The Sun. — 1842-09-05 (London, England)

TRIAL OF THE RIOTERS. NORTHERN CIRCUIT—York, Sept. 2. Lord Denman and Mr. Justice Maule are energetically engaged in clearing the heavy " supplemental calendar." Every case is but an echo of the preceding. The major portion of the prisoners were apprehended among the rioters. The unfortunate men are arraigned by the dozen or the score, and in but a few cases are there acquittals, where perhaps the evidence of identity seems questionable, or where witnesses are produced, to substantiate what is the commonly urged defence—viz., an accidental or involuntary entanglement in the crowd. A batch of near twenty were tried at one time by Lord Denman this morning (some of them defended by Mr. Wilkins) for intimidating by tumultuous proceedings in Leeds. The evidence being clearly conclusive, Mr. WILKINs, on the part of his clients, said he regretted he had not seen the depositions previously to the trial. Had he done so, he should certainly have advised them to retract the plea of " Not Guilty," for he had made up his mind all through these cases (in many of which he defended) never to advisedly aggravate the offence of a prisoner by an unjustifiable allegation of innocence. It was natural, looking at the crowds of unhappy men who were brought to the bar, to feel the deepest indignation against those who, for purposes of mere selfish vanity or for darker designs of faction, had gone to the hovels of ignorance and poverty, and endeavoured, too successfully, to urge men on to acts of violence and lawlessness, the bitter fruits of which would be long lamented in many a family, and would be sorely felt through the whole country. Nor could too much anger be felt at conduct so cowardly and cruel, when it was pursued, as it had been (unless his information deceived him), by men occupying the station of Magistrates, who had dared thus to excite the people against the laws, simply because, in the bigotry of so-called " Liberalism," the laws did not suit their notions. Lord DENMAN here interrupting, said—Mr. Wilkins, I hardly think that I ought to hear that said— that Magistrates have incited the people to insurrection ! Besides, this question is not relevant to the matter on inquiry. Witnesses were then called, who gate the prisoners good characters--one or two of them having been teachers in Sunday schools.  During Mr. Wilkins's address most of the prisoners sobbed with grief, and seemed heartily sorry for their folly. • Lord DENMAN, in addressing the Jury, said it *as of the utmost importance that all men, especially those in the situation of the prisoners, should clearly understand, that by the law of England any man voluntarily lending—even if by presence only—his sanction and support to riotous and unlawful mobs, was guilty of a participation in the offences in which • they were involved. For it was the very numbers which gave force and invested with terror these illegal assemblies ; and each individual present, and silently aiding and abetting in their lawlessness, was as $ private in a large army of rioters carrying the terror and the violence of invasion into peaceably disposed districts of her Majesty's dominions. Still, however, on the part of the people of this country, he must assert the right of free discussion, and of peaceable statement of grievances. But there was a very wide difference between meeting for the purposes of peaceable discussion, or of petitioning the Sovereign and the Parliament—there was a wide difference between this and assembling riotously, and to the terror of the peaceable subjects of her Majesty, and with the view of committing acts grossly illegal and tyrannical. Nor was it fair or just to trace to perfectly legal and constitutional discussion all the unlawful acts which might thereafter be committed. Unfortunately, it was matter for astonishment and lamentation that, after all that had been done to enlighten and educate the people, and, he would fearlessly add, to improve their condition and promote their comforts, there should be found in this country men, by the hundred and the thousand, ready to assemble together for the absurd, the insane, the suicidal purpose of throwing men in their own circumstances out of employment, and thus increasing terribly the distress which unhappily existed. The Judges would certainly endeavour to give full effect to every circumstance of palliation ; but the monstrous and unheard-of tyranny of preventing' men from working who were willingly engaged in work, must be met with condemnation ; and it WO far from mitigation—it was aggravation—that men of education and of religious profession should have taken a share in these proceedings, which might have produced bloodshed. The prisoners were convicted. In the next case, about a dozen men were arraigned for attempting to stop works near Leeds, and the evidence was similarly conclusive. Lord DENMAN, in summing up, said, in the present case two of the men had asked for money to depart and were it not that the firmness of the proprietor 01, the works had resisted the demand, they would no have been taking their trial, not for misdemeanour, but for felony of a most serious nature. The Jury convicted all but one, recommending several to mercy.—The sentences were deferred. Mr. S. Wortley and Mr. Baines, with Mr. Pollock/ prosecute. _