The Statesman.
London, England, 1820-04-05 00:00:00

Til E sTATFAMAN,

'antimatter of which wax, that the prisoners hail con-
spired to go, and emote others of the liege 'objects of
the late King to go, armed to a meeting fur the purpose
of hindering and obstructitig the Magistrates and peace-
Inflows in the execution of their dotiett. It also charged
then, a itli assembling an unlawful meeting, armed with
swords, pikes, stares, fire-arms, are., and of attending
at the same, to the terror of the liege subjects of the
' late King. on the 15th November last, at Habergan
ravel, its the county of Lancaster.
:tar. Slcanuitra stated the caae to the Jury. He said,
he should not enter into aity extraneous matter to show
that the collect% of those who convened the meeting
were unlawful, or that they intruded to adopt proceed-
ings different from what they professed. It would be
quite sutlicieut fur his purpose to rely on the eircutu-
t stance, that the people went to this meeting armed.
t That circumstance atone was quite sufficient to consti-
Itute it an utilae ful meeting, whatever might be its
avowed or intended object. tie then proceeded to state
the evidence he sl hi adduce to ha the several de-
fentlatits with the conspiracy charged in the indictment.
, The tiro witness called was
1 W. Chaffer, examined by Mr. Itatsm.—lle stated that
he was a constable of Burnley ; that a notice of meeting
Lad been placarded for the nth of November, but it a as
afterwards advertises' for the 15th ; that in the forenoon
of that day large parties arrived at Burnley, preceded
by wen sic with banners, and proceeded through the
town, to the phter of meeting, a here hustings were
erected; fur the speakera; that as they were passing
through the town, Culotte! Hargreaves, who was on ,
horseback, dashed among the crowd, and seized a stall
which appeared to have bren prepared for a pike- I
handle, and brought it away without opposition. Ile sup-
posed the numbers assembled to amount to 2,0011 ur
.10,000. There were eighteen flags and three caps of '
liberty.
Cruss-examisied by Mr. WiLuams.—He noticed se-
veral of the inscriptions on the flags : on one was
" Keep w:!.lkin compass( another was "Order, order!"
Some of Ago appeared to he religious usuttos, such as
" .% false balance is an abomination to the Lord, but a
just weight is his delight."
Richartii !etcher stated, that he was in company with
a man slang. Wilmot; be saw several of the people with
stayee, and on their arriving at the ground they picked
out the dirt front the holes which were made to receite
,'the pikezlivatis. lie sass several persona with pike-leads
, t ercretell under their coat-sleeves, and under their breasts.
Ile immediately left Hie field to inform the slagistrates.
He returned soon after, Ulla heard a cry, " the soldiers
are coining,- whereupon a num!. •r of people pulled out
' their pike-hea•is, and nutny of them ti Neil them in the
poles. Ile sass sixty persons pull out their pikes, but
~ cnly eight or till Hs tllllll. Ile also saw twenty other
' persons draw out their pistols: those persons who so
, conducted themselves were near to the hustings.
, i When the alarm had subsided, they replaced their
, weapons in their former concealment. The alarm
• turned out to be false, Knight was not at this time
, I arrived. In about h ill .la hour after this alarm
Knight arrived, and was voted to the chair, whets a cap
of liberty MO ;.1.1e1.11 WI his herd, and hr addressed the
; ' assembly. Ili. davit a good deal on the cormlaiss, and
, lamented that so many persons acre hanged for for-
, gory: atter it liii•li lie read the resolutions, and they
were approved by the meeting. Witness could nut re-
collect the suliaiatice of them. While this was going
, I on, there was a Iltellall alarm 111. st " the soldiers were
i CUinillit." whets ..•% era i of the people again pulled out their
pikes and pistols ; but this also turned out to lie a false
alarm, alien slier agaiii cont•ealeel tltetn. This alarm
caused many i.c,i; le to rim n lien Knight and the other
people on the 1,1.1%6144 called to them to he firto, and
i mot to rim. After linight left the chair, Dewhurst took
; it, and proposed a resolution, " that if Pa.liatneot should
Ipass ally gagging biils, the reformers should rise and
meet on one d.ty." lie said, if they did not, " he should
=call them the greatest slavva upon earth."
; C rocs-e x a iti tied by 51r. t. ti arm a st :eel'. stated est be
; had applied o dine refit pe..ple to wirehair pikes bar the
!Burnley meeting. Or admitted that he had a pistil,
which he hail shown to ilitierent persons, and hail boast-
ed that he was a ell armed ; and ttuulil not swear that he
bad not tl—d the tiu‘ertiment, and wished the reformers
were all as well artste.l as he nos.
William Wilson said that he was a reed-maker, and
lived at Hornier: and after stating the rircumslances
• detailed by the Lit a itile-s, lie omit on to give a snore
detailed account of Knight s speech, and represented
hint to have sai-!, that if the 51ancliester Magistrates
were not brought to justice, there was an end all good
govertimert, and the people had a right to d . latch
a government, or make a new one, or to retttrn to a state
of nature, and lice without one; and he proposed a re-
isolation to oppose the measures of 51imaters, if they
brought into Parliament a:y hills to curtail the liberty
of meeting to discuaa political subjects.
Fross-examineil.---1 lie witness stated be had been in
the habit of attending many meetings, and had given in-
formation to the Magistrates respecting the Blanket
Meeting. That he bail never received any miry for
Isis services, but hid expended a good deal of money in
employing other persons to go round the cuuntry to ob-
tain information. There was now due to him it/. for
actual &deem-es. That he himself had been tried at that
Court for a capital olfenre in the year lolls or 1810. He
had wrote an account of the proceetiissgs, and on the
next slay a more lengthened detail, but neither of which
were produced.
Mr. Samuel Howarth, a surgeon, residing at Burnley,
stated, that he went to the meeting, and was there when
an alarm was given about the soldiers, and then saw one
pistol, hut no pikes. He did not observe any thing par,
ticular in the speech of Knight ; and all that ha could
say in respect to Hewharst was, that he recommended a
subscription to he entered into to parchase neeripapare,
and that the proceedings in Parliament should be closely
Watched. He had some recollection that it wse press
posed, that if Parliament did not redress their wrongs, '
there should be a general rising throughout the king`
dons, but this he could not stale with certainty. That
many of them had sticks, such as they might have pick-
et! up on their way. There was nothing in the appear-
ance of the people, or i• the proceedings of the they,
' that struck hint with any apprehensions of immediate
1. danger, although he considered it might afterwards lead
to serious coosequences.
Several othee witnesses were then examined, corrobo-
rating the testimony of the former witnesses as to the
character of the tweeting; after which
Mary Hoyle was called, who positively swore that '
Wade was the man who pointed the pistol at Col. liar-
g , as describes! by die witness Edmondson.
On cross-examination, she stated, that she was dis-
tantly related to Wade's wife, and that he (Wade) was
nut living with her as he ought to do • and without
waiting for the imiscion to be tint to her, she added, "I
have bad so foul or angry' language with him."
Jobe Oilier proved, that he saw the man draw the
pistol and look at the Colonel, but neither of the prison-
ers was the man ; that he knew Wade before the Ibth
of November, and if lie had been the man he mast have
known him.
A woman, named Hanson, proved that she saw the
Reformers after the meeting was over, several of them
heariag pike-stalls like umbrellas: she also stated, that
she saw in a public-boast a pike-stag, half a yard long,
which a man carried in a leather sheath : it was sharp
on huh sides like a razor ; tlie causer wax four incises
long. 1

The prosecutors now produced the placards whirls
announced the meeting, and also the stair seized by Cul.
Hargreaves.
Herr the case for the prosecution closed.
Shortly after four o'clock sir. Wittitsts rose and
addressed the Jute for the itefemilants, in an admirable
speech, which occupied upwards of two hours iii the de-
livery. The Learned Counsel observed, that by tbe cus-
tom and laws of this realm, delivered to us by our an-
cestors, it was the undoubted right and privilege of
Englishmen to assemble together for the purpose of
petitioning Parliament for a redress of grievances. The
law bail imperiled no limit in respell of members, awl no
assembly of the people, however numerous, could be
pronounced illegal on that account. 51r. Williams dwelt
with great force on the circumstance that not one of the
defendants had been brought into force with any of the
persons who were armed, nor was there any evidence to
prove that any of the defendants was acquainted with
the circumstance of there being ant arms whatever at
the meeting. With respect to the charge of the conspi-
racy, the Learned Counsel observed, there had not ap-
peared a single iota of evidence to prove its existence.
nee prosecutor had not even shown that any two of the
defendants had ever seen each other before the 15th
November, when they met WI the hosting.. He aniutail-
verted strongly on the cruelty and injustice whirls the
defendants hatf sustained on brine committed on a charge
of high treason, fur which the prosecutors, by their
conduct, confessed there was no foundation; and ism-
citified in a solemn appeal to the Jury. in widths he con-
jured them to lay aside all feeling of prejudice imbibed
against the defendants, and to hr governed in their ver-
dict solely by the evidence. The defendants were pro-
ceeding to rail witnesses, when the Judge intertensed,
and the Court then adjourned till Mouclay usurning at
nine o'clock.