184 Ch. 36. 1795 Political POPULAR COMMOTION. persuade the populace that distress is entirely owing to political causes, and that the only remedy is to be found in organic changes in the constitution of the country. The agents of sedition did not fail to take advantage of this season; and their efforts were more successful than they had been since the commencement of the French revolution. Immense assemblages were gathered in London and the great towns, to hear how bread was made dear, and how taxes were heaped upon an overburdened people for the purposes of an effete monarchy, and a grasping aristocracy; and how universal suffrage and annual parliaments were the only cures for all these evils. Many riots took place, and a turbulent spirit of discontent became manifest throughout the country. Seditious handbills and ribald ballads were widely circulated among the common people; while persons of better education were supplied with publications in which revealed religion was assailed, together with political establishments. Paine's Age of Reason appeared at this time, and, being written in a more popular and plausible style than any of his former works, which had, from time to time, controverted the truth of Christianity, it was eagerly read by thousands, who were deluded with the idea of a new era of freedom, from which the restraints of religion and law should be alike banished. The ministers were so much alarmed at this state of the country, that they thought it necessary MEETING IN COPENHAGEN FIELDS. to call Parliament together in the autumn, in order that the Government might be armed with new powers for the maintenance of order, and the suppression of dangerous opinions. The Corresponding Society, which had taken the lead in the propagation of the new revolutionary doctrine, organised an immense demonstration, three days before the meeting of Parliament. They fixed upon some open ground in the parish of Marylebone, called Copenhagen Fields, a district now covered with streets and terraces, and there they collected an assemblage amounting, it was said, to a hundred and fifty thousand persons. An address to the King was voted, praying for reform in Parliament, the dismissal of ministers, and peace with the French Republic. 185 Ch. 36. 1795 the King. The immediate result of this meeting was an Outrage on outrage upon the King, when he went in state to open the Session of Parliament. A vast concourse of people filled the streets, and the procession was followed by a rabble, vociferating against the war, the ministers, and the King. In Pall Mall, opposite the Ordnance Office, the window of the state coach was perforated by a small bullet; and his Majesty, on arriving at the House of Lords, announced to the Chancellor that he had been shot at. On his return, the carriage was attacked with greater fury, and was with difficulty saved from destruction. At St. James's, the King quitted the state coach, dismissed the guard, and proceeded in his private carriage to Buckingham House. He 186 Ch. 36. 1795 Proceedings in Parliament. SEVERE MEASURES. was still pursued by the infuriated populace, who threatened to pull him out of the carriage, and would probably have done so, but for the rapid driving of the coachman, and the timely arrival of a troop of Life Guards. These violent proceedings prepared the way for measures of a very stringent character, to which the Ministers had already determined to require the assent of Parliament. A proclamation was, in the first place, issued, by way of introduction to two Bills; the one for the repression of seditious meetings; and the other for extending the definition and penalties of high treason. The last-mentioned Bill was introduced in the Lords. Its provisions extended the crime of treason far beyond any limits which had been hitherto assigned to it. Writing, preaching and speaking, which, under the existing law, would be criminal only if accompanying overt acts, were themselves constituted overt acts, and rendered the offender guilty of treason. A new offence was created, which subjected to the penalties of a high misdemeanour any person who by writing, preaching or speaking, should incite or stir up the people to hatred or dislike of His Majesty's person, or the established Government and Constitution of the realm. Under the last words, it is obvious that the liberty of speech and the liberty of the press might have been wholly destroyed, had it not been for the recent Libel Act, which happily deprived prerogative judges of the exclusive right of interpretation in questions COERCIVE BILLS. 1795 187 of libel. The Bill was denounced in the strongest Ch. 36. terms by the Whig Lords; and Grenville, who introduced the measure, could refer to no better times than those of Elizabeth and Charles the Second as precedents for such unconstitutional legislation. The second of this pair of Bills, which was Act to repress public brought forward in the Commons, was intended discussion. to restrict freedom of discussion, and to render it hardly possible to hold meetings for any political purpose without infringing on the law. Every public assembly, relating to any matter concerning the Church or State, was to be held by previous advertisement, signed by resident householders; and all assemblages not convened in this manner were declared illegal. The next clause of the Bill was of the most arbitrary character. It subjected any meeting, legally constituted, to the summary provisions of the Riot Act, if, in the opinion of any two Justices, such meeting was dangerous to the public peace. By another provision, lecturerooms, and even gatherings in the open air, to which admittance was obtained by payment, were required to be licensed, and were placed under the observation of the police. the measure. This measure was received by the few members Reception of of the House of Commons who were neither the obsequious followers of the Minister, nor unmanned by exaggerated terrors, with every mark of amazement and disgust. Fox had been hardly able to restrain himself, while the Minister, in stately 188 1795 VIOLENT DECLAMATION Ch. 36. periods, sought to demonstrate, that the partial excesses of the untaught populace, irritated by temporary causes, were a sufficient reason for retrenching some of the most valuable liberties of Englishmen. When Pitt sat down, the Whig leader, fired with a generous indignation, started up, and denounced the measure in words of vehemence and power, which even he himself had never surpassed. He said it was better at once to declare that, after experience, and upon a review of the present state of the world, a free constitution was no longer suitable to this country; but he hoped that the people, while they were yet allowed to meet, would assemble and express their abhorrence of these measures; for if they were to be denied a legal mode of making known their grievances, they would be reduced to the level of those unhappy creatures who have no alternative between abject submission and armed resistance. This Bill, and Lord Grenville's, commonly distinguished by the names of the Treason Bill' and the 'Sedition Bill,' were carried through both houses by the commanding majorities which usually supported the Ministry. Fox and his friends, however, abated none of the vehemence of their opposition. When the Bills were advanced to that stage in which the details should have been discussed, Fox declined to discuss them, and hoped that they might pass in their integrity, that the people might fully understand the nature and extent of the attack which had been made upon their liberties. As to their |