The National Register. — London, England, 1809-12-10 00:00:00

THE NATIONAL REGISTER. - - - amazed at the dot when he west in; but there was no riot, it seems ! What ! when there was such howling, and shouting, and noise, so as to prevent every thing from being heard—if this was not a dist,. then It required to have some bones broken to' Constitute one. He thought if two eir 'three people met toge ther so as to prevent all bearing, it would constitute a riot. Some foolish people hatgot an idea into their beads, that they 'night applaud, and to What excess they chose. Nu doubt, they zaight and ought to exercise an honest judgment; but then out rageoui violence was Dot the way in which to exercise an hones judgment. The very farce could not be beard I , men could not sit down least they should be crashed to death, and yet this was not a riot ! Bat Mr. Clifford was silent ; a silent leader may ,often do a great deal ; he wore, however, the O. P. in his hat; he did not • put it io himself —no, he allowed it to be put: The honest .Connsslior; tint, was cheered by them, and saluted as their friend, and he accepts their invitatioos, marches into the midst of them and hoists their Ong; and yet be did not encourage them ! It would be an insult on their cause nut to call it a riot, and to call him their instigator. Mr. Clifford told the audience tear, there AC no harm in wearing 0. P. He should have told them very differently : be should have told them It would be foolish-0 any time io wear it; but that it would be criminal to wear it as an cesign of riot. If there was no harm in the rebellion, it was of little consequence; but if you o n ce hoist the e ns i gn oirebeilion, no matter though you were as mute as a fish and as inanimate as a corpse, you participate in its crime and must partake its con aequencts. The cockade at an election was no emblem of riot, unless it was maliciously made so; it was the designation of at tachment to a particular man; the cockade was a most impor bsot ensign; now, since shields and banners were done away, it Was the distinction even of nations; the black cockade was the distinction of England, for intuit*, and he hoped it would tong triumph over the tricolours. At a late election the blue cockade was an emblem of loyalty; but they all remembered, in Lord Gordon's riots, in 1780, w hen it was the sentence of death, When men were Condemned to die, merely because it was seen en them. They had fired no house, no; committed any murder ; but they had worn' the blue cockade, *and that was sufficient for their conviction. He cenld not' help remarking upon the info lentliberty which Mr. Clifford suffered a stranger to take with him, ie allowinghim to take oil his hat. Ile Wks net very iras cible; but he feared such ailberty would be too much for his • 49 temper. He thought he bad a right to say, that a riot there was, and Mr. Clifford was a participator in its and the question now was, whether ender"thode circumstances, Mr. Brandon had not a right to take him up'? He must, allow, that when a riot was coin• pletely aver, a private person would not be justified In arresting a participator in the riot the next day, or a few hours after it was over. In the present case, what *ere the constables to do ? If they were to rush in immediately into the midst of those rio tous assemblages, the probability would be, that serious mis chief would have ensued. If - then they waited until the persons were going out of the house, the Jury would have to consider, •whether that could fairly be said to be arresting - the rioters at another time? He would suppose that a man were to strike him in the ttreet and knock him down, would it be said that he had only a right to seize him for the purpose of bringing him beftsreis Magistrate, at the time he was actually assaulting him, but that he had no right . to seize bins as he was going away ? If this could lie argued, the man. who assaulted him might say, that the assault was completely ended at the time that he was knocked into the kennel, and:therefore he had no right to seize' him at alt. He trusted, however, that no Jury would be of that opinion, and that they must perceive that there was a rea sonable time after such assault, that he would be at liberty to arrest the person who had so assaulted bird. If this were not the case, and rioters could only be arrested by constables, at the Very moment in which they were committing. their riots, the Consequence must be, either that a number of offenders would • escape, or bloodshed wodid probably be occasioned by-the' in . terference of the peace officers at the moment that the riot was at its height. It appeared'to him, that Mt. Brandon was right in what had been stated, as to the circumstances of the arrest, and in telling the officer, 64 take care of'bis hat,'.' as that hat, roh the letters 0. e. in it did prove strongly hiss connection and participation with the rioters; tie would leave it confi dentially to the Jury under his Lordsbip7s.direction to say, Whether the riots had not been proved; :Sad whether Mr. Clif ford. by *oaring she ensign of the riatr,l* not made himself ?articlinitin is theiir acts, Si; James Mansfield addressed She Jury to the following effect—if The first great quiestion for your deteriniaation whether Mr. Clifford was instigating or encouraging the riots, at the time be was arrested.--The second questiou for the ,Jury ta consider would he, whether, if they believed the Plaintiff had been active in Instigating disorder and riot at the theatre, be was illegally arrested by Mr. Brandon, after the riot had ceased. He could tint tell upon what grounds many people collo ceived than they bad a right at a theatre to make such a prodi gious noise as to prevent others from hearing what %rasping for ward'on the stage. The Theatres were not absetutely pewees ries or life, and people ware at liberty to stay away from them, if there was any thing in the nmeagement of them which they did not approve of. The word extortion had beep used by the Counsel for the Plaintiff; but he could not see bow it could pos. sibly apply to a Theatre. 'When the old Tbealre..wes burnt down, the Proprietors were not bound to build anesner Theatre, although they had a patent which allowed them tin In do; but if they chose to build a Theatre, and risk their fortune upon it, they, and they only were the judges of what was a fair and rea sonalole price to ask for admission into their Theatre. It was for them, who knew the ex pences they had beep put to, to settle what was to be the admission prices, from %nee., alune they could expect to he indemnified. If the Proprietors had acted contrary to the conditions of their patent, the patent itself might be set aside by obtaining& wire facias from the Court ofehaecery, and if they bad not acted contrary to their patient, but had merely fixed a price on the adtnitistoos, which appeared unrea l . stinable to individpals, those individuals might stay awes, and he Managers would be coMpelled, lsy a sense of their own totes rests, to fix a fair and reasonable price r As to. the private boxes, he believed there were some in the old "fliftatre, and also is Drurt-lane Theatre; and •be could nut see why the Proprietors had not a right, in this instance, to use their ~Wl.l ir..apert% at their discretion. He conceived it impossible, that lilts thing which bad been so done by the Ma.nagers in ,he pri.e, or in makjng some boxes privale,,could be any sort of justification in law for such scenes as took place at) the night in quests ia ; scenes which were a disgrace to the country, and which tended tp bring us back to a state of barbarism. if questions of this na ture were to be determined by multitudes of penile assembling tumultuously, and behaving in sea a manner its to frighten Mint!. bers from going to the Theatres, there weeld be an cod of the law. It appeared in evidence that such was the betas ;our of many people in the pit, that it was necessary to stand upon the benches, for fear of being crushed. Under these circumstances, no men but who had very strong nerves could !allure to the Theatre; or, stall events, no man would suffer his wife or (laughs ter to go there. It was. time for the 'Nine to understand, that the proceedings which had lately taken plaice at the Theatre, were illegal in the highest degree, and that all those who partici pated in them were liable to be punished severely, in proportion to their offences. The tumults which beta lately takes! place, were cprepnred to that noise which had at all times taken place at fheatres, the immediate expression of the feeliqp of the audience upon a new piece, or the merits or defecti or a particular actor. The case, however, was widely differept. The audience had cei taioly, in those cases a right to express, by . applause or hisses, the sensations which naturally presented,theniselves at the mo ment, Mid nobody would have bilidered,,or ever would hinder, the exercise of that right.: but, if any body of people were to gO to the Theatre with the deliberate intention of hissing any particular actor, or even of damning a piece, there could be no doubt but that. such a deliberate and preconcerted scheitie would amount to a conspiracy, and that the persons concerned in it .may be severely punished. Thls being the law of the case, it was first for the Jury to consider whether there 'had been any riots at the Theatre on the night alluded to, and whether Mr. Clifford was not to be comidered as an instigator of those riots? The law is, that if any person encourages, or promotes, or takes part in riots, whether by words, signs,, or gestures, or by wearing the ensign of the rioters, such person is to be coo tir in all are ti s rincipals. If any d order, to effect an descriptloa of a riot, cantle tint personal bat th, 'house should oplaims that the to a slot, and be ithout same terror, to~it their . . • sidered as a 'rioter, for in this CII9PII are princi persons encleavoutled by riot, Saranit, or disordr illegal ptirpose, acme coder the legal Sescrip and it, wns.not necessary trrnopstitute that cringe violence should have been ~c ommitted, or that tbl 'havktfeen pulled itlpiecis, He was clearly of of icenes which hid been tieserihed, did antoont to dinned it could no* he said, thnt it was not withol forlo beliesedriiineof the Jury would venture t aud• 'daughters going theta 4096 tikep) • • DEC. 10. 78,