The British Press; or, Morning Literary Advertiser.
London, England, 1819-11-27 00:00:00

PRIORITY OF MOTIONS.

A dispute hi;vingarisen hetween Mr. HART 2.A Mr.
Maur, relative to the priority or two motions, *bra oc-
cupied the Court for vome time—
The LOAD CHANCELLOR—" As to the gumshoe of pro.
rity, it can be uuly properly settkd accordiu4 to the roles
and practice of this Court by affidavit. lam not gMiis to sit
to bear these disputes of Comore!, so I iv:II leave the Court
His Lordship immediately ruse sod left the Court Lit being
only tine oclock) without waitiog to have the true mud
purse removed.

COURT OF KING'S BENCH, WEITYINET
FRIDAY, NOVOISCIR 2C.

TIM RING V. WAITIIII4III, HUNT, TROIIIBOII, rAstaixs,
♦]D °TIMM.

The SOLICITOR-G[7IEIIAL morel to mike the custiitiensl
seder obtained lit thin Om sly4o:ute.
Mr. DEJIIIAN said, that in this case the Def.ndanta were
nut reedy, at the present moment, to go into a drf. tire.
The Defendants were *even in nrimber, and a ror.ety of
long affidavits were necessary to he 1% led—it was ntio nrgoa.
say to refer tu the City maw= kts, whist, howissr, wire

46
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i

4;

PA NIS I'APERS.

lust in tl•tir prrinci‘ion. Tinier theist i ireurogtances tie sub-
-01 11, d that ots;zlit to lie pcntiniiiett.
Mr. H WIT anti! Mat be was ready to go into the case fluW.

\lr. HOLT said, that g.reat exerttun• were matte to preps's.
the :(Elm's in time, but it was not round practiceble to
have them in time. . _

The CHI rr JUSTICE %Litt, that it would be very desirable
out to postpone to the end of the T. ran, ca.er, which, lake
the present, would lake up a great deal of time in the ergo-
ma at ; if the ease was postponed at all, et were better post-
pone it au next Term.
Ur DRUM M% said, be was ready to let the case stand over
tall stein Term
Sir. HUNT %.u•1 he was prepared to go into the ease as far
as be was mercies! ; be lead for that purpose drawn np a
.het uffida,it. If the case was postponed he nestled it
seem lel be understood that lie sought for no indulgeoce.
The eve was ordered to stated uvrr till the next Term, on
tise erenkr-temeliier: that the allitlisits shook! be filed as of
0,4 Term ; hut that the condition should M 4 apply to
Mr. pant, a; be said he was ready wish his affidavit.

FOREIGIv LVTELLIGE.W:E.

PARIS, NOVF,IIIIER
The King heard muss yesterday in his apart-

We are assured that Ilia Majesty has authorised
tt.e return of all the persons banished without trial.,
except the Regicides.— ( Mositestr.)
Tt:e two new Ministers, Past vier end Roy, will
be presented this day to his Majesty.
M. de Latour-Maubourg will return from Lon-
don 'text Tuesday.
The Princess of Wales passed through Marseilles,
fin the 10th instant, on her return to Italy, travel-
hug under the name of the Countess Angela Oldi.
M. Laborde, exiled by the ordinance of the 24th
July, returned yesterday to Paris.
NOVEMBER 23.

Ills Majesty heard mass yesterday in the Castle
Chapel. Hi. Majesty afterwards transacted busi-
ness with the Minister of Marine.
Several English were arrested the day before
yesterday is the Rue Saint-Honore. One of them,
mho nisaid to be a courier attached to the Embassy.
was carried to the house of the Commissioner of
Police of the quarter de la Madeleine. It is thought
that these arrests were made at the rtquast of the
Ambassador. •
During the three months of July, August, cnd
September, 1818. there were 80 suicides. In the
corltsponding quarter of 1819, there were 109.
making an increase of 429. It bas been remarked,
Ilnit the greater number of them were caused by
domestic calamities, violent passions, and derange-
ment of intellect..
The health of the King is entirely re-established.
M. Decrees has c ttttt nienced an action, ground-
ed upoa a work entitled. Proja of the Act
or
Accusation orlon Al. Decozes. It is the first
time we have seen a Minister in the Courts a party
to a civil action.

14. 811 Si Pith' SS.

LONDON,
SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 27, 1819.

The Lite adverse weather prevented the arrival
of the Paris Papers in course for some days. We
received last night a series of them from the 2lst
to the Od inclusive. The KING'S health, which
appears to have suffered only from fits of the gout,
is said to be perfectly re.established. Ills MAJESTY
is now able to attend to business as usual. With
CA. exception of sonic comments on the mega
change of Ministry. the Paris Papers contain very
little other matter of any interest. The Princess
of IVALEs has passed through Marseilles on her
return to Italy.

The change in the Ministry appears to have had
little effect on the funds:—The Fate per Cent.
Consols on the ind were, 67 fr. 75 c. Back
Actions 1,4701.

Tim exposition which was expected to hove been
made last night in Parliament by the Ministers of
rim Crown respecting the measures which they
propose to introduce, was not wade in either House,
Iletit was postponed until Monday next, when it
will be submitted sitnultaneously to the Lords and
Commons.

'Lord Jou* RUSSELL last night gave notice that
he would on Tuesday, the 14th of December next,
bring forward his plan respecting the disfranchise-
ment of corrupt boroughs, and the extension of
the representation forfeited by them to the popu-
lous and commercial towns not at present enjoying
the right of electing representatives. Of this plan
the Noble Lord hail given notice during the last
Session of Pat liament, when he devoted his talents
with such honour to himself and advantage to the
country in exposing the political offences cow-
r-qted in the borough of Grampound, and
it met with the concurrence of every man
%. !.1) WAS sincerely desirous of restoring to the
Coostittition as much of its original purity as pos.
1414te, without exposing the safety of any part of the
faltric to the rtmotest danger. Upon the merits of
;he plait we have more than once expressed our
opision, but we may now add. that its greatest ex-
celleoce consists in its simplicity and practicability.
it reposes in Parliament a discretionary power
of correcting abuses as tbey arise in the repre-
b,iitation of the people, such as formerly appertain-
ed to the prerogative of the Crown, but in a form
bitter and more happily detit.ed ; for the Crown
might, according to its caprice, have disfranchised
pl, mod • tiisferred toe right of representation

Committee to inquire into the particulars contained
in them.

The statements made by the Magistrates of
Manchester to the Ministers of the Crown, concern-
itig the unfortunate events whirl' took place within
their jurisdiction on Monday, the 16 of A ugnst,
were among the mass of Parliamentary Papers, ex-
planatory of the internal condition of the country,
whiff' we yesterday submitted to our readers.
For these statements the public have long looked
with anxious solicitude ; withont their assistance
it was understood no correct opinion could he form-
ed respecting the occurrences of that unhappy day ;
they were to skew the character of the meeting in
its true colours, to justify the Magistrates for their
conduct, ■nd the Ministeir for hatiog unreservedly
expressed their approbation of the measures adopted
•ad pursued on that occasion. From these state-
ments were also to be deduced the motives of
Ministers in rebuking the Citizens of London for
presuming to suggest the necessity of au inquiry;
in declaring Lord FITZWILLIAM unworthy of Ins
Sovereign's confidence, for repeating the same
request ; and in stigmatising “s little short of
traitors, such of the people •s ventured to censure
the Magistrates and yeomanry as t•iult nt in their
proceedings, and the Ministers as precipitate in
expressing their satisfaction. After the explana-
tions vouchsafed in Parliament by the St retool' of
the Crown, mid the publication of these statements,
there can he nu excuse for misrepresentation ; Lot
before we offer a few remarks upon these Papers,
we cannot avoid complaining of the want of gene-
rosity evinced by Ministers in censitsiog torn for
" ignorance," who only prayed to be let into the
secret, which, until the meeting of Parliament, the
Ministers churlishly kept exclusively to theme...lves.
I-lad they condescended to publish in the Gazette
the dispatches of the Magistrates to the Home
Department, what an immensity of inisrepresenta-
lion had been avoided !

It seems to have been clearly established in the
minds of the Magistrates of Manchester, ',revisals
to the 16th of August, that an insurrectionary
spirit prevailed-, to a very groat extent, in the
town of Manchester and its vicinity ; that a system
of drilling and training had been for a considerable
time clandestinely pursued ; that pikes were initil-
factored ; and that many of those who styled them.
selves Radical Reformers were privately procuring
file-arms. The drilling mid training, however,
seems to have been conducted without the use or
employment of any kind of offensive weapon what-
ever. Upon the character of the evidence sopport-
ing these allegations it is impossible for us to offer
an opinion, as the names of the informants are fur
an obvious and laudable purpose not made public..
The Magistrates express themselves as being much
alarmed at this intelligence, nod the apprehensions
they entertained for the preservation of the public
peace, and the measures they adopted to secure it,
in anticipation of the meeting of the 16th, were
natural and praiseworthy. lu this letter addressed
by Mr. NORRIS, on the 15th, to Lord Si !MOUTH
he says, " 1 hope the peace may be preserved ; but
under all circumstances it is scarcely possible to
expect it, and in this respect we are in a state of
painful uncertainty." Ile also says, " the Magis-
trates, as at present advised, do not think of prevent-
ing the meeting, yet all the account, tend to show
that the worst possible spirit pervades the country."
It is evident from this Gentleman's letter, and the
depositions token at Manchester, that the Magis-
trates anticipated a meeting very numerous, to
which large bodies of men would repair in regular
order. They were convinced that the worst possi-
ble spirit would pervade the meeting, mid they in
fact were " in a state of painful uncertainty," not
even hoping that the peace could be preserved.
Under such circumstances, prudent men would
have forbidden the meeting. They should at least
have occupied Peter's-place io such a manner with
troops as to prevent the meeting from being held
in the 101C3 of Manchester, and the evidence now
laid before Parliament would have fully justified
their conduct. Men who subsequently under-
took the fearful responsibility of exasperating so
large a body of men actuated by the worst possible
spirit, by arresting their leaders in the midst of
them, and of dispersing the meeting when the peo-
ple had assumed their most formidable state, could
not have beau startled at the idea of preventing the
assembly by previous measures.
The fatal morning having arrived, large bodies of
men, as had been anticipated by the Magistrates,
flocked into the town from various quarters. Mr.
IiAY expressly says that the Magistrates, " io con-
currence with some of the most intelligent Gentle-
men of the town, had formed a determination not
to stop the numerous columns which were front va-
rious roods expected to pour in." The numbers,
therefore, who attended the meeting, their military
array, and their bad spirit, were all anticipated by
the Magistrates. The assistance of the military was
very properly required, and the Magistrates repair-
ed in a body to a house, " whence they might see
the whole of the proceedings of the meeting."
4 A body of special constables, about two hundred,
in number, took their ground clove to the hustings;

ever, before the appearance of nowt'. 41 felt a de• 1
cided conviction that the whole bore the appearance
of insurrection ; that the array was such as to terrify
all the King's subjects, and was such as no legiti-
mate purpose could justify. In addition to their
own sell►., of the meeting, they had very numerous
depositions from the inhabitants, ns to their fears
for the public safety ; and at length a man deposed
as to the parties who were approaching, attended
by the heaviest colutens."—lti this party were
Joustost, KNIGHT, and Moottnouse,
and a warrant was issued for their arrest. This
warrant was intrusted to NADIN, who, " pre-
ceding the Manchester cavalry, executed it."—
Mr. lIAT's testimony here decides two important
points ; one, that the Manchester cavalry were the
troops who eilvaiiced first ; the other, that the
military power was employed in the execution of
the civil process, without first ascertaining the in-
adequacy of the civil power, although speciall con-
stables to the riumber of two hundred smr►ound-
ed the hustings, and a hue of communication was
preserved between this body and the house where
the Magi trates were sitting. " Meantime," add::
Nlr.llsr, " the Riot Act was read, and the mob
was completely dispersed." This apprises us
c;ciirately of the time when the Riot Act was
read, and we learn from Lord SIOSIOUTH that pro-
clamation was first made from the window of the
house in ahich the Magistrates were sitting, and
subsequently in front of the house; but who in the
midst of the uproar, confusion, and alarm of the
terrific moment which followed CUNT'S arrest,
could have paid attention to such un act ? To say
the lea►t of it, this proceeding was then unneces-
sary, for while the Magistrate, in the humane lan-
guage of the Legislature, was commanding the
people to disperse peaceably within one hour, the
cavalry mere strongly enforcing the command by
the point of their sabres. Mr. Ilaar's testimony
is conclusive upon another point which has hi-
therto been warmly contested ; for he laments, we
are convinced most sincerely, that " a variety
of instances of sabre wounds occurred ; Colonel
L'ESTRANGE, ill his dispatch to General BYNG,
also regrets that " some of the unfortunate people
who attended this meeting have suffered from sabre
wound. :" but both the !Magistrate mid the Co-
lonel are totally silent respecting any danger to
which the Manchester cavalry were exposed of be-
ing cut off by the crowd, which Lord CASTLE.
NEAGH in the !louse of Commons said had ren-
dered the employment of the hussars necessary.
The Magistrates of Manchester are now art length
put upon their trial before their country ; the let-
ters we published yesterday contain their defence
and justification. To accuse them of a love of
violence, or a desire to spill the blood of their fel-
low-subjects, would be ungenerous and unjust ;
but we think, from the abstract we have now made,
that they have nue.ifested a lamentable want of
judgment—first, in not preventing the meeting in
the town of Manchester; and, secondly, having per-
mitted so formidable a mass of people to assemble,
in causing AUNT and his friends to be arrested in
the midst of the crowd, thereby exasperating men
of whose violence they acknowledge that they en-
tertained a lively apprehension. With such feel-
ing'', men of ordinary discretion would not have
provoked into action a meeting which they had
previously thought dangerous to the public peace.
The Magistrates cannot justify themselves by saying
that t:ie insurrectionary appearance of the crowd
induced them to have recourse to violent measures,
because by their own statements it is manifest that
they had expected a very numerous assemblage of
persons, flocking in columns from various quarters,
and all actuated by the worst possible spirit.—
They do not say that the meeting had proceeded
to any acts of violence, and it certainly seems very
singular and inconsistent that the Magistrates, who
on the day preceding the meeting did not enter-
tain a hope that the peace of the town could be
preserved from the mob, should themselves be the
first to break the peace, soil that they alsauld
choose for the execution of their warrant that mo-
ment of the day when the crowd was most formi-
dable, and when consequently most danger might
, I rationally be apprehended from exasperating them.

And now that we have shewn the nature of
the defence set up for the Magistrates, and
the statements which they presented, we must
add, that the facts contained in their repre-
sentations differ in no very material point from
the accounts originally published in the newspapers.
We therefore can see no pretence to justify the
Ministers in rebuking the Court of Common
Council fur its " ignorance of the circumstances
attending the transactions at Manchester." It is,

however, the province of ignorance to demand in-
vestigation, for the purpose of removing doubts
and clearing difficulties; but probably had the
Common • Council the sante papers on its table
which have now been laid before Parliament, the
Resolutions of the Court, in►tead of praying an
inquiry into the conduct of the Nlagistrates, would
'have condemned it at once in strong and energetic
language. _ _

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- any place. and transferred the right ut representation ." "."."-P., ",.-.....,.. F,••••••••• ••••••-•- ......, .....-....b.,
to :iiicolttr. but by the system proposed by Lord from them there was a line of communication to Halifax Papers have as-sited to the 22d October.
Joule Ithssai.t, !Jo pert of the people can forfeit this the house where we (the Megiotratcs) were." Mr. They state. from Bermuda. that the fever bee
inestimable privilege but upon the conviction of the HAY then notices the formation of the meeting. the greatly subsided in the inland, and but few deaths
specific crime of bribery. which would render them flags. &c. in a manner perfectly similar to the ac. have taken place.
unworthy of longer enjoying it. counts which we. immediately alter the transaction. By a letter from St. Thomas's. dated October 10,
Lard ALTHour has given notice that he still, on communicated to our readers. " There was no we hear of the death of General ENGLISH, which
l'uortsy 01:1, move that the Papers relating to the appearance." he adds. "of arms or pikes, but great occurred at fUerdaritta about A mouth before.—
State of the CumaSsy should be referred to a Select plenty of sucks or staves." The Magistrates, how. (Morning Chronicle./
• ...
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