The Sun.
London, England, 1819-08-31 00:00:00

NiETROPOLITAN NtEETINGS.

Ara. Etirron —lt is impossible not to admire
the impartiality with which the columns of 'rya.
SUN have given piihlicily, to :the reports and coun-
ter-reports tespee•ine the late aff-tir at 'Manches-
ter ; but, Sir, admiralion is not.always approval,
and the latter might have been withheld by many
of your warmest friends, were it not for the pas-
sing observati,nv with which each insidious re-
port was accompanied, thus applying the anti-
dote before the poison could well produce its
elfeer. , •

lIMII welt been the conduct of all the other
Papers—bed they given both accounts of•the

fair, and refilled, or even attempted to refute,
those which they considered -to be 'erroneous, .a
plain man, neither absolutely aristocrat or revo-
lutionist, might have formed •a Pretty correct idea,
of the troth, by the internal e.v.ide►►ce of tLie facts
and reasonings. To the mass 'of London Headers,.
however, that is totally iMpossible -; and now the
inhabitants of Loondo►► and Westminster are called
upon to judge collectively of the merits of the
-case, upon evidence, rt'tne•renihsaif which, are ex-
parte. That such meetings may, find a BIU of 147
filament is true ; but, Silrl they. are 'called upon
to give a Verdict, a measure "'as unconsti►utional
as any that has ever issued from our 1-Wormers,
from JACK. CADE down to FRANK.,BijRDETT, who,
according to his own avoweal.winciples, i+t►ght
long since to have laid down both the prefix and'
:the adjunct inherited .from. hill aristocratic an-.
cestdrs.

But ,the People of England, Sir, wilt listen to
reason;even when offered to them in plaimterms,,
4Without the tinsel of. ornament, or the ingenious
• twisting of sophistry ; and in the hope. thatia
ray from 'f HOSUN may perhaps throw sonic 15ght,
upon the.onderstandings of the.many now Called
upon to decide in a case of high political impoct,
1 shall _end-eavour to clear that case from the mass;
of misrepresentation %yid) abicli it has been en-
: veloped,, amalgamated, and tnetarnarphosed:'

In the first place, a meeting was called at.
Manchester to elect a Representative to Pa rli a•
menf, a nieasure decidedly" illegal, and which
meeting it wag the duty of the 'Magistracy to put
down just as much as if it had been a .fleeting to
burn ilinatester. Th t meeting was put off, as fir
as regarded that express pupoir, ostensibly, and,
Ilitlfil.her.Call.l4l.lll4c["Weiewtal&cattnT,:..,„l6.
with the same agents, and with the same proposed
Chairman, who not only expressed his disapproval
of the former posrponement,'but also took care
•to inform his friends that, if they came •in force,
they would be able to carry any thing.

To secure the peace, and to secure property,
'under such circumstances (it being well-knotty
that the crowds expected to assemble had for
weeks been under military training, a procedure
`tint seems to have very little connection with
peaceable petitioning for itetorm), every civil and
military precaution was taken.

The Manchester Meeting took place—a Meeting
at Manchester it certainly w.aA, but that it was a
Manchester Meeting, I think even the Party Ga-
zette will scarcely have the impudence to affirm ;
. for who formed this Meeting / Why, Sir, all the
weavers, spinners, and common labourers froni
six to twelve miles, round Manchester ; and
these were the people who, on the preceding
;Monday, were to have elected a Representative
for Manchester ! Sir, they might, with equal jrts-
tice, have elected WOOLER or ‘VADDINGTON as
:Members fur the "'non-represented" of London
and Middlesex.

Now let us look at the-circumstances of the
Meeting, at the military order, the military step,
the parading through the town, the revolutionary
banners, and,the red caps of Jacobinistn. Will
any man but a RevOlutionist say, that these were
not overt acts of Sedition, not to say Rebellion?
Vitt any man, but a Radical Reformer, say thitt
such a Meeting ought to have been permitted to
proceed until it began the work of riot and plun•
tier, perhaps of flames Find Massacre ?
Will The Morning Chronicle say that these pre.
parations were necessary, or event consonant to a
Meeting called ostensibly for Parliamentary Re-
form ?

But how was this motley and already
exaspe-
rated assemblage to be clitcked in their career,
with due regard to the security of the peace, and
even to the safety of the unhappy grouper, drawn
together by all the inflammatory arts of a prosti-
tuted Press ?—By arresting the ruab ?—No that
was impossible and unnecessary—hitt by arresting
the Ringleaders. But who were the Ringleaders i
Aye, Sir, now we come to the point. That
JOHNSON, SAXTON, and others, were the

Ringleaders, I presume no man, its defiance or •
common sense, will attempt to deny. Indeed .10
completely is that acknowledged, that one charge
against the Magistrates is their not having seized
those fellows on their wily to the Meeting.
the Laws of Englainl are tender of life and li-
berty ; and, fur the sake of public justice and
public tranquillity, the work would have been but
half done had they been seized before they, by
their actions, had completed the proofs—by
mounting the Hustings, by taking and supporting
the Chair ! This being done, and the legal forms
of affidavit gone throngh, for, though the Party
Gazette may laugh at legal' forms, the day is,
thank Heaven I not yet arrived, in which they are
to be despised, then the arrest became necessary.
But the Magiisivates were aware that all the Civil
force they could muster would be insufficient for
the purpose ; of course Military force became ne-
cessary, and there can he no doubt but it was le-
gal. The Military force was of two kinds, Yen-
nianrt and Re;,-..rulirs ; and the Magistrates, as the:
inost Constitutional, first brought forward the
former.

The employment of the Yeomanry has, how-
ever, been a gtear sobject of colloquial clamour ;
its opponents endeavouring to prove, that if_ the
regular force had beet) hrouitht forward in the
first instance, the, atisir would have terminated
withoitt a single accident.

This, at first sight, looks plausible, Sir;. hut'
I ti.ubt the kference. At any' rate, had the
Magistrates kept lattck the• Constitutional force, as
it is,. called, par excellence, and brought forward
the colliery, we may guess how soon the tables
would have been turned, a,usl inferences drawn

directly Contrary. Another objection started is,
that the nsilitary were commanded by a Maxis
,crate, trate, instead of a Military Officer ! But to those:
who make that objection, I shall only recommend
the reading of the " Criss Cross !"
BI,P!CPC.STONE would be thrown away upon them !,
Now, how stands the affair ? The Civil Power
Were unable to penetrate the crowd, and the mi-
litary were called to support, mud to clear a
passage for them. But howls that passage to be
cleared ? By standing still with a low bow, and,
a request to be permitted to pass ?—Absurd and
ridiculous ! It was, the duty of the military to
advance, with all necessary, but without muse-

cessary pressure ; and it was the most pruderitial
conduct for those who stood in the way, to get
out of it. as fast as _they could. It fatal conse-
quences ensued", these cannot he artlibuted-tIo
hot en those
ne,inetilliftle"lilegs al ,Meeting, knowing it to be so;
for inch it reailly was, in spite of the plausible and
Ostensible gronird of Retorin, and the cowardly
or, hypocritical recommendations of HUNT to pre-
set ye order! What ! order under banners of
" Reform or Death 1.1! Can there, indeed, be
.one indi'vidnallo besotted as to believe that order
was the object of those who called such a Meet-
ing Could seventy thousand men, women, and
children, deliberate with ordet upon an abstract
•constitlit infra! question ? Nay, have we seen any
thing like deliberation or common s,ense, even at
the late diminished Meeting of four thousand at
,Smithfield, when the " People" agreed by accla-
mation to a petition to the MINCES REGENT" god
the People of England !"—thus petitioning them-
selces , like the Dotch Fiscal, whose slave having
`broken a poliCe regulation, lie fined himself with
the right hand„ whilst the left pot the Gne into
his own pocket, the common receptacle for all
the fines of his department ; or, like our own
countryman, who so recewtly fined himself five
shillings for sailing to Greenwich an a Sunday !

But it has been said that' the Riot Act was not
read. Sir, the Riot Act was read ; but certainly
it could no more be heard by 70,000 people than
HUNT'S recommendation of order could be heard
by them. But to read the Riot Oct was not neces-
sary. The Magistrates had not ordered the civil
and military power , to -advance to disperse the
mob, but to execute a warrant. If the, mob chose
to fly in terror, that• was their own affair. If
they chose not to.get out of the way of the civil
and n►ilitary'force, but to stand their ground and
throw stones and brickbats, that was their own
affair also, and it was for them to abide the con-
sequences. That these consequences have been
almost bloodless,' is not, however, their praise,
hot owing to the hnManity of those who were
called in, to support the laws.
By energy, Sir, Manchester has been saved, and
that effusion of blood; prevented, which mir'st hitve
ensned,bad„tbe 11,111gistrAtes permitted the 'spokes-
men to proceed. The Meeting was not dissolved
by force-it disiOlied itself ; and, 'whatever fae-;

tion, Or reb.Olioo,;or. tuason, may chose tc.as-
sert, either .at a Comnwu-hall or Palace-yard, the
Magistracy will stilt claim, merit, alit( possess 'the
thank3,of .Ftirmis of the tift'ish Coooittktion.
v •
- ours,,

icr4rus.

LONDON .10V1INA LS.

FItOM THE MORNING PAPERS OF THIS DAY.

[Morning ;:t]
)(tykes art: In town of tke 11th inst. from Ca.
.41,..which are of a very fairmirable .tendency re-
4,-
garditig the yellOWAver," ‘v4;i7elt-was said to pre-
vail there, and which show that the accounts
originally obtained from Gibraltar respecting the
disorder were considerably exaggerated by the rears
of the writers. It seems that even the Governor
himself was in some degree imposed mum in the
dispatches he received express from Cadiz, and
that the sudden and strict precautions which were
taken tinder his ()Filets were, generally speaking,
unnecessary. It turns out, in the first place, that
instead of half of the crew of the Asia man of
war, from the llevannah, being sick or dcad, only
a few of her men were infected, and two only died
on the voyage home. It was not at first knou.n:
that she was in an uohealthy state, tool a boat'‘
crew were permitted to land, and to mix itself
with the inliabitints, thereby counnunieatiog the
pet Thence, such as it was, to a few individuals ott
shore; when it was known. -11oWevvr, that the
disease .had made its appearance on board the
Asia, the
.men were immkdiately sent back, and
the ship floated under quarantine. Such of the
inhabitants of Cadiz as had -taken the disorder.
were conveyed to a temporary lazaretto beyond
the bounds of the City, on the Isla de Leon,
where the greater munher recovered, or are in
state of recovery :.among those is only one sol-
dier, and it is asserted that the deatks in the
whole do not exceed seven eight.

The city of Cadiz itself appears to be more than
usually healthy at this time of the year. A fever
somewhat. of a malignant kind k nit uncommon
in the months of June, July;, AugnSt, and Sep-.
tember, but it has not yet made its appearance.
Au order had been issued from the Admiralty.
department, occasioned by the receipt of dispatches
from Madrid, that all the transports which have
been engaged to, carry out troops to South Ame-
rica, shall be ready to receive them in a few days;'
in the meantime an. unusual , activity had been
shewn in-concentrating the military, and it was•
expected therefore, after the long delay that has
taken place, that the troops would be embatked
in the course of the present, month. ,Eor the,
most part they were in good spirits, 'and had not.
time least reluctanee'l6 'go to Buenos Ayres, which,
is the destination of this arinionent. • They were
only unwilling to visit the unhealthy climate of
Car a ccas. . •

The greatest confidence seems to he placed, at
the Spanish Court, in the of resistance
which Lima will be able to make to Lord Cocti.
KANE,
_tint! the Insur;;,ents Under SAN MAtti''lN.-
The'date of the latest advices from that quarter
is not mentioned in the private communications
horn Madrid received yesterday ; but the. follow.
ing is given as: a correct statement of the land
force's under the orders olVicerny PttzbilLA -
COIsipLEAIRNT 91?„ EFFECTrVit LAND. FORCES INT