The Sun.
London, England, 1839-08-15 00:00:00

THE CHARTIST TRIALS.

(eßom OU OWN 2.EtORTER.)
CHESTER A SSIZES—CRO 111 N CO UR r
(Before Mr. Baron GURNEY.)
WEDNESDAY EVENING.
The Grand Jury came into Court to-day before
twelve o'clock with a true bill against George Thomp-
son, James Mitchell, Charles Davis, and Timothy
Higgins, for a conspiracy.
After the Bill been read by the Clerk of the Arraigns,
The Foreman of the Grand Jury said they wished to
have the bill back again, and addressing the Court said
that the evidence before them supported a charge of a
much graver kind, and be was 'directed by his brother
jurors to request the opinion of his Lordship whether
they (the Jury) should not order a bill to be preferred
for the graver offence of high treason.
Mr. Baron GURNEY would put it to them whether
they ought not rather to take the bill in the shape in
which it had been preferred by the persoas conducting
the prosecution on behalf of the Crown. Very often
the shades of distinction between seditious conspiracy and
high treason were rather nice, and it was for the parties
prosecuting to take whatever course they considered
most desirable. In his address he had stated to them
that if these proceedings were not put a stop to they
would speedily amount to high
treason. He would
recommend them, supposing the evidence before them
corresponded with the charge laid in the indictment, to
take the bill as it was, more especially when the Crown
had mercifully thought proper merely to indict the par.
ties for a misdemeanour. The more convenient course
would be to take the bill as it stood, rather than attempt
to send the prisoners to trial for a capital offence, such
as high treason.
The Foreman—Have we the power to find a bill
for the higher offence, if we find the evidence support it
'TheCourt—No,gentlemen, you may reject or find
the bills, as you think proper, but you must give the
Government credit for being advised as to the best
course of proceeding.
The Foremen—My Lord, we have found this bill true.
This bill was then handed in to the Clerk of Arraigns.
The ATTORNEY-GENERAL (who had come into Court
a few minutes previously) said, while the subject was
under discussion he had not uttered a single word, but
he now prayed, if it suited the convenience of the
Court, that the case might be taken as speedily as pos-
sible. _ .

The Court said the Attorney-General had a right to
bring the case on whenever he pleased ; but even if he
had not the right, the Court would have thought it to
be its duty to conform to his wishes. The case would
be called on as soon as the one under the consideration
of the Jury was disposed of.
As soon as the case had terminated, the prisoners,
George Thompson, James Mitchell, Charles Davis, and
Timothy Higgins, were placed at the bar, charged with
having unlawfully and tumultuously assembled, to the
disturbance of the public peace, and with having insti-
gated and incited the subjects of the Queen to tumults
and riots, and to stir up and excite disturbance and dis-
affection to the laws of the realm. It further charged
them with having on the 20th of July, with force and
arms unlawfully and recklessly combined add confede-
rated to the disturbance of the public peace, and that
they confederated and combined to procure large quan-
tities of arms, to wit, guns, pikes, pistols, swords,
bayonets, daggers, bullets, &c., and that they did at_
tend divers unlawful assemblies, and made use of se-
ditious and inflammatory language, tending to excite
disturbance and disaffection.
The prisoners, who were all respectable looking men,
pleaded Not guilty.
Mr. Yardley appeared for Higgins, Mr. Trafford for
Thompson. and Mr. Cottingliam for Mitchell and Davis.
The ATTORNEY-GENERAL stated the case. The
offence with which the prisoners stood charged was
of a very grave character, and many of them must have
heard the Grand Jury a few minutes previously express
their reluctance to find a bill for the minor offence, they
being of opinion that the crime amounted to high
treason. He, however, took upon himself the respon-
sibility of having had these parties indicted for a milder
offence. Tno shape which the prosecution now as-
sumed was that of a misdemeanour, and it appeared
to him that the law was in some degree definitive,
there being no grade of offence between high treason
and misdemeanour. He hoped he should not be con-
demned for having adopted the milder course by
which, if the prisoners were convicted, they would be
liable to fine and imprisonment, instead of being con-
demned to forfeit their lives. He felt confident that
he would establish to the satisfaction of the Jury that
these men were guilty of conspiring together, to bring
the laws into contempt, and to incite others to violate
them. There had been of late most extraordinary
ideas entertained with respect to the possession of
arms by certain classes of persons in that country, and
it was their duty to see that these erroneous ideas did
not lead to any disastrous results, by being permitted to
go on and diffuse themselves throughout the commu-
nity unchecked and uncontrolled. The prisoner
Thompson was a gun-Maker, carrying on business at
Birmingham ; and it would appear that Mitchell, who
resided at Stockport, was supplied by him with large
quantities of arms, for the purpose of having them dis-
tributed throughout the country. Mitchell belonged to
an Association at Stockport, in whose proceedings he
took an active part, and on the 30th July last attended
a tumultuous and seditious meeting there, on which
occasion he recommended to the people the use of arms
for the recovery of their just rights. No man was more
ready to bear testimony to the value and impor-
tance of the working and industrous classes than
himself, but it was the bounden duty of the
jury to protect them from the machinations of
of designing men. The Learned Gentleman then pro-
ceeded at some length to detail the evidence which he
would have to offer as regarded Mitchell, in whose
house a quantity of, arms was found, and two copies of
a most mischievous publication, Colonel Maceroni's in-
structions to the people as to how they should resist
charges of cavalry. With regard to Davis, it would be
proved that he was Secretary of a Radical Association
at Stockport, and that in his house, and upon him, were
found a bullet-mould, and various papers, which would
establish his connexion with that illegal Association.
Among the documents found on him was one, which
having been submitted to the Grand Jury, he was not
surprised that they should intimate their wish to have
an indictment for high treason sent up to them. It de-
tailed the numbers that were agreed and prepared to
resort to physical force in Stockport, Manchester, and
the surrounding districts. It would appear from the
letters of Thompson, which would be read, that he must
have been fully aware of the object fur which these arms
were sought. The Learned Gentleman then read a
letter from the prisoner Higgins to Thompson, detailing
the seizure of arms at his house by the police. On the
premises of Thompson there was also found a guarantee
for the price of these arms, signed by James Duke and
P. M. M'Douall, surgeon , and a letter from James
Duke, ordering 18 muskets and bayonets, a horse pistol,
two rifle guns, two fowling pieces, and two braces of
pistols, with the prices affixed. He would show further
that on the premises of Higgins were found a quantity
of arms, and a number of printed papers of the most in-
flammatory character, some of which he would read to
the Jury. In one, the people were earnestly called
upon to be prepared with arms to shed the blood of all
tyrants. In another, the people were called upon to
subscribe for the maintenance of a Delegate in the
National Convention ; and with respect to that body he
(the Attorney-General) would say, that it appeared to
him that the most idle, and disaffected, and turbulent
were those generally selected as Delegates, whose in-
flammatory harangues and proceedings had tended
in a great measure to excite the spirit of disaffec-
tion among the ignorant and deluded peeple, which
at present unhappily existed. After referring to some
other documents which would be put in evidence, the
Learned Gentleman concluded by calling upon them
not to place any reliance upon the statements he had
made unless they were supported by evidence, and to
find their verdict upon that alone.
The following witnesses were then examined :
Joseph Sadler, superintendent of police at Stockport.
—I went on the evening of the 30th of July to the
house of Mitchell, who is a beer-seller at Stockport. I
went there a little before eleven, with a number of po-
licemen. The house was closed, and I directed a watch-

man to knock, and the door was opened by a female,

She said it was closing time, and could not admit any
one. 'Mitchel'. then made his appearance from the hack
of the house, and asked what we wanted. I said we
wanted to look through his house, as there might be
company in it. fie refused, saying there was no com-
pany ; but I said I might as well tell him at once I
suspected he had arms in his house. He was about
to go away, when I told him I could not allow him till
I had searched the house. He called to his wife not to
open the door, and I said it was no use, as we must get
We then went round to the back door, and found
it open. 1 asked him if he had any arms in the house,
he said " yes : that he had an authority to sell them
from Mr. Thompson, of Birmingham," and handed me
this paper.—(The document was then
guns, pistols, &c. at Stockport, and was signed " Geo.
put in and read ;
it authorized Mitchell to act as agent for the sale of
Thompson.") The document is in the prisoner Thomp-
son's hand-writing. I found in Mitchell's front cham-
ber a case containing five fowling-pieces, three muskets,
and three bayonets. He said he had got them from
Thompson, and they were all marked with his name.
I then found in the cellar a case of pistols. One of
the officers found two pikes and twenty pike handles. I
was present when he found them,—(The witness here
produced the arms found ; the pike head, when fitted
to the handle, which was a stout pole about ten feet
long, was a most formidable looking weapon.) I found
also two works on training the people, by Col. Maceroni.
—(The pamphlets were then put in and the title page
read.) With the pistols I found a bullet-mould.
I was at a meeting at Stockport on the 20th July.
There were 1,500 or 2,000 present. It was held in the
evening, about seven o'clock, and lasted about two hours.
I saw Mitchell and Davis there. They both addressed
the meeting, and Mitchell said he once had an opinion
that it was illegal to arm, but now he thought they
should have guns, pikes and pistols, and they should