The Sun.
London, England, 1838-08-09 00:00:00

ASSIZE INTELLIGENCE.

HOME CIRCUIT.-111.41DsroNE, Aua. 7.
THE LATE CANTERBURY RIOTS.

The Assizes for the county of Kent commenced yesterday.
Lord DENUAN entered the borough in the course of the after-
noon, and having opened the Commission, proceeded to Church.
Mr. Justice PATTESON, whose name has been substituted for
that of Mr. Baron HOLLAND, (lid not reach this place until this
morning. Lord Denman is to preside in the Crown Court,
whil,t, Mr. Justice Pattoson will take the causes set down for
trial on the Nisi l'rius side. The calendar presents a list of
sixty-seven prisoners, of whom sixteen are charged with the
crime of murder, which, it will be remembered, was committed
on the occasion of Sir William Courtenay, alias Thom, being
shot in the neighbourhood of Canterbury.
This morning the Courts opened at ten o'clock, Lord Den-
man presiding in that where the criminals will be tried. After
the customarscoprrenl,ierL.innardriespheannn proceeded to deliver his
charge.
had been gone through, and the
Grandrgy . Jury
After complimenting the magistracy on the recent delivery
of the gaol, the Learned Judge proceeded as follows :
You will, of course, expect some peculiar remarks from me
in reference to cases with which you yourselves are acquainted,
which appear to have grown out of a series of circumstances
as extraordinary on the one hand, as on the other they have
been unfortunate in their results, and being too, as they are,
s instruments,fthem
without precedent on record. It appears that towards the
close of May a large body of men were parading certain dis-
tricts of this county,
character,ue:derth ewghunidhaand nceobftaainnedan
iinfluence
individual
eonfe e
of a a
wild ddesperate
strange aaturcand
over their
othersw
iwith dangerous minds,, all
a n earmed,rnu
some
s)
to the weapons
ril of the lives of individuals and the disturb-
ancea the peril
of
the public peace ; that they continued for some
together before any opportunity was afforded
appears,appre
aegdistrates to act with a view to arresting their
then that they proceeded to threatening acts
o r the e
dtnaytshebantnd
and
of
pmroos:erdiyansgeenrtous
out
w description.
arrants
progress, .
then, that the magistrates having been duly informed of their
was pursued ; a
requisition _a force
len s proceedings,appre-
hension ofteniporsintcipals in the riot ; and when the person who
was intrusted with that instrument attempted to take the
calculated at once to
ring-
leader into custody, that individual immediately shot him, and
he died. It seems that, after this proceeding, another course,
which, under the circumstances, was in itself undoubtedly the
overcome
al,mostgircecho,b ofhumanerdeoymanl
lfi
tttsbh
nea
utmuki
blcoulditcar,r
military
waasev
re
the beenwere called
best
a tintoadopted,ca i
cr
resistance, and to put an end to the scene which
was going on—chick was sent to meet the band of rioters. On
the arrival of this force one of the officers advanced, as he had
a right to do, in front of the rest, where the same ringleader
shot him through the heart. These cases have undergone in-
vestigationtsnii
rxie,
[oilsixteen
nnnlep case,
rirtds
eoisrnmurder,
thereby beforefit that
har caCt
cooirmloseni
mal Coroner's
degjduptrfnyoo•
t,rtahyni
thatds rbe.oysf
rut
elle,
cme.
that
sa su declaredcinhanto3,
being
be
h et in possession of what
the law on this subject is. It has been
and is reported by Lord Coke, " that if anyy Magistrate or
Pfoeractheaor
Minister of Justice, in keeping the peace, according to the
duty of his office, he killed, it is murder, for their contempt
and disobedienceinhishilsawoffis
c;
eabnde
kifillaeediy, Jus-
ticeconstableitis,of the
actinglg and
cause aforesaid, for when the officer requires
the breakers of the peace to keep the pace in the King's
name, and thee, notwithstanding, disobey the command and
kill the office;
murderef
reasonl requires that this killing shall be
in the highest'
acrelgree an offence of this nature, and
that it, is yokel'
se ~ Now the
.., felonious, and murder of malice pre-
pm) • Piow the sameprotection which is •
given to the Jus-
tice of' the Peace or to the constable, is extended to any other
individual when lawfully interfering with a view to the pre-
servat6n of the ace, and it is highly and absolutely
.neces-
sary that the p.
provisions
ect of such an Act of Parliament in that
particular respect
by
some
of
tt, s should be known to every person, and that
called
oprofvisions they are bound, when properly
and legally call
endea-
vour to keep p the neaore.thaltf purpose, totrinsikst
tihatth
eall these
persons, who, underp theestrangeyou shall
circumstances of which you
have heard h •wild
' being under the control of a individual,
were perfectly aware of the mischievous intentions by which
be was actuated —.if you shall think that they were prepared to
resist all or any legal authority which might be sent to arrest
their career, and in so doing the death of a man has ensued,
they are all guilty of murder, and have all rendered themselves
equally liable to the peril of the law. Now, all those who re-
mained together for days
military were
mitted, when the called out, were in a different
_
situation, for they also knew what had been done, and it ap-
pears to me that it would be stretching the feeling of charity
somewhat too far were we to consider that they were not fully
cognisant of the intention to offer resistance to the law of the
country. , lf, therefore, you find that they remained there for
tne purpose of carrying out their particular object, and that
the same act of violence took place as when the constable
was that, it wsuld a ear that they, being aware of the
former proceeding, werel3ready to go all lengths in defeat-
ing the 0,,,,, . .and._law, and consequently
p,..atron execution of the law, an
were guilty of the •
crime of reorder. it is not necessary for
me probably to go into the case of each of these sixteen per.

WEDNESDAY, AL'aUST 8.
John Gust, a soldier, aged nineteen, was indicted for the
commission of a capital offence on the person of Charlotte
Grant, an interesting child of about eleven years of age. It
appeared that on the 28th of May the prosecutrix, with two
other children about her own age, went into a wood in the
neighbourhood of Fordwieh to gather violets, when the pri-
soner induced her to leave her young companions and accom-
many him, and in a lonely part of the wood attempted to
perpetrate the offence with which he was now accused. As
there appeared to be some doubt whether the capital offence
had been consummated, under the direction of the Learned
Judge the Jury acquitted the prisoner of the capital charge,
and found him guilty of the assault. He was sentenced to
be imprisoned for eighteen months, during which he is to be
kept in solitary confinement for twenty eight days.
William Sutton, and James Crinon Bartholomew Steers,
were indicted for assaulting and robbing James Couchman of
five sovet eigns at Kemsiug. The Jury returned a verdict of
Guilty. Lord Denman sentenced the prisoners to be trans-
ported for life.

Moats' FOLLOWERS —ln the course of the day Viscount
Morsham, the foreman, accompanied by Thomas Law Hodges,
Esq., M. P., Sir Percival Hart Dyke, Bart., Behrens,
Esq , David Salomons,'Esq., and other members of the Grand
Jury, came into Court, and returned true bills against the
sixteen persons charged with the murder of Henry Boswell
Bennett and Nicholas Mears, at the Ville of Dunkirk in May
last. The prisoners will be tried to-morrow.