ted to create groundless alarms and
suspicions; that the house of commons was ever ready to concur with his
majesty in the suppression of all riots, tumults, or other disorders, on
whatever pretexts they might be formed; that they deeply regretted the
tumults and disorders which took place at Birmingham in the course of
last summer, to the disgrace of all good government, etc.; and that the
surest means of averting the like calamities would be to proceed with
all the severity of the law against such persons as might have been
instrumental in aiding and abetting those tumults and disorders, and
particularly to prosecute and punish such magistrates as appeared to
have been guilty of neglect in their duty. It was argued by Grey, and
others of the opposition, as Fox, Francis, Whitbread, Lambton, and Lord
John Russell, all of whom vehemently supported the counter address, that
the diligent inquiry enjoined by the proclamation after the authors and
distributors of wicked and seditious writings, tended to establish an
odious system of espionage; a system which had made the old government
of France an object of general detestation, and which was unworthy
of the sovereign of a free people. Grey, and those who supported
his amendment, uttered many bitter invectives against Pitt in their
speeches, but he declared in reply that such language should not deter
him from pursuing that line of conduct which he deemed most conducive
to public tranquillity, and the preservation of constitutional freedom.
Pitt expressed his high respect for many of the members of the society
of "the Friends of the People," and said that they need not come--as
the opposition had presumed they would--within the scope of the
proclamation. It was, he remarked, directed against those daring and
seditious principles that had been so insidiously propagated amongst the
people, under the plausible and delusive appellation of "The Rights of
Man." Pitt expressed his astonishment that the existence of a republican
spirit in England had been denied, when it was openly avowed and
industriously propagated, both by individuals and by societies. He
charged Fox with being the only person who saw no danger in the writings
and doctrines so widely promulgated; proclaimed him a friend, if not
an advocate, of Paine and his doctrines; and asserted that such conduct
could not be reconciled with any spark of patriotism. Fox indignantly
rejoined, and disclaimed all sympathy with Paine