The National Register.
London, England, 1822-04-15 00:00:00

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Zig 13rttli) Xcptunc,

konDoit :
MONDAY, APRIL Is.

The trial respecting the Manchester outrage has
terminated, and a Jury has declared that one of
the victims of " PROMPTITUDE." on the memorable

16th of August, is not entitled to a compensation

fur the violence done to him on that day. The
institution of Juries is &.f great antiquity, and is

regarded by all with deserved veneration—but all
decisions of Juries are not of ►eecessity correct—or,
why do we see from time to time verdicts reversed on
application to the Court,—we may, therefore, un-
der such existing implication of fallibity, be
allowed to doubt the correctness of the condu-

sion, to which the Lancastrian IVorthics have ar-

rived—and without meanim4 to impute any improper
motives to the Learned J kt:l;c—witholit supposing
that in his charge to the Jury, he had in view a
possibility that that charge miglit be read elsewhere
to his future advantage, we do not hesitate to
declare our opinion, that it was erioneous in many
pointsand we think he himself will agree with
us, if he contrast k;s observations on the legality of
the meeting, with those made by his senior brother,
Mr. Baron Wood, (on a trial for riot), at the last
Surrey Assizes.—" The mere assemblage of two or
three hundred persons," said that worthy Judge,
" would not constitute a riot, for if so, persons
assembled at a horse-race or a bull-bait, might be
liable to punishment as rioters. If an assemblage
of people, however numerous, conduct itself
peaceably and orderly, it is not a riot. It must be
'hewn that the people assemble for the purpose of
brea!:ing the King's peace, and that their conduct
was stick as to endanger the public peace, and to
carry weror, dismay, and affrightment, into the
surrounding neighbourhood.'"fhus the law was
defined as we have always read it, but certainly
differently from Mr. Justice Holroyd's definition—
we are all open to error, and in the present case
the Counsel for the plaintiff having tendered ex-
ceptions, an argument may most likely take place
upon them.—We do not mean to harrow up the
feelings• of our Readers, by an account of the
evidence given in support of the action—they
all of them remember that given on the Old-
ham Inquests, and it will suffice to say that it
remains not only uncontradicted but confirmed, and
in some instances added to, on the score of the
enormities committed on the field of Manchester
glory. The evidence for the defence may be gene-
rally dismissed, by observing that it was given by
those wl.o were decidedly PARTICIPATORS in the
crimes of the day—but we shall stay to notice two
or three points :—in the first place, in the report
before us (which is taken versatim from the notes of
a reporter, whose correctness we have cause, from
experience, to rely upon) it is stated that NaDIN, the
notorious constable of Manchester, swore that on
his receiving the warrant to apprehend Hunt, &c.
he withdrew the whole of the special constables that
had till that time firmed a line of communication
between the Hustings and Buxton's house, where
the magistrates were assembled, and this he dis-
tinctly states he did before the Yeomanry moved
forward, to enable them to reach the hustings.—
Now, Mr. Peter Statham (whose evidenae follows
immediately that of Nadia) swears, " I saw the
Manchester Yeomanry come to the ground—the
special constables appeared to open right and left for
the Yeomanry to go to the hustings. I was about
five yards from the special constables when the ca-
valry advanced." Surely, if we understand our own
language, one of these men was misiukat.so