Sir Charles Russell's speech on Thursday night, in moving for
a Committee of Inquiry into the conditions subject to which meetings may be held in the Metropolis, and the limits of the right of the Executive Government to interfere therewith, was an extremely cautions one. He admitted expressly that the meeting of November 13th was an unlawful assembly, and did not deny the right of the Government to prohibit it on the ground that it inspired fear in residents of average courage ; but he maintained that the Londoners' right of public meeting in the open air should be jealously asserted, though also carefully regulated. And be held that Trafalgar Square is a fit place for meetings of a lawful kind, though he carefully abstained from saying that the public have a right of meeting there, whether the trustees of the Square,—whom Sir Charles Russell treated as the Commis- sioners of Woods and Forests,—give permission or not. He condemned Sir Charles Warren's order refusing permission to meet in Trafalgar Square for an indefinite time and till the order shall be revoked, as not founded on any legal right, though he admitted that any particular meeting likely to excite legitimate public alarm might be prohibited.
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