ing or Parliament, or to deliberate on any
alleged grievance, should be held without those who convened it, and who
must be householders, giving previous notice of it by public
advertisement; and empowering any two justices of the peace, at their
own discretion, to declare any such meeting an unlawful assembly, and to
disperse it by force, if, from the subjects discussed, the language
held, or any special circumstances, they should regard it as dangerous.

Fox, and those who still adhered to him, resisted almost every clause of
these different bills. They maintained that one of the most fundamental
maxims of law "in every country calling itself free was, that property
was in the highest degree entitled to the protection of the law; and, if
so, that the right of disposing of it or investing it in any manner must
be considered under the same protection;" that any interference "with
ordinary commercial transactions was equally repugnant to the spirit of
the constitution;" and, taking a practical view of the question, they
warned the minister that such rigorous enactments imposing such extreme
penalties would defeat their own end; for "it was a general and true
maxim, that excess of punishment for a crime brings impunity along with
it; and that no jury would ever find a verdict which would doom a
fellow-creature to death for selling a yard of cloth and sending it to
France." They protested, too, against inflicting on words, whether
written or spoken, penalties which had hitherto been confined to overt
acts. And the clauses conferring power on magistrates to prevent or
disperse public meetings encountered still more vehement opposition; Fox
insisting, with great eloquence, that "public meetings for the
discussion of public subjects were not only lawful, but agreeable to the
very essence of the constitution; that, indeed, to them, under that
constitution, most of the liberties which Englishmen now enjoyed were
particularly owing." The people, he maintained, had a right to discuss
their grievances. "They had an inalienable right to complain by
petition, and to remonstrate to either House of Parliament, or to the
King; and to make two magistrates, who might be strong partisans,
irresponsible judges whether anything said or done at a meeting had a
tendency to encourage sedition, was to say that a free constitution was
no longer suitable to us." Pitt justified these measures, partly on the
ground of the special and unprecedented d