The Sun. — London, England, 1820-04-13 00:00:00

of assembling, an unlawful assembly ; and, se condly, by seditious wortls and other reran; iucit ing the people to contempt and hatred of the Constitution as by law established My Learned Frieloi has, Genth.ornot, endeavoured to imptess it on your minds, that the assttmltly teas not un lawful, because not so stated on ti,e record, be cause it did not iipoear that it was in terror of the people, foot that it was not proved in evidence to have any tendency of that nature. I; it it is not because people of nerve were nut alarmed that it may thetefure be prouounced not unlawful. it' the number of people was so guest—ir they had weapons in their ha-lids—if they were attended hy such banners and insignia, as Must naturally pro• +ice terror--if ail this he proved in evidence, then the meeting at Stockpot was tiala'fid. If ever there was a tumultuous - assembly, it is that to which our attention has bet!, attracted yesterday and thin day. The Learned Counsel for the de fend:tors made ;everal allusions to the trial of Mr. Hunt, at York, and I did 11,11 attempt to stop But whatever ryas done at York, the Juries of ( 'tester have nothing whatever to do with it. I am obliged to the Leaned Counsel for hie men tion of case of the King aid Mot, and I Say, if that wets a .case for convic fiop, the itne hetore us is teu times stronger. Httut was tak - en from the tier ing at 11ancliester before he spuke—here sedit ions ot ds have been used ; this meeting !tad considerably more or terror in ii, anti, in short, i• be, every coocomitant eieetmistatice, with Doe excer• ion, namely, that here seditious words were acouaily used. If, then, we ate to call to mind what was done by others at that meeting, we find the case ten times stronger as to this. Hawkins, and other learned authorities, have been cited as to the legality of one of the acts charged in the indictment—with that you have nothing to do. There scents to me no necessity for divid ing the case, the facts of it are pet feet ly clear before you. With respect to rite legality of the meeting, tme may say it was' assembled wirier the specious pretext of petitiouing for Parliamentary Reform, Parliamentary Reform ! I check myself ; for rho' mhoy of these unhappy meetings were assernhled tinder such apparent motives, the mask was here completely thrown off, and there was no man who heard tot the meeting of the 2811 of Jane but most know that it had do more to do with petitioning for Reform than it had with any other purpose that the imagination of nian could suggest. In this case the defendants stood together its the hustings —they were each participators in the whole (if the proceedings, and it )tny thing onpleasaot to Sir C. Wolteley had oreurTed, if he found he was not in good company would he not have left thent He gave his complete assent, to whatever was said by Harrison; and if the language used by hint was seditious in its nattoe,'Sir Charles Wolseley was, in point of law, equally guilty with 'the person who uttered it. !she meeting was also attended wit flags." Mr. PARK here observed, that there was no cvi‘lence of more than one ii to having been used. Mr. BEN yoN .proce.eded—.4 Well; one flag is as good as one handfed. 'l'l►e iosci iptions upon it suf. fleic fitly prove the objects of the meeting. Crowds nut used from distant places, and even from dif ti:rent counties, armed with sticks and other of fensive weapons. And then cats it be gravely contended, that such an assembly wete met to gether for the purpose only of obtaini,% Parlia mentary Reform ? It has been set up, as a - justi ficatiou of this meeting, that every man has a right to meet for the purpose of petitioning. It has even been said that people may proceed to such meetings with flags and other in signia. provided their object be petition. But Gentlemen of the ' Jury, will you believe that this is the way to obtain a . Repeal of the Corn Laws, if they be objectionable ) And as to all the farago of Annual Pat liansents, Univer sal Suffrage, and Vote by Ballot, if any man, or set of men, were gravely and quietly to petition for their adoption, I should lament their folly, while I pitied their judgments, and should think they meant not a reform, but a complete over throw and revolution. For depend' u p on i t , if ever these things are.granted this will no lOnger remain a happy country, with u mixed and Constitution, but will become a wild and dangerous Republic. If, however, there are per sons who think that these things will prove of service, I should find uo fault with their quietly assembling to procure them, but I do find fault with those who attend such meetings With in signia only calcula►erl for the purposes of intimi dation. Harrison said, "We don't come here to petition the Ilouse of Commons," and 'Sir C.- Wolseley assented to it. '' We won't," said Har-, rison, " petition the Sovereign, nor the House of Lords, in its present corrupt state." Mr. lianatsoN-1 hope, my Lord, you will keep the Leat tied Gentleman to the troth. Mr. BENYON—" I wish you, Gentlemen of the Jury, to take nothing from me. If T inadvert eotly state any thing inconsistent with my notes of the evidence, it will be in the power of Their Lordships and yourselves to correct it. It will ,be, however, in your recollection, that Harrison did not advise the petition to the House of Lords or Commons. Then add to that the barriers and the " ten thousand walls," and ask yourselves if I am wrung in stating, that it was no more a meeting - for the purpose of petision than any thing that the imagination of man can suggest. Now we conic to the seditious expressions. I shall not draw your attention to them hither than this :—You recollect the expressions used by Sir Charles %Volseley relative to the Has tiles, as well as those of Harrison about his igno, ranee whether a man or a pig filled the Throne, as well as the other expressions of contempt of the Sovereign, and it will be for you, as men of edu cation and as men of sense, to say whether these expressions were not seditious, and were not used as the language itsdrimports, for the purpose of bringing the Royal Authority into contempt. — The second count charges the defendants with a conspiracy, and I shall convince you that it is not vulnerable either in law or fact, but made out in many eiffetent ways by the evidence by•what occurred here and at the meeting, as well as by xvhat was awkipated from the contemplated meet ing at Oldham to he ifeld on a future day. If the witnesses a: e to be believed, 1 shall demonstrate a conspiracy. All this, Gentlemen, is to de ptud—must depend co the evidence you Love beard, and not upon what learned men have saiq. Mr. Bentham, every one admits, is a clever man, bat he might as well talk of what occurred in China, as of what was going on in this Court. He might certainly write or comment upon the nature of an indictment, but he could net know the !smote of the facts to be proved, and not knowing this, he was totally in competent to fortis a jest opinion of the case. It w as urged that Sir C. ‘Volseley could not be made reci`nisilde for what seas said or done by any o her persons at the meeting ; but let me ask yin', Gentlemen, vs het he might not, if he-dis approved of what was said, have retired ; and whether his remaining was not an approval of the observations used :by Harrison ? I give Sir C. Wolseley credit for wishing to preserve peace in ;he meeting. A regard for their own safety would have prevented them from meeting the constables face to face. As to the expressions relative to the Bastile in France, had Sir Charles gone no further than expressing his satisfaction at its destruction, I should not have objected to it, but I object ..tes his instituting a comparison between that and any gaol in this country. At that time a man could he immured in a prison by a Mitre de cachet, ‘ithout any opportunity or means of inquiring into or vindicating himself from the chat ge against him ; but here it was not in the power • even of the King to comm i t a man to gaol without leaving him his right of Habeas Corpus— of demanding his trial, or his immediate discharge. Where, then, is there any similitude between either the prisons or Constitution of the two countries ? But I will tell you what was meant by the mention of the Bastile. One of the first steps to the French Revolution was the destruc• rims of that estaislishment. I may be deceived — I tnay be warped in my opinions, but I cannot help urging. I cannot conceive but that he meant a simildr step should take place here. Great as was the evA of Harrison's language, it was light in the scale compared with that of Sir C. Wolse ley. The language of Mr. Burke on the French Revolution, was (motet! to chew the innocence of . the expressions of Sir C. Wolseley ; but was there, any similitude, any tesemblance between the oc casions or the manner in which the different ex pressiOns- were used ? Every man is accountable for his words, and if the words of Sir C. Wolse ley can bear an innocent interpretation, let the defendants have all the advantage of it in a cri minal prosecution. I think them highly crimi nal. The evidence on the part of the prosecu tion has been corroborated by that for the defend ants; and under all the circumstances of the ease, I cannon but feel satisfied that we have demonetrat ed the meeting to have been unlawfully assembled, and that such seditious expressions were made use of to bear on the first count of the indict ment. With regard to that for conspiracy, I think we ,have satisfaCtorily proved it. We "save given in evidence a letter of Sir C. Wolseley, where he complains of a letter to Harrison having beets tie !eyed in its progress. We have shewn them to have beets together before the meeting, to have been together on the hustings—Sir Charles Wol seley, as Chairman, taking a leading part, assent,: ing to all that was said by .Harrison ; and we have given you beside, a letter from Harrison to Ba pieley, who is confined in Chester Castle, in .which he details the numbers who attended, and the general circumstances of the meet ing. Could Sir Charles Wulseley have come to that meeting and be called by acclamations to the Chair, without a previous knowledge of what was to be done ? ,But even though be had bad no such knowledge, I say,thata at that meeting they conspired to lAing the Government end Constitution of the country into hatred and c arnempt. This of itself, I allege, constitutes a conspiracy. Gentlemen, I need not labour the, question further. I think it 'is as, clear a case as ever was submitted to a Jury. I beg pardon for detaining yoU so long. I leave it wholly in your hands, knowing you will shew no, favour to the Government on one side, or to the 4efecdants on the other. If .yisu have any reasonable donbt on your minds, give the benefit of it to the defend ants. Justice must be done, without any consi deration as to the parties immediately interested and I hope you will give such a verdict as will prove satisfactory to the County of Chester, as. well as to your own consciences and to the king dom at large." The ,Chief Justice (Mr. WARREN), in recapitu hating the evidence to the Jury, said, tlsat any meeting of great numbers of people assembled to getter, armed in a warlike manner, was illegal; for no one could foresee what might be the effect of such assemblies. This was laid down by Haw.' kins, and with it he concurred. In reatliug' tho evidence of Winterbotham, his Lordship said, it would be useless • it would he an idle waste of time to say that fiarriaon's expressions were not seditious. Their natural import was of that cha racter. It was forcibly said by the Attorney- General, commenting on the use of the word Has tile by Sir Charles Wolseley, that there were no Bastiles in England. And coming from such a man as Sir Charles Wolseley, it would be for the Jury to decide ;slim construction should be put on them. The Jury would see there was an evident allusion to there -•being some prison in England, where men were treated as if in a Bas tile. . And taking all his words, it was contended they were not seditious ; but if they considered the effect such words as his must have had upon an assembly of 5000 people, how could they, even in the largest charity, be otherwise estimated than as seditious ? They had only a part of the speech spoken offered in the evidence of Bowerman, and if there were any thing else said, some one on the part of the defendants would certainly have been produced. Although Sir Charles IVolseley did not himself Put the cap of Liberty on the flag, he yet suffered it to be done; be assented to it, and doing so, was answerable for any criminality at tached to such an act. It would be absurd to suppose that Sir Charles Wolseley, a man of for tune, rank, and family, would have mounted a scaffold by some. accident. It would be trifling with ONi most ordinary understanding to think he. there met Harrison and Fitton, without some previous understanding that be shouhl have lane so. Harrison here said, it was not given in evidvnce that any previous meeting had taken place be• tweets him and Sir Charles Wolstdey. CHIEF JUSTICE...4IC would leave it to the Jury to see what Sir Charles Wol•seley meant by the " great struggle." With whom was it .to be ? With tyranny and corruption ; and who were the tyrants ? Wily, the rulers of the land. What is the great struggle ? Are these words of peace or consolation, or have they any possible bearing on the question of Reform ? If for Reform they substituted violence and revolution, then they would come more nearly to the real character of the meaning of the words. In his view, that was the only meaning that could be put upon them.— Sandy Brow was, it appeared, sanctified by Bague ley, a. man who was uow imprisoned for his crime; it was consecrated to the cause of liberty by John son, also imprisoned—and it was to become greater in their annals than the glorious plain of -Wa terloo. Couple this with the contemptuous deri sion which Harrison expressed towards the per Son of a Sovereign to be respected by every good and loyal subject. Mr. E - L Lord, the witness first said laughter, another said the allusion was received with acclamation, and there is a difference be tween them, and another said it was meant in derision. CHIEF JUSTICE—Let him, Gentlemen, have the benefit of thii differepce ; one witness said, his allusion to the Sovereign, as not knowing it a man or a pig were on the throne, was received with derision, another with acclamation. But it was trifling with the Court thus to interrupt a summing up. Mr. Peare—l am sorry, my Lord, to interrupt your Lordship, but there certainly appeared to me to be this difference in the evidence as to the manner in which These expressions of Harrison were received. Sir C. Wolseley was not pleseut when they were used. CHIEF JUSTICE—WeII, let me pursue the evi dence, the contradiction as to these words, could scarcely be called so ; whatever was said shall not be forgotten I wish to act fairly by all parties. Harrison said he did not know what sedition Weant, but his words were evidently seditions.— Sir Charles Wolseley heard all this— Sir C. Wolseley—No, my Lord; 1 did not hear this, I was not there. CHIEF JILCTICE—Yon are righL Gentlemen, Sir C. Wolseley was not there when Harrison said it was almost a duty to resist the Government of the country ; but Sir CharleS put the Resolutions to the meeting, one of which said that Lord Sid mouth was guilty of high treason; another was, that a general meeting of delegates should take place at Oldham,' to consider the best means, of 'obtaining their rights : another was, to make a collection for the purpose of defraying the ex pellees of a prosecution against his Alajesty's Mi nisters, and all this to an assembly of five thou sand people, many of them armed with sticks, which they brandished in approbation of them. He would leave it to the Jury to decide the mean- 1 ing of the sailor's phrase; " that they must all pull the rope together, and thereby capsize COMMO doze .Sidinouth." It appeared that the meeting at Stockport was not ouly.a meeting for what went forward at it, but for money, for the en couragement, for the protection of those who might engage in similar pursuits, or be prose cuted for their sedition. The moment the peo ple heard the soldiers were coming, they held up their sticks, which shewed the use for which they I brought them. They knocked clown a Police officer in proof'of what they would have done, and could that :be a peaceable meeting when such deeds were ' done? Sir Charles told them to stand firm when the military were reported to be cowing, so that he assumed to himself to be their leader. if they were afraid of the cavalry coming, their meeting they must have.sopposed to be illegal ; and, when they said they were prepared for them, what did they mean but that their stickS should be used to meet them ? " Rebellion is almost a duty," was the sign to which Gentlemen were invited by Sir Charles Wolseley and Mr. .Harrison. " Give three hisses for the prosecutors of Bagueley,John mon, and Drummond," said Sir Charles, and thus marked out persons who had done their duty to the vengeance of five thousand people. Letters passed between the two defendants, one four days before the meeting, which fixes them in correspondence ; and a second addressed to Bagueley from Harrison, giving an account of the Stockport Meeting on the .28th of June, which evidently spews acquaintance between Harrison and Sir Charles Wolseley. A police officer, sent to watch their proceedings, was knocked down and bruised, as a spy. But, if the object of the meeting were peaceable, if. it were constitutional, why should those assembled have had any terror of a spy ? From the necessity of the case, the Learned Counsel for the defend ants kept out of sight the main objects that pressed against Sir Charles. He confined hitneit to the mottos on the flag, be endeavoured to spew the meeting was not to the tenor of the people ; but it was the duty of the Jury to look at the num bers assembled, the weapons they bad, and, under all the circumstances, see it it was calcu• lated to excite terror in the mind of any rea sonable man. The Jury .would recollect, many at the meeting were strangers, and it was not left in doubt that they said they were prepared to meet the cavalry on that day with bludgeons, which were by several Acts of Parliament consider ed most offensive weapons. The number of people, the place whence they came, their object, their conduct, their arming, would be all considered by the Jury. So far as to its illegality, the first question they would have to try;- and secondly, if any seditious speeches had been tittered, tied uttered by the defendants. Mr. Harrison, in his defence, commented on what he called an impro per speech of the Learned Judge (Marshall), but which he (the Chief Justice) considered as very proper, and made quotations from Jeremy Ben them, - which he called a help from Heaven. Ben tham, doubtless, was a clever man, but it was la mentable to see so silly a book come from-so able •11 man. It was unpleasant to see a man like Sir Charles Wolseley"-^a man of fortune, family, arid private virtue—it was lamentable to see such a man as the companion of Harrison ; but all that should not prejudice the course of Justice. If they believed ehe evidence, they were bound to convict the defendants, and not let the generosity of the heart and the feelings of the wind have any influence upon their deliberation. The .scCollti count in the in. ' dictment charged the defendants with conspiracy. It was urged that previous communication wag necessary to be established before that charge could be made out ; .but .a conspiracy sufficient. :1 0 support the indictment was made out in this case,; from the whole tenor of the proceedingaSir Chailee was the man who took the leading part, and' 4' cited , the' people to tumult and the overthrow Cf the: Government. Was the coalescence of the actions and opinions of defendants a matter bf 'mere accident ? or will it not appear they acted in concert, and, therefore, conspired to effect the most dangeroui objects ? .In his view the,secotri count of the indictment was sufficiently 'sup ported. The evidence . for the detendanta dtd not at all shake the testimonygiven on theparCiA the prosecution ; for, although.the.Reporlers id not hear certain words, it might so happen to them from the place in which they were situated or from the lapse of memory ; but the .use, of ditious expressions was positively sworn to 14 two witnesses for the Crown. They were pow called upon, first, to con Sider if the meeting Were an unlawful assembly, and then, if- seditious speeches .were uttered to,exciteeo,oteropt. case the s Jury should- find a verdict of guilty againit both the defendants. And if they concerted a scheme and nsed seditious expressions after, the/ should also find them kuihy. Genttlenien„Yee will consider of your verdict. During the progress of the Learned Judge's charge he was occasionally reminded of some va riations between his Lordship,'s notes of the evidence and that taken by the defendants,. anti suffered some other interruption, of which he complained. The Jury, on retiring, wished for a copy nf the indictment which was handed to them; and after remaining in consultation for nearly three var• ters of an hour, returned with a:Verdict of GUILTY AGAINST BOTH THE DEFENDANTS. They were immediately called upon to give bait for their appearance in the next Term, which was immediately complied with on the part of•Sir,C. Wolseley, and Mr. Harrison was' allowed to leave the Court, in order to procure his; the Attorney.. General intimating to him, that be bad no doubt of bis speedy return. OLD BAILEY. .The above Sessions commenced.yesterday at Justice Hell, before the Right Hon. the LORI , MAYOR, Mr. Baron Wool), Mr. Justice•PAßK,ibc COMMON-SERJBANT, and Aldertuen. Morris Jones, a boy but 15 years of age, vwss indicted for burglariously breaking anti craving the dwelling house of Stephen Skinner, o f St. George's Hanover•square, in the night of tbc236 l of March, and stealing some table linen. The prisoner was found Guilty—Death. Henry Hawkins, aged 1,8, was indicted for%"" glariously entering the dwelling-house Drew, of Portugal-street, Lincoln's Irin-liiltle, and stealing therein a tin cash box, contailliog 331. in notes, some sovereigns, and other perty, on the 19th of February last. The particulars of this robbery; accompanied by an outrageous assault upon Mrs. Drew, wets given in the Police Reports at the time. The prisoner deelored ins innocence, And celled four, or,five witnesses, who gave him an excellent character. Mr. Justice PART. summed no the evidence, 84 the Jury, without much hesitation, found:the prisoner Guilty—Death. Mr. Drew immediately addressed the Court, is recommending the pyisoner to mercy. Mr. Justice PARK said, he had no doubt there' commendation proceeded from the most hunasne motives.. He could not, however, promise ;bog it would be attended with much success ; for wherever there was cruelty, such as had in tl'af case been practised, it would be a false burnanil altogether to affect pity for the guilty p ar ry. The JURY said, it was this feeling which induced them to withhold their reecmmendatiOn. Thomas Thorpe was capitally convicted of s teal-. ing several articles of wearing appear!, the pro- , perty of John' Dowell, in the dwelling-house of Wm. King. Robert Claxton was also capitally convicted of stealing in the dwelling-house of Edward Jeruipg ham, Esq. 16 silver table spoons. IMPORTANT INFORMATION.—Frow caicniatiog by the College of Physicians, no less than - 40,000 the annually in Great Britain of 'Consumptios• and at least 10,000 in London. The late AVilliaos Turnbull, Esq. a very ingenious Surgeon, •ascer-. tallied that every 20th person was ruptured.--' These complaints are truly alarming to every io' dividual who uses the least exertion. It is also incredible the number that suffer tram a eertaio Disease, by being improperly treated. It ors; those circumstances induced Dr. COOPER to Seled eminent Physicians and Surgeons, of at least ,30 years' experience, to form a Medical Board; and since the establishment upwards of 30,000 ra tients have been cured without confineMent-' many of them after hospitals bad failed. Messrs. COOPER and Co. are consulted.. li t Woodstock-street, Oxford-street ; and at. Char lotte House, Great Charlotte•street, oppositeftio Rev. Rowland 1111's, daily, from eight tilleigbci Mechanics have advice gratis every evening, fic", six till eight ; and on Sunday mornings unt il ' le` o'clock. ** RUPTURES of 30 years standing.radieal cured without confinement. *4.* There arc private doors at each houie;alid private rooms for Females. N. R. The Afflicted would do well •to io d ' Messrs. COOPER and Co.'s Lectures on two Pr vailing Diseases, published at one shilling, , 11 Mr. HARYRY, I3lackfriars-road. They u" also prove useful to young Practitioners. TA r •'' • - • LONDQN: Printed by 3. 1 - 1. CARSTAIRS, of No. 29, 6 1 Ortnolid-street, Qn:en-square; .and published •by W". 1 04 SCRIPPS, of No. 7, Swat) .7%1(4t0n-street, at THE Office, No. tR, Strand ; %Atm? Advertisemcnts, Or d° Ltlt7ts, atc. (1.1.n,t-paid) must he tiddrcsse4L • 7 t , ~...........abr e , 1..... ... , rc ,., , 1 LA 'ock us b Trutt con East s~' ,+ Sevent lately thereol of Pren Polk: a I►!an ahl e fo Polk system in the bas bee Prop the Coi Londot Chea To Sc Gent Assura to the Irith a lIETRI x~~ 11w , ~Lc ;;t 2►.~th T. Li Thou , willi reek et s i ~` ii 'tat art Ir B And ill * CA. Pri aught N. B, Ilusl• tillsr. lion to TICR. 1144 d FoK iloyarE Cotn er tle L as 4114 , in # s "HA I 'x'fTi th e 9,f aut Print e Cu Oi wl likPoneti `inaiaibl ()li ve G e i hr de: -nark Re qin right t Auc e l al th isetd Th ese ! fis ide g a. vitid cc , res i eu r. k • ' e t