It was thought, and with some reason, that the army could not be
trusted. One thing is certain, that the reformers found their way
into the barracks at Knightsbridge and had lunch there at the expense
of the soldiers, who discussed Hone's pamphlets and roared with
laughter over the Political Litany. The Prince Regent communicated
to both Houses certain papers, and recommended that they should at
once be taken into consideration. They contained evidence, so the
royal message asserted, of treasonable combinations "to alienate the
affections of His Majesty's subjects from His Majesty's person and
Government," &c. Secret committees were appointed to consider them
both by Lords and Commons, and in about a fortnight they made their
reports. The text was the Spitalfields meeting of the preceding 2nd
of December. A mob had made it an excuse to march through the city
and plunder some shops. Some of the charges brought against the
clubs by the Lords' Committee do not now seem so very appalling. One
was, that they were agitating for universal suffrage and annual
Parliaments--"projects," say the Committee, "which evidently involve,
not any qualified or partial change but a total subversion of the
British constitution.
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