Page images
PDF
EPUB

The following were refpited cafe; but it would be dangerous upon the report, viz. Jofeph Mar- to overturn this long-established quis, James Buckley, Wm. Avery, practice. Francis Mockford, Thomas Haycock, John Burgess, and Theophilus Brown.

A reward having been offered by Government for the apprehenfion and conviction of any rioters, a question arofe, Whether perfons interested in the conviction of the criminals were admiffible as evidences against them? Which queftion was fubmitted to the opinion of the twelve judges, who unanimoufly agreed, that the teftimony of witneffes claiming reward is admiffible.

The general rule of law is, not to admit witneffes to give evidence, who, by the ties of affection, or from the motives of intereft, are likely to be under undue inAluence. But, fay the judges, there are cafes of neceflity that require a departure from this rule. Thus, in cafes of robbery, where not only reftitution of goods ftolen, but the title to the parliamentary reward, depend on the conviction of the criminals, it has never been held that fuch intereft fhould operate to deftroy the competency of the evidence: if it did, hardly any highway man could ever be convicted. So witneffes entitled to rewards from the bank, the poft-office, and other offices, have univerfally been held competent. Nor can any danger be apprehended to the innocent from this practice, fo long as the jury are allowed to exercife their difcretion as to the credibility of witneffes, and may compare their teftimony with that of others, or with circomitances attending almost every

THE fpecial commiffion of oyer and terminer and gaol delivery, in and for the county of Surry, for the trial of the rioters, was opened on the 10th of July, at St. Margaret's Hill, before Lord Chief Juftice Loughborough, Sir Henry Gould, Sir James Eyre, and Francis Buller, Efq. After the commiffion was opened, Lord Loughborough delivered his charge to the grand jury, of which the Hon. George Onflow was fore

man.

This charge having been the topic of much converfation, we fhall fubmit it to the judgment of our readers. The opinions of men refpecting the legal propriety of it have been various: as a piece of oratory it has been admired; but its tendency to influence and di rect the jury, and inflame their paffions against men, who ought all to have been fuppofed innocent till found guilty by their country, has been generally spoken of in terms of indignation, by those who are jealous of the rights of humanity.

Gentlemen of the Grand Jury,

IF you are come here totally ftrangers to the tranfactions which have lately paffed in this neighbourhood, or if it were poflible for any of you, who were not witnefes of them, not to have heard of the devaftations that have been committed, the remnants of the flames which have been lately blazing in fo many parts of the metropolis, and which must have [S] 3 prefented

profented them felves to you, in your way to this place, will have fufficiently declared the occafion for which you are called together.

His majefty's paternal care for the welfare of all his fubjects, would not permit him to fuffer offences fo daring and fo enormous to remain longer unexamined, than was legally neceffary to convene a jury to enter upon the enquiry.

The commiffion under which you are affembled extends only to crimes of high treafon, or of felony, charged upon perfons .now detained in the common gaol of this county, or who fhail be detained therein between the prefent time and the period at which the commiffion will expire. It was not thought proper to blend the common business of an affize, and the examination of thofe offences, to the commiffion of which, the frailty of human nature is but too liable, with crimes of fo deep a guilt, and fo much above the ordinary pitch of human wickednefs as those which will come under your confideration.

The general circumstances. under which thofe crimes were committed, are of too great and fhameful notoriety, to require a minute defcription; but for your information, Gentlemen, whofe duty it will be to confider the nature and quality of the charges imputed to fuch offenders as will be brought before you, it will be neceffary to confider the feveral parts of thofe charges, and to obferve the connection of those parts with the whole, always applying the circumftances to the

particular cafe under confideration.

I therefore think it an effential part of my duty to lay before you, in one general view, a fhort account of thofe dangers from which this kingdom has been lately delivered. I ufe this expreffion, becaufe it will clearly appear that the mifchief devised was not the deftruction of the lives or fortunes of individuals, or of any defcription of men-no partial evil-but that the blow, which it has pleafed Providence to avert, was aimed at the credit, the government, and the very being and conftitution of this ftate.

The first remarkable circumftance to be attended to, and which naturally demands our notice earlieft of any, is a vaft concourfe of perfons affembled in St. George's Fields on the 2d of June, called together by a public advertisement, (figned in the name of a perfon calling himself the Prefident of an affociation) not only inviting many thoufands to attend, but appointing their enfign of diftinction, and prescribing the order and diftribution of their march in different columns to the place of their destination. Charity induces one to believe, that in fuch a number, there were many went unwarily, and unconfcious of any evil intended; but credulity in the extreme can fcarcely induce any man to doubt, that fome there were who forefaw, who intended, and who had practifed to accomplish the purposes which enfued.

A very short time difclofed that one of the purposes which this multitude was collected to ef

fectuate

fectuate, was to overawe the legiflature, to influence their deliberations, and obtain the alteration of a law, by force and numbers.

A petition was to be prefented to the Houfe of Commons, for the repeal of an act, in which the petitioners had no special interest.

[His lordship here laid down. the right of the fubject to petition. His doctrine upon this head was liberal and manly, his language clear, ftrong, and emphatical.]

To petition for the paling or repeal of any act (faid his lordship) is the undoubted inherent birthright of every British Jubject; but - under the name and colour of petitioning, to affume command, and to dictate to the legislature, is the annihilation of all order and government. Fatal experience had fhewn the mifchief of tumultuous petitioning, in the courfe of that conteft, in the reign of Charles the First, which ended in the overthrow of the monarchy, and the destruction of the coflitution; and one of the first laws after the restoration of legal government, was a ftatute paffed in the 13th year of Charles II. ch. 5. enacting, that no petition to the king, or either houfe of parliament, for alteration of matters eftablished by law in church or ftate, (unless the matter thereof be approved by three juftices, or the grand jury of the county) fhall be figned by more than twenty names, or delivered by more than ten perfons.

In oppofition to this law, the petition in queftion was figned and delivered by many thoufands; and in defiance of principles more antient and more important than

any pofitive regulations upon the fubject of petitioning, the defire. of that petition was to be effected by the terror of the multitude, that accompanied it through the ftreets, claffed, arranged, and diflinguifhed as directed by the advertisement.

How the leaders of that multitude demeaned themfelves, what was the conduct of the crowd to the members of both houfes of parliament, it is not my intention to ftate. I purpofely avoid itating thefe things, becaufe at the fame time that I point out the general complexion of the tranfaction, and relate general facts that are unfortunately too public and notorious, I choofe to avoid every circumftance that may have a direct and immediate relation to particular perfons. My purpofe is to inform, not to prejudice or inflame. For this reafon I feel myself obliged to pafs over in filence all fuch circumftances as cannot, and as ought not to be treated of or expreffed but in ftronger language, and in more indignant terms than I choose at prefent to employ. Towards the evening, the two houfes of parliament were releafed from the itate in which they had been held for feveral hours. The crowd feemed to difperfe. Many of the perfons fo affembled, it is not to be doubted, retired to their dwellings, but fome more defperate and active remained to convince the legislature, that the menaces with which they had invaded the ears of all who met them in the treets, were not fruitless; that they had not abandoned their purpofe, but meant to carry it into full execution. When night fell,

[S] 4

the

the houses of two foreign minifters, in amity with his majefty, were attacked, and their chapels plundered and set on fire.

If fuch an outrage had been committed on one of our public minifters, refident in any of thofe countries the most fuperftitious and bigotted to its established religion, what reproach would it not have caft upon that country? What indignation and abhorrence would it not have justly excited in our breasts? Upon this tolerant and enlightened land, has that reproach been brought!

Upon the 3d of June there was a feeming quiet, a very memorable circumflance! for fudden tumults when they fubfide are over. To revive a temult, evinces fomething of a fettled influence, and fomething fo like defign, that it is impoffible for the moft candid mind not to conceive that there lies at the bottom a preconcerted, fettled plan of operation. Sunday, the next day, a day fet apart by the laws of God and man as a day of reft, and as a day not to be vioJated even by the labours of honeft induftry; in broad fun-fhine, buildings and private houfes in Moorfields were attacked and entered, and the furniture deliberately brought out and confumed by bonfires. And all this was done in the view of patient magiArates!

[ocr errors]

S me magiftrates and fome individuals had indeed in the beginning of the difturbances exerted themfelves, and feveral who had been active in the demolition of the ambaffadors houfes had been committed. On Monday the mob, who had not been re

fifted, but had proceeded with a fuccefs which had increafed their impetuofity, thought it necessary to fhew that the law fhould not be exercised with impunity on delinquents like themselves. It was the bufinefs of Monday to destroy the houses of the magiftrates, and other perfons who had been inftrumental in apprehending them: but thefe outrages, great as they were, fell far fhort of those committed on the Tuesday and Wednefday, which will ever remain a ftain on our annals. Fresh infults of the most daring and aggravated nature, were offered to parliament, and every one, who was in London at the time, muft remember, that it bore the appearance of a town taken by ftorm; every quarter was alarmed; neither age, nor fex, nor eminence of ftation, nor fanctity of character, nor even an humble though honeft obfcurity, were any protection against the malevolent fury and deftructive rage of the lowest and worst of men.

But it was not against indivi duals alone, that their operations were now directed. What has ever been in all ages, and in all countries, the last effort of the most defperate confpirators, was now their object. The jails were attacked, the felons releasedmen whofe lives their crimes had forfeited to the juftice of the law, were fet loofe to join their impious hands in the work.

The city was fired in different parts. The flames were kindled in the houfes most likely to spread the conflagration to diftant quarters, the diftillers, and other places, where the inftruments of

trade

trade upon the premises were fure to afford the largest quantity of combustible matter! And in the midst of this horror and confufion, in order more effectually to prevent the extinguishing of the flames, an attempt to cut off the New River water, and an attack on the credit of the kingdom, by an attempt against the Bank of England, were made, Both thefe attempts were defeated, providentially defeated; but they were made under circumftances which evince that they were intended to be effectual, and which increafe the fatisfaction and the gratitude to Providence that every man muft feel, when he recollects the fortunate circumftance of their having been deferred till that stage of the bufinefs.

In four days, by the incredible activity of this band of furies parading the streets of the metropolis with flaming torches, feventytwo private houfes and four public gaols were deftroyed, one of them the county gaol, and that built in fuch a manner as to justify the idea, that it was impregnable to an armed force. Religion, the facred name of religion, and of that pureft and moft peaceable fyftem of chriftianity, the PROTESTANT CHURCH, was made the profane pretext for, affaulting the government, trampling upon the laws of the country, and violating the first great precept of their duty to God and to their neighbour, - the pretext only; for there is not, I am fure, in Europe, a man fo weak, fo uncandid, or fo unjust to the character of the reformed church, as to believe, that any religious mo

tive could by any perverfion of human reafon induce men to attack the magiftrates, release felons, deftroy the fource of public credit, and lay in afhes the capital of the PROTESTANT FAITH!

I have now related to you the rife and progrefs of that calamity from which, by the bleffing of Providence upon his Majesty's efforts for our prefervation, this kingdom hath been delivered-a fituation unparalleled in the history of our country. -no commotion ever having had a more defperate and more fatal intention. It now remains to ftate to you what parts of this fubject will more directly call for your attention; and as it is evident from what I have faid, that among the number of perfons whofe cafes will be fubmitted to your confideration, there may be fone who are accufed with the guilt of high treafon, it will be neceflary and proper to ftate the

w with refpect to thofe fpecies of treafon under which fome of the cafes may probably fall, There are two fpecies of treafon appli, cable. To imagine or compafs the death of our fovereign lord the king, is high treafon. To levy war against the king within the realm, is alfo high treafon.

The first, that of compaffing the death of the king, must be demonftrated by fome overt act, as the means to effect the purpofe of the heart; the fact of levying war is an overt act of this fpecies of treafon, but it is also a distinc fpccies of treafon. And as the prefent occafion calls more immediately for it, I mult flate to you more fully, in what that treafon may confiit.

« PreviousContinue »