At the Old Bailey sessions, June, 1780, and at St. Margaret's Hill, under a special commission of oyer and terminer and gaol delivery (July 10th) were tried several persons charged with committing divers outrages which had ensued upon the presentation of the Petition of the Protestant Association. The trials generally are not adapted for insertion in this work, but the following Charge which was delivered by lord Loughborough, C. J. C. B. (afterwards earl of Rosslyn and Lord Chancellor) will not be unacceptable to the reader. print it from the Annual Register of the year.

"Gentlemen of the Grand Jury, "If you are come here totally strangers to the transactions which have lately passed in this neighbourhood, or if it were possible for any of you, who were not witnesses of them, not to have heard of the devastations that have been committed, the remnants of the flames which have been lately blazing in so many parts of the metropolis, and which must have presented themselves to you, in your way to this place, will have sufficiently declared the occasion for which you are called together.

"His majesty's paternal care for the welfare

of all his subjects, would not permit him to suffer offences so daring and so enormous to remain longer unexamined, than was legally necessary to convene a jury to enter upon the enquiry.

"The commission under which you are assembled extends only to crimes of high treason, or of felony, charged upon persons now detained in the common gaol of this county, or who shall be detained therein between the present time and the period at which the commission will expire. It was not thought proper to blend the common business of an assize, and the examination of those offences, to the commission of which the frailty of human nature is but too liable, with crimes of so deep a guilt, and so much above the ordinary pitch of

* Taken in short-hand by Joseph Gurney.

N. B. The following report is from Mr. Gurney's 3d and 4th editions, compared with the report published by Mr. Blanchard, another short-hand writer.

human wickedness as those which will come under your consideration. "The general circumstances under which those crimes were committed, are of too great and shameful notoriety, to require a minute description; but for your information, gentlemen, whose duty it will be to consider the nature and quality of the charges imputed to such offenders as will be brought before you, it will be necessary to consider the several parts of those charges, and to observe the connection of those parts with the whole, always applying the circumstances to the particular case under consideration.

"I therefore think it an essential part of my duty to lay before you, in one general view, a short account of those dangers from which this kingdom has been lately delivered. I use this expression, because it will clearly appear that the mischief devised was-not the destruction of the lives or fortunes of individuals, or of any description of menno partial evil-but that the blow, which it has pleased Providence to avert, was aimed at the credit, the government, and the very being and constitution of this

state.

"The first remarkable circumstance to be attended to, and which naturally demands our notice earliest of any, is a vast concourse of persons assembled in St. George's Fields on the 2d of June, called together by a public advertisement, (signed in the name of a person calling himself the President of an Association) not only inviting many thousands to attend, but appointing their ensign of distinction, and prescribing the order and distribution of their march in different columns to the place of their destination. Charity induces one to believe, that in such a number, there were many went unwarily, and unconscious of any evil intended; but credulity in the extreme can scarcely induce any man to doubt, that some there were who foresaw, who intended, and who had practised to accomplish the purposes which ensued.

"A very short time disclosed that one of the purposes which this multitude was collected to effectuate, was to overawe the legislature, to influence their deliberations, and obtain

the alteration of a law, by force and numbers.

"A petition was to be presented to the House

of Commons, for the repeal of an act, in which the petitioners had no special in

terest.

"[His lordship here laid down the right of the subject to petition. His doctrine upon this head was liberal and manly, his language clear, strong, and emphatical.] "To petition for the passing or repeal of any act (said his lordship) is the undoubted inherent birthright of every British subject; but under the name and colour of petitioning, to assume command, and to dictate to the legislature, is the annihilation of all order and government. Fatal experience had shewn the mischief of tumultuous petitioning, in the course of that contest, in the reign of Charles the first, which ended in the overthrow of the monarchy, and the destruction of the constitution; and one of the first laws after the restoration of legal government, was a statute passed in the 13th year of Charles 2, ch. 5, enacting, that no petition to the king, or either house of parliament, for alteration of matters established by law in church or state, (unless the matter thereof be approved by three justices, or the grand jury of the county) shall be signed by more than twenty names, or delivered by more than ten per

sons.

"In opposition to this law, the petition in question was signed and delivered by many thousands; and in defiance of principles more ancient and more important than any positive regulations upon the subject of petitioning, the desire of that Petition was to be effected by the terror of the multitude that accompanied it through the streets, classed, arranged, and distinguished as directed by the advertisement. "How the leaders of that multitude demean

ed themselves, what was the conduct of the crowd to the members of both Houses of Parliament, it is not my intention to state. I purposely avoid stating these things, because at the same time that I point out the general complexion of the transaction, and relate general facts that are unfortunately too public and notorious, I choose to avoid every circumstance that may have a direct and immediate relation to particular persons. My purpose is to inform, not to prejudice or inflame. For this reason I feel myself obliged to pass over in silence all such circumstances as cannot, and as ought not to be treated of or expressed but in stronger language, and in more indignant terms than I choose at present to employ. Towards the evening, the two Houses of Parliament were released from the state in which they had been held for several hours. The crowd seemed to disperse. Many of the persons so assembled, it is not to be doubted, retired to their dwellings, but

some more desperate and active remained to convince the legislature, that the menaces with which they had invaded the ears of all who met them in the streets, were not fruit'ess; that they had not abandoned their purpose, but meant to carry it into full execution. When night fell, the houses of two foreign ministers in amity with his majesty, were attacked, and their chapels plundered and set on fire.

"If such an outrage had been committed on one of our public ministers, resident in any of those countries the most superstitious and bigotted to its established religion, what reproach would it not have cast 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 seeming quiet, a very memorable circumstance! for sudden tumults, when they subside, are over. To revive a tumult, evinces something of a settled influence, and something so like design, that it is impossible for the most candid mind not to conceive that there lies at the bottom a preconcerted, settled plan of operation. Sunday, the next day, a day set apart by the laws of God and man as a day of rest, and as a day not to be violated even by the labours of honest industry; in broad sun-shine, buildings and private houses in Moorfields were attacked and entered, and the furniture deliberately brought out and consumed by bonfires. And all this was done in the view of patient magistrates!

"Some magistrates and some individuals had indeed in the beginning of the disturbances exerted themselves, and several who had been active in the demolition of the ambassadors' houses had been committed. On Monday the mcb, who had not been resisted, but had proceeded with a success which had increased their impetuosity, thought it necessary to shew that the law should not be exercised with impunity on delinquents like themselves. It was the business of Monday to destroy the houses of the magistrates, and other persons who had been instrumental in apprehending them; but these outrages, great as they were, fell far short of those committed on the Tuesday and Wednesday, which will ever remain a stain on our annals. Fresh insults of the most daring and aggravated nature, were offered to parliament, and every one, who was in London at the time, must remember, that it bore the appearance of a town taken by storm; every quarter was alarmed; neither age, nor sex, nor eminence of station, nor sanctity of character, nor even an humble though honest obscurity, were any protection against the malevolent fury and destructive rage of the lowest and worst of men.

public nature, and in which the insurgents these ends by force and numbers, are, by construction of law, within the clause of levying war. For they are levelled at the king's crown and royal dignity.'

"In order fully to explain this, it will be only necessary to collect, repeat, and enforce the several passages in Mr. Justice Foster, relative to this subject. It may occur that in several places mention is made of an armed force. In the very same chapter, from which I have read an extract, the learned judge mentions two remarkable cases in the latter end of the reign of queen

Anne.

In the cases of Damaree and Purchase, which are the last printed cases which have come in judgment on the point of constructive levying war, there was nothing given in evidence of the usual pageantry of war, no military weapons, no banners or drums, nor any regular consultation previous to the rising; and yet the want of these circumstances weighed nothing with the court, though the prisoners' counsel insisted on that matter. The number of the insurgents supplied the want of military weapons; and they were provided with axes, crows, and other tools of the like nature, proper for the mischief they intended to effect.'

"It is remarkable, that the men who were the leaders, or set on as part of that mob, likewise assembled under pretence of religion, and the false and wicked cry then was, that the church of England was in danger, on account of the just and humane indulgence, which, from the happy period of the Revolution, had been granted to dissen

16 6

ters.

Upon the trial of Damaree, the cases referred to before, were cited at the bar, and all the judges present were of opinion, that the prisoner was guilty of the high treason charged upon him in the indictment. For here was a rising with an avowed intention to demolish all meeting-houses in general; and this intent they carried into execution as far as they were able. If the meeting-houses of Protestant dissenters had been erected and supported in defiance of all law, a rising in order to destroy such houses in general, would have fallen under the rule laid down in Keiling, with regard to the demolishing all bawdy-houses. But since the meeting-houses of Protestant dissenters are by the Toleration Act taken under the protection of the law, the insurrection in the present case was to be considered as a public declaration by the rabble against that act, and an attempt to render it ineffectual by numbers and open force.'

"The objects of their attack were the meeting-houses of the dissenters; they were considered by the judges to have declared themselves against the act by which the

indulgences were granted, and as attempting to render it ineffectual by numbers and open force, and on that ground Mr. Justice Foster declares the judgment to be proper; all the judges concurred in it at the time, it has been respected by posterity, and its principle is necessary for the preservation of the constitution, which we cannot but have felt the value of, in that moment when we have seen it threatened with, and in imminent danger of, immediate dissolution.

"The calendar points out a number of prisoners who may be indicted (as appears from their commitments) for burning and pulling down, or beginning to set fire to, and pull down, the King's-bench prison, the House of Correction, and nine dwelling houses within the county; others may be charged with breaking open the gaols, and releasing the prisoners; others again may be charged with extorting money from individuals, under terror of the mob, which is clearly and incontrovertibly a robbery. As some of you, gentlemen, are by your professions, and all of you undoubtedly from your rank and station, acquainted with the ordinary administration of criminal justice, it is unnecessary for me to enlarge on the subject of these felonies. "Burning a house, or out-house, being parcel of a dwelling-house, though not contiguous, nor under the same roof, was a felony at the common law, and by statute, the benefit of clergy was taken away.

"To set fire to any house, or out-house, though it is not burnt, is made a capital felony, by 9 Geo. 1, chap. 22. And by statute 1 Geo. 1, chap. 5, called The Riot Act, the offence of beginning to pull down buildings, by 12, or more persons, is made a capital felony. And having mentioned the riot act, let me say a few words upon it. "The two cases which I have stated, were very near this period, and the same pernicious principles which had been instilled into the minds of the lowest orders of the people, were kept alive by the arts of faction.

"It is not less true than remarkable, that the same seditious spirit which had artfully been instilled into the people in the latter end of queen Anne's time, had been continued to this time (the accession), and what a few years before had been miscalled a Protestant mob, was now a mob trained, excited, and actually employed to defeat the Protestant succession. In every mughouse, in every dark alley, and lurking corner of sedition, in this great town, artful and designing men were engaged in exciting this mob to the destruction of the constitution, and therefore this act was framed to make the beginning of mischief dangerous to the perpetrators of it. To begin to pull down any place of religious worship, certified and registered by the Act of Tolera

tion, or any dwelling-house or out-house, was made a capital felony. And any persons, to the number of twelve or more, unlawfully, riotously, and tumultuously assembled, being commanded or required to disperse by the magistrate, and continuing together for one hour after such command, are declared guilty of felony without benefit of clergy.

But here I take this public opportunity of mentioning a fatal mistake into which many persons have fallen. It has been imagined, because the law allows an hour for the dispersion of a mob to whom the Riot-act has been read by the magistrate, the better to support the civil authority, that during that period of time, the civil power and the magistracy are disarmed, and the king's subjects, whose duty it is at all times to suppress riots, are to remain quiet and passive. No such meaning was within the view of the legislature; nor does the operation of the act warrant any such effect. The civil magistrates are left in possession of those powers which the law had given them before; if the mob collectively, or a part of it, or any individual, within and before the expiration of that hour, attempts or begins to perpetrate an outrage amounting to felony, to pull down a house, or by any other act to violate the laws, it is the duty of all present, of whatever description they may be, to endeavour to stop the mischief, and to apprehend the offender. I mention this, rather for general information, than for the particular instruction of the gentlemen whom I have now the honour of addressing, because the Riot-act I do not believe will come immediately under your consideration: fame has not reported that it was any where, or at any time, read during the late disturbances.

"In all cases of burning or pulling down buildings, the being present, aiding, abetting, and encouraging the actual actors, though there be no act proved to be done by the party himself, is a capital felony. This is a doctrine solemnly delivered lately by the judges, and I believe will never be doubted.

"Taking goods or money against the will, under the terror of a mob, is felony. "Of all these offences you are to enquire, and true presentments make. "The character and esteem in which the gentlemen I have now the honour of addressing are justly held by their country, render any admonition from me on the subject of your duty superfluous; in you it has long placed a confidence, nor will it, I am persuaded, on this occasion, have reason to repent it.

"I have to remind you, that it is your duty only to enquire, whether the party accused is charged with such probable circum

* But as to this soe Hawles's Observations on

stances as to justify you in sending him to another jury, who are appointed by law to hear the evidence on both sides, and to say, whether the person charged be guilty or not of the crime imputed to him in the indictment; and if upon such trial, any advantage can be derived from the nicety or caution of the law, or any favourable circumstances appear, it will be as much the inclination, as it is the duty of the learned and reverend judges with whom I have the honour of being in commission, to state such circumstances.

"And if the laws declare them guilty, the offenders may still have recourse to that fountain of mercy, the royal breast, where justice is always tempered with clemency.

"Such is the inestimable blessing of a government founded on law, that it extends its benefits to all alike, to the guilty and the innocent. To the latter the law is a protection and a safe-guard; to the former it is not a protection, but it may be considered as a house of refuge; indeed there cannot be a greater proof of the excellence of that constitution, than by administering its benefits to all men indifferently." "This charge having been the topic of much conversation, we submit it to the judgment of our readers. The opinions of men respecting the legal propriety of it have been various : as a piece of oratory it has been admired; but its tendency to influence and direct the jury, and inflame their passions against men, who ought all to have been supposed 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." Annual Register.

LORD GEORGE GORDON was apprehended on the 9th of June, upon a warrant under the hand of one of his majesty's secretaries of state for high treason, and was committed a close prisoner to the Tower.

On the first day of Michaelmas term his lordship applied to the court of King's-bench act, to be either tried or set at liberty. A by petition, founded upon the Habeas Corpus few days after in the same term, the following indictment was presented to the grand turned it into the court of King's-bench a jury for the county of Middlesex, who re

true bill:

"Middlesex. The jurors for our lord the king, upon their oath present, That George Gordon, late of the parish of Saint Mary-le

lord Shaftsbury's Grand Jury, vol. 8, pp. 835, et seq. See also, vol. 8, p. 822, and the celebrated "Security of Englishmen's Lives," &c. ascribed to lord Sommers, and mentioned in that page.