Star. — London, England, 1821-05-16 00:00:00

',its of Mr. Hunt on the subject had been discharged with costs. On the motion of Sir ROBERT WILSON ' the Peti tion was then read, and it described the Keeper of Ikhester Jail as an inhuman, cold-blooded, worthless wretch. It further stated, that the Judges of the Court of King's Bench had sent the Petitioner to that jail, knowing tt to be the most pestilential and the worst regulated in the kingdom. In condo/Jinn. it prayed that the Judges might be impeached, if it was found that their influence was exexcisekl against the freedom of the People. The Petition being read, the Honourable and gallant Member moved that it do lie on the table; upon which Mr. BRIGHT rose, and deprecated in forcible aims the language it contained. He considered the statements to be false, groundless, and unjustifiable. The Marquis of LONDONDERRY spoke briefly to the same effect; and said, that if simple justice was the object of the Petition, it would have been presented at another time, and drawn up in different terms. He hoped the House would net suffer such a Petition to lie on the table. The ArfORNEY-GENERAL considered the al legations in the Petition as false in the extreme. 11- chester Jail had been purposely selected for the con finement of Mr. Hunt, because it had been under stood to be better regulated than most other jails in the kingdom. Mr. SCARLETT bad no idea, when this Petition bad been first adverted to, that it contained a tissue of the basest slander that had ever been put forth to the world. If men were allowed to state from prison everything they thought proper against the Judges by whom their verdicts had been pronounced, then all respect for public justice had better be given up at once. The Hon. and Learned Gentleman then said, that Mr. Hunt had experienced such indulgence on his trial as had been granted to no other individual under similar circumstances; and the charge now made with respect to the Judges of the Court of King's Bench was false, foul, and calumnious (Hear). Dr. LUSHINGTON did not think that the pre sent Petition could be received ; yet, at the same time, he thought that an inquiry ought immediately to - take place into all the circumstances relating to ll chester Jail. Five weeks had elapsed since a Resolu tion to that effect had been agreed to, yet nothing bad yet been done. He hoped, however, that no more time would be lost, as one hundred and fifty British subjects ought not to be exposed to unneces sary severity a single instant longer than redress could be afforded—(Hear, hear). The SOLICITOR-GENERAL was convinced that no unnecessary delay had occurred in making the in quiries which the circumstances of the case required. Dr. LUSHINGTON.—" Yes, but the Commis sioners appointed have not yet gone down." The SOLICITOR-GENERAL. —" Very true, the Commissioners have not yet gone down, and the rea son is, because certain forms must be previously com plied with ; there necessarily must be some delay." Sir Rosser Wtmos offered to withdraw the Pe tition ; but the Marquis of LONDONDERRY objected to this, as it would prevent the House from marking its sense of the , merits of it.—The question that the Pe tition should lie on the table was then put. No voice was raised for it; but the Noes were loud, and it was of course rejected. Mr. HUE presented Petitions from five indivi duals, three women and two men, complaining of the violence with which they had been treated by the Cavalry; and praying for inquiry into the transac tion.—Laid on the table, and ordered to be printed. Dr. LUSHINGTON said, he had a Petition to present, complaining of the same outrage which had formed the subject of the other Petitions. In the pre sent instance, the individual very fortunately escaped with having his shoulder blade broken, while some of his countrymen had been murdered. He prayed, and his prayer was very reasonable, that, under the atrocious circumstances of the case, the instigators to the bloodshed that had taken place might be brought to justice—(Hear, hear).—Yet he (Dr. Lush ington) had no hope, after what had passed in a for mer Parliament, that the decision of that night would pr6ve satisfactory. On that occasion the complaints of the people were treated with mockery; and he could not help thinking that something of the same kind was now intended. _ _ _ Mr. LAMBTON presented a Petition from Sa muel Jackson. He had been wounded in the knee with a musket-ball—his leg was in consequence am putated—he had been fourteen weeks in the Infir rnaryand had never been able to work since.—Or dered to be printed. Petitions to nearly the same effect were presented from John Kershaw, James Smith, Owen► M'Cabe, and John Bruce.—Read, and ordered to be printed. Sir W. DE CILESPIGNY held in his hand four similar Petitions. The first was from a person who described the Cavalry as having rode over and cut at all who fell in their way ; the Petitioner himself was stabbed in the shoulder, and narrowly escaped being' killed on the spot. The next was from James Leith, who having received two tremendous wounds, was carried to the Hospital: the Doctor asked him would he promise never again to be found in such company ? to which not having made a satislictory answer, he was obliged to leave the Hospital—(Hear, hear).-- The next was from John Brooke, who, without having given any provocation, had been attacked by the Ca valry and wpunded.—These Petitions were severally rem', ordered to lie upon the table, and be printed. Mr. MONCK presented a Petition from a woman aged seventy-two. The Petition described the trans action as most bloody ; that, previous to the appear ance of the trocps, the Meeting was perfectly or derly ; that the Yeomanry were in a state of intoxi cation when they made-the charge, in' the midst of which Petitioner was attacked by a trumpeter named Meagher, who cut her down. After her recovery from her wounds, Petitioner made application to the Magistrates at Warrington, who refused to receive her complaint : she therefore prayed the Honourable House for redress, and inquiry into the transactions of the 16th of August; and in this prayer he (Mr. Moack) - most heartily concurred. The Hon. Mem ber also presented a similar Petition from James Ogle, who having been rode over, got up, and was pursued by a Yeoman; that, attempting to get over a wall, to save his life, he fell, in consequence of the wounds he had previously received, when another Yeoman gave Itint a cut over the eye.—Both these petitions wwe read, ordered so Le upon the table,' and to be printed. . . i MOTION FOR AN INQUIRY INTO THE OUTRAGES AT Lf AIICHUTZ R. Sir FRANCIS BURDET C.—After the numerous Petitions which had bin presented, stating,in most incontrovertible, as well as simple, unaffected, yet affecting language, the manner in which the unof fending penple constitutionally met, and the mode also of dieir dispersion, the object of his motion was inquiry. Whether it was to the Manchester Magis trates, or the Yeomanry, who had so gallantly dis tinguished themselves, blame ought to be imputed, or to the laws, he could not tell ; but he was con vinced of the urgent necessity for inquiry. To him it belonged to allude to those actions which had taken place. Speaking of which, the Noble Sect etary at War had said, that although war had ceased for years upon the Continent, we were now only in the first year of peace in England: the meaning of which he (Sir Francis) could not understand. The question, under every point of view, was one of extreme im portance; yet, in bringing it forward, he felt that he was likely to gain much more credit for zeal than for discretion ; but pladion aro deem Pattilei ! He was but attempting to institute,an inquiry into transactions which he (Sir Francis Burdett) contetved it was a disgrace to the Government not to have in vestigated—(Hear, hear). —In bringing the subject before the House, it would be necessary for him to refer to what had been said upon it, in this House, on former occasions. He recollected that the Noble Lord, Member for the county of Lancaster, had stated, that it was not until the Yeomanry had been attacked, and, as he said, wounds had been indicted upon them, that they turned round. With every possible respect for that Noble Lord, he would assert that that statement was not founded in fact. He disclaimed all intention of personal imputation; and, should be feel himself obliged to use a very coarse word—falsehood, in characterising certain state ments, he begged it to be understood as having no personal reference whatever. The Honourable Mem ber for Dover had said, it was not until the Yeo manry had been attacked with stones, which had been placed there for the purpose, that they had turned against the people. The Honourable the Solicitor- General had stated, that not only an attack had been made upon the Yeomanry, but that many of them had been literally unhorsed. He would here disclaim all idea of imputing to that Honourable Gentleman any intention or wish to mislead the House, particularly as he (Sir Francis) had motives for refraining from any imputation against the Ho nourable Gentleman; which, although that Honour able Gentleman might have forgotten, were still very powerful with him (Sir Francis). The Honourable I Gentleman, it was true, might have found himself justified in the professional reservation of having only stated from his brief: After these came, naturally, the Noble Marquis opposite, who mounts and soars into the regions of fancy and delusion, so far above all his compeers, who declared that the accounts of attacks made upon the people by the military were false and groundless; that, on the contrary, the people had attacked the military with showers of 'stones, brickbats, and even fire-arms ; out that the military used none; that although care had been taken to remove those missiles, the Noble Lord had found that, on the same spot, thousands of stones had fallen upon the unoffending heads of the Yeo manry ; and therefore supposed that the people had come prepared with them in their pockets! He (Sir Francis Burdett) did not believe that inference to be a just one, and would rather suspect it had been a meteoric shower by which those heroes had been assailed, which he thought a much more ra tional conclusion than that they had come from the pockets of the people !--(Hear, hear, and a laugh). That the Magistrates were, even after that attack, so anxious to act according to law, that one of them read the Riot Act from the window of the house in which they had assembled. One scrupulous Magis trate, fearing it had not been heard, like another De cius, devoted himself for his country, plunged into the crowd, and was trodden down by the people 1 7 -- Two having been disposed of, another presented him self (for, like Faistsr's men in buckram, they conti nued to increase), and fearing the people were still ignorant that the Riot Act had been read, he also read it. All the assertions which charged the people with having been the first aggressors had been proved to be false, ,by the most irrefragable testimony, fur, with the exception of three, all the witnesses who had been examined on the inquiry at York gave evidence of the good and peaceable conduct of the people pre vious to the attack by the Cavalry—two of those three, Mr. Hulton and Mr. Entwistle. Mr. Hulton was the only person who spoke of the attack, and of the shower of stones described by the Noble Lord.— He (Sir Francis Burdett) hoped these stones had been preserved, as they would form an appropriate monu ment to the Noble Lord. But even Mr. Holton could not to this day tell how the attack on the people commenced, or from what motive, or by whose order this spilling of the blood of the people happened, which called so loudly for inquiry. Bat Mr. Hulton says, that, seeing the Cavalry beaten, he ordered Colonel L'Estrange and the 15th Dragoons to sup port them ; and yet, to this moment, not even the Rev. Mr. Hay, nor indeed any other mortal, could be found to bear out the statement of Mr. Holton ; and all the remaining evidence taken at York suffici envy proved the peaceable conduct of the people on that fatal day. Whether that Meeting, was legal or illegal was no reason for dispersing n by vicilence, and which violence, he contended, was a sufficient ground for instituting an inquiry. For a long time previous to the Meeting the Magistrates had been aware of the intention of the people to march with banners, of the drilling, &c. and yet they took no steps to prevent those things. In the papers on the table would be found a letter, signed by at Mr. Mor ris, to a Nobleman, who performed the functions of an Officer well known in France, but happily until now never heard of in England, he meant Lieutenant de Police. In that letter he says, that, " although anxious to preserve the peace, yet he had no power to prevent the intended Meeting." From this, he (Sir Francis Burdett) would deduce that the Magistrates were not aware that that Meeting would be illegal. There was another letter from a Mr. Spooner, of sth July, 1819, in which he described his fears that, at an intended Meeting to be bald at liirmingham, fir the purpose of electing a Legisbttorial Atlorney, l culed the chimerical fears of those who aeprels ak t ed much violence would take place . ; but on the 13th of danger from the Meetings of the People, % i v , the same month he wrote to say, that the Meeting of tened to the tales of the intended seizure and c ae c a. ... the 12th had, contrary to his expectations, passed off cation of property, and the assumption of ticks h e without any outrage having been conimitted by the I them It any person could be found so wea k as t o people. From which he (Sir Francis Burdett) would credit those stories, they ought to be taught to b e . infer, that the people could not be acted upon in the ,lieve that Atlas would resi g n hi s l oa d, an d that the manner—the anticipation of which bad so alarmed world would fall to pieces. It was never commit him. It ought to be recollected too, that that was I cam' to Mr. Hunt in any one way t h at the Maetiv one of the greatest Meetings that had been held. On about to be held was illegal; and from this circuni: the ground of similar anticipations, the Lord Mayor stance he had an rusdonbzed right to d raw a of London wished to prevent the great Smithfield elusion that the Meeting took place under th e 5 ,„,„. Meeting, and wrote for advice to the Lieutenant of' don of the Magistrates of the place—(Hear)„,, Police: but that Noble Lord did not feel himself war- It appeared further, that a Meeting was held at ranted in preventing. it. From this also he would Wigan, after the Manchester Meeting, an d a deduce, that these Meetings were not then held to be larger one at York, yet the Magistrates did not thi n k contrary to law: At the Smithfield Meeting, where proper to interpose any violence; and what was th e Mr. Hunt presided, Mr. Harrison was arrested in the consequence? Why, that they passed away inn * heart of that immense Meeting, yet no attempt was greatest order and tranquillity, as was the case Wian made at resistance ; and therefore the Manchester all the Meetings that took place throughout' ti Magistrates were not justified in their anticipation of country, before and after. Where, then, was th e .violence on the part of the people, nor in their con- ground for imputing disloyalty to the People? 0 4 duct at the Meeting. He could conceive no motive the contrary, had they not always shewn the gre a t et for that conduct, but a wish to instigate the people reverence for the laws ? He hardly knew a cir cam. to an attempt at Revolution ; for it had been proved stance in all history, ancient or modern, more cal. that one of the most inflammatory of the hand- mirous, and more to be deplored, than thefatat t rans. bills which had been distributed at the Smithfield action of the 16th of August, at Manchester — a ,d ay Meeting, had been previously seen and read by that would never be forgotten in the history of this Lord Sidmouth, and had been traced to Franklin.— country—a day blackened with a deed which neve r He next alluded to Mr. Hay's dispatch, which stated would be effaced from the memory of Englishaa t that it was not the intention of the Magistrates to —Wad fatale le.thum et nempiam samabde valuta stop the columns of the People on their way to the (Hear, hear)—He had a right to charge upr at t i t hustings, and described the military preparations Ministers the whole burden of the accusation, ari d , made: the line of Constables extending from the hus- passing by Magistrates and constables, he, on the pa n tings to the house in which the Magistrates had assem- of the People of England, demanded an investigation bled: even Mr. Nadin had walked through the Peo- into the conduct of the Administration itself!--11-kmi. ple without having been offended, and therefore any It was a remarkable circumstance that the number warrant could have been executed without danger of victims on that fatal day was double the number from resistance. Mr. Hay then went on to state that of killed and wounded on the glorious occasion of there were no pikes, although a Noble Lord, in ano- the victory by Admiral Jervis, in consetpwace Cher place, had said that there were pikes, but that which he received the title of Earl St. Viucent!-- there were plenty of sticks and stave.! It appeared When that gallant leader obtained the victory ofd by Mr. Nadin's own testimony, that so far from his Vincent, with fifteen sail of the line over twenty-eras preceding the Yeomanry, they had preceded him. sail of the enemy, and brought two of t h e enemy ' s The letter then stated the colours and other matters ships into port, the retur,s of killed and wounded did taken from the hustings. Mr. Saxton's case was a not exceed three or four hundred. At Manchester horrible one: one Yeoman said to another—" There the number of victims--men, women, and children, is that villain, Saxton; run your sword through him." was computed at upwards of six hundred!--(Hear} " No," said the other, " I will leave that to you:— Was it pcssible, then, that so fatal a day should rat He made the attempt accordingly, and it was only be remembered—and remembered, too, Kith a rest. by stooping that Mr. Saxton had escaped death; and less anxiety tor a Parliamentary inquiry, and a rati. this yeoman was one of the persons the Crown had re- tution of justice, from which the unfortunate suf ea fused to prosecute. The law of England was founded ers and their friends were debarred in any other place upon the law of GOD. The first command of the AL- Because, as to Courts of Law, they knew very wit MIGHTY, to him who was the ancestor of all the pre- that the subject was too vast in its nature to beau& sent race of mankind was, that " whosoever sheds the matter of investigation by them ; the Judges might bloodof man, by wan shall leis blood be shed." For mur- indeed inquire into, and perhaps redress the wrongs der no satisfaction could be given, nor reparation of A, B, or C, but they could never remedy the made; and, until this blood be expiated, the land will injury which had been inflicted on the Laws ml remain defiled ! It would be found in that Sacred Constitution of the country!—(l-fecr).—Heliad nearly Volume. in which we all profess to believe, (but in forgot to notice a document, which was very Jot which Ministers must " believe and tremble too") that one, consisting of no more than five or six lines, bit even in case of a man killing another by accident, the which was sufficiently long, according to that clam. homicide should fly to the City of Refuge, from which cal maxim, which said that nothing was long from he could not depart until purified by the High Priest. which nothing could be taken withoat detriment, sad Even if a man be attacked himself, he must not raise nothing was short from which anything could be ala his hand ag ainst e.en his brother's life, until he himself stracted with advantage. lie referred to the let:erof shall have driven to the wall. Although the Lord Sidmouth totheNlanchesterMagistrates(Cleen). Riot Act had been read, still that was no justifica- A letter which contained no feeling in which the tion of the slaughter of the People, as we had no King of England could participate. What did it evidence to prove that the People had been made ac- state ? Immediately on the arrival of the dreadfd quainted with that circumstance—( Hear, hear).— news, before even a decent defence could be patched A few days ago a young lad had been executed at up for the occasion, the 'letter state.: that " his Ma. Shrewsbury, for having continued rioting one hour jesty returns his great satisfaci:on"—a‘‘ord,he would Noble after the Riot Act had been read ; it was said, that venture to assert, so objection a ble, th a t had the Nob although that person was of respectable connections, Lord ransacked every dictionary in the English las' and that much interest had been used to save him, guage, lie could not have pulled out one word which, yet that an example was necessary. But it could not as a rock, he should have more avoided—.(Churn), His Majesty was rep r e sen t e d t o h ave f e lt the highestbe necessary to let loose mounted soldiers, to ride satisfaction when the news o f t h e miserable massacre over and cut down even defenceless women. One poor woman, with a child in her arms, had been rode reached him, and was pleased to bestow his high sp over, and the child killed, yet the Coroner's Inquest probation on the Magistrates for their efficient con had found that the child died of a fall from its mo. duct on that occasion—(Hear, hear). He haute ther's arms! The Hon. Baronet then read from a knew a parallel instance in all history for this ewe. paper an account of the transactions which took The only occurrence which resembled it at all, we place, which he described as more strongly resem- that which was perpetrated by the debased Roma, bling a town taken by storm than anything else. He in the period of their fall, in the Asiatic provincs might well ask, was this a Christian land ? was this When that base people had determined upon the &- a land of liberty ? He hoped the House would prove struction of the Goths, the Captain-General of the that it is still a Christian land—that we still have troops, in pursuance of a discretionary order, which some little liberty remaining—and that, whatever he received from the Senate at Constantinople,d becomes of the people's money, still their lives shall acting as he should judge most expedient for de not be sported with—( Hear). —The People had not good of the Republic, concerted measures for the only been cut down by the Yeomanry, but bruised execution of his bloody design. He issued an order by the peace-officers. On the inquiry, when one that the Gothic youths should be assembled in the person was asked how he knew them to be peace-offi- capital cities of their respective provinces, and opal cers? he replied he did not know them to be such an appointed day, the youths beiug collected in the until - he saw them knock down the people with blud- squares, all the avenues carefully blocked up by the geons !—(Laughter)—The bruises were, in many in- Roman soldiers, and at the same hour, the sigra l stances, as fatal as the cuts and stabs; in the case of being given throughout the provinces, the soldiers Lees, which he felt reluctance to describe, a female fell upon the defenceless multitude, and slaughtered witness had said, that he looked exactly like a soldier them indiscriminately. He would not do the ging who had been flogged. Mr. Ilay, however, had of England the injustice to suppose that he could* stated that Hunt was made prisoner, and that a few prove of the bloody act of the 16th of Augest persons were hurt.—The Magistrates, having cons- held it to be an act purely and exclusively Ministaill mitted all those outrages, assembled together to as- The atrocious massacre to which he alluded, ear' certain what crimes had been committed—(Cheers). ralleled as it was in history, was yet approved d. After that dreadful example had been made, and and this was the language in which that extraonfe that Ministers imagined they had terrified the people nary approbation was expressed:— from proceeding further in the business of Reform, *His diebus Julii Magian militia enituit, (Pia, nerd another, and he was quite sure as large a Meeting, sallow'" took place in Westminster, at which he had the ho. —Whether or not the Noble Lord, when he train nour to preside, in order to enter into subscriptions mined thanks, in the name of the King, to the Mtn for the relief f the sufferers, and he had the plea. chester Magistrates, might have been influenced by sure to say, that with that subscription six hundred his classical recollections—or whether, in approvieE persons had been relieved, amongst whom were seven of bloody deeds, some devil prompted the mind , and police constables, one man who was suspected of guided the pen into the adoption of the same Phrases being a spy, and 120 women—(Hear, hear).—Mr. in all times and ages, he would not now stop to ra- Hulton himself had seen one woman down with her quire, but he should ever regard it as strange tb s . breast cut open I—(Hear).—We have the highest an- men so far asunder as the Historian of the thority (perhaps) on the Bench (Justice Bayley) to say war, and the Noble Lord (Sidmouth), should have that it was not the number, but the intentions of the approved of two transactions equally bloody sad parties, which rendered a Meeting illegal. That atrocious in their nature, and recorded their app' ' Learned Judge was an old lawyer—he had read the bation precisely in the same phrases!—(Cheers) .- " . old law books, and knew, no doubt, that voluntas et That the deed was prompt, decisive and efficacieek preepositum distinguunt makficium. The people met no 'turn could doubt who remembered the surface' the numerously, because they knew that numbers only mess of the onset, the fury of the attack, ati d gave respectability to.their proceedings. On this oc- number of victims that had fallen in consequent.. casion, knowing their enemies only wanted occasion But that such an atrocious event should have exams to attack them, they had been particularly cautious unalloyed satisfaction in the heart of the Kin in their conduct. The people had only done that thing en earth could make him believe--(Hed r 4 which the Magistrates themselves had sancti one d. hear). No man in England, much less the Kant"! When the Meeting was announced for electing a Le- even the blood that was spilt was a necesiaressc! gislatorial Attorney, at Birmingham, the Magistrates lice to the law—could be so devoid of feeling . ci &ere did that which they ought to have done—they common sense as to use so disgusting an expresst a _ gave the people warning. l'lte worthy Baronet ridi-, cva such an occasion —(Hear, hear). Such deeds 0" [