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APPENDIX TO INTRODUCTION.

I HAVE placed, in an Appendix, extracts from my correspondence with Sir James Mackintosh in the year 1819, and a copy of the letter of Pliny to the Emperor Trajan, to which I have referred in speaking of Ireland.

Note A.

MY DEAR LORD John,

Holland House: October 14.

Parliament is you see to meet on the 27th of next month, and you are more wanted than any body, not only for general service, but because your reform must be immediately brought forward, if possible, as the act of the party, but at all events as the creed of all Whig Reformers. This session will be confined to the Radicals. It is reported that we are to have no suspension of the Habeas Corpus, but the Sedition Meetings Bill revived, with a new clause forbidding all persons to attend meetings at any other places but where they reside or have property, the imposition of the newspaper stamp on the weekly pamphlets, and a measure against drilling and training. My system is that we should:

I. Declare our real opinion of the danger of the country, which I think very great, and proclaim irreconcileable war against the Radicals.

II. That we should of course call for inquiry on Manchester. III. That we should not very pertinaciously oppose ourselves to measures of precaution, which, if they have no other value, are Parliamentary declarations against the incendiaries, in which our concurrence (as far as possible) is the best pledge of our resolution to stand or fall with the constitution.

IV. That we should declare in the frankest and strongest manner for your reformatory measures, and that you should bring them forward, if possible, before the adjournment.

The early meeting of Parliament has put a stop to all further steps for country meetings, to which I own I was not from the beginning favourable. I believe I am less disposed to resist restrictive measures, and more anxious to declare for Reform, than many of our friends. My opinion with respect to both is fully as much influenced by other considerations which will readily occur to you, as by their intrinsic value. If some of our most important friends should persevere in their repugnance to all Parliamentary amendment, though we must not separate from them, we may still pursue our own course on that subject. In that case, however, I must own that our determination may be attended with little benefit at present, and much embarrassment in future. I wish to God you could come for two or three days to Mardock's before the meeting, that we might go through these matters. It would be a great favour if you would write to me as soon as you can. I send you a little packet of metaphysics from Lady Mackintosh. My zeal is somewhat cooled on these subjects, though the eagerness of a Scotch disputant happened to be unseasonably revived in the conversation about her ingenious paradox.

If Moore be with you, or within your reach, remind him of my constant regard.

Dear Lord John, ever yours most faithfully,

J. MACKINTOSH.

Do not delay coming. If you are not here at the opening of the session it will be hard to keep your subject.

Chatsworth: January 12, 1820.

MY DEAR LORD John,

I have not yet received your speech, for which I am impatient. I quite agree with you about the divorce, and I think we have nothing to do but to see justice done, so that the individual may not be wronged, and that the example may be without danger. But it would still be very useful to know the sentiments of some individuals. Although it cannot be made a party question in forma, yet if a single person of importance among us were to espouse one side with great warmth, it might be a question very dangerous to our party. I will frankly answer your question about the last short session. I retain my

first opinion, that there was sufficient ground for some precautionary measures; I never feared the success of immediate revolt, further than as it might affect the security of persons and pro

perty in a district for a very short time. The evil which I apprehended was the alienation of the working classes from the proprietors and the constitution, and on this subject my apprehensions are not in the least abated. Some regulations of public meetings, I thought likely to be in some degree useful, because these meetings are the occasions on which the fanaticism of disaffection is most effectually propagated. The exception of meetings within doors, is so important a mitigation (not to be found in the Acts of '95 and '99), that it may in time supply the means of defeating the whole restriction. I never consider the Whigs in the time of Anne and George I. as having made any surrender of the principles of liberty by the Temporary Treason, the Riot Act, the Septennial Act, or even the suspension of the Habeas Corpus. The only questions in my opinion about these measures, relate to the degree of the evil and the efficacy of the remedy. The Drilling Act we are agreed about, the Disarming Act (if divested of the power of nocturnal seizure) seemed to me, if not absolutely necessary, yet a fit concession to the fears of the peaceable inhabitants of great districts.

The measures of the press are of a different kind, for the Stamp one is divided between the enormity of the evil and the danger of the principle. I voted cordially against the Stamp and the Recognisance. As to the Libel Bill I cannot help thinking that my Amendment would have placed the law on the right footing. However indiscreet my speech may have been, I am not convinced that I said anything, not in itself, just and true. Whatever my private opinions were, I was prepared to sacrifice, and I did sacrifice them to unanimity, and I will venture to say that no individual laboured harder to prevent disunion.

Note B.

The following is the letter of Pliny to the Emperor Trajan, copied from the Edition of 1789, Book X. Letter 97 :—

Solemne est mihi, Domine, omnia de quibus dubito, ad te referre. Quis enim potest melius vel cunctationem meam regere, vel ignorantiam instruere? Cognitionibus de Christianis interfui nunquam: ideo nescio, quid et quatenus aut puniri soleat, aut quæri. Nec mediocriter hæsitavi, sitne aliquod discrimen ætatum, an quamlibet teneri nihil a robustioribus differant ? deturne pœnitentiæ venia, an ei, qui omnino Christianus fuit, desisse non prosit? nomen ipsum, etiamsi flagitiis careat, an

flagitia cohærentia nomini, puniantur? Interim in iis, qui ad me tanquam Christiani deferebantur, hunc sum secutus modum. Interrogavi ipsos, an essent Christiani? confitentes iterum ac tertio interrogavi, supplicium minatus, perseverantes duci jussi. Neque enim dubitabam, qualecunque esset, quod faterentur, pertinaciam certe, et inflexibilem obstinationem debere puniri. Fuerunt alii similis amentiæ, quos, quia cives Romani erant, annotavi in urbem remittendos. Mox ipso tractatu, ut fieri solet, diffundente se crimine, plures species inciderunt. Propositus est libellus sine auctore, multorum nomina continens, qui negant se esse Christianos, aut fuisse, cum, præeunte me, Deos appellarent, et imagini tuæ, quam propter hoc jusseram cum simulacris numinum afferri, ture ac vino supplicarent, præterea maledicerent Christo; quorum nihil cogi posse dicuntur, qui sunt revera Christiani. Ergo dimittendos putavi. Alii ab indice nominati, esse se Christianos dixerunt, et mox negaverunt, fuisse quidem sed desiisse quidam ante triennium, quidam ante plures annos, non nemo etiam ante viginti quoque. Omnes et imaginem tuam, Deorumque simulacra venerati sunt; ii et Christo maledixerunt. Affirmabant autem, hanc fuisse summam vel culpæ sum, vel erroris, quod essent soliti stato die ante lucem convenire: carmenque Christo, quasi Deo, dicere secum invicem, seque sacramento non in scelus aliquod obstringere, sed ne furta, ne latrocinia, ne adulteria committerent, ne fidem fallerent, ne depositum appellati abnegarent; quibus peractis morem sibi discedendi fuisse, rursusque co. undi ad capiendum cibum, promiscuum tamen et innoxium, quod ipsum facere desiisse post edictum meum, quod secundum mandata tua hetarias esse vetueram. Quo magis necessarium credidi, ex duabus ancillis, quæ ministræ dicebantur, quid esset veri et per tormenta quærere. Sed nihil aliud inveni, quam superstitionem pravam, immodicam. Ideo, dilata cognitione, ad consulendum te decurri. Visa est enim mihi res digna consultatione maxime propter periclitantium numerum. Multi enim omnis ætatis, omnis ordinis, utriusque sexus etiam, vocantur in periculum, et vocabuntur. Neque enim civitates tantum, sed vicos etiam atque agros superstitionis istius contagio pervagata est, quæ videtur sisti et corrigi posse. Certe satis constat prope jam desolata templa coepisse celebrari, et sacra solemnia diu intermissa repeti, passimque venire victimas, quarum adhuc rarissimus emtor inveniebatur. Ex quo facile est opinari, quæ turba hominum emendari possit, si fiat pœnitentiæ locus.

SPEECHES.

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