The Sun.
London, England, 1839-07-18 00:00:00

to place themselves in a position in wt'lich they mit th t
be made the subject of such remarks. Th.e Mregistra te s
appeared to be satisfied with the state of the 'town.
had appeared since they were satisfied wit bout =A-
cient reason that there was no intention of disturbing-
the peace, and on the night of Monday the oc currenees.
took place which had been pretty correctly c leserileed
in the newspapers--occurrences which begs n at a
tumultuous meeting, and proceeded to the desi `e:cetion
of a great deal of property, to acts of great v isvoienee
r
and outrage, and to setting fire to houses, two of which
appeared to have been burnt and destroyed. hecrh
were likewise several other acts of destruction o.! the
property of shopkeepers residing in that part of the
town near the Bull-ring, where the riot oc-
curred. One of the proceedings of tho mob
was to attack the public office and break the wheal;
The superintendent of police took no measures to Ca Pe
tore any of the rioters, having received orders as :lee
steted not to capture any persons or leave the public
office without the sanction of the Magistrates. Thei 3e
proceedings continued fora considerable time.. It zra s
stated in a memorial which had been transmitted to else
Home-office to-day that they commenced at half-17sse
eight, and that till a quarter before ten the police an 3
the military did not appear to put an end to these
riotous proceedin,# At half-past nine it wad
stated that one of the Magistrates had ap-
plied to the military for assistance. When
the police and military appeared the resistance
made to them was quite inconsiderable, indeed the mob
fled ; after a certain time the peace of the town was
restored ; there was no further rioting of importance
in the course of the night. Accounts of last night
stated that although there was a disposition shown to
riot in various places, yet owing to the attendance of the
police and military, no serious disturbance had taken
place. Now, the Hon. Member asked whether it was
the intention of the Government to make any inquiry
as to the circumstances which had occurred. The Hon.
Gentleman had said, doubtless with no design to mis-
represent the facts, that for several hours the town was
left at the mercy of the mob. In the memorial which he
(Lord J. Russell) had received, the period was stated to
have been from half-past eight to a quarter to ten o'clock.
There was a statement, also, that information had been
given to the Magistracy, that such riotous proceedings
were expected. He certainly thought that this fact
alone— besides the statement of the alleged information
to the Magistracy—this fact alone, that from half-past
eight to a quarter before ten, no measures appeared to
have been taken to stop this riot, demanded investi-
gation—(Hear)—and he should think it proper to insti-
tute an inquiry, in order to ascertain the facts connected
with the transaction, and especially to obtain proof,
if proof could be obtained, of the alleged information to
the Magistrates that such a riot was probable. He
would not, however, close this statement without taking
some notice of assertions which had been made respect-
ing this lamentable occurrence. It had been stated
that the affair was entirely owing to the nomination of
the Magistrates being of persons holding political
opinions of a very violent nature, being Political
Unionists or Chartists. Now, his belief was, that
no part of the occurrence was attributable to the no-
mination of the Magistracy. The fact was, that as the
House well knew, in the nomination of Magistrates in
corporate towns, the recommendations of the Town
Councils, as he had stated, during the debates on the
Municipal Corporation Bill, had then due weight with
the advisers of the Crown.—(Laughter and ironical cries
of " Hear, hear" from the Opposition, with cheers from
the Ministerial benches.) He would not argue that
point now—(Hear, hear)--but he thought it a very
proper concession—if concession it might called—to
the inhabitants of such corporate towns. With re-
spect to Birmingham, a list of twenty-one persons was
sent to him by the Town Council, and after the Town
Council were elected, as being fit persons to be
placed in the Commission of the Pea Ce. He
had at the same time received a representation
from the Lord Lieutenant of the County of Warwick,
which be must say was a most unusual circumstance,
because he had not generally received any assistance
from the Lord Lieutenant of that county.—(Hear,
hear.) Yet on tbet particular occasion he had made
a communication to him (Lord John Russell) in-
forming him that he thought it desirable that the
County Magistrates, and the County Magistrates alone,
should be named in the Commission of the Peace.—
(Laughter, and cries of " Hear, hear," from the Minis-
terial benches.) He (Lord J. Russell) took these two
representations into consideration, the representation of
the Town Council on the one hand, and the representa-
tion of the Lord Lieutenant on the other. He made
what inquiries he could from persons here, acquainted
with that place, and the end was, that he did not agree
with either of those representations. He put in the
greater part—the majority, he believed—of the County
Magistrates, and he left out some few, chiefly those
whom he heard no longer resided in the town,
and had no connection with Birmingham, an3l
one or two others, who had ceased to take nn
active part in the affairs of the Magistracy. He
pu in eleven of the County Magistrates of various
politics, some being Whigs and some Tories, without
attending to their politics ; a certain number of per-
sons recommended by the Town Council, and
also two or three others who were represented
as being, persona of great respectability. The end
was that instead of twenty-ono he had appointed
twenty-four persons leaving out three or four of
those recommended by the Town 'Council. Therefore,
he had not altogether taken the opinion of the Town
Council with respect to the Magistrates to be recom-
mended, and lie had taken every pains to inform him-
self that they were persons of respectability. They
were all respectable persons, although there was
one gentleman with respect to whom he had
entertained great doubt ; and on first looking over
the list presented by the Town Council, he doubled
whether, after the violent part that gentleman had
taken, he ought to hold a Commission of the Peace.
That person was Mr. Muntz. He (Lord John) made
various inquiries with respect to that gentleman,
and he was told that, although Mr. Muntz had
certainly taken a very violent part in politics,
he was a man of very considerable talent ; that
he was likely to prove of great use to the town ;
that none of his views would at all prevent him giving
every support to the maintenance of peace and good
order ; and that he had declared his total and en-
tire separation from persons who wished by means
of force to make any change in the law.—(Hear.)
Ile therefore thought it more likely to conduce to
the peace, order, and well-being of the town, that this
appointment should take place, than that that gen-
tleman's name should be omitted from the Commis-
sion of the Peace. He would take that opportunity of
moving that there be laid on the table of the House a list
of all the Magistrates of Birmingham, Manchester, and
Bolton, and if any Hon. Gentleman was disposed to call
in question these appointments, or to object to the names
of any persons in these lists, he should be prep&red
to state the grounds of those appointments. With
respect to the late occurrences at Birmingham, he
would repeat that, in his opinion, these nominations had
nothing whatever to do with the actual occurrence of
the riots.—(Hear, hear.) He could not conceive that
out of twenty-four. Magistrates, many of them belong-
ing to the Tory party, several of them Whigs of great
moderation in their opinions, and one or two men of
extreme opinions, would refuse or neglect to act on the
recent occasion on account of the political opinions which
they might hold.—(Hear, hear.) He believed it would
be found on inquiry that the Magistrates had grounds
for thinking that the town was restored to tranquillity,
which they thought might have been interrupted by the
adoption of measures of too great severity. He would
take that opportunity of stating one circumstance, not
having indeed immediate reference to the state of Bir-
mingham, but he would mention it as showing the
general disposition of the operative classes with re-
gard to this question. He believed that in Birming-
ham the great body of the operatives bad no sympathy
whatever, with the authors of these outrages.—(Hear,
hear.) The document to which he referred, had refer-
ence to the populous district of the Staffordshire Pot-
teries, and he had great satisfaction in reading a portion
of it to the House. The House would recollect that
some alarm had been felt with reference to occurrences
in that district, and is consequence, he had received an
address from the operatives employed there, in which they
stated that it having been represented that they approved
of the riotous proceedings which had taken place in that
district they deemed it prudent to repel the calumny
by disavowing all participation in the outrages, and stat-
ing their determination to use their utmost endeavours
to preserve the peace, and trusting that all persons
would follow the example.—(Cheers.) He believed that
this was the general feeling of the operative classes
throughout the country.—(Cheers.) He did not think
that any good effect could be produced by
een-
deavourin to exaggerate what had taken place
during thesea t
riots, as it was calculated o
produce the most disastrous effects, by producing a stag-
nation of trade, and causing persons to be thrown out
of employment in consequence.—
(Loud cheers.) He
trusted that while an inquiry would take place respecting
the circumstances at Birmingham, so as not, how-
ever, to interfere with the other inquiry which was
about to take place at the Assizes at Warwick,
no statements would be made tending to the disparage-
ment of the Magistrates:la the execution of their duty,
or tending to produce unnecessary alarm, thereby dis-
turbing the peace of the-country.—(Cheers.)
Mr. GOULBURN said the course proposed to be
taken by the Noble Lord prevented him from saying
one word respecting the proceedings at Birmingham,
whatever his opinions might be. He was very glad,
however, to hear that the Noble Lord was of opinion
that the disturbers of the peace did not comprise a large
portion of the working classes. That had always been
his own opinion. The few who were led astray were
merely the dupes of a few designing men, and he regretted
deeply that earlier steps had not been taken to nip
the insurrection in the bud, because every hour that it
wail allowed to go on, only induced incautious though
innocent persons to join the crowd or mob, or whatever
name it might deserve. He wished, however, that the
Noble Lord had adopted the same course with respect
to the Lord Lieutenant of the county as he wished to be