The National Register. — London, England, 1821-09-17 00:00:00

tat 771 L L.ATE LIQUESTS. The Coroner's Inquest on Richard 'limey has delivered its verdict—the proccediogs which led to the iriplisition, as well iis th i , ecarrerces ai.ring its continuance, are • sul jccts ;:f e. osidert.tion, and ay anii-ai.vcrts...lu;srt with att !! possibility el f . 4 ivin4 Avl.t re tic derision ought to t. ithout prejudice cr pr c; rsession.—W,t shall therr-' fi , re i irtiece," tt kit I fief f the r. ,n -duct Gioernr-cr.t the pr• cession to take the r aite tl•at was lirected;--seeinally, of the oppositi , o to that rime 101 the l ait * F the pc, ; thirdly, of the vi.dence on the ',Art the horse Guards—and fourthly—of the tra"sactionsuooer the Coroner's I iapiisition. Flastr—ti/' the condppet f cm, ernment in or dorios:.; the Procession to take th” route that was directed.—lt was well known that t.tt immense number of persons of respectabilit.t, residing in and around the metropolis, eterc anxious to pay the last respect to the rievnory or their lamente.l Queen, ly Her mpanyin:z her remains or the road. A meeting ttf the Corporation of L-ntion had iren held in which it was resolved that the Civic Body (certainly the first in it»portance, wealth, and infhr mation in the world) should thrto an escort d'honneur to the melancholy profession, from Temple-liar to the opposite confines of the City—and yet Ministers in total contempt of these wishes and resolutions-- wantonly to oppose the wishes of the pc 'l,le--tii rectet: that tic funeral should he skulke ' to thc. coast, by a road peculiar only for its circuity :and privacy. The ”tinisterial papers, in jostifieatit 0, of the arrangement, rod in their ;:ttmhtment to rights say " The Queen was the wife of King, and every husband has t right t" rerol late the funeral of his wife,"—the styhistry of th.t proposition needs not to I,e pointed out. The King, as a King, can do no wrong—his linisters, cs his advisers, •Ite accountable for all his errors—The King, tot a men, had no claim to _try right over Iris wifi_, living or dead—he had acted least of any thing as a hushantl—he had in ohedience to his " inclinations" driven her from i is bosom and her home—he had torn from her her only daughter, and prevented every intercourse with her—he hail It:ore than tacitly approved the conduct of those who bud calumniate I and falsely accused her, and he had enlivened with the sunshine of his peculiar favour only those who continued to persecute her ; anti these very glen presumed to secure, in the last instance, their cha racter for consistency at the price of illegality, by opposing the intentions and wishes of the people and of her executors, regularly appointed by her last will —a will made in the Irtuu,etrt of anativa, ticserticn, pain, and tribulation—a will sanctified by her Chris tian forgiveness of all her enemies, even the very persons of whom she so truly and so emphatically declared, "Anti now at last they have destroyed rot.." Sr coNDLY--(y' the opimition to the intended route on the part of the People—For lrr pull est vox DI the people generally jud g e correctly—the people knew that the intended route was unjustifiable on every ground of propriety, and the people (while the principle of resistance to power if improperl; exercisA, is recognized by the l evohuiurt, which ilaced the present faintly on the Throne), Avill praise for their successful exertion l'r pt.:vent the contemplated outrage. I HI liDl.le-Qf the violence of the llueNe Guards. —The verdict of one Jury has declared this vi•denee to be Moaomi; the verdict of the other has softened it down to MANSL ; and I y the evidence of the soldiers themselves, a limit. unnecessary sacrifice of human lite has seldom been r ee ord e l, O ne Lif e Gllal4smati says, " We told the pecple to 6et out of the way : they would net o'.,cy us, and we were forced to cut away at theta." We should le very glad to find out by what /am they were justified in thus " cutting away." The Constitution, at the very worst of periods—at those times the most no- torious for the attempts ut inroad on the liberties of the people— has Leo must j,:alous of the intro- THE N ITIONAT. REGISTER ductiim of the military, even under the guitla-cc end in I.ssistance .if the CIVIL power; 1•,,t the principle hick i , o the present lay it is sougl.t estal would f .no the length of rc • , .Icring unnecessary th - : intervention • f tllat 1 lover, the :aitchery •. iitfinition •f the ulace t'.e —O. -cot that they. tie,t-lectt d obe.ie. , ce t • the • •R` ;:erliqrs, o. •'111"L."1 Lit: Guards r, who, with ut v eitin eit nf r the ord- - :t• his ci:iter, t. ould therein, n 1-e,:in to _ratify his don b.• "cuttin: away."—The niuieer :an sh, , t 1.•-ney (he he •••I‘o I , e may) is o •unifestl:.• as' 1. T.: of I is I , rutalit., - ; or else—i ‘steao. of the tolv to i.f the re,,inient being mustered t., reoler • ,ore ditacult the tusk of i , lentilleatimi; instead of the paintinzs and the attempts at disguise • hich have been sw , rn to; instead of the bullying:, towards the witnesses, and the assaults onion the jurymen, .. 1 -ich committed hi order • f an ~ N icer at K••ightsbrid g e barracks; instead ,•f (pediment I•eing t%rown then to prevent n discovery 1.1 the miscreant—. loe n..,,u1 1 have come boldly I r,: and am: avowed the , tea: but wanton cruity and base cowardiet are often the occupants of the same breast, and every endeavour at concealment is a co , Tession of his iitfamy. FOURTMLX—Of the transactions antler 11w Coro acre Ingnisitions.—On the subject of Mal held upon Georg- Francis, a very few observations will suffice. !Jr. Higgs, who preside'. as Coroner, behavet; like .„,_ntle , lan, and the ..fury very properly, froni the ..vidence, brought iP a verdict of " Wilful .`.l.italer smne Life Guardsman unknown," elthoui,h the Chaplain of the I:ospital dared to mveur that Fr..neis had declureil t, Lin. that the man vt 01 , t hi , I hail only done his duty. In this Lssertion the Reverend il.spiriod was 10 siti vely emit radicted 013 wife of the deceased, anti nu nem of common sense, who reads both deb sitions, will hesitate as to which of the parties swore to a direct filsehood. now come t'' the inquest tr v m Richard ; Toney, end here it may be well to observe, that the fOrl , er inquest ch , se.l its labours in five days, while the latter, in c • .sevence 1:f the interfere •.ce :-. jar rister, s u %aged for fourteen days. That :arrister was :•sr. Adolphus—and though, from delicacy to our readers, we have omitted nineteen-twentieths of his offensive utservations, we have necessarily to preserve the narrative retainel emeigh to convince them that his vulgarity and grossness disgrace the profession to which he belongs, arid that the Coun sel on the Circuit he used to go consulted their col ifort, credit, d respectability, when they deter mined to exclude him from their society, by sendi , g him to Coventry. The institution of a Coroner's Jury appears to have been solely with a view to future proceedings; their verlict lets little more than the effect of a true bill being &mid by a Grant; Jury, and what tvoultl lie said of the intl.' 4luctior of a brow-heating bullying fellow in a gown and wig into the Grand Jury-room to , carp the fair bearing of the evidence—to intimidate the witnesses hy threats of transportation, or to blackguard and insult the gentlemen constituting the Jury? Why, it would be declared a gross violation of the privi leges of the Jury su LISSCPI I led, awl yet this hits been tolerated in the recent instance of the Coroner's In quest on Richard Honey;—but to leave the loath some subject, and to proceed with the evidence given ; the major part we pass without animadversion, :.s it goes only to the establishmem „f four facts-Ist. That all was quiet till the Guards began to cut at the people; Vly, That n • stones were thrown at tit" time the firing commenced; idly, That the deceased was an entirely inoffensive spectactor ; end 4thly, That the man who shot him, after having coolly, wantohly, unnecessarily, and deliberately sacrificed the life of a fellow -creature, laughed in derision at the gentlemen who upbraided him with his mur derous act. We pass to the evidence of the Guards themselves :—the servant of one officer does not know whether i i rittster has dark or light k•ir!--hetlier he is IG cr C:' years of age! a trumpeter swears he was rn jury rt cu• zn, on the tirteenth (lay, respeeta' r•a , i confronte , '. •••ith anfl swears he is wt the - , an ems on aut.- vier - : : tit r o Ns• ism these -;u••7 li-rs t•- c..• to their • astees--Col. C: . ye- lish is .ss , .rt,.. not t have left th- Purracks •••• ' ut stthstyiently, fer'naps fro te;.r , f'etection f the tls ho ju.l, Mr. hus feels it prii."e••t t. correct this error, and a." , ••it it was , •ot true. The A.'jlit;int 'lectures the.. all tlu• •• en tvere on (hay t' c 1401 (I rt on. who w,:s in ti !c I I , ,siital) were preswit ct the inspectil n tth ich tro!: phiet.. in the The Sp.r ; ...ecn lionestly confesses that five men tier:. not :.t the i.‘specti'm who were (••• iluty on that dis- L,rraceftil 1. e leavo it to C.i.se ,;ho hive tin, I i , ,. ; liest (yinion ..ilitary khour ant'. veracity t•., reconeile 0 cse AS to e`e COE ,, ner'S Strn'nin'_;' on, we sl all only say, tha.t !.is view the n•• i a-; posed U. of er He hatv, heard, a .1 that if the Jury had, E... der hi, l'airectim., foam: a verdict of iLmici lc, they would have done an irreparable it:- jury to their country; tor hy such verdict the) would have established t right on the part of the soldiery, which would have been tantamount to military despotism—they would have rendered use less and unnecessary the intervention of a magistrate, and have authorized the use of the sabre and carbine whenever the People demurred to the insolent cour t .aml of a dragoon. We thank GO they have not do , e so—we are grateful to tbent fr mots verdict, and tree fro• every vindietivz furling in the part we have Liken in this fatal atleeir, have no wish for any f .ether proceedings—we Lope the guilty parties will he under the inhuence of se vere re , eorse—we I. pa. they will it future pausc ere they use their iirms in the want. a destruction of their awn countrymen ; and moreever, we fer vently hope that the Peaphe will not keep alive a feelin4 of resei.t. tent ageonst a wholc regiment, , ^erely account of the delinquency of v. very few jail iv iduals. privnte letter from Frankfizt, tb:2.llzonteisc &using (S the Ist inst, after observing that the ef litre o f th. Austrlau t.nti English ministers will prcient r wrs between itussia. and the Porte, rotwithsf aidii,g the ditpartur. of a...r0.t Sin). gonofi pr ceeds tdus England in particular resorts to eery teans to s' cure this itldwt ; for sl. perceives that the first gun the Rus sians iveold be thi signal of the dowatcll of the miricn of tb , Crest' :• , t on the Bosphorus. The sudden elmage of routs by the Duke of Wellington, who, as it is kncwn, when on the point of proceed ing to Vienna, turtle,: buck to Paris, is, in some po litical circles, said to have had it political object. It is preterded Vitt the cabinet of Petersburgh has succeeded in obtaining the concurrence of France to a defensive alliance, having for its object to tour, terbalance the presott interposition of Eit k land. in favour of the Porte, a:..1 to di.ititlish the ad viant:tges ~f the assistance which that Power mi g ht be. disposed to g ive to the Ottomans. With this view, France .4 by the treaty pledged to send to the coast Greece, a naval fierce to co-operate with the Greek fleet a , d such vessels ns Russia "my send thither, in supporting tbe tnovemeots of the land tOcees and prevertirg any diversion by sea. Wellington's pre sence in Paris is supposed, (as no less confidence is lace' i;. his diplomatic titan his military talents,) to have for its object to throw obstacles in the way of this alliance, and, if p , to prever t the rati fication of the treaty. 1. , how far the nol•le ouiy succeed is uncertain; but, with out pretending t.. he tide to unveil the secrets of cabinets, we may venture to remark, that an approximation between France and Russia at the pretetit crisis is not nil. probable, and this opinion obtains the more weight, when it is considered that the French eiplomatic agents in Turkey observe quite att opposite c , ..l,:uct ti- the English. The eircurtstalce also of the Itus- Sian mereturts at Constantitntple tin ir gods on I.oartl r.f Fretwd• ships has so' re it Tort:awe in this point of view." It appears by a letter from Hanover in the French papers, that the building of the triumphal arch un der %hick the King is to pass, commenced on the 27th ult. The member of the guard of lamina ap pointed to receive Inn, are daily practising in order to be perfect in their inameuvres. la other towns guards are forming. Some of them have adopted the Spanish unifitrni, and are exercising for a grand ca rousal, perhaps in the vain hope of rivaaing the show in 11'estminsta-611.