The Sun. — 1802-11-29 (London, England)

CRIMINAL INFORMATION.  Mr. GARROW moved for leave to file a criminal Information against Mr. James Ridgway, a Bookseller, in this town, for publishing what Mr. GAR kow said was the most dangerous ,and scandalous libel, on which the Court had, for a long time, been called upon to animadvert. He moved this at the • desire of most respedable persons, the Magi_ strafes of the County of Gloucester, who felt it their deity to bring this most infamous calumny be.. fore the Court. It was a pamphlet called "An Address to the People of Great Britain and Ireland, .occasioned by the alarming System of murderous Imprisonment adopted in Middlesex, Essex, Salop, Nottingham, York, Dorset, Gloucester, &c." Mr. Ridgway had, in this Case, made himself, not the cold-blooded Printer, as emphatically said the other day by my Lord Chief Justice, but he had made himself the cold-blooded Publisher, and, for the present purpose, the Author of this pamphlet, for, on application to Mr. Ridgway to learn who the author was?--be answered, " That the author did not chase to be known." He•would not go through ,thi's pamphlet, but, seed certain passages of it, which he did.; by which it appeared that the practices of the County Gaol of Gloucester were remarkable for inhumanity, which, Mr. GARRO'W said, was an- entire, calumny, for that the condud o f that Gaol was most exemplary ; so tender was it, that no priSoner was there brought to the Bar in irons, nor any one at all fettered within the prison, except where, by his own violence, he had made it necessary for the general safety of the prison. He said also, that Mr. Cunningham, who was the keeper of this prison, was a perfett -pattern of humanity, and yet the whole condud of the prison under his care, had been treated as if it had been the most inhu. man. The pamphlet referred to some of the. proceedings of the Me 'Middlesex Eledion, and of the merits and demerits, of the respeElive Candidates, hut as that was a subjea about to be discussed in another place, he should not say any more upon it now, the more especially as the Court was likely to have hereafter some portion of its time painfully oc. cupied with some topics arising out of that transaction. He then read some eXtrafts out of the pamphlet in question, which we shall notquote after which, he said that he did not move this on behalf of the Public at large, but only on the instrudion of the Magistrates of the County of Gloucester, who thought it their duty not to let this publication pass over in silence.—Rule to chew cause granted.  Mr. Serjeant BEST moved for-leave to file a criminal Information'againkt James Fraser and William Spencer, Esquires, two Justices of the Peace for, the County of Middlesex, and Mr. W. Punier,, an Apo. thecary in London, upon an affidavit which charged these two Magistrates with having corruptly appointql this gentleman .to the office Of a Surveyor of the -highway of the parish of Heston, near iloun. slow, and of loWering the rate of one person from Sol: to 401. for- the purpose of- converting a private road into a public one, and to throw the burden of keeping it in repair On the county at large, instead of its being repaired by Mr. Fraser, for the convenience of the occupation of 'whose ,dwelling, the road was made. Charging also, that these Gentlemen improperly sat on the Bench, while an appeal, upon this sublet took place at' the Session ; the particulars Of which we do not enter into in the present stage of ,the proceeding, which is ex park.--Rule to shew cause granted.