Star.
London, England, 1820-03-27 00:00:00

a* •hat of the 16th August he chewed to be unlawful, from a

to the law as bid town by Mr. Serjeant Hawkins, in
f'r the Crown. He would press these questions on
t•:Z conlidoing their verdict:—Did dey believe the

L•: ul!awful ?

Did they bell ve that the witnesses

fret; sworn to have frit alarm 'Aver: not ali perjured?--
),S they believe that the several parties had made ap-
t fiches to :Manchester in the manner desetibed Did they
believe that the 'Magistrates had ft.lt no alarm? aad did they
. . .

b:lieve the the vniitables had been assembLd without alarm?

C.nthl any one doubt that the assembling of such multitudes

lv,L1(1 f,ji to prodnee alarm and terror in the minds of the
nenple of Manchester? Ile did not mean alarm and terror fur
ontat mielit be done cn that dee, hut alarm growing out of
the ma:le of march adopted, and. the manlier of combining
seen on ;hat occasion. 'the very mystery in which that com-
Liteition was involved was in itself a source of terror. He
-proteeneel to shine that a 'large body, proceeding with every
appearance of organization ; proccedieg under the command
.of sun 4 leaders asJolnison, Bamford, and Doctor Healey,
( ho, front the evenness of his temper, was not the fittest person
::; the wont to be a leader). When s. eh a multitude, rtgu-
ierlv ore:seized, tied azting in• obedience to the orders of a se-
tote and unlit:own (loilanittee, were seen advancing on a town
to tannery atese, be trine with them bentiers inscribed, " Li-
berty or Death," and such whet. inscriptions as had been pro-
ved to have had a place on the ensione berne with the multitude
nssetnhled at Mnichester on the 16th of August ; when such a
silectecle were aeon, good Goo! would any one tell him that
this disp:ay could be lawful? Mr. Hun:, to chew that the
sleeting was not illegal, had ioferred to the banners and ;noisessnrs .if Orenge clubs, and other societies. But the answer to this
was, that those banners and processions were connected with
nur»ses that were lawful, and -Mr. Hunt might as well refer
. • -
to tit banners end eusigits borne by the soldiery, to prove
tha• because sutnt things might be used in the army for legel
aiist constitutional purpcses, it therefore followed that they
etielit be lawfully resorted to, in order to give eteect to any
teaiultuous meeting. The nary, he thought, would feel this,
and see that such means of giving effect to his opiaipas were
-not to be conceded to any demagogue, who might think
proper to coatend, that " taxation without representeticrn
was tyranny." It was undoubtedty true, that many Eng-
lish subjects had no voice in the choneieg of a It:pre-
sentative, but the road being open to all to qualify themselves
to vote for the return of Members to Parliament, a principle
like that avowed in the inscription which he had glinted was
sot to be maintained in this country. Ile did no: • deny the
right of the people of England to meet in large bodice for the put-
pew of deliberating un public affairs; but was it to be assumed
that Meetings of from 60 to 80,000 men were at all times, and
Under all circumstances, Et to entertain the moat abstruse ques
tions of political senence? Such an assemblage as that of the 16th
August, he would repeat it, was well calculated to inspire alarm,
especially when seer., as tit:ANVAS, disposed to treat the Constables
and all the Local Authorities with mockery and scorn. Of tnet
-Meeting, two witansses had deposed, that Mr. Hunt had himself
cahed it a " tremendous Meeting " It was, indeed, a tremendoies
Meeting, but Meetings still more tremendous might yet be seen,
if the verdict of those he had then the honour to address did not
prove, tisat even sera Meetin,o3 were under the controal of the
law. In such a Meeting it was trot possible for Mr. Hunt, ah
ellef speaker, to be heerd by all, or by nearly all. Yet it was
seen that be had rejoiced in their meeting in two-fold numbers,
after the Meeting had been prohibited by the Magistrates. It
seemed to be his wish to go on till they should at length meat
in four-fold numbers, and finally be eble to meet any force
that might lie opposed to them, face to face. Mr. Hunt had
spent two hours ha examining witnesses, to prove that he had
neither used the words "adjournment" nor " postronement,"
when speaking of the Meeting having been put off by the ene-
mies of the people. Who he meant to say were their enemies,
he had not thought it prudent to explain. It was proved,
however, by his own witnesses, that he had used both words.
The Meeting at Manchester he shewed to be distinct from
'Meetings of the character of those held in Palace-yard and other
places in a regular way. This was a Meeting called by a secret
and unknown Committee. It was not a Meeting of the Town
or District, but it was made a Meeting, as far as it could be
made so, of all mankind. The broad question the Jury had first
to consider was this—Was the Meeting a legal Meeting ?--
In inquiring into this, they would remember the object which
he had in view whets he set out for the country to attend the
Liaoning called for the 9th of August, namely, the assisting at
the election of a Legislatorial Attorney, at the instance of some
secret and undiscovered body. If, looking at this, and con-
needng it with all the other circur-stances to which he had
d.:rectgd their attention, they found that an assemblage of per-
sons like that over which Mr. Hunt had been invited to pre-
side was calculated to inspire alarm, then must they decide that
it was an illegal Meeting. He now came to address them on
the situation in which the several defendants stood. Of the
part which Mr. Hunt had acted there could be no doubt, and
on that subject he need say no more. It was in proof that
Johnson had been with Mr. Hunt all the week preceding the
16th of August, and two witnesses had proved him (Johnson)
to have used language respecting the Meeting of the 16th of
August, which went deeply to implicate him in the conspiracy.
He then went over the evidence given by the witnesses Willie
and Slater, on the subject of his (Johnson's) being returned to
Parliament, and on the subject of the intended Meeting, and the
measures said to have been in progress against the House of
Commons. The language then used induced Willie, who had
known nothing of him (Johnson) before.' to say, that if Nadin
had been present he would have taken him up. To contradict
this man, a butcher and a builder had been brought from Man-
chester to swear, that, front certain circumstances, they would
not believe him upon his oath. The evidence of that witness
was, however, in the main, unshaken, and went to shew that
Johnson was deeply implicated in the conspiracy. The conduct
of Mourhouse, in inviting people to attend the projected Meet-
ing, had proved him one of the conspirators ; while Wild and
Jones, in directing the people to lock their arms, had made it
clear that they also were parties to the conspiracy. Dr. Hea-
ley had set out with declaring, in his defence, that " where there
was no law there could be no transgression." It might be well
for the Doctor if there were indeed no law on such subjects; if
there were no law to prevent demagogues from marching at the
head of numerous bodies of men, carrying what ensigns and ban-
ners they thought proper, and saying to the people so called out
what they pleased. The Doctor had, probably, coetrihuted
something to that flag which had been produced, for which he
had manifested what seemed very like a parental affection. He
had brought with him a trod:' of that flee, for fear the prosecu-
tors should be so base as not to produce the original, which, by
the bye, Mr. Hunt had said it was rot in their power to do. He
had, however, brought forward the fieg when the model WAs.
produced, and had models been exhibited of the caps of liberty,
he, it: the same way, would hove brought forward the real
ones. The cap of liberty, since the period of the French Re-
voietior, when so much fury and mischief had been hatched
under it, was no loneem the symbol of freedom, but the
ensign of revolution, and the boast of licentiousness. Dr.
liaaiey, is having assisted to marshal the people under such ban-
errs, had :nearly proved himself to be implicated in the conspi-
racy. Knight was proved to have been in the carriage with Hunt
at the Meeting, though he escaped at the time. For Saxton, as
it appeared that he; had only attended the Meeting as a Re-
porter to a Newspaper, he would have them dism:es his case
ftenn their consideration altogether. Having thus stated
this cent, he thought there could be no doubt that a conspiracy
heti existed, and, if they found that the Meeting of the 16th of
Auge.st was an unlawful Meeting, (as surely he thought they
w sell`, he would be entitled to a verdict. For himself, he felt
p .--fectiy at his ease, and had no fears for the consequences
o these proceedings, unless, indeed, it should once e o forth
t.) the world, on the authority of a British Jury, that Meetings
Ike that of the 16th of August, were to be regarded as lawful.
Ile reverenced public liberty, and it was because lee revs'.
reneed it, that he stow called for that verdict which he con-
tendel the Jury would be justified in giving against the present
defendants. He desired this, that licentiousness and violence
etioht be repressed; lest from the abuse of public liberty the
reale of England, at no distant oerioe, should resemble the
Romans, as described by their eldest historian, at the time cf
th-..• death of Augustus, when they considered it safer to submit
t • deep:inn, than to go back to that licentiousness which h:ld
lensn intendant on liberty. The Jury would render a most (e-
-a•;':1:1 service to liherty, by giving their verdict against those
VI., hod abused it—by ',hewing that the laws were sufficient to
I those evils which might arise under our free Constitn-
-617-1:1i 1).: proving to the disaffected, that the laws were not
to t:-W.l").7et On with impunity.
inn: (lee being now closed on both sides, Mr. Justice
14, eeee proteodt i to address the Jury, and at a quarter befeee
orioht &dock nod only gone through the evidence as fee as Mr.
11altoare He then observed to the Jury, that he tha..et; the,.