The Sun.
London, England, 1833-06-14 00:00:00

and trying to make out what they were talking about.
He would tell the House some of their exploits, certainly
not from-personal experience, but it had happened to a servant
of his.—Hear, hear, heer.) He sent a servant of his
from Kensington to Fleet.street, on a message. He
got there, and was returning with a packet of letters, and it
happened that a turkey had come from the country, and he was
bringing it home only a little before dusk. Well, the police-
man sees him with the turkey, and one of them says to
himself, " What! a poor man with a turkey !—a man in
England with a turkey—and he slot a gentleman : he must be
a thief!" And had England really come so low, that a man
with a jacket could not carry a turkey, but it was prima facie
evidence that he was a thief ? Well, the policeman took hold
of him when he was within the distance of two hundred
yards of his master's door : he instantly told the name of his
master too ; but no, that would not do, he must go back nearly
half a mile, to what they called their station-house, he was
kept there for a considerable time, when one of what they
called their serjeants came in and broke open his parcel, when
he found that the man's story was true, and they then let
him go—sent him off with a sort of permit, stating
to his master that he had been detained by them
for so long a time. Oh, how had England fallen
when such things were permitted I Now, he would tell them
another instance.—(Cries of " No, no.") "Oh yes, but I
will, though."—( A laugh.) He had been in seaports, in bar-
racks, and at many of what were called low meetings, but
he had never seen such a rude assembly as that ; but he
would tell them the story, and they must hear it.—( A laugh.)
Well, then, he had two farm.servants, whom he ordered to come
to him early in the morning; they were doing so, each with a
basket swung behind him over a stick. Well, they were jog-
ging along, when one of the policemen came up and said—
" You must come along with me to the station-house :"
they rather demurred to that, and the fellow sprung his rattle,
when six more of these gendarmerie came up, but the
two men were stout strong countrymen, and they drew their
sticks out of the baskets, and laid about them with good effect,
they laid three or four of the police on the ground, and
the others made the best of their way off, like prudent
men, or like cowards. He would warn the Govern-
ment, that that was the way they would be ssrved if
they were sent into the villages of England.—(Hear.)
But now supposing that one of the policemen had been killed,
would any man have dared to say that he was murdered in the
discharge of his duty) What business had they to meddle
with the men ? They were only obeying the orders of their
master. It might be said, " Oh, it was early in the morning."
So it was, but that was what he had ordered them to do. Now
was it not humiliating to live in a country where you might be,
and where you are, watched and dogged about—to have a
fellow menacing you and looking after you wherever you go ?
He again called upon the Government to take a lesson by what
he had told them, and be content with having their force in
the metropolis.
The ATTORNEY-GENERAL then rose. He said that
he owed an apology to the House for his absence yesterday--
he would certainly have been in his place when the matter
was brought forward, but he had two reasons to state for his
absence. In the first place he was yesterday engaged in th e
Court of Exchequer in his professional capacity, and in the
next, he was not at all aware of the intention of the
Hon. Member to present the petition on that day.—(Hear.)
Much had been said by Hon. Members about the weight
which should be given to the verdict of a jury--no man had
more veneration for such decisions than himself, but much
must depend on the temper and judgment with which the jury
was actuated. He agreed with all those Hon. Gentlemen who
urged that the doors of that House should be open to
all petitioners; but it was not a question as to who
had a right to petition that House. but what could with
propriety be done by the House.—(Hear.) In order to go
into the merits of the case it was necessary to trace the pro.
ceedings. It appeared that a placard was first issued calling
upon the people to assemble and form a national convention.
Now no man could shut his eyes to the fact that the forming of
a national convention would be to supersede the legislative func-
tions of that House.—(Hear.) He thought it quite unneces-
sary to go into any argument upon this question, and he de-
clined contending against the assumptions of those Hon. Mem-
bers who led the House to infer that they were better ac-
quainted with the intentions of those who called the meeting
than others were. Besides this placard there were other
papers published, to which the placard might be taken as the
text, and it was only fair to take these in connection. It was
necessary that the Government should be upon its guard to
preserve the peace, but not necessary that it should swell the
matter into undue importance by the issuing of a solemn pro-
clamation.— (Hear, hear, from the Treasury Bench.) The
meeting being held, he would appeal to the plain sense and
reason of those who heard him, whether it was not reasonable
to infer that the large meeting so assembled had been
brought together by the placard, or was, in other words,
the meeting intended to be held.—(Cries of " Hear, hear.")
What then ensued as respected the question before the House?
Why, it was found that the policeman was killed with a single
blow by a weapon. And here he must differ entirely from the
Hon. Member for Oldham, who supposed that it was the habit
of the people of this country, when pursuing their ordinary
avocations, to be armed with such a weapon as that used
to inflict on the policeman a mortal wound. It could not be
credited that the man who killed Cully was engaged in
his ordinary occupation, but that he went armed
to the meeting, for the purpose expressed in the placard.
It was a great mistake for gentlemen who talked about this
inquest, to confine themselves to one side of the question. The
Jury had found that the death of Cully took place without
any previous violence whatever. It was impossible for him,
then, to remove from his mind the full conviction that, to say
the death of that man, under such circumstances, was justifi-
able homicide, was undoubtedly against the law of England,
and against the plain sense of every man.—(Hear,
hear, hear.) Gentlemen said this verdict was an important
document—he thought so too, and it was on that account it
had been submitted to the high authority which it had been
laid before. If Government had permitted this document,
which had attracted the attention of all the people of England,
to remain unquestioned, containing, as it did, not merely
the assertion of a simple fact, but the proposition
of law that a policeman in the King's peace, and in the dis.
charge of his duty at a meeting to which he had been called,
was to be killed by any man without having offered
a shadow of provocation, was justifiable homicide, the Govern-
ment would have neglected their duty in a most essential point.
Had the verdict been quashed by illegal force? Was there
any Gentleman in that House would say the Court of King's
Bench was not the proper tribunal into which it ought
to have been carried ? and would any Gentleman deny
the propriety of bringing it forward there ?—(Hear, hear.)
a gentleman opposite said—" Hear, hear"—lt might have
been improper to have taken it into the Court of King's Bench, if
that Court had refused the application made to it ; but the
very interference of the Court in quashing the verdict showed it
to have been an illegal ♦erdict, and that it was the duty of
those who brought it there so to have done. For his (the At-
torney-General's) part, he was a very humble individual, and his
opinion entitled to very little respect ; but he did conceive, in
consequence of the reports he heard throughout the town of
the nature of that inquisition, it to be his duty to call for the
document, and having received it, upon a consultation with
his Hon. and Learned Colleague, they had come to the con-
clusion that it was their bounden duty, unless they meant
entirely to slumber in their legal office, to bring the
subject before the Court of King's Bench.—(Hear, hear.)
Government had, therefore, taken that step which the law
pointed out, and the consequence was that the King's Bench
had quashed the verdict. With respect to the finding of the
jury, he would assert that he had come to the conclusion he had
arrived at with no hostile feeling towards them, nor had he
adopted that course, thinking that the jury had intentionally
misconducted themselves ; he did not believe that they had;
they had erred, and he very much mistook the feeling
which actuated the Juries of England if he did not feel
certain that they would be gratified by having any
mistaken judgment of theirs set right by the highest
legal authority in the ccantry—(Hear, hear)—and he
thought he should belie the jury if he did not say that he
felt thoroughly convinced that after the feelings that at pre-
sent existed were gone by, they would feel grateful for the
course Government had adopted.—(Hear, hear.)—No man
in that House reverenced juries more than he did, but
in the same proportion as he reverenced, he would importune
every jury to take great care that they did not yield to the im.
pression of the moment, to prejudice, or to passion, but
would remember that their jurisdiction had been
given unto them by the laws of England to
protect life and property, and that no men could exercise
the awful responsibility entrusted to juries if they allowed them-
selves to be swayed by feelings and prejudices.
Mr. RUTHVEN thought the whole proceedings, on the
part of the Coroner, most disgraceful and scandalous,
and deserved the reprobation of that House.—(Hear, hear.)
He thought, that in bringing the subject forward in the Court
of King's Bench, it had a tendency to induce a belief, that
from the great array of legal knowledge against the unfortunate
man who was to be tried for his life, he would not have a
fair and impartial trial, and if he were convicted and executed
he would be considered merely as the victim of the despotic
application of the law. He could instance some great cases in
which a similar feeling had been manifested,—viz. Lord W.
Russell, Sir Thomas Moore, and Sir Walter Raleigh, all of
whom were certainly executed according to law, but
certainly not according to justice,—(Loud laughter.)
He would not further ransack the pages of history for instances
—(Hear, hear, and a laugh)—especially as an Honourable
Member near bins had a petition to present—(Hear, hear)—.
but he believed that it was not of much importance.—( A laugh.)
The Under-Secretary opposite had yesterday called the mob
that broke the Duke of Wellington's windows, last year, a
loyal snob ; but for his own part he could only look on it as an
outrageous mob.

Mr. LAMB had only used the word loyal from the circum-
stance of its having been an assemblage going up to address
the King.