The Sun.
London, England, 1819-09-10 00:00:00

erently figurer! away in yonder Hall, and WllO
was now under prosecution ? Would it not be said
that this proceeding would be unfair, while legal
proceedings were pending ? He would not now go
into the circumstances of the case, but for the
reasons he hatrgiven, he hoped the resolutions
would not he cat ried.
Mr. PATTEN considered the different statements
contaioed in the several Newspapers to afford the
strongest proof of the correctness of the stroement
of the main facts. Had they been ail alike, it
might have been presumed, that all had been Oh-
tablet] through the medium of one Reporter. The
conduct of the Magistrates appeared to him most
imjustiliable. He was filled with horror when
he first heard of what had taken place ; but be
had received en additional shock when he found
that the Prince Regent bad been prevailed Oil to
sanction the acts which had been committed. lo
this instance, he complained of the conduct of
Ministers, and would ask why should they support
the merciless tveers who had acted such a pat t,
and deny protection to the helpless people ? Un
der all circumstances he should be proud to join
those who had brought forward the Resolutions,
and be hoped the whole Court would do the same.
He contrasted the conduct of the Magistrates of
Manchester with that of the Lord Mayor of Lon-
don in 1768, on , the occasion of a riot iu Saint
George's•thlds, and showed the latter to be cha-
racterized by mercy _ and forbearance. On the
present occasion, he felt that he spoke the voice
of the People, when he asserted the Manchester
Magistrates to have been guilty of a gross viola-
tion of the law of homanity, as well as tAr the law
Of the latiO, for which they ought to be brought
to.condign prm4lonent
Mr. JAC.N,S, having 'been -mit of town for the
last five weeks, had endeavoured to make himself
master of both sides of the cation by reading
the various accounts that had been published ;
but these Ire found differed so materially from
each other that lie was at a loss how to make up
his rnhol on the merits of title case. Was it then
right in this state of things co bring charges
against men who might be
.fts honourable and as.
reapeetable 24 themselves, and to stigmatize th,,m,
as murderers, who had wilfully slaughtered theid
tellow.conotrymen, and shed the blood of a
peaceable anti defenceless multitude The last
Resolution called on the Prince Regent to
institute an inquiry, and to bring the " guilty
perpetrators to condign punishment." The.
framer of the Resolutions, it would be seen,
assumed those whose conduct was to be the
subject of inquiry to be guilty. This he must
regard as most unfair. He proceeded to show
that the meeting had been originally called
for an illegal purpose, and that the business on
which it was subsequently convened was not
strictly legal, as in point of fact it was intended
to call, not for the redress of particular griev-
ances, but for the total subversion of the House
of Commons.—(Cries " No, no !'")—He would
maintain that this was, in point of fact, what was
called for. Were Annual Parliaments and Uni-
versal Suffrage conceded, what, he would ask,
would be the state of the property of the country ?
The flags used by the crowd, on one of whiCh was
inscribed " Equal Re'presentation or Death,"
went to justify strong measures. On such occa-
sions the military were necessary. What, 'he
would ad:, would have become of the Metropolis
in 1780, if recourse had not been had to the mili-
tary ? He on that occasion had lost a schoolfellow,
who, though quite innocent, was unfortunately
shot, as- many other persons were at that tinw,-
who had tie concern with the rioters. For this.
there was o help. When the Spa-fields Riot took
place, the Lord Mayor of that trty, though a great
friend to'Liherty, was glad to call in the aid of the
military. The , assembling of sixty. thousand
persOns at Manchester, malty of -whom were
armed with bludgeons, appeared to justify a si-
milar precautTori on the Part of the 'Magistrates
of - that neighbourhood. He condemned the
object of their meeting. Election 'by ballot
would be ail infamous system. In answer to
what bad been said on the reading of the Riot
Act, he contended that it appeared the Magis-'
tr,ates had complied with the provisions of the Act,
by coming SS near as they could to read it ; but,
he asked, who could read it so loud that a crowd.
of 60,000 people should hear ? lrhe verdicts of
the Coroners' inquests, and the recent decisions
of the Grand Jury, all tended to justify the Ma-
gistrates. The latter basing found trite bills
against Hunt and Co., he did riot see how they
could have been expected to find those preferred
against the Yeomanry Cavalry. In this stage of-
the business to decide against the Magistrates, it
appeared to him, would be most unfair, and he
therefOre hoped) for the honour and dignity of.
that Court, that a majority would appear against
tie Resolutions.

p
vROOK WAS surprised to hear the Lord
Mayor, at the commencement of the business of
the slay, give a most deeidedOpinion on the goes-
lion about to be discussed.' That opinion would
have no influence on hint, and be hoped that it-
would have none on the Court, but he thought
the attempt on the part of his Lordship a highly
improper and indeemons act. From what lie. hFid
'read on both sides of the question, lie thought it
was most clear that the conduct of, the Magis-
trates of 'Manchester, and of the Yeomanry Ca-
valry, was disgraceful in the extreme. The peo-
ple had a right to meet, and their conduct had
been peaceable. The people had also been peace-
able in Smithfield, where Harrison was arrested,
which act he was of opinion was highly impro-
per, and one that was very likely to lead to
tumult and bloodshed. He commented with some
severity on the conduct of the Yeomanry at Man-
chester. \lieu they attacked the defenceless
crowd, the sufferers' appealed for mercy in vain ;,
and, in one instance, a woman, while clasping
her child with one hands-had her breast cut off
by a blow from a sabre. He had seen seven peo-
ple and 100 letters front Manchester, and all
agreed that the conduct of the Yeomanry Ca-
valry had been grossly improper. The people had
been placed in such a situation that they could
only run from the edge of the sabre to the point
of the bayonet. It was said by s:-toe that only
five had been killed and but twenty-live wounded,
but this stat,ment fell far short of the troth. as it
was ituowo that more thou live littodred had been
ountieu. Ile hdid heard nothing that day that