The Sun.
London, England, 1832-02-04 00:00:00

the prisoner's refusal to comply with the entreaties of Mr.
Kington is, that at the very moment when he did refuse to
comply with the said entreaties, the prisoner was in the act of
violating, and did then absolutely violate, the express orders
which he alleges to have received from the commanding officer.
Moreover, the prisoner thought fit to repair with his troop to
Reeves's Hotel without a Magistrate, anti yet the rioters had
committed acts of outrage, and (for aught the prisoner knew to
the contrary when the troop turned out) he might just as
readily have been brought into collision with the rioters there as
in any other quarter of the city. 1 can quite appreciate the
feeling that would prompt an officer to afford protection to the
owners of an hotel where he had been courteously entertained,
and whence he had just before escaped from the attack of the
rioters, but I cannot comprehend the feeling under which an
officer, after having ordered out and headed his whole troop for
the protection of the private property of an. individual (upon an
occasion where the number of the rioters positively fell short of
the number of the Dragoons), could, in the very same moment
and in the very same breath, declare that he " could not move"
any of his force to that quarter of the city where he knew that
the rioters were proceeding in the destruction of property, with
systematic progression and with most appalling rapidity. t
With respect to that part of the first charge which imputes to
the prisoner his having used no means for conveying the infor.
mafiosi received by him to Lieutenant-Colonel Brereton, or ,
of obtaining from the said Lieutenant-Colonel any orders appli-
cable to the occasion, I have to submit the following observa-
tions. The prisoner has admitted, in his defence, that lie
knew Lieutenant-Colonel Brereton was to be found at the Ad-
jutant's quarters, at No. 2, in Unity-street, 160 yards distant.
It has been shown, by a variety of replies to questions put on
the cross.examination, that the Recruiting-office in College-
green was known by the prisoner to be the public office for
reciving official communications for Lieutenant-Colonel Brere.
ton; and Lieutenant and Adjutant Francis, in a reply upon his
cross-examination, states that the Recruiting-office was kept
open for that purpose during the whole of Sunday night and
Monday morning. That officer further states, that no des.
patch, or letter, or message, from any officer or other person
from the 3d Dragoon Guards for the officer commanding in
Bristol came through him between ten o'clock on Sunday night
the 30th, and half-past four on Monday morning, the 31st of
October, either at the Recruiting-office or at No. 2 in Unity-
street. The joint testimony of Sergeant-3fajor Macleod and of
Sergeants Platt and Dinage, of the recruiting staff; distinctly
shows that the Recruiting-office was never left without one or
other of those non-commissioned officers from half-past ten on
Sunday night till half-past four on Monday morning. The
proof of the attendance of those non-commissioned officers at the
office (that is, of one or the other) is completely dove-tailed
from beginning to end, and there is no doubt whatever that the
officer then commanding in Bristol had made due provision for
the conveyance to him of all official communications which
should be properly addressed or directed to him at the Recruit.
ing-office during the period in question. Nor has the prisoner at-
tempted to show that any one effbrt was made on his part, or
on the part of any individual of the troop under his command,
to communicate with the officer commanding, between the
hour when Mr. Kington informed him of the danger to which
the Custom-house was exposed, and tile time when Mr. Al-
derman Camplin applied for the services of the troop, between
four and five o'clock in the morning of the 31st of October, '
although the residence of the officer commanding in, Bristol
and the office for official communication were neither of them
further distant from the prisoner's quarters than 200 yards.
I may venture to affirm, without fear of contradiction, that the
testimony with respect to periods of time, produced in support
of the second charge, has been given with most singular, but
with most unquestionable precision. The chief Magistrate of
the city addresses a letter to " the Officer commanding his
Majesty's troops." He puts his own signature to it, and he
dates it " three o'clock, Monday morning, Oct. 31, 1831." 31r.
Alderman Fripp, who is present, looks at his watch. Both
these authorities affirm that the said letter was despatched
from Berkeley-square, immediately after the hour of three
o'clock. Mr. Daniel Fripp, at whose house the Chief Magis-
trate then was, consigns the said letter to two young mien.
These young men proceed with their utmost activity, and by
the shortest road, to the Horse Bazaar, distant about 350 or
400 yards, when they delivered the said letter to Captain' War-
rington, who within two or three minutes after opens the
letter and reads La contents. Mr. Hanson most distinctly
states that he slid not leave his house at the top of
Park-street till a quarter past four, having looked at
the house clock as he was about to open the door. He
states that Mr. Daniel Fripp's and his own house are
nearly equidistant from the Horse Bazaar. Mr. Denson
upon leaving his house proceeds first to College-green, where
he meets Mr. Alderman Cannella After a short parley, they
proceed with three or four other persons to the Horse Bazaar,
where there is a parley with Captain Warrington, who, after
some little time, but certainly not at the outset, produces the
Mayor's letter, dated three o'clock that morning; another short
parley ensues touching the contents of that letter. They then
proceed, Captain Warrington being of the party, to No. 2,
Unity-street, distant about 200 yards, where the officer then
commanding in Bristol had taken up his residence. A full
quarter of an hour is spent in gaining admittance, .and in a dis-
cussion within the house. Captain Warrington then returns to
the Bazaar, and orders out a detachment of 21 men under Cor-
net Kelson's command, to proceed to Queen-square ; and we
have the closely concurring testimony of Mr. Alderman Camp- ,
lin, of Mr. Danson, and Mr. Smith, that the said detachment
did not arrive in Queen-square till five o'clock, or a very few
minutes before that hour. Now, if ever testimony given before
a Court upon questions of time was entitled to credit, I maintain
that there cannot exist the slightest doubt in the minds of this
Court, that Captain Warrington had been in the possession of
the aforesaid letter for an hour and ten minutes, at the very
least, from the period when it was delivered into his hands by
Mr. Goldney, until the production of the said letter by Captain
Warrington some little time after Mr. Alderman Camplin and
Mr. Danson had arrived at the Horse Bazaar. But we must not
look to this circumstance only, for the essence of the accusation
is this---" that by reason of which conduct on the part of Cap-
tain Warrington, the said troop remained inactive in its quar-
ters for upwards of an hour after his receiving the said letter."
That letter appears to have been put into the prisoner's pocket,
and to have been disposed of with almost as much indifference
as though it had contained an invitation to dinner, one of the
prisoner's replies being, that he should see Lieut.-Colonel Bre-
reton at six o'clock, and he would then deliver the letter ; nor
has there been any thing to show that such might not have been
its fate, had not Alderman Camplin called at the Bazaar for
the services of the troop between four and five o'clock on Mon-
day morning. Upon the whole, it is my painful duty to con-
tend, that with respect to the substance of the second charge,
Captain Warrington is entitled to no relief whatever, either
from any supineness of the civil authorities or by reason of any
command which he could possibly have received from his
superior officer. I proceed now to a consideration of the third
charge ; and in respect to the first count of that charge I have
to observe, that Cornet Kelson admits his being in doubt as to
whether Captain 'Warrington ordered him to take up a party in
Queen-square, or whether Captain Warrington told hills to tell
Lieut.-Colonel Brereton that there was a party in Queen-
square, which might be taken up to join the party which
marched from the Bazaar by Captain Warrington's orders, in
order to proceed to the New Gaol. But as, in either case, Capt.
Warrington might be the proper person to command the two
parties when united, it surely behoved Captain Warrington
to take the trouble of accompanying Cornet Kelson for 200
yards across College-green, to receive Lieutenant-Colonel ;
Brereton's directions; for it is distinctly shown by the testi-
mony of Lieutenant-Colonel Francis and time staff-sergeants,
that the order to turn out that detachment did not emanate
from Lieutenant-Colonel Brereton. Not one word has been
adduced to shake the unsophisticated evidence of Mr. Gresley,
who states that he made the requisition for military assistance
to defend the gaol to Captain Warrington, in the coffee-morn
at Reeves's Hotel. He details the order given by Captain
Warrington to Cornet Kelson upon that occasion, precisely in
the terms in which that order was carried into effect; which
statement, coming from a person of Mr. Gresley's situation iti
life, namely, that of a ship-builder, could not, by possibility,
have been conjured up in his own imagination, and may there-
fore be received as strictly correct. The second and third
counts of the third charge, though made to vary in accusa-
tion, arc so blended in point of time and circumstance, that
I shall consider together the evidence produced with respect
to those two counts. The collective essence of these two count'
is, that in the course of the 30th of October the prisoner air
seated himself from his quarters for a considerable time, Rsc,r
and that having returned to his quarters during the absence of
nearly the whole of the disposable part of his troop, he, ism
place of proceeding to join the same, &c., retires to his bed,
I shall take the time as stated 'by Cornet Kelson, namely, that
Captain Warrington gave him orders about seven o'clock on
Sunday afternoon, to send to him at General Pearson's, at
in case he should be wanted, and there is every reason
to suppose that, at seven o'clock Captain Warrington lett hi°
quarters. Cornet Kelson also states, that upon his return with
the detachment from duty at about a quarter before ten he
found Captain Warrington all but undressed, and in the act of
getting into bed at the hotel. Private Dooley states, that C3l"
taro Warrington returned to the Bazaar about nine o'clocl,'
It would appear, then, that Captain Warrington was absent
from his quarters about two hours, which absence relates to the
essence of the second count ; and that he was three-quarters °I,
an hour in the Bazaar, or at the hotel, after his return, which
relates to the essence of the third count. 'With respect to the
latter, I must observe, that when Captain Warrington arrive
at the Bazaar at nine o'clock, twenty-eight men and horses out
of thirty-three were on duty—viz., twenty which had proceeded
to the Bishop's Palace, anti eight which had been previously
sent to Queen-square. Now will it not appear extraordinary l°
the Court, that when the prisoner so returned to the Bazaar at
nine o'clock, and found only five men and horses of his tool'
left in quarters, and knowing the stature of the duty on which
the troop had been sent, aware of the appalling state in which
Cie city was placed, and observing the conflagrations which were
then vomiting forth in different quarters of it, he should have
had no anxiety, or even curiosity, to cross College-green to io'.
quire in what manner his troop was engaged, and whether
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some short time previous to the return of Cornet Kelson to the
hotel. But in the full discharge of my duty I must observe,
that at seven o'clock that evening Captain Warrington seo'
capable of walking to General Pearson's house at Clifton ; that
he did not return to the hotel until nine o'clock ; and that i 0
about one hour after he had retired to his bed, he was perfectly'
capable of appearing at the head of his troop to repel the riot"
who had attacked the front of Reeves's Hotel; and, under 01
the circumstances of that awful night, no illness, short of solnie
risk of absolute destruction of health, ought to have restrain&
the prisoner from proceeding in search of the force entrusted t';
his charge, when, upon his return to the hotel, he found
Troop tom escaped froth bit cgmmari4 thv point