The Statesman.
London, England, 1815-04-10 00:00:00

OLD BAILEY, AriertB:
—..-- .
RIOTS IN 13Ultt.INGTON•STREET.
lama Ripley (butler), Richard lltrrlort. Robert
Herber[, and Richard Wathews ( rillier..).- weer
I charged with the wilful murder of Jane Wave's, on
1 the 7th of March lasts
There was no Counsel for the prosecution ; for
the Prisoners the Attorney-General, Mr. Serjeant
Best, Mr. Gamey, and. Mr. Knapp. Mr. ',itch-
! field, the Solicitdr of the Treasury, conducted the
I defence. /
Mr. 'Thompson, a surgeon, proved that the de-
ceased was brought to St. George's Hospital ; she
lived twelve days. Her death we( occasioned by a
wound on the side of the head—au abscess being
formed on the brain.
Mr. Robinson stated, that while in the Hooey, of
Commons on Tuesday nigf,t, his house in Burling-
ton-street hod been forcibly entered by the mob.—
, He wrote from the House of Commons to the Secre-
tary of State, to request some protection might be
sent to his house. Believed some military had been
sent previous to his writing. On the folinwitig
, 1 morning the prisoner Ripley told witness of the vie.
lence which had been done and threatened.
I The evidence for the prosecution was so much the
same as that which we before derailed, that it is not
necessary to detail it. The defence set op by the
1 Prisoners contains n law •rgnment of so much gene.
ral interest, as it applies to all such cases, and serves
to show in what way, and how far resistance, its
i cases of commotion, is considered justifiable by law,
!that we feel it our duty to insert it at length.
The Prisoners being called upon for their defence,
the following was handed into Court by .T: Ripley t
66 MAY IT mi:4se YOUR LORDSHIPS,. GCNTLI.
MEN OE THE JURY,
'6 My Counsel being prevented by the law front
either rolngerving on the evidence offered against me,
or of laying my defence before you, I am obliged to
have recourse to this mode of defending myself
against a charge of wilful murder. Considering the
painful situation in which I stand, the discussion
that our case has undergone out of this Court, and
the various publications respecting it which have
lately been most industriously circulated through
this town; I am sore you will pardon my requesting
you to dismiss from your minds whatever )on may
have read or- heard of this transaction before you
cline into Court; and that you will give your ver-
dict on the evidence that you shall this day hear.—
Let me also intreat of you to separate.ourvase from
a subject that has lately been the topic of much dis.
cussion, and on which there has been a great dif.
ferenre of opinion. Neither I nor my fellow-pri-
soners had any thing to do with 'the passing of the
Corn Law—we were ordered to defend a house, the
felonious destruction of which had been attempted,
and we are brought here to answer with our lives,
because we have faithfully discharged the trust com-
mitted to our care, and the duty imposed upon us.
Our defence rests on general principles; yea, the
Jury, and every member of the certimenity, have an
equal interest with me and my fellow.prisoners in
supporting these principles. If these principles are
broken in upon or brought into doubt, the security
of property is destroyed, and the peaceable and
well-disposed members of society wM at all times be
at the mercy of an enraged and fertontimpoliee.
",The crime of murder consicts,as the language of
the record itself informs you, in the killing a fellow-
creature
with malice aforethought; I learn, Weed,
that besides that direct malice against an invitee:lost,
which is made out by direct proof, and is celled •x-
-press malice, the law, in certain cases, peewees- the
existence of malice, end describes it by the term of
implied malice. From express malice ogresses most
be entirely free; we could by no possibility have had
any knowledge of malice against, or dispoSition to
injure, either the unfortunate deceased, or any other
persons that were before Mr. Robinson's house on
the night when she unhappily met her death. I
think 1 can with equal clearness sh" you, that there
is no pretence for saying there Wits any implied
malice.

'• The law which Ism about to state, cannot hat be
familiar to the Learned Judges ; bat I trust I shalt
be forgiven in shortly bringing it under their review
for your information, in the humble hope that it will
receive their Lordships' sanction, and desiring only,
that as far as it is sanctioned by them, it may be
acted upon by you in the decision of our case.
66 I submit, that every man is justified in the use
of arms in the defence of his life, or protection of
his own property, or that of a fellow-subject, to
whose assistance he is called against the commission
of a felonious attack. It is not necessary to delay
the use of arms till the immediate intention to make
such attack be manifested by some open act. This
principle of law is bottomed in our nature, and is
recognized by that sacred Act which establishes the
liberty of our country. In the Bill of Rights it is
expressly declared, 'that the subjects of this country
may have arms for their defence suitable to their con-
ditions.'— Lord Chief Justice Hale, one of the most
learned and humane Judges that ever sat in West.
minster Hall, says, ' If A had attempted a burglary
upon the house of B, with the intent to steal, or to
kill him, or had attempted to burn the house of B,
if B, or any of his servants, or any within the house,
had shot and killed A, this' had not been so much as
a felony, nor had he forfeited ought for it, for his
house is his castle of defence, and, therefore, he
may justify assembling persons for the safeguard of
his hoose.'— The ease alleged against us, if made cut
in fact, comes completely within the doctrine of
Lord Hale, as the law stood with regard to the
breaking of houses in his time. After the house had
been broken, in the manner in which it was during
the continuance of this riot, after the threats uttered
against Mr. Robinson and his family, what could
those who were in the house expect, but that if the
populace succeeded in forcing admission, they would
kill those whom they (wind in it, who
enured to resist them ? Bat siece Lord
the law has made it a capital felony rut
riotously and tutnultooosly resembled
begin to demolish or pull dews any (11
Succeeding writers haves with universal
cirri. d the doctrine' of Lord Hale beyond
burglary (the only felonious breaking
known in his time), to any felony committed
or in any house. Mr. Justice Foster -
injured party may repel force by force,

,

.~

~~4

10 had endea-
eel Hale wrote,
)r ins persona
- -
d together, to
Inelliag-hou%e.
it appreba.iou,
and the case of
ig of a bouse
mined against
er says, 6 The
, in defences