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    Untitled Article

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    Untitled Article

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    PEACE.

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    ( 64 . ) '

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    [ tTndcr this held , wt mezn to insert accounts of the proceedings of « uf country , men , to put a stop to the crimes , miseries and horrors of War . —Communication * en this subject are requested from our Readers . Ei > . ]

    Proceedings of the Meeting to Petition for Peace , held at the Bowling - Green , St . Peter ' s JLane ^ Leicester ' , on Wednesday , the \ Sth of November ^ 1812 . Precisely at eleven o ' clock , on the jnotion of Mr , Robert Brewin , seconded by the Rev . C . Berry , Mr . J ohn Coltman took the chair .

    Mr . John Ryley spoke to the fellow-Ing effect : — ( t Sir , I am deputed by the Committee to state the measures which have been adopted , and which have finally led to the present meeting . I am also to propose various resolutions , all of which , though I have had no share in their

    selectien or composition , I . do most cordially approve . Sir , I am entirely unaccustomed to speaking in public , but were I sure to falter at every word , I would still say all I could , and leave the rest to the candour of my countrymen . A cause like ours needs no specious

    oratory to set it forth , it touches us all too closely , and it is probable that there is riot one among us who is not by the war , against which we are assembled to protest , galled most keenly . Various meetings had been held , at most of which you , Sir , most ably presided , before it was resolved to hand a requisition to the

    mayor ; signed by thirty one respectable pames , desiring him to convene a meeting of the inhabitants of this town , for the very impoitant object which will form the business of this day . To this requisition an answer wa « returned , altogether declining to call the meeting , and assigning as a principal reason for

    this negative , the riotous disposition of some of the inhabitants of this town , manifested during the late election , and recommending that we should conduct the business of petitioning in a snug and private way . Really , Sir , this is the Jnost brilliant specimen of a noascquitwr I ever recollect to have heard of : —bcqause there happens to be a disposition to rij&t * t a contested election , w £ are there-

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    fore to be debarred from the legal exercise of our constitutional right of pe—* titioning the legislature ; it is like the Irishman ' s echo * which when any one asked 'How do you do ?* answered « Pretty well , I thank you . * But , after all , what vras this formidable riot ? Sir , I

    am not disposed to jest with riots , thej are at all times serious things , ana should be treated seriously ; but tf this 'was so fearful a commotion , why was it treated so lightly ? In its earlier stages , at least it consisted principally of girls and boys , and half a dozen stout corvstablea -would have routed their main

    battallion in an instant , and compelled the drum and fife either to surrender at discretion , or to evacuate the field . I may now fee permitted , Sir , to advert briefly to some objections which have been urged against our proceedings : —

    The . first was pressed upon me by a man of strong head and English heart ; he expressed his anxiety for peace , but hi » conviction that the system of petitioning was wrong , as tending to encourage the enemy , and to weaken the hands o

    government . As * general position the argu mem is a good one , but iu force entirely depends upon the presumption that the government is pacifically inclined . This disposition on the part of the present ministers has ^ I am aware , been very recently ^ nd very strenuousl y asserted by men of high respectability ;

    but unfortunately the reverse is capable of direct proof . Why , in answer to ' th * late overture on the part of the French emperor , did Lord Castler « agh shut him * self Dp in the feeble rigidity of diplomatic forma , and refuse him his legitimate title ? a title , his claim to vrhicb , it is for Frenchmen , cot for us to

    question . The overture itself might be insidious , but the reply was most insulting and indicative of every thing but a wish for peace . But another , and a very different description of opponents , loudly and in a public room , made much hortcr work of the whole matter , by calling u » Jacobin ^ and affirming th *>

    Peace.

    PEACE .

• Citation
  • Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Jan. 2, 1813, page 64, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2424/page/64/