The Sun.
London, England, 1820-04-07 00:00:00

FRIDAY, APRIL 7, 1820.

MANCHESTER MEETING.

(From Tni SUN ofSeptember 21, 1619.)

It has been our sincere pride to give full cre-
dit to the Magistrates and Yeomanry Cavalry at
Manchester, on the necessity of the measures
which they adopted for the restoration of public
tranquillity, and we cannot doubt that every li-
het u,land judicious Person throughout the United
Kingdom entertained the same opinion. At all
events, no honest mind would prejudge the ques-
tion, and condemn without trial, us all the Oppo-
sition Papers have done. But we have received
such information from the most authentic sources
respecting the teal principles, objects, and cha-
racter of the miSereents who assembled on the
16th ult. at Manchester, as fully, justifies all the
measures to which the Authorities, Civil and Mi-
litary, were obliged to resort on that memorable
as well as lamentable occasion. We shall detail
a few particulars, upon which we solemnly as-
sure the Public that they may implicitly rely.
in order to spew the disposition, spirit, designs,
and expectations of the Reformers, who, fi‘nn
various quarters, assembled then at Mancheter.—
In the first place, it was the full hope of the
Rabble in general that their numbers would be
so much increased as they proceeded to then
head-quarters, Manchester, as to enable them
wholly to overpower any Civil and Military
Force that could be brought to oppose them.—
This vast accession of power was so confi-
dently expected by them, • that for many days
before the Meeting specie had vanished, and it
was impossible to get a bank-note changed.—
Those who were in debt refused payment, and
:heir language was, that " the 16th would settle,'
every thing." The men were armed with blud-
geous, and hooked sticks, so strong that a
blow would have fractured the skull, and
have pulled a horseman off.—They had be-
sides short pikPs concealed, of a most destruc-

tive nature. Not less than seven hundred bad
been regularly trained to the military exercise, in
which they were very expert. They were called
;o this training every morning, as imnernally
as if they had been in the regular tervicr. When
ever they saw a portly man, they insultingly ad-
dressed him in the following terms : " Your belly
is worth a pike." •To the women with decent
gowns, who observed them from curiosity, they
said, " Aye, we worked for that gown, hot you
shall work for us." To a Gentlema❑ and Lady
who were riding in a gig, they bawled " Come
out, you 'have ridden long enough,: it is our
turn now." In their progress some of them
stopped St SLATTUCICS Inn, between Middleton.
and Rochdale, and devoured the breakfast pre-
pared for stage passengers, refusing to pay, and
seizing whatever they could lay hands on. The
shooting at BIRCH, the Constable, was described
as " a glorious deed," and it was signified that
all the great men of the Country should share the
same fate. Wherever _they saw a better hat than
their own it was taken, and the old one con-
temptuously cast at the person robbed. The 16th
they uniformly considered as what they styled
" the settling day," which was to overthrow the
Government of the Country, and give HUNT and
his gang full command. As a proof that all sense
of Religion was extinguished, they burnt all their
Bibles, and with a kind of wanton superstition,
they were slowly burnt, as was said, to prolong
their torture. Can it be doubted that such exe-
crable miscreants would have served all persons of
opposite principles in the same manner ? Was Re-
form to be expected from such desperate wretches,
or from their Leaders, who must have been fully
apprized of all the horrible views of their de-
luded followers ? We can vouch (or the truth
of all that we have now stateii, nor can any
parts of it be considered as trifling or indifferent,
as they all co-operate in sheeting the de-
termined diabolical spirit by which the whole
of the immense mass was actuated. Those
who returned from the Meeting of the 16th,
being disappointed in finding that the " settling
day " passed off without the expected conse-
quences, vented bitter curses on their• own
cowardice, and on that of the mob in general,
for not having wholly destroyed the Military, the
Magistrates, and all who opposed their• designs.—

The Magistrates were fully apprised of the
desperate views of these miscreants, and, by firm
and timely vigour, prevented the destruction of
themselves and all opulent and respectable
ltibnbitants of Manchester and the neighbour-

[PRICE SEVENPENCF,

hood. Alanehester was 19 ne
der and carnage. All this, as we have ~aw is
founded on truth ; and if The Morning Chro-
nicle and The Times had any regard to
truth, candour, and justice, they would ;e-
-voke their calumnies against that Government

which had clue iufo►nr►pion of Ihe full magni►ude.

of the danger, and guarded ag,i,,sr it wi,h as
much humanity and forbearance as . possible,
consistently with the 8,-ilety of the Stare. For
this reason the PRINCE REGENT justly thanked

'hose s,v,r) had been instrutnental, on the spot, in
averting the formulible evils that impended, and
lor this reason his RoyAI Highness so properly
rebtikd those men who disgrltce the situation to
which their fellow-citizett3 hive raised them, by
prejudging those who have performed the most

fuvrif °riot's services, at the utainAt hazard ico

themselves,
.and who, he,ides this shameless pre-
indication, insulted the l'.rone, by obtrusive

coun3el and presumptuous censer,.

LFrom. THE SUN of Septeierr 22, 1814.3

We are desired to say, in 'addition to our au-
thentic statement of yesterday, as to the Irue
character and designs of the atrocious desperadoes
who assembled at Manchester on the 16th alt.

that the seven hundred Persons, whom we t»en-
dolled as having been regularly trained to Mili-

tary discipline, were only a detachMent of tl.ose
who had been thus prepared to hazard an encoun-
ter of the Regular Troop•, and to overthrow
Civil Powers of the State, and that a much IHrg
number had undergone the same Military Traiu-
ing, particularly at Tandle Hill, about a mile from
Slatiuck's lon. There were also many othet•
places, where the same daring preparations were
making. At Lees, another party of these 'Mili-
tary Students, were called every day to their ex-
ercise, and the whole of these various bodies,

according to report, have attained a consider-
able degree of martial dexterity. All they ap-
peared to want was arms, but it was questioned
whether they had lint some secret
,repository
for guns as well as pl.es, which would be forth-
coming when the day of final contest should
arrive. The Tictes and The Morning Chronicle,

however, have taken these Reformers into favour,

and think they ought to have been permitted to
proceed in their course. Even HUNT, who was
abused in The Times for the vulgar indecency of
coudoci, is now represented in that Paper
as a Gentleman. But it is by no means asto-
nishing that the daring Ruffians of Man-
cheater. and the neighbourhood should enter-
tain the most diabolical intentions, for they have
treated the Church and the Sabbath with con-
tempt and ridicule. The Sundays were wholly
employed in reading the infamous productions of
the CARLILBS, the WOOLERS, the SHERWINS, and
other theoretical systems which are so well calcu-
lated to poison the unreflecting mind, and to lead
to practical consequences of the most horrible de-
scription. The Morning Chronicle and the Times
still persevere in their unjust and infamous asper-
sions o❑ the Magistrates and Yeomanry of Man.
cheater, and affect to think more favourably of
those of Paisley, but the latter, we conceive, con-
scious of having discharged their duty, must hold
in disdain any commendation from such polluted
sources. Indeed, those Papers must be consi-
dered as having an interest in the defence of the
riotous Reformers, as their insidious and inflam-
matory doctrines, have tended to loosen the poli-
tical, moral, and religious principles of the lower
orders, and to make them desert their respective
callings in order to improve the Constitution of
the State —The Chronicle of this day, alluding to
the Paisley Riots, says, " What is meaneby Lath-
Jul Authority, and whether the mere assembling
of persons without such authority constitutes at
once sedition, or whether it be necessary that the
laninlge held should tend to disturb. the Public
Peace, we are not sufficiently acquainted with the
Law of Scotland to determine." We believe that
it is no better acquainted with the Law of Eng-
land, or it thinks proper to conceal its know-
ledge, in order to prolong its abuse of Govern-
ment, and to ralliate, if not encourage, Rebel-
I lion.

A [Peering of the Householders of Cambridge
will be had the Shire-Hall, on 'Monday next,
at eleven o'clock, for the purpose of taking into
considrration the general state of the Borough,
and for the discussion of the question relative
to the right of voting being vested in the House.
holders.