The National Register.
London, England, 1819-09-05 00:00:00

SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 5, 1819.

prise, which is such as to constitute a riot, must be
accompanied with some offer of violence, forsersons
riding together on the road with unttual Weapons,
or otherwise assembling in such a manner A is apt
to rate s terror of the people, are not, properly guilty
of a riot ; nor can pecsons assembled together in a
peaceful manner to do a ;thing even prohibited by
statute, and afterwards peacefully perfinming the
thing intended, be said to be rioters ; for there is no
. reason why an assembly should be said to be riotous
barely for doing a thing contrary to statute, any
more than for doing a thing contrary to common
law." Such are the highest opinions of le tY au-
thority with which we are acquainted, on the term,
definition, and law of Riot. They are given from
' Hawkins's Reports detailed in Williams's Justice✓ of
the Peace, and are, surely, widely at variance With
the proceedings of the Manchester magistrates and
military. We had therefore hoped, thoroughly as
we despise the paltry and snivelling policy of Mi-
I nisters, that they would at least have been aware of
the gross trans essi,n of the law, anal have pawed
before they had recommended to 04, Royal Mater
to identify himself with such acts okillegality and
outrage. Besides this, what is the dilemma in whisk
the Government is already platted by tea own filly
and rashness! it has abetted the prosecution of
Hunt, and applauded the havoc and blood-shed
made even amongst its own *Alai constables at
• Manchester, and yeas' quietit tcyplilto meekg.
avowedly for the same objects, c.,"?tractorised
same features, and under the very same banners, to
be held in the very heart of the metropolis, and
another in Westminster. Where this will end God
knows, but we ore sure it is a crisis pregnant with
danger, and calling upon every subject of this realm
to do his ditty. ‘Ve are neither Democrats, Level-
lers, Jacobins, nor disaffected to the laws and consti-
tution, but we arc determined opposers of oppression,
of tyranny, and of corruption, come they from
whatever ptarter they may. We rejoice, therefore,
in the spirit that is now roused upon such a subject,
and we trust that the meetings held upon it in Lon-
dun and Westminster will not only be fellowed by
every populous town and county in the kingdom, but
that still mom derisive measures, if these prove in-
effectual, will be bad recourse to. We hope that
Remonstrances strong and bold will be made to the
Throne itself. That no endeavour will be wanting
to enl;ghten its eyes, and to break through the
trammels by which it is new fettered and enslaved
Not only the right of public, meetings is to be now
tried, but the very right of petition also will be gone
if the expression of public feel ing,and even the groans
of misery are to be subject to the ularuis, or caprice,
or spurious and mis-called loyalty of a ect of country
magistrates, and the swords of u hiviess banditti.
This we do not yet quite believe to be our situation,
but our maxim is " Poncipiis ogee/,,." It is for this
purpose of mutual vigilance that the several estates
of the reuhu were instituted and established ; it is,
and will be, in proportion as their duties in this
respect are discharged, that Old Ltiglatid will stand
or fall.

It has been oinerved that Hunt liar. secretly in
the pay of Government ; we never believed this,
but certain we are, that No Government been in
hi: pay, and resolved to procure .his popularity at
the expence of violating the laws of the country,
and sacrificing the lives of the innocent multitude,
they would have acted most wisely to have done as
they have done The contempt with which he was
renerully treated is transformed to rapture, and
those who execrated his mischievous restlessness now
admire his fit-taness, end fo] indignant at his per-

LP111( E

secution. He has ken drawn in triumph through
Preston since Inc left the castle of Lancaster en bail.
He was on the morning of the 16th only a chair-
man and a demagogue ; now he is a Lem and a
martyr. He was then reprobated by the whole
enLghtencd and virtuous porthm of society as a
convener and seducer of a half starved populace to
any scenes and any daecis of mischief, immediate or
remote; now, the sentiment of disapprobation is
transferred, at least in part, from him who, for the
public weltine, ought to have been its sole object, to
those constituted authorities, who can never expose
themselves to censure without inflicting a dant:rens
wound on the body of the state itself. This it is to
spoil a geed cause, and raise a bad one on its ruins.
We do not hesitate to Lay, that it will be doubly
difficult to put down the Radical .11-.. formers, and to
separate the thols and fanatics amongst thc:n from
their most vicious leaders, in consequence of this
open contempt for the Laws exhibited by the dew-
sisories of legal power. Yet must radical reform be
finally sulalucd, or there approaches n certain disso-
lution not only of the laws of England, but those.of
society.

LIVERPOOL REPORN MEETING.

The following is an emost from an excellent
speech delivered at the above Mdeting by the Rev.
Mr. Shepherd:—

" Our views are supported by the acutiments of many
of the stumble dead and the itlustrions livint. AVhere
was there ever a greater stateamau time the fii,t Lot d
Chatham? %Vitae he eras Minister, the must brilhdtit 'loc-
us' crowned mu arms abroad, and peace nil
prevailed at home, lie well tindenitond ti.c mechanism
of the !loose of Commons, and what uas his opinion of
it? On this subject he viapicssed Worm. 110144 ti

trete I to use tht.n in my own per,un, I in these
times, be in danger of talptisuntalmit fur expressing them.
Tile great Lund Chadian) said, that if the House of Coin-
inuns did not reform itself (tutu wiihin, it would be rt.
funned with a vengeance from without. What did his
suit, the late Mr. Pitt, say of :t,lieforc his yeratliful vi.tnes
were cotrnpted by his accession to power? He said,
that until it was informed, no lit,nest man coa/41 be Minis-

ter of England. llitt, gentlemen, I vito:thi detain you too
long were 1 to enumerate the names of all yak° hare en-
tertained ziu,ilar opinions. (Loud cries of No, no, awl
Go on.) I Hill, then, ask )on, where oda there ever a
more sirthons man than the late Sir 'William Jones, Chief
Justice of Ileogal? lie was a Reformer. But, gentlemen,

it has been said of late, that nune are Reformers but the
pour and needy ; and many have made that observetiot
a au, did they net, as Mate paupers, fatten tot the publi.:
money, would be or.erlfal to their own palish. Hut, gen-
tlemen, u hat is Sir Francis Burdett—is lie poor and
needy? (No, tin.) What is Ur. Croke, of Norfolk ? Tire
mast ttriviest landlord of a thriving tenantry; and the
thriving laudlot d of a thriving tenantry, lit c.snse lie acre
on the principle of live and let live. Is lie poor an I
needy? No: and yet lie is a Reformer! What is the sen-
timent of Me Duke of Bedford lit a letter %%Melt he
lately addresser, to use, as Chairman of the Concentric
Society. be says, that nothing his a is-roam in I'm lianient
will save us from the danger of anarchy on the one hand,
or of military despotism on the other. Gentlemen,
cause we follow tip the seatimeet of this Wean ions ci,.l-
- it appears we are eJ of high crimes ao.l mi.-
dcmeanions ; and on this. indictment we are to be tried,
110 i by non actions, lint by one set.rtt

" Gentlemen, Ileformers are divide., into various
classes, according to the extent of their is ishes far fir -
re, in. As fur urpell, I 4111 what is called a moderate Re-
former. With !mid Sefton, I look no fat ther thin to as'
pNterigion of the franehise to honsebolders, and the lite,
ration of the dnitettou of Parliament In three year.. My
:nit mu y men, in pro iiiii 'gating these opinion, I Ebel pi nh rt.
ad by the law, sled, stork me, the same kW protects tho..e
whose wishes go a xretetlh el farther- t yen to annmet P. _
Illementa and suttee's/el so& age. They arc all • erin'ty
motet-teal by the ,I•see. pluvided they pi ontilla ate their
klieg peaceably and conatitottoi,elly ; and if blood.
hounds are let 'owe on the Laitt r, tin y urn soon be lee
moss on the former at.,. It is with political as *lib reli-
gions spot/ ; if once the privilege of the free expression of
°rising' is broke, in hpon,there in ISO 11:1 lilt it ht st Fie Yin.
anion will end, tattle Reformers lie put thiveo, the Whips
will he put doss g and a tiewogiatip will he established is
this country, as severe fl• that which *Sy) LAVICiSCti ij
that al tir I) a Jut :eon."

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