from the hopes of assistance from a foreign enemy upon the invasion of Great-Britain or Ireland, and from the expira tion of the laws before referred to; which from the concurrent testimony from different parts of the kingdom, they acknowledge and declare to have been the principal obstacle to their measures. Within a few weeks past, and to the latest period to which the information received by your committee can apply, their activity has been great and increasing in the metropolis and in other parts of the kingdom: every effort is employed that can tend to disturb the public tranquillity; and recent intelligence bas been received from different quarters, which justifies your com mittee in believing, that at this moment the immediate object of the disaffected is to endeavour, by a sudden explosion, to avail themselves of the interval which may still take place before those laws can be renewed. The dangerous system of a secret confederacy, under the obligation of an unlawful oath, which prevailed in Ireland, and afterwards extended itself to Great-Britain, has been revived, with additional precautions, for the purpose of eluding detection, and of ensuring concert, secrecy, and dispatch. And it appears to be in agitation, suddenly, by these means, to call numerous meetings, in different parts of the country, at the same day and hour, to an extent which, if not prevented, must materially endanger the public peace; and that, among the persons most forward for instigating these criminal proceedings, are some of those who had been detained under the suspension of the habeas-corpus act, and who have been recently released from confinement. These considerations your committee have felt themselves bound to submit, in the first instance, to the wisdom of the house, believing that any delay in so doing would be attended with material danger to the country; and for the same reason they feel it a duty incumbent on them, to take the first moment of stating to the house their strong and unanimous opinion, grounded on the information which they have received, that no time ought to be lost in renewing those measures of precaution which the wisdom of the legislature has be fore adopted; particularly the act for the suspension of the provisions of the habeas-corpus act, and the act to prevent seditious meetings; 4 which, while they remained in force, were attended with the happiest effects in preserving the public tranquillity, and which your committee have the most confident hope would have the same salutary operation under the present circumstances. Second Report of the Committee of Secrecy, to whom the several Papers, which were presented (sealed up) to the House, by Mr. Chancellor of the Exchequer, upon the 1st and 2d Duys of April, 1801, by His Majesty's Command, were referred; and who were directed to examine the Matters thereof, and report the same as they shall ‘appear to them, to the House. After some preliminary observations upon the means by which information had been obtained, the report states: "It was not to be expected that persons who had deeply imbibed the principles of the French revolution, who were inflamed with the most sanguinary animosity against all the existing establishments of church and state; that such of them, particularly of the lower orders of society, whose hopes were instigated by the prospect of the plunder of the rich, and the partition of the landed property of the country, and who had been taught to abjure all the restraints which divine or human laws have imposed on the passions of men; should be induced, by any change of circumstances, or legal coercion, suddenly to abandon those principles, and to return to the duties of loyal and peaceable subjects. It accordingly appears manifest, that though the exertions of the disaffected in this country were suppressed by the vigilance of government, acting under the powers entrusted to them by parliament, and by the fear of detection and immediate apprehension, yet their disposition remained unaltered. That, from the month of May 1799, notwithstanding the detention of several of the most active members of the late corre sponding society, others have continued occasionally to meet without any form of regular association, and studiously avoiding any constant place of assembling, or written memorial of their transactions. A principal object at first was the collection of money for the relief of the persons confined under charges of treasonable and seditious practices, with whom they seem constantly to have preserved their former connexion. On the 5th of November 1799, when they began, to derive fresh encouragement from the unfavourable events on the continent, and the evacuation of Holland by the British troops, a party of them assembled to celebrate the anniversary of Hardy's acquittal; on which occasion they appear first to have ventured on a more open avowal of their opinions, and to have indulged in the most treasonable and seditious toasts and songs. As yet, however, the mischief went no further; and indeed, during all this period, till late in the last year, they seem to have despaired of any immediate success in their projects, for which some of them supposed no favourable opportunity would occur till the restoration of peace should, as they hoped, have at once removed the legal restraints which now impeded their operations, and brought home such an addition of unemployed hands as would increase the existing scarcity, and add to the prevailing discontents. They felt themselves, and lamented the effect of, the powers entrusted to government by the act for ing the habeas-corpus act: their supposed authors of them; but in private shey expressed their satisfaction at the continuance of the distress, and were only apprehensive that the cause of the complaint might cease by a return of plenty : they hoped particularly that the scarcity would press hard upon the soldiery, and produce discontent and insubordination; and, the better to serve their cause, they did not scruple to hold out the most unwarranted hopes of success in their extensive plans of meditated seduction. They disapproved indeed of the disposition to riot, which appeared in some places on account of the scarcity in the month of September last, as leading to partial and premature insurrection, not sufficiently connected with their own more large and revolutionary views; but they thought a period somewhat later more favourable to their designs, which might be better advanced by a different line of conduct. Under this impression they promoted a meeting of a most dangerous nature, to be held at Kennington Common on the 9th of November, by public advertisement, which was stated to government at the time to be issued under their direction: this fact has since been confirmed by positive depositions upon oath, and by concurrent testimony which has been obtained in consequence of some of the late apprehensions; from all which it also appears that several of the persons above referred to attended, and that the state of the weather alone prevented their being present in great numbers: other meetings were concerted in different parts of the metropolis, or its vicinity, with a view to distract the attention of the magistrates, and harass the operations of the military. The first of these, however, failed, în consequence consequence of the information previously afforded to the officers of government, and the presence of magistrates; and the others were prevented by the apprehension of detection, from the reward offered for the conviction of the persons concerned in convening the first. Similar plans were still in agitation in the following month, when a seditious and treasonable hand-bill, in the form of a proclama tion, was prepared and circulated by a person lately a leading member of the disaffected societies, and who your committee have reason to believe was principally concerned in convening the meeting on Kennington Common; a copy of which is annexed to this report." The report then proceeds to state the arrival of United Irishmen, and the fabrication of pikes and daggers. The expiration of the act suspending the habeas-corpus encouraged them to renew their designs at the commencement of the present year. Their plan, as stated in the report of the house of lords, to have an executive committee of ten, and subagents for the different districts. To conceal their designs, they formed themselves into clubs called benefitsocieties, where private assassination, of certain individuals was recommended. Another society, called Spensonians, was formed merely to discuss public affairs, they agreeing with a book published by Spence, recommending an agrarian law, the destruction of the nobility, &c. Upon the release of their leaders by the expiration of the act suspending the habeas-corpus, a supper was given, at which seditious and treasonable language was held. "This meeting seems to have occasioned a more confident opinion of their strength, and of the success of their schemes of seduction. They boasted of the extension of their society over different and remote districts of the metropolis. They were not, however, insensible to the proceedings of parliament on the subject of the martial law bill in Ireland, which they were appre hensive might be applied to the suppression of their enterprises here; or, if not, at least that the suspension of the habeas-corpus act would be renewed, and effectually operate to counteract their designs. Under this impression, a particular degree of caution was recommended by the executives as to the persons to whom the oath should be administered: they suspected they were observed, and were afraid of being apprehended before their plan was ripe for execution, which they admitted it would not be till they should be provided with arms sufficient for their purpose. The same apprehension operated differently on some of the most ardent spirits of the confederacy, who were still more sanguine as to the numbers who would join them, and who were desirous of striking the blow before measures could be taken for their suppression; and who thought they might supply the want of which they complained by a desperate attack on several repositories of arms, which would at once deprive the military of the means of resist ance, and furnish themselves with weapons for attack: others, not admitted to the secrets of the executives, accused them of tardiness in their operations, and were impatient to be called into action. The more cautious councils however prevailed, which were perhaps promoted by mutual suspicion, and by the reluctance of some, when it came near the point, to engage in outrages of such atrocity." (M 3) Other |