The Sun.
London, England, 1832-03-16 00:00:00

SPIRIT OF THE PUBLIC JOURNALS.

Mr. Hunt moved last night for " A Select Corn
mittee, to inquire into the military execution inflicted
on a peacable and unarmed multitude, assembled in
Manchester to petition fOr a Reform in Parliament,
on the 16th of August, 1819." No teureaction it,
our times has so much contribeted to alienate the-
working population from the higher ranks as the
Manchester massacre. It is, indeed, hardly possible
to conceive a more base and cowardly exereine cf
power than the attack on the 16th of August, 1819,
by an armed force, on an immeese multitude of men
and women assembled for a lawful object, and con-
ducting themselves is a peaceable manner. On that
dark day in our annals, 15 persons were killed, and
no fewer than 42-1 maimed and wounded. What-
ever may be thought of the propriety of meetings
of large multitudes in the open air, custom has
made them familiar to us in this country ; and
from the cool—we would almost nay, apathetic
—character of the English people, they almost
always terminate without violence or disorder. That
the people at Manchester met in the full conviction
that by so doing they were violating no law, and thit
they contemplated no violent proceedings, may he
inferred from their being wally unprepared for
the attack, and from the men having brought with I
them their wives, sisters, and mistresses, in their
holiday dresses. In some countries an attack, like
that at Manchester, would have perpetuated sem
guinary feeds, in which most of the actors would
have atoned by their blood for that which they
glued, le no country but England would the
strong feelbrgs of kindred have been so far sub-
dued, as to alicev all the acters to escape with im-
punity. But though, al vas stated by Mr. Hunt,
two of the yeomanry, who so wantonly shed the
blood of their Erna-m.6m, fellow-citizens, committed
saicide on the 16th of August, and many of them
were now to be seen waking about the streets of
Manchester, objects of a horrid pity, yet we never
heard that the vengeance of the sufferer!, the syn...
pathy of friends, the excited feelings of surviving
relatives, led to one single retaliation on the guilty
yeomanry. A better proof could net be afforded
of the confirmed and habitual regard of the English
people for the law, of the absence of all cause of ap-
prehension from the assembled multitude at Manches-
ter, and of the danger of destroying !he peaceful cha-
racter of the. people by an outrage which offered so rude
a shock to all their habits, fc cling., and id, as. It is the
tendency of outrage to beget outrage. The English, so
peaceful and passive in 1819, were once distinguished
for their sanguinary character. It was even the
boast of ChancellerForteseue, that " there were more
men hanged in England in a year for robbing and
manslaughter, than there were hanged in France for
ouch cause of clime in seven ears." This charac-
ter would never have been changed, if men had been
allowed to perpetrate with impunity such outrages
as that of Manchester. Btr, from a variety of cir-
cumstances, into which it is not necessary now to
enter, the people became imbued with the belief
that they might safely leave to the Tribunals the
avenging the crimes by which they might stiff, r. It
is but fair to say, that if justice in the case of crimes
of violence had not been, upon the whole, ad-
ministered with tolerable impartiality in the case
of rich and poor, an Englishman would not have
parted with the right to do justice to himself,
is e. to avenge his own wrongs, a right which is
i!xercised to this day in all countries where jus-
tice is not to be expected from the Tribunals, as, for
instance, in Spain, and many parts of Italy. An-
other such massacre as that of Manchester would
go far to change the character of the nation. As it
Is, the 16th of August 1819, still rankles in the
minds of the people. The motion was opposed by
Mr. Geo. Lamb, who moved the previous question,
which was carried by a n ajority of 206 to 31.
The insolent tone of Mr. H lon, of Hutton, the
priacipal actor on the 16th of August, and of a
Mr. Philips, another magistrate, and a deputy-lieu-
tenant of Cheshire, in the correspondence with
Lord Althorp, which appeared some time ago in the
newspapers, affords a sufficient proof of the utter
hopelessness of expecting from any Ministry in an
unreformed Parliament an inquiry into the disgrace-
ful proceedings. These two magistrates spoke
to Lord Alt horp, a Cabinet Minister, with the con-
fidence of men who conceived that he was entirely
at their mercy. His Lordship's tone, on the other
hand, was subdued, nay almost submissive. He
wrote under the consciousness that the feel-
ing of the•existing magistracy of England is so bad
towards the people, so thoroughly aristocratical in the
worst sense of that word, that to hint at dis-
approbation of the Manchester massacre was rouzing
against himself an implacable enemy. The Magi-
etracy of England are the creatures of the Lord
Lieutenants, who are, e ith few exceptions, the
creatures of a succession of Tory Administratiors.
These men hate Ministers as a matter of course;
they endeavour in every possible way to oppress and
annoy all who have supported Ministers; but Mini.
s'crs stand in awe of them, and that they well know.
NVe were, therefore, prepared for opposition to the
motion, Mr. Lamb agreed " with the Hon. Mem-
ber that the day for obtaining justice against crimes
!lever could pass away ;" and he added, " that the
Courts of Law were still open ae ever they were to
prosecute those who were guilty." This is a some-
what stale piece of irony. Against a combination
of Tory Magistrates, a pretty chance there is of
obtaining justice in Courts of Law, for acts for
which redress could not be obtained a' the time
when the subscriptions of the well.disposed through-
out the country secured the aid of legal talents and
industry. But though justice cannot now be ex-
pected from the tribunals, for the sufferers, it is not
too late to inquire into the circumstances, with a
view to a solemn Parliamentary condemnation of the
conduct of the Magistracy on the 16th August, 1819,
of the conduct of the Ministry who approved of
the proceeding., thanked the Magistracy, and recom-
mended the Rev. Mr. Hay to one of the most valua-
ble church livings at the disposal of the Crown.
Such a condenmatiointhough far from what offended
justice demands, would still serve to till up the
breach between the higher arid the working classes.
It would serve to restore to the people their ancient
confidence, that, whatever the abuses in our judicial
system, human life is still saved from the wanton
attacks of power. It would go a good way to heal
the malts. aninzus towards the poor, engendered by
the impunity with which this signal disregard of jus-
tice was followed. We hate those whom we have
injured. Ihe conscioesness of the wrong-committed
on the 16th of August, 1819, towards the working
people, haunts the higher ranks of England; they
feel, that in screening the actors on that occasion,
they have done that for which they deserve to be
hated, and they hate because they deserve to be
hated. A condemnation of so striking a deviation
from justice would be like the rainbow after the
rain—would be a sort of covenant between thehigher
ranks and the working classes. Ever since the
Manchester massacre the nation has been sepa-
rating itself more and more into castes, alien
in feelings to each other. The old kindliness
of feeling has disappeared. The want of it
ma': one day be grievously felt. Sir Robert Peel
made a speech in the style of a second-rate Old Bai-
ley practitioner, imputing inconsistency to Dr. Lush-
'nevem), because he had laid down the proposition,
that the House at all timee, and under all circum-
stances, was bound to institute an inquiry where
blood had been shed, while the Hon. and Learned
Gentleman had allowed the cases of Knocktopher
and Merthyr-Tydvil to pass by without Parliamen-
tary inquiry. Dr. Lushingt on's meaning was suffi-
c;ently obvious, and it was beneath the Right Hon.
Gentleman to quibble about an expression. Leaving
Knocktopher to the Irish Members, who best know
the facts, there was no prinza.facie case of abuse
s;)!
f
authority at Merthyr-Tydvil, whereas facts ui
cient notoriety testify against the conduct of the
Manchester Magistrate& If we thought that the
people had forgotten the Manchester ma.Tprfs.r.:
should be the last to revive the recolleotiodolit.
But we know that it is not forgotten, and that it
will not be forgotten. The transaction has taken