The Statesman.
London, England, 1821-09-19 00:00:00

The Came for HAMPDXN
_fill in ekt Piold. end SYDNEY' died

PROM VIESDitY NIGHtS 04ZBITR.

At the Cohrt at Carlton-house, the 17th of September,
1821 ; present, the King's most Excellent Majesty in
Council.
His Majesty in Council this day declaring his inten-
tion of going out of the kingdom for a short time, was
pleased to nominate the following persons to be Lords
Justices for the administration of the Government dur-
ing his Majesty's absence :
His Royal Highness Frederick Duke of York; Charles
Lord Archbishop of Canterbury ; John Earl of Eldon,
Lord Chancellor; Dudley, Earl of Harrowby, lord
President; John Earl of Westuiorland, Lord Privy Seal:,
James Doke of Montrose, Master of the Horse; Arthur
Duke of Wellington, Master-General of the Ordnance;
Charles Ingoldsby Marquess of Winchester, Groom of
the Stole; George James Marquess Chohnondleloy,
Lord Steward of Lois Majesty's Household; Robert Mar.,
guess of Londonderry, one of his Majesty's Principal
Secretaries of State; Henry Earl Bathurst, another of
his Majesty's principal Secretaries of State; Charles
Chetwynd Talbot Earl Talbot, Lint-Of/sera! sal °eme-
nd Governor of tlsat part of the united kingdom called
Ireland; Robert Banks Earl of Liverpool, First Coin-
missioner of the Treasury; Robert Viscount Melville,
First Commissioner of the Admiralty; Henry Viscount
Sidsnouth, another of his Majesty's principal Secretaries
of State ; William Lord Alaryborough, Master of the
Mint; the Right lion. Nicholas Vansittart, Chancellor of
the Exchequer ; the Right lion. Charles Bathurst,
Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster; and the Right
Hon. Frederick John Robinson, Treasnter of the Navy.
At the Court at Carlton-house, the 17th of September.
1821; present, the King's Most Excellent ,Majesty in
Council.

It is this day ordered by his Majesty in Council, that
the Parliament be prorogued fro►u Thursday the 20th
day of this instant September, to Thursday the 29th day
of November next.
At the Court at Carlten-bonse, the 17th of September,
1521 ; present, the King's Slost. Excellent Majesty in
Council.

A• new Great Seal for the United Kingdom of Great
Britain and Ireland having been prepared by his Majes-
ty's chief engraver of seals, in pursuance of a warrant to
him fur that purpose, under his Majesty's royal signa-
ture; and the seine fleeing been this day presented to
his Majesty, and the old Great Seal being delivered up
to his Majesty by the Hight Hon. John Earl of Eldon,
Lord High Chancellor of Great Britain, the same was
defaced in his Majesty's presence, and his Majesty was
thereupon pleased to deliver to his Lordship the said new
Seal, and to direct that the %AIM! shall be made use of
for sealingall things whatever which pass the Great Seal.
C. C. tlaErt tax.

Me Scaffold !"

THE LATE INQUEST.

(lIRODI THE NORWICH atzscoiv.)
he circumstances that have give, rise to the pro-
tfactest enquiry before the Coroner in Gondola are still
the most important matters for public coasideration.
These circumstances are. it is well known, the death
of Demo( his Majesty's peaceable subjects, (we dismiss
the former inquest) by the bands of a soldier—with-
out the presence or authority of a civil magistrate—
without the forms of reading the Riot Act—in a word,
without any other pretest than . the necessity of self-
defame.. Upon such ground the Corisner, who has
acted with the lenity of a Judge. and who perhaps
may in some sort be considered to participate in that
merciful view of offences which a Judge is always dis-
peat! • take--upon such ground, we say, the Co-
ronae, has placed the death of the individual.
To //gads Ibis doctrine appears perfectly els-
fencible. First, upon the general ar-
that if such be the law and the fact—it is at
all competent to the Government to place the
soldiery in situations where they are liable and likely
to meet the opposition and the insults of assembled
crowds, and it must of course lie in the di:cretion of
the officer commanding the party, be his courage,
temper, or capacity what they may, to order his men
to attack. wound, and slay the civil subjects of the
State. This is the naked principle. It is so mon-
strous and so totally in contradiction to the provi-
bleu* of the Constitution, that we apprehend it cannot
for a moment receive the sanction of any sound and
calm judgment.
Secaly, we conceive that the particular fences
shit* Fite law has placed round the person and liberties
of the sweet, are not only declaratory of the caution
with which person and liberty are protected, but are
especially such as to guard against the very evil which
has hers occurred. The Riot Act demands the presence
of a magistrate—it demands a warning by proclamation
to the people tumultuously assembled—it ordains also
the allowance of an hour, a time mach a:ore than suf-
ficient for their voluntary separation, before even their
appreheusion or dispersion by force can lawfully be
attempted. If then such a train of precautions to pre-
vent such encounters and such mischief be specially
ordained, it can but follow that the death of a citizen.
by the bands of a soldier, on were military authority,
must be a circumstance Which the law particularly ah-
bors. As we view the matter then, the charge of the
Coroner to the Jury is founded upon a misprision alto-
gether, and must be regarded, in its own nature, rs
entirely hostile to the constitution.

But to this will be opposed the very rational question.
are soldiers, when engaged in a duty from wl►ich they
have perhaps no option to retrea-, to endure in pa-
tience and sennission attacks which may end in their
deaths? Ceitainly not. We regard the soldier./ as
Ininshgats—wre obedient instruments in the hands
of higher powers, and in this rase it has appeared in
evidence, that the Officer commanding the party had
scent orders from the Government under which he
acted. This brings the matter to direct issiti., and
the department which gave the orders tl►at hare
terininaied so fatally, become t:.e responsible persons,
unless it can be proved that the officer commanding
the soldiers to fire, or the soldiers in firing without
such command, were the authors of the death of the
subject. Such is the nature of the constitutional
question—the capital point for public coo,ideration.
We have already shewu that the law in its contempla-
tion of the possible necessity for the interposition
of civil or military power towards putting down
popular tumult, has guarded against every species
of haste, inadvertence, or vio!ence in the appliewion of
those powers. In this case every article of these pre-
cautions has her,. violated.

It is perhaps questionable whether the attack was
not began by the military—it is quite clear•t)at some
provocation was given by them, and it is not less clear
that the death of the subject took place at a moment
when the danger to the soldier• had altnolt entirely
ceased, and teat the man shot was unoffending at the
time, and remote from the real point whence the
:slack by missiles against the soldiery bad proceeded.
We urge these facts, simply to shew to what an admis-
sion of such a principle as that laid down by the
Coroner may lead, by what it has led to. An inno-
cent aims may be killed at a distance from the scene
of tumult, may his death be justified'by a previous and
remote riot. Such indeed is the fact and.,the inter-
pretation. Now such a doctrine we should Lope no
second man can be found to maintain.

Throughout the whole of this ill-fated proceeding
we have attributed the evil to the Government, and
it still appears to us that it bas all originated i►► the
want of information and foresight relative to the de-
sign, and in the deficiency of stseatts for the execution
of t; at design, respecting the Queen's funeral. %n-
-thing can have been more mean, unworthy, ill cot-
ducted, and unpopular than the whole train of plans
and results relating to this affair. That decorum has
been violated, general feeling outraged, and particu-
lar injury committed, there can be no question ; and
in our minds there is as little, that all these conse-
quences are the result of a weak and violent thouzli
of a timid policy. This transaction, like must of the
other acts of the present servants of the Crown, de-
clares their entire inability to direct the affairs of a
great country. We should be exceedinzly sorry to
see punishment alight on the heads of the military,
who seem to have acted inadvertently, it is true, but
probably to the belt of their judgment. Even the
unknown officer who is sworn to have been the actual
author of lloney's death (for we aetplit Lieut. Gorr)
was probably under the influence of some trepidation
or some infirmity at the moment, and di.l -ot intend
the perpetration of such an act. We should therefor;
lament tam see a man so sircumstanced, made to sutler
fur an offence which may be he called involuntary.
But we trust, that though the comparatively innocent
instrument shall he permitted to escapi.—the public
odium, the seve►est condemnation a pohlic Wan can
suffer, will light upon the heads of those wh.► issued
orders that have nut only hail so laat-ntahle a termiva-
ti•-n, hut n Bich front their effects there can be no he-
.sitation in pronouncin x, were repug.tmit to the spirit
if not to the letter ur the British CUUStitUiioll, and

PRICE SEVEN PENCE.

which call for the punishment of their real authors by
the most solemn proceedings before the highest Mim-
esis of the country.-
Sioce writing the above, we have received the
Coroner's verdict, which exhibits a striking proof of
the principles we have laid down, as well as of the
lenient and conscientious spirit of the Jury. It woul I
certainly be difficult to reconcile facts so positivel
sworn to by so many witnesses, viz. that an officer de-
liberately fired at a man standing inoffensively apart
from the tumult, with so merciful an interpretati4u
upon other principles than those we hare recited ; but
we hope the verdict is sufficiently stippg, (particular-
ly when coupled with that in the case of Francis,) t.►
awaken the attention of the country to the palpable
violation of the spirit of the Constitution thus cum-
milted.