The British Press; or, Morning Literary Advertiser.
London, England, 1819-09-23 00:00:00

THE BRITISH PAY,S S.

LONDON,
THURSDAY. SEPTEMBER 23, 1%19.

A public meeting of the Radical Reformers ass
held on Monday last at Hunslet Moor, near Leeds,
which, although consisting of more than .20,0)1

people, was conducted with propriety, and sepuratrd
without manifesting the remotest disposition t,‘.
wards violence. The people who constituted 11114

meeting repaired to the appointed place in laNt
bodies, as has been practised in other places on fro
miler occasions, preceded or accompanied hy
bearing inscriptions or devices expresi.ive lif their
objects or feelings, and several turtle( hag the

alarming accompaninrent of Wilds of mime : hn•

although numerous bodies of men mamo-A 11Ito.le:t
Leeds ou their was, to Hamlet Itloo, and for a .hart

time after the meeting crowded the streets of the
town, zo outrage of the slightest kind was offervil
to the person or property of any juidividual, and the
people having aceomplished their object, retired
peaceably to their homes,
The good order and decorum which prevailed
among so numerous an ssicrnblage of people oar
Monday, contribute . still further to expose. the
rashness and folly of the Magistrates of Mn.zi
cheater. • The meeting in Peter's-place on tbe..l6th
of August, differed in no essential respect from
that which was held at Hamlet Moor on Monday
last ; the difference io numbers midges none
whatever iu the pr' •ple on Mich the Magistratee
of the respective districts severally acted ; had
the people at the latter place been mischievously
disposed,• they were stilliciently I:whereto* for the
gratification of such a disprieition, and comparing
.the numbers at the respective meetings with the
military force severally prepared to oppore
.violeuce, the meeting at Hunslet Moor woo coin.

•paratively more alarming than the meeting at Man.
chester. The people assembled at Peter's-place
wage within sight of a military power, and would,
if suffered, have transacted their business liier;lly
under the cannon's mouth ; they sweseulratiot en.
vironed by special viewable:, companies of the
Oath regiment were paraded in the streets, and the
Manchester,• Cheshire, and Macclesfield trieps of •
cavalry were mounted for instant service. Perhaps
;t was the consciousness of their oversibeltning
strength that induced the Magistrates to we if.
The oCcortences of that fatal day can never fail to
',resent themselves to the mind whenever the con-
dideration of a popular meeting engages the public
attention; and nothiug can more stronglrettemplify
the revolting character of the outrage then commit-
ted upon the people than this circumstance, that
on all aimilar.acessiosis, preview and ettlysetpient.
the people, when uninterrupted by the .officions
meddling of over-zealous Magistrates, mistaking
inclination for duty, have conducted themselves
with propriety, and evinced no diipositioit to-
wards the violation of private rights or the dis-
turbance of public tranquillity. Could any
doubt, lid sever, be entertained, that if the re-
spectable Mayor of Leeds and his terother Ma-
gistrates were delimits of imitating the example of
the Manchester Gentlemen, or even of the Provost
'of Paisley, and thought' fit either to iliaperse the
meeting with violence, or to seize upon the flags of
the Reformers us they were paraded through tl e
streets, the cohseqsiences would not be the seine
The streets of Leeds bud perhaps been stained wt h
blood—the loihnual respect of the people for the
power of the laws rudely shocked—the persons of
the Magistrates insulted—private property destroy-
ed—an angry discontented spirit, mingled with a
pas.iou for revenge, infused ruin the 'fluids !if the
sufferers—and still worse, perhaps the Ministers of
the Crown had been so ill-advised es to bring fie.
ward their Sovereign's name to function the most.-
' of such unueeeniary severity, and thus the danger
had been incurred of diminishing the affections of
so many of the people for the person end diameter
PRINCI. Happily the wisdom and forbear-
' Magistrates at Leeds have reudered tins
far imagivary. The country 00C
of eaperiaace; and we have no
kW" it .3.o4lmatei•iill' be folly
441ifealiedrilt ••

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