THE Committee have proceeded to examine the papers referred to them.

In execution of this duty they have proceeded, in the first place, to consider such of the said papers as contained information as to the state of those parts of England in which the circumstances detailed in the two reports of the former committees appear to have arisen.

In the last of those Reports, presented to the House on the 12th of June last, it was represented, that the period of a general rising, of which the intention and object were stated in the Reports, appeared to have been fixed for as early a day as possible after the discussion of an expected motion for reform in Parliament; that Nottingham appeared to have been intended as the head-quarters, upon which a part

of the insurgents were to march in the first instance; and that they expected to be joined there, and on their march towards London, by other bodies, with such arms as they might have already provided, or might procure by force from private houses, or from the different depots or barracks, of which the attack was proposed. That concurrent information, from many quarters, confirmed the expec

tation of a general rising about the time above-mentioned, but that it was subsequently postponed to the 9th or 10th of June, for which various reasons had been assigned. The Report added, that the latest intelligence from those quarters had made it highly probable that the same causes which had to that time thwarted the execution of those desperate designs, viz. the vigilance of the government, the great activity and intelligence of the magis trates, the ready assistance afforded under their orders by the regular troops and yeomanry, the prompt and efficient arrangements of the officers intrusted with that service, the knowledge which had from time to time been obtained of the plans of the disaffected, and the consequent arrest and confinement of the leading agitators, would occasion a still farther postponement of their atrocious plans.

It now appears, that in the night of the 9th of June last, a rising took place in Derbyshire, headed by a person who went for that purpose from Nottingham, and was therefore called "The Nottingham Captain." The insurgents were not formidable for their numbers, but they were actuated by an atrocious spirit. Several of them

had fire-arms; others had pikes, previously prepared for the purpose; and as they advanced towards Notting ham they plundered several houses of arms, and in one instance a murder was committed. They compelled some persons to join them, and endeavoured to compel others by threats of violence, and particularly by the terror of the murder which had been committed; and they proposed to reach Nottingham early in the morning of the 10th of June, and to surprise the military in their barracks; hoping thus to become masters of the town, and to be joined by considerable numbers there, and by a party which they expected would be assembled in Nottingham Forest, and which actually did assemble at that place, as after stated. The disposition to plunder, the resistance they met with, and other circumstances, so delayed their march, that they had not arrived near their place of destination at a late hour in the morning; and the country being alarmed, a military force was assembled to oppose them.

The language used by many persons engaged in this enterprize, and particularly by their leaders, leaves no room to doubt that their objects were the overthrow of the established government and laws; extravagant as those objects were, when compared with the inadequate means which they possessed. In the course of their march, many of their body felt alarmed at the atrocious projects in which they had engaged, which had actually led to a cruel and deliberate murder: they found that their confederates had not arrived to their support, as they had been led to expect; and in the villages through which they passed, a strong indisposition being manifested towards their cause and projects, some of them threw away their pikes, and retired before the military force appeared; and on the first show of that

force the rest dispersed, their leaders attempting in vain to rally them, many were taken prisoners, and many guns and pikes were seized.

This insurrection, of small importance in itself, is a subject of material consideration, as it was manifestly in consequence of measures detailed in the two reports above-mentioned, and appears to have been a part of the general rising proposed to take effect on the 9th or 10th of June, as stated in the last of those reports.

At the assizes at Derby, in the month of July following, the grand jury found bills of indictment for high treason against forty-six of the persons charged with having been engaged in this insurrection; and several of those persons having been taken, were arraigned upon the indictment before a special commission issued for that purpose, which sat at Derby in the month of October following. Four of the principal offenders were separately tried and convicted; three of them were executed; and the capital punishment of the fourth was remitted, on condition of transportation. The conviction of these four induced nineteen of the other persons indicted, whose conduct had been deemed in the next degree most criminal, to withdraw their pleas of not guilty, and to plead guilty to the indictment, in hopes of thus avoiding a capital punishment; and the sentence of death on these persons was afterwards remitted on different conditions. Against all the other persons indicted, who were in custody, the law officers of the crown declined producing any evidence, and they were accordingly acquitted. The rest of the persons included in the indictment had fled from justice, and have not yet been taken.

The fact of this actual insurrection first proved to the satisfaction of a most respectable grand jury of the county of Derby, who found the bill

of indictment, and afterwards proved, in open court, to the satisfaction of the several juries, sworn on the four several trials of the persons convicted; proved also, by the acknowledgment of the same guilt by those who with drew their pleas of not guilty, and pleaded guilty to the same indictment, and thus submitted themselves to the mercy of the crown, appear to the Committee to have established beyond the possibility of a doubt, the credit due to the information mentioned in the last Report, respecting the plans of more extended insurrection, which had previously been concerted, and respecting the postponement of these plans to the 9th or 10th of June,

But this insurrection in Derbyshire was not the only circumstance occurring since the period described in the last of thetwo Reports before mentioned, which demonstrates the correctness of the information on which the Committee who made that Report proceeded, in representing such a general rising to have been intended, and to have been postponed ; and that Nottingham was the head-quarters upon which a part of the insurgents was to march in the first instance; and that they were expected to be joined there by insurgents from different quarters.

Early in the same night on which the Derbyshire insurgents began their operations, the town of Nottingham was in a state of considerable agitation. It appears from the evidence given upon the trials at Derby, that, during the march of the Derbyshire insur gents towards Nottingham, one of their leaders, afterwards convicted of high treason, was sent forwards on horseback, to obtain intelligence. On his return to the main body of the Derbyshire insurgents, it was pretended that the state of Nottingham was favourable to their designs: the actual state of Nottingham and its neighbourhood appears from the evidence

given on the trials at Derby. In the night of the 9th of June, some persons, stated to be in number about one hundred, had assembled on the race. course, in Nottingham Forest, where the Derbyshire insurgents, according to their original plan, were to have ar rived at an early hour on the morning of the 10th, and expected to be joined by such a party. This party was seen about twelve at night; they were drawn up in line, two deep, and a part of them were armed with pikes or poles. They remained assembled on the race ground until past two o'clock in the morning, about which time they dispersed. Some appearances of disturbance in the town of Nottingham early in the night of the 9th, induced the magistrates to send for a military force from the barracks; and order being quickly restored, the military returned to their barracks, and were not again called out until the morning of the 10th, when they were required to assist in dispersing the Derbyshire insurgents, who were then on their march.

Connected with these disturbances in Derbyshire and Nottinghamshire, a disposition to similar conduct was manifested in a part of the West Riding of Yorkshire. On the 6th of June a meeting of delegates was assembled at a place called Thornhill Lees, near Huddersfield; and at this meeting it was understood, that the time to be fixed for a general rising would be announced. The persons assembled at that meeting were surprised by the magistrates, assisted by a military force, and some were taken into custody. This arrest deranged the plans of the disaffected; and the greater part of the districts in that part of Yorkshire, in which a general rising had been proposed, remained quiet. But in the neighbourhood of Huddersfield, in the night of the 8th of June, a considerable body assembled, some with fire