Edwardsville spectator. [volume] (Edwardsville, Ill.) 1819-1826, 1819-12-25
EOREIGN.

Clayton Square, at which Lord Seftor
presided, the following petition was car
ried amid loud acclamations.
TO His Royal Highness the Prince Re
gent.
May it please your Royal Highness,
The undersigned inhabitants of the
town anG neighborhood of Liverpool
humbly beg leave to approach your Roy
al Highness to direct your most vigilant
attention to the transactions that have ia.
ken place at Manchester on and sub
sequently to the 10th of August last
transactions, which, in the view of your
petitioners, have character of violence
and outrage unknown to the modern pc
RODS of British history, and with respect
20 which they believe, from the answer
which your Royal Highness was lately
advised to give to the Common Council
OF London, that the full truth has not yet
been suffered to reach the throne.
Or the expedience of holding public
meeting constituted like that which took
place at Manchester on the 10th of Au-
gust, many of your petitioners entertain
doubts: but that it was legally convened
they are all convinced; and in this opin-
ion they are confirmed by the fact, that a
meeting intended previously to be held
IN that town, having been declared illegal
by the magistrates, was therefore aban-
doned; but no such declaration was
made by the constituted authorities as to
lbe meeting of the 9th.
And yet the meeting in question was
dispersed by an armed force, who fell
upon an unsuspecting multitude, and in
discriminatory killed and wounded spe-
Glal constables and the populace, man,
woman, and child.
This armed force was sent into the
assembled multitude, for the avowed
purpose of executing warrant against
certain individuals. Your petitioners
would humbly submit it as an important
subject for your Royal Highness' con-
sideration, thatpreviously to this obvious
iy perilous measure, no trial was made
whether the civil power was competent
70 the arrest of the accused; that blood
was drawn before the cavalry penetrated
the crowd; and that when the parties
accused had quietly surrendered them
selves, the onset was continued on the
meeting; the consequence of which has
been, that nearly four hundred of his
maJesty's people have been wounded,
many OF them severely, and that six have
died of the wounds which were then in
flicted on them.
Atrocious as these proceedings appear
10 your petitioners to be, they humbly
beg leave to represent to your Royal
Highness, that their feelings of sorrow
and indignation on this occasion are ag-
graved by the systematic opposition to
inquiry into them, which seems to have
been entered into by certain of the con-
Stituted authorities in this country. Your
petitioners take this method of informing
your Royal Highness that inquests on
the dead have been held without ade-
quate inquiry; that attempts have been
made to exclude the public from the
coroner's court; that when witnesses
have attended to bear testimony to the
share which individuals have had in the
proceedings of the 10th August, an in
quest has been twice adjourned, to the
great hindrance of justice; that the ma
gistrates of Manchester have refused to |
take the dispositions against persons ac-
cused of feloniously cutting and stabbing,
and that the grand jury of the county
has, as your petitioners have been in
formed, thrown out several bills prefer
red against certain of the Manchester
Yeomanry, when supported by the oaths
OF the wounded and other witnesses.
With these facts before them, your Pc
titioners cannot but feel indignant at the
conduct of your Royal Highness' minis
tiers, who, upon the mere report of par
ties deeply implicated in those transac-
tons, and without iastituting any inquiry,
profess to have procured from your
Royal Highness an approval of transact
tons, which we are persuaded, when
fully developed, will be found to be alb
horrent to the feelings of every illus
trious descendant of the house of Bruns-
wick.
Impressed by these considerations,
your petitioners 'humbly but earnestly
implore your Royal Highness, either by
your parliament for the |
purpose of immediate investigation, or
by any other such means as may sug-
gest themselves to your Royal Highness'
speedily to institute strict and
efficient inquiry into the occurrences
which took place at Manchester, on and
subsequent to the 10th August last; and
this inquiry, they are persuaded, can
lane soothe the reeentnoant ,rJ oIIo,,