The Sun. — London, England, 1812-05-30 00:00:00

TRIALS OF THE RIOTL"RS. SPtCIAL COMMISSION or OYER AND TERMI:c7,II. FOR THE COUNTY OF CHESTER. Monday evening, at about seven o'clock, their Lordships, his Majesty's Justices under the Corn , Mission of Gaol Delivery, arrived at the Castle. After the usual forms of opening, &c. the Court adjourned.—On Tuesday their Lordships attended Divine Service at the Cathedral; when a most ex, cellent and truly impressive sermon was 'delivered by the Rev. Mr. Yates, from Psalm cxxii. 6, 7. " Pray for the peace of Jerusalem : let them Prosper that love thee. Peace be vt-ithin thy walls; and prosperity within thy palaces." From Church their Lordships proceeded to the Shire Hall, and the Gentlemen were sworn on the, Grand Inquest of the County : ‘.' Judge DALLAS, then, with his usual eloquence, addressed the Grand Jury at some length, in. a speech,- which we must confess our inability to do any thing like, justice to. Indeed, we must Own we did nqt pay,to it, our usual attention, having relied upon another source for a more de tailed and correct report than what we Are . now able to favour our readers with.—The following epitome- must, therefore, serve as a substitute for what we were sanguine enoUgh,to hope we could have favoured our readers with . . GENTLEMEN OF THE JURY, . • . , it is not my praCtice to trespass up= .your time with any desultory observations ; • indeed, the ge teral state of the Calendar seldom requires" any particular remarks.. The present instance, how ever, is one' of an unusual nature—of a more coin- P:icated aspect in regard to guilt: It, is not neces sary for me to refer you to the scenes which. have lately taken place amongst you. We now sit here' Under a` Special - Commission, which his 'Royal Jlighness the 'Prince *gent - , acting in the name *rid on the behalf of his. Majesty, has been Pleased t o a pp o int, to investigate those di: ;race= fill proceedings which have so long agitattd the 2 nanufacturing districts (J.' this and the neighbour lit . counties, and which demanded a necessary end early example. The number of commitments for riots, which guilt ramifies into every possible shape and term, is unprecedented andalarming.— •Taken b 1 itself, the act of riot classes but as a taisdemeanour, to which the variations of specific • gErence. nave attached different degrees of pUnish kent.—His Lordship - here adverted to those pe ouliar passages in the law-books applicable to the Present inquiry, an& proceeded to the following. effect :—The offence of taking and adnimistering "., 4 41 unlawful oath or engagement,. th e -Legis tatxtre has made capital, it conies in the shape. ',.°f a felony,* and both arc put on the same foot-', 'Thg as to punishment:- Vitt) respect to the pur l)ort•of an unlawful , oath.; I. shall refer you to the statutes. It is not necessary the . express Words () f an engagement of this nature should be teentioned in an indictment. 'The act of tak .jog- the oath- constitutes the crime ; and 'even . The pci-scin_ who, by compulsatory.. measures, assents to such a an ,covent, ,is held a partici- Pator i n th e crime, unless . he make a declara- , tiOn thereof to a Magistrate within four days ' from the period when he assented to its pur- Port. But, Gentlemen, it on 'legal points yon S hould find yourself at a, Mbss, I have to request You will refer to the Crourt, from whom you will r eceive the informati,ou required. Several charges tinder the deseritiim of robbery, will come under cognizance ; iuud here, Gentlemen, it may be ne cessary to, p u t you in'possession of the construe „."oll the le.vv ha* put upon the word: an act of rob "eq trust be proved to haVe been by force, or. by . Puttip.gin fear ; and the investigation- of ' these P°leits will be essentially necessary in the present Pecial inquiry ; but o n thi s h e ad no diffi cu lt y i s li kely to occur. It is not necessary, to constitute Q robbery, that actual personal violence should be used ; expressions or threatening attitudes are t si qually withi n th e mean i ng o f the word. During t 'ie riots in Lo n don, i n th e year. 1780, 'a boy, with ; cockade in his hat, knocked at a. tradesman's door,and when it was opened, he accosted Min— God bl e s s y our h onour , remem b er th e poor , b." The tradesman rebuked the boy, and turn-, andbin out, when the boy said he would - go hack :ld fetch their capt a i n , mean i ng one o f th e l ea d ers i t. the mob ; which he did, and the gen tl e m a n g ave til l ? half-a-crown. This was accounted robbery, ~,, .raoney beinggiven under the influence of fear, ; 41 ch the C o urt held t o be as decisive as had.per -1144 violence- . been offered.' The Learned... Judge h e re adverted at some length,_ to the offence of 4 4 rglary, and 'setting fire to a house'or • premises, 14 " concluded a: most. eloquent address in words \i , the fol!Owing purport :--,-" In obedience 'to Iv Ot I feel lily duty, and with thoSe allusiOns to • A gat the law is,' I shall bring my observations' to . e co nclusion, a l wa y s re lyi ng , as I now d o, , on t h e f e rijuination, caution, andpraise-worthy condUct d ti ,a Cheshire Jury. I 'have performed My judicial h u L Y) and I do' not think it prudent, Or proper to e‘of, ,th e -eed any further. On the general features of t cases for your consideration I haA;e no reason. q (oases ~ Ina any very pleasing conjectures.' Distress, I iqr , did not operate as some would wish, cis to he kive. The characteristics of the system of disturb- I t e e are of a very different colour. Hand-bills tii r e printed, and circulated in the manufacturing th 3 r t _ r icts, holding out hopes to the disaffected, mid e ats to the well-disposed. ' A secret oath 'was m ill . It. I n l Btered-:-the crest and consolidation of COH -41'4(1.4,-1111 these denote the intrigues- of wicked h li , designing Merl. to create riot and partial in ttl,Y; Justice has been for a while withheld, but )h e '' . law must now unfold its terrors, always re tierrilbering, as 'we shall, that confidence and mo ation so necessary in its execution." th e t l• t ts Lord s hip th en directed Mr. Hudson to place ed whole of the prisoners at the bar, and inform luvi7`.tteul that their trials would commence the fol ke,llg morning, at eight o'clock, when he ex ied Court they would be prepared on' their .parts. .1 ae Court adjourned WEDNESDAY. 4 0 t 4 tes' Renshaw, aged 69, a weaver from Wilms- N at , fora riot, with several others, at Etchells, r o , h B ,tockport, on t at 1 April, and obtaining ebil Norris, at Etchells aforesaid, 2g, in •ttl money, and from other persons, money, bacc:l, bread, and cheese. Mr. BARNES opened the case. Mr. BE YON, Attorney-General, addressed the Jury-..-- It is almost unnecessary," said Learned Counsel, " to say a single wct-d 'why you are assembled at this unusual time of tlie year. To all of you it is knOwn, that' in the ma nufacturing districts there has long subsisted a dangerous system of riot---I may say organized . conspiracy—calculpted to subvert all older, and to threw into a state of anarchy the most popu lous towns and districts in the country. It has therefore pleased the Executive' Government, to summon the Special Assize in this county ;. but I shall not waste your time by entering into a de. - tail of what has passed, - intending to confine my self to the cases of the prisoners at the bar. The Learned Attorney-General . thenlaid befo're them; the offence of the prisoner Renshaw, and called' . witnesses for "the Crown. The first deposed, that he was in his field , On the 15th April last (previous to which day, disturb ances had taken place) when, a little before noon, Renshaw, the prisoner, and a number of others, came over the stile, to witness, and the prisoner, (hying off his hat, moved very politely, saying, " he was come a begging, as they hai, done as long as they could."—There might,have - been 40 or 50 in the field, one of whom had a loaf on a hedge stake, and and another a piece of cheese on a hay fork. Witness saw them coming down the lane, making a rioting, noisy din, one to another. ---LWhen the prisoner ' had spoken to witness, he (witness) said it was a very aukward mode of begging, Vitt put his hand in his pocket, and pull ed out two shillings, which he gave to them, under the, influence of fear, hardly knowing what he *as about. Witness asked for a casll-keeper, and they pointed to a man in a sniock-frock, or flannel shirt. He came to witness, prisoner stand ing close by ; and after they had got the money, they appeared dissatisfied, witness said, " he had a large family of eight children,, and a hard farm" To a question by Judge BURTON) - --they expresh ed their dissatisfaction, by asking was that all he could give them ? When one,Samuel Collier : said, " Come, pome, let him alone; he's a hard farm." They then went away. To a question by the prisoner, as to character— does not know much of him ; he lived at Wilm slow. The examination and confession of the pri soner was here read ; it stated; that he was one who asked the last witness for money ; went. With the mob after—had for his share 6s. 3d. was not out of work. The prisoner, on being called for his defence, said, he did not think -there was any harm in what he had done, or he would not have been engaged in such,,proceedings. He said, he had been very unfortunate, having lately lost a child, and the week after his wife was in bed.---He herd others went a begging, and he thought he might go. The CHIEF JUSTICE rmapitulated the evidence to the Jury, and spoke to several points of ;law, which our limits Will not allow us to detail. He said he did not know any case going the length of the present, on Which a person was convicted.— The case in 1780 [see his Lordship's charge] was an instance in which there-was a direct threat offered—it was not yo> in the present.—lf the Jury had any doubts upon the subject, the pi, sprier must have the benefit of them., and they must acquit him ; if, on the contrary, they thought there was, sufficient to constitute a robbery, he must he found guilty. •Verdict—Not *Gullig. EdwaTd Redfern and Nancy Hurst.--The former aged 28, the latter 49, for accompanying a large mob to the Granary at StaleY, belonging to the Huddersfield Canal Company, and for breaking open and entering the same, and stealing and de stroying large, quantities of flour and meal, to the athount of upwards of 1000 bushels, &c. the ATTORNEY-GENERAL said, that was not a 'capital offence., amounting only to a simple lar ceny.; but if the prisoners were guilty of the charge, its degree of guilt approached to that of a capital crime. _ Witness deposed, that the Huddersfield Canal ' Company have a warehouse at Staley Bridge, in this county, of which he ,had. the care.—On the 20th of April, when he heard that the mob were approaching, he locked it up, -making it, as he thought, secure.. Soon after,- part of 'the' Mob came into the village, the remainder advancing - from the Lancashire side, halted at the.large shop near the Bridge. 'They- were for going back, when one of the rioters cried out, ‘ Lets 10-• Staley h ail , and the - wfireho.use.',' Staley hall formerly belonged to Lord Stamford. , Witness went on a rising ground to see whether they stopped at the Warehouse,. when he discovered they had made stand. - He ran towards' it, , and When . opposite the building, one from the mob deina.nded the .keys. There might have been the',S. abOut 500 assembled,, Whioh number kept ,increasing. Witness said he had no keys, or i(he had; there. was nothing in they could eat.L--,They,then said " Break in," and began thro , ,ving stones, one of which striking a bar of the cellar window, broke it, and several gained entrance, and opened 'the large doors, throwing out' the flour into the road. When the door was 'opened., nearly the whole of the crowd went in-30 loads of flout, 2 of meal, 3i of Malt, 3 boxes of soap, aid a vast quantity of other articles, were stolen and destroy ed. They cut the bags open With knives, and threw the flour about the warehouse and in the. road: Some brought .little bags, which they bale of wrapping in the warehouse was . converted into bags, which, with t.he. flour was carried off. =Did not see the prisoner, Hurst, till- the 'place was broke open, but had observed the other pri soners in the lane before.--,-Knows the female pri soner well ; she was in the act, when he saw her, of gathering up flour or meal from the warehouse floor—Redfern picked up,an .empty sack 'in the warehouse, into which he . put meal and flour, to the weight of about forty or fifty pounds.—The prisoner Hurst has several children Who follow -the cotton business. Hurst, 'Eking called upon for her defence, .said, She is .a widow, haS had nine children, but has buried two. She can have:as good, a character at Staley Bridge, as any poor body in the :meigh bourhood. Redfern, in his defence, said, he mis told by, a man about a mob coming down the lanes; when he asked what a mob was ? as le had never seen rrrk ! The man said he had got a good budding stink to knock any one down who should affront iihn i —l'cisoner did go with them (the mob) and , :ne flour, He is often very ill with althea matie disoi•der, and could not carry thw. weight of ',lour which the last witness swore to.--When he had the Hour, he sent to witness to say he could pay for it, if lie would tell him what it was worth; but he did not get an answer. . Witness being recalled, said a man had come to liiin &dm Redfern, offering to pay for the flour, and he recommended him to go to the Con stable to settle, it. This was a week after witness had mentioned him as one of the mob,--Cannot say iyhat prisoner does for a living. Judge Dallas obserVed to the Jury; that the only question for their ,consideration was as to the part taken by the prisoners, for if they were concerned at all, the act of one was the -act 'of all. They must consider whether the 'evidence of the witness was sufficiently decisive to convict them, add if not, they must be acquitted.--They ought, and he kifew they would do their duty firmly and hOnestly.—Verdict—Both Guilty. • Thomas Burgiss, aged 36, a collier, froin.Bred-• :bury,. for being, in company with, several others, assembled at, and entering the Corn-Mill of -Joseph Clay, there burning and carrying away flour, contrary to' the statute. . A witness depbsed, that on the 21st of April, - the prisoner at the bar came to the shop at Gee', Cross. The, srop was ,shut the : whOle of the' day,• as it was recommended to th e p ro pri e t or t o guar d against surprise, and preserve what articles he had. The shOp docif Was fastened with a bolt in the in side when they were ooming towards it, a little way off. They 'first demanded entrance, and said if the door was -not opened they'd give a grand sa lute. 'They then furnished themselves With stones, and broke the house ivindolf - 's.. The door was then opened'; and the rioters first looped in' the bin for flour and nieal-7-but there was little in. it.— They were then offered bee.- and bread and cheese, which they - had p r eS en t e d . t o th em , b u t th e b eer they thought proper to draW themselves: A num.: her of bOys jumped over the counter 'and searched the till, hut there were only a few halfpence in it. , The mob searched all parts of, the hAse ; and after they had drank all the beer, they Were desitec. 'to withdraw,and most of them went out, but they had not gone far, .before they cried out, " Huzza! there's chec:;e. at: a neighbour's house !—They went to the house they had information of, and Where the prosecutor had concealed his cheese, which they carried off. - 'They then .Went to the stable, and broke the `padlock off the door. Where the stable stood had formerly been a quarry---Oe road was situated above it.' Wittieis - saw a woman at , , stable door, - who was . concealihg sugar she, had - Stole . tt from the stable, a 4uaatity having been sent there for safety. , A little while ther, witness saw the mob throUgh the hedge, quarrelling about the 'division of the cheese ; the prisoner was there, and he had a piece in his hand----Witness 'said, " you had better giVe me the 'cheese ; I have a large family as well as thee:' He ,gave a _slight answer; but did not return it. The mob consisted of about 500. They took article r S. away to the,amonnt of 21 Or 251. Prisoner, in his defence„ said, the witness must be mistaken; as he 'was not with the mob. Witness said he had known hint 14 or 15 - years e and was perfectly well acquainted ;vith his person. Prisoner persisted that be was not present, and' stated, he observed, " it was a sin and a shame to make slich work." An Evidence, on behalf of the prisoner, said he was , a spectator of the riot, and was talking with the prisoner about 20 yards from' the prose cutor's house. Did not " see a mouthful, of cheese in prisoner's hand." There was a man in the garden, dressed like the prisoner, whom wiqiess mistook for the prisoner. James Brent spoke to the prisoner's character, but could not say how long it was since he was tried at the assizes for stealing chickens, or what was the reason be was afterwards sentenced to be whipped ! . The Jury then found'the prisoner—Guilty. ORDERS IN COUNCIL. FROM THE QUARTERLY REVIEW. (Continued from our Paper of yesterday.) The whole tenour Of Mr. Jefferson's admini stration had excited strong suspicions of a secret understanding between him and France ; and these suspicions were considerably strengthened by this rejection, and suggested alteration of the treaty concluded' by his authorized minister here, at the very moment of the notification in that country of the Berlin Decree. It happened also thit this Decree was contemporaneous in its ope . ration with the Non-intercpurse Act against Eng land; which, though passed in May, was not to take effect until November. The very language employed by America in her remonstrances and negotiations with England, was exactly similar to that made use of by France: Every step she took seemed to confirm the existence of collusion between Mr. Jefferson and Buonaparte. , England , hoWever continued to bear * the ill humour, and even the menaces of -America, not indeed with indifference, but 'with that calm and dignified, moderation which is naturally inspired by consciousness of rectitude combined with con ; sciousness of power.---Even the Berlin Decree of the 21st November; 1806, appeared, to make no change in her system: of legal blockade, as it re garded France, or of con / cession and relaxation in favoui of Anierica. By this - Decree, the British; islands were declared in a state of blockade.. All British subjects, found in'countries occupied by French troops, were, ordered to 'be seized and made prisoners of wilr; all British property to be confiscated ; all trade in British produce and ma nuiactures was. prohibited ; and all neutral Ves sels, which i:ad touched in England or any of her colonies, were made liable to - Confiscation. There were, we two obvious ways of treating this declarF.Lon of war against all com merce, but :41Orc.. , partielllarly against British Com niercec--Mth'er to ' consider `it as one of those empty menaces so freqUently fulminated a9.ainst us ha those moments of temporary . insanv to Which the' presentJmler of the French is subject; and to take no notice of it whatever, at least till it had been Clearly ascertained what its operation would be, and- to what extent neutral powers would acquiesce in so odious. a Decree ;--or, to make him feel at once the full force of our naval power ; to put forth the strength of his mighty arm, and lay waste the whole line of coast from Ostend to Bayonne ; to keep his .armies perpetu ally on the march to the various points of attack ; to spread terror and alarm among the inhabitants; . to drive the French fishermen Within the mouths of their rivers, and compel their masters to up plicate, as Henry IV. of Fiance had done bticore him, for permission to catch a few soles on the. banks In the . Channel for his own table. .Unfor tunately our Government did nether. It con terited.itsellwith issuing an Order in Council an, . . the 7thJanNiary, 1807, by Which, after stating his Majesty's unwillingness to follow ,the example of; his enemies, by proceeding to an extremity so dis tresSing to all nations not engaged in the war, yet urging . the. necessity he felt to restrain this violenceand to retort upon them the evils of their own injustice, it was .ordered ' that no vessel shall be permitted to trade from one port to an other, both which ports shall belong. to,. or be. in possession of France.or her allies, or shall he so fas under. their controul, as that British vessels may not freely trade thereat.' This feeble effort at retaliation totally failed in ./ restraining the violence of the enemy, while the ' restrictions it imposed on neutral commerce, served as a pretext for a grievance on the part of , America.. In point of fact,. Amcricp. not only evaded the orders, but .turned them greatly to her advantage; while the commerce of England be came every month more languid and prostrate, till reduced, as justly observed by a 'Member of the House of Commons, to a state of suspended animation., If America had any ground- of complaint on this occasion, it was that only a few days before . the issuing of the Order in'Couneil, Mr. Monroe .had been- told that his Majesty's Government could riot believe that the enemy would ever seri ously attempt to enforce such a system ; but that if the enemy should carry these threats-into exe cution, and - if neutral nations, contrary to all ex pectation, should acquiesce in such usurpations, his Majesty might probably be compelled, how . . ever reluctantly, to retaliate in his Just de fence, Btc,' The Berlin Decree, which had been held by many as an empty menace,' was soon discover ed by the Administration which came into power about April 1807, to bear a very different charac ter ; that nations in alliance with France, and under her controul, were required to give, had given, and did -give effect' to that Decree. Th( y found, that the Order of the 7th January, issued by their predecessors, '.did not answer the desir ed purpose, either of compelling the enemy to xecal those Orders, or of inducing neutral nations to-interpose, with effect to obtain the revocation, but, on• the contrary, the same had been recently enforced with increased rigour.' It was there fore Ordered,'on the 11th November, 1807, that all the ports and places of France and her allies, or of any other country at war. with his 'Majesty, and all other ports and.places in Europe from which, although not at mar with his Majesty, the . British Hag is excluded, and places in the Colonies, belonging to his Majesty's enemies, shall,- from. henceforth, be subject to thd same restrictions, in point of trade and navigation, (with certain eN: ceptious), as if the same were actually blockaded by his Majesty's naval forces, in the most strict and rigorous mariner.'f As soon as this Ofder in' Council reached Buo naparte, at Milan, he issued- his Decree of the 17th December, 1807, by which every ship, to 'whatever nation it may belong, that shall' have submitted to' be searched by - English ship, or - paid any tax to the English Government, is de clared to be denationalized, and to have become s British -property—that such shipS are good and lawful prizes—that every ship, of whatever nation, and whatsoeVer its cargo may be, sailing _from. Lagla - nd, or the English colonies,-or countries oc cupied by the English troops, i 4 good and lawfu,l prize—these measures' to cease to have effect with respect to those nations who shall have the firm ness to compel the English Govenment to respect their nag (To be continued.)