The National Register.
London, England, 1819-09-06 00:00:00

MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 6, 1819.

prize, which is such as to constitute a riot, must be
accempanied with some offer of violence, for persons
riding together on the road with unusual,wcapons,
or otherwise assembling in sizeli a manner as is apt
to raise a terror of the people/ are not properly guilty
of a riot ; nor can persons Wilk:ll:bled t titer in a
peaceful mat.ncr to do a this-cwt.,' libited by
statute, and afterwards peacefully lag the
thing intended, be said to be rioters; *here is no
be
reason why un amen* should be tai be riotous
barely for doing a thing contrary to to, any
more than for doing a thing contrary to common
law." Such are the bighezt • opin im of legal au-
thority with which we are acquainted, Pit the term,
definition„ and law of Riot. They a given from
Hawkina's Reports detailed in Wiilia Justice of
mis
the Peace, and are; surely, widely et virianca -with
the proceedings of the Manchester magistrates and
military. %Ve had therefore hoped, thoroughly as
we despise the paltry and snivelling policy
.of Mi-
nisters, that they would at least hare keen aviiate of
the gross transgression of the low, and have paused
Lefore they had recommended to their Royal Master
to ident4 himself with such ants of illegality and
outrage. Besides-this, what is the dilemma in which
the Government is already placed by its own folly
and rashness! It has abetted the prosecution of
Hunt, and applauded the havoc sad blood-shed
made even amongst its own special constables at
Manchester, and yet has quietly permitted a meeting
avowedly fur the same objects, characterized-by
..the
same features, and under the very sante banners, to
'be held in the very heart of the -metropolis, and
another in Westminster. Where thi; will end God
knows, but we are sure it is a crisis pregnant with
danger, and calling upon every subject•of this realm
to do his duty. We are neither Democrats,,Level-
lers, Jacobins, nor disaffected to the laws and consti-
tution,but we are determined oppoaeraloppression,
of tyranny, and of corruption, come they from
whatever quarter theymay. We rejoice, therefore,
in the spiriz that is now raised upon such a subject,
and we trust that the meetings held upon it in Lon-
don and ‘Vestmitister will not only be followed by
every rprilous town and county in the kingdom, bat
that still more decisive measlres, if these prove iu-
effectual, will be had recourse to. We hope that
Remonstrances strong and bold will be made to the
Throne itself. That nu endeavour will be wanting
to enlighten its eyes, and to 'break through • the
!roan:cis by which it is now fettered and- enslay.:d
• Not only the right of public meetings is to be now
tried, but the very right of-petition also will 4te gene
ifthe expression of public fuel ing,arel even the groans
of misery are to be subject to the sperms, or caprice,
or spurious and tnis-culled loyalty of a Set of country
magistrates, and the swords of a lawless 1.121114itti..
This we do not yet quite believe to be- our situation,'
but our maxim is " Principiir data." kis for this
purpose of mutual vigilance that the seepsl estates
of the realm were instituted and established ; it is,
and will Le, in proportion us choir duties in this
respe-A are discharged, that Old -tngland will stand
or full.

It has been -observed :het Hunt was secretly in
the pay of 'Government; we never believed this,
but certain we are, that had Government been in
his pay, and resolved to procure his popularity at
the espence of. violating the lanes of thu country,
and•racrificing the .lives of the innocent multitude,
tltcy would have acted most wisely to have dint! es
they have done. The contempt with which he was
generally treated io transformed to rapture, and
those who emeerated his mjachieraus iistlessness non
admire his . firmness, and feel indignant at his per.

.... ~.

LPRICE 90.

sedition. He has been drawn in triumph through
Preston since he left the castle of Lancaster on bail.
He was on the morning of the lfith only a chair-
man and a demagogue ; now be is a hero and a
martyr. He was then reprobated by the whole
enlightened and virtuous portion of society as a
convener and seducer of a half starved populace to
any scenes and any deeds of mischief, immediate or
remote; now, the sentiment of disapprobation is
transferred, at least iu part, from him who, for the
public weblire, ought to have been its sole object, to
those constituted authorities, who can never expose
themselves to censure without inflicting a dangerous
wound un the body of the state itself. This it is to
spoil a good cruse, and raise *lad one on its ruins.
We do nut hesitate to saw, &at it will be doubly
difficult to put down the Radical llethriners, and to
separate the tools and fanatics amongst them from
their most vicious leadoff, in consequence of this
open contempt for the les exhibited by the dep..
sitories of legal poWcr. • •Yet must radical reform be
finally subdued, or the. apprmichez a certain disso-
lutiun not only of the Ms% of Englund, but those of
society.

LIVARPOOL REFORM METING.

The fitllowing is an extract from an excellent
speech delivered at the above Meeting by the Rev.
Mr. Shephera:—
~ Our views are snpported by the sentiments of many
of the b enerahle dead and die illustrious living. Where
was theta ever a greater statesman than the first Lord
Chatham? While lie was Minister, the must brilliant sue.
eras crowned our arms abroad, and peace and tranquillity
prevailed at home. He well model-Mood the mechanism
of the House of Commons; and whet AVMS his opinion of
it? On this subject he expressed himself in words which,
were I to use then; in say own person, 1 should, is these
that a, be in danger of imprisonment for expressing them.
The great Lord Chatham said, that if the Hesse of Cons.
mouxolisi net reform itresi front within, it would be re.
corniest with a vengoance• from withoot. What did his
son, the late Mr. Pitt, any of it,before his youthful virtues
were cosrupted by his accession ,to potter ? He said,
that 1111111 it was 111'w-turd, no honest lien could be Mini,.
ter of England. Bust, gesolemen,l should detain you too
Iona; acre i it, emaciate the statues of all who have en-
tertained tillsildt Upilliiills. (140111.1 erirs of No, no, lis4
Go on.) I will, then, ask you, where was there este ik...
more viltssons mat than the late Sir William Josses,
Justice of Bengal? lie W 144 a Refotiner. But,gentle
it has bests said of late, that suite are Rolm iners hte
Ihnik
poor and needy ; and many hare made that obse .
who, did tiny not, as State paupers, fatten on th
money, wutsld be eleciffill to their own pariah.
Omen, what is Sir Francit Dardett—is he 1 '
needy? (No, no.) AV hat is Mt .'t.:•.k r, of Nett
most thriving landlord of a thriving tenant ' i •
limiting landloid•of a thriving tenantry, Itecat. .P 4
on the itsinciple /of live and let lire. 14 1 iten.
needy? No: env( yet he is a Ilefut slier! wha *• . , he
timentrot the Duke of •Iledfartl? In a lett ouict,.le
t
lately add:reset' so me, as Chairman of thesAecol. ate
Society, he says, that nothing but a reform in 4.4.,....0nx •
wilisave•ns freer the 'danger of anarchy on the lie hand,
or of military despotism CM the other. Centiesren, be-
cause we 'Otiose up the sentiment of this Wooden,. cha-
racter, it appears we are accuses; of high clinics and Ibis.
denocanonrs s and on this indictment or Ile to be to ied,
not by nor artilms, but by et r secret Um tights.

" 6t sitlemen, Wronger* are divided. into various
classes, aceording to the extent of their wishes far Re-'
form. As for myself, I mos what is called &moderate Re-
former. With Lord Salton. I look PO farther than to an
extension of the ft:mei:Me to householders, and the
:isti,,tt of the duration Cif Parliament to three 'ears. Mt
:omit!, men. I i prUMlliglllillg these opinions I aim protree.
I,y the 14w, and, walk III!. the same 14w protects those
t. 110• r nioas:a go a wrest dial fitether—e.en to animal Pa•-
li4eii•etm end ittiivet.al stainer. They are all etittelir
protected by the In w. provided they proinaliple thew
oi•ttea ervieeably and constiststlutossly ; and if blot sl-
lionssda are let loose on the latter, tin y n 111 seen I,t let
loose eis the former 41. u. it is will, polities' as nigh IE _
gious serfs ; lf once the privilege of the free expre.isson of
opinion is broken its tnerso,tlaere is no saying where the ide-
ation will end. If the Raormeta he pot down, the WM
will be pot down; rid a tlespoiisin will he est:ol44rd so
this country, as secdte as -that which veal raerciotd
Floucc by 'bat vet. trent Nevolesse."

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