The Sun. — 1842-04-11 (London, England)

TORY OPPRESSION JN BATH.  TO THE EDITOR OF THE SUN. Slit, —I take the oppOrtunity, through the medium of your widely circulated paper, of exposing as heartless a proceeding on the part of some of the Bath Conservatives, as ever was conceived and perpetrated by man. It is of course well known how signal was the defeat sustained by this party at the last election, but it is probably not in the knowledge of any save the inhabitants of this place, that on that occasion numerous bands of navigators, from the neighbouring railway, were hired for the express purpose of contending with the Liberals, and of making themselves generally useful to the Blues, or Conservatives, by whom they were fed and paid. On the day of the nomination some fearful outrages were committed by these men, who in large bodies endeavoured to disturb the proceedings of the day : in this they were defeated, and the result of the nomination was most decisively in favour of the Liberal Candidates. In the evening of that day (28th June last) one of the Liberal voters, in passing down Avon-street, was savagely attacked, and almost murdered, by a party of these men, who immediately afterwards retreated into a low publichouse close by, called the Pig and Whistle : the alarm having been given, a party of the Liberals immediately came to the rescue of the injured man, and finding out to what house his landlordassailers to turn had retreated, themtreate outd,th : thiseyw h went to e d troiftu,saend demanded of the to do, at the same' time denying that any of the Blues were there ; upon this the Liberals burst open the door, but not being enabled to get at uil their opponents, who contrived to make their escape, left the house, and as may have been expestertaetde,snoon aeh t without eoxfprheasysiiin,gg htheerierthaengdeirstubrybbanreeaekeinde breaking most of the windowwseirne the apprehended,bd building; A few days after this, fifteen of the Liberals, supposed to pa andhav taken e beenken presentbefore the on Baththe i‘ f aboveae occasion, begun to demolish the Pig and Whistle. The case of the complainantearefnl e examination nfautl oyn investigated, several ag: _ e,trates came to the conclusion that there were no grounds for supporting the capital charge of felony for beginning to demolish, but coinand days, after the tient and a most mated the parties to take their trial for " a riot," at the then next borough quarter sessions, at the same time taking bail for their due appearance. The prosecutor, not satisfied with this, proceeded to the County Assizes in August last, and there presented a bill to the Grand tJou rdye m( which at that time "beginning tlish," ahne yo fffoeunnetel found) fur ht hies of aagnadi nw ao punishable with death. Upon the bill being found, these poor fellows (most of them in the humblest circumstances) were again taken into custody; some of them, after an expensive application to a Judge in London, were admitted to bail ; others, from their poverty, were unable to procure this advantage, and were in consequence confined in gaol from last August to the assizes which are just over. Upon the indictment coming on for trial, a legal objection was taken on behalf of the prisoners to its sufficiency—the objection ultimately prevailed. Up goes another bill for the felony ("beginning to-demolish") which the Grand Jury, upon the evidence alone of the prosecution, found. The men, twelve in number, were then put upon their trial, and the case broke down in its infancy. It appeared clear upon the evidence that the prisoners never had any intention whatever of demolishing the house, and so the Judge stated to the Jury, who, without calling upon the prisoners for their defence, immediately acquitted them. Nothing could more plainly show the sense in which the Learned Judge viewed these proceedings, than his refusing to allow the prosecutor a large portion of his expenses; which, however, will dJubtless be paid by the Conservative Association, who are, beyond a doubt, at the bottom of the whole proceedings. I am, Sir, yours, &e. A