SPECIAL COMMISSION FOR THE TRIAL OF THE RIOTERS, At the Guildhall, Bristol, January 2d, 1832. BEFORE Sir NICHOLAS CONYNGHAM TYNDAL, Knt., Sir J. B. BOSANQUET, Kt. Sir W. E. TAUNTON, Kt. The Judges were met at Totterdown by the Sheriffs, GEORGE BENGOUGH and JOSEPH LAX, Esqrs., the Under-Sheriff, W. O. HARE, Esq. and a numerous body of police. The procession moved on slowly through a line of special constables, marshalled and directed by Mr. Dowling, a superintendant of the metropolitan police; and no disturbance occurred. Merchant Tailors' Hall, Broad-street; the new Wool Hall, Thomas-street; and the late Armoury, Stapletonroad, were fitted up as barracks for the military. Beds and bedding for 1500 men were forwarded from Woolwich. Major-General Jackson was in the military command of the district. At eleven o'clock the Judges entered the Guildhall, and took their seats on the Bench. They were accompanied by his Grace the Duke of Beaufort. The Commissions of Oyer and Terminer and General Gaol Delivery having been read, the Lord Chief Justice adjourned the Court till one o'clock. The Judges then went to their lodgings in Park-street, from whence they were escorted with the usual state and ceremony to the Cathedral, where divine service was performed, and an admirable sermon was preached by the Rev. Professor LEE, from Proverbs xvi. 12,-"For the Throne is established by righteousness.” At two o'clock the Judges returned to the Guildhall. There were about five hundred persons, including a considerable number of special constables, in Court. The following Gentlemen were sworn of the Grand Jury :Thomas Kington Bayley, Foreman. Charles Bowles Fripp Thomas Hill William Ford William Watson Thomas Daniel, Jun. Adam Holden James Moore John Tomlinson James Lean John Hurle John Manningford William Morgan Richard Ricketts John May Joseph Metford, Jun. Daniel Fripp Henry Seeley Robt. Edward Case Thomas W. Radcliffe The LORD CHIEF JUSTICE addressed the Grand Inquest in the following terms : "Gentlemen of the Grand Jury,-We are assembled on the present occasion, by virtue of the special commission of his Majesty, for the purpose of inquiring into, hearing, and determining certain charges of no ordinary stamp and character, founded upon acts of tumultuous outrage, violence, and rapine, which have recently taken place within this city. "This proceeding, his Majesty, out of his paternal solicitude for his subjects, has thought fit to institute, rather than to leave the investigation and punishment of such charges to the ordinary course and stated periods of the administration of criminal judicature within this city; for in the case of offences at once so alarming to the public tranquillity, and so dangerous to the property and safety of individuals, it is of the first importance to make it known to all, that inquiry and punishment follow close upon the commission of crime, in order that the wicked and ill-disposed may be deterred by the dread of the law from engaging in similar enormities, whilst the peaceable and industrious may look up to it with gratitude and affection, for the safeguard which it extends over their persons and property. But it forms, perhaps, a still stronger reason for an early trial of these charges, that where so large a number of persons as that contained in this calendar have been placed in confinement, the speediest means should be adopted to set at large the innocent, whoever they may be, and to restore them to the peaceful and honest exercise of their daily callings. "Gentlemen, I am unable, from any information which has been placed before us, to assign the cause or to trace the exact origin of those enormities you are now called upon to investigate. It appears, however, that, a few hours before they were committed, a riotous and tumultuary assemblage of the people gathered itself together, with an object and for a purpose which no honest man or well-wisher to the laws of his country can sufficiently reprobate,-I mean the open and avowed purpose of treating with insult and indignity, if not with personal violence, a Gentleman placed in a high judicial station, bearing the authority of his Sovereign in the administration of the criminal law within this city, and during part of the very time engaged in the actual exercise of his judicial functions. "Gentlemen, it is to be collected from the depositions which I have seen, that the outrages, which will form the immediate subject of your enquiry, commenced at about the time of dusk on Saturday evening, the 29th of October last, and continued, with short intermission, until four o'clock on the Monday morning, when, after the Riot Act had been read, and the persons assembled, notwithstanding the proclamation, had refused for more than an hour to disperse themselves, the further progress of the riot was arrested, and the tumult entirely sup pressed, by the vigour and energy of the military, called in to the aid of the civil Magistrate. "I purposely abstain from a minute description of the terror occasioned to individuals, and of the outrages which took place in that interval against property, both public and private. Such description would be unnecessary to make you understand the application of the law to the facts as they will appear before you in evidence, the chief object which I have now in view; and and it would have the unavoidable consequence of depriving you of that calmess of temper and evenness of judgment which it is your duty to bring to the present investigation, where, on the one hand, the safety and well-being of the community, and, on the other, the lives and liberty of the accused, depend so materially upon your decision. "It is no part of my duty, on the present occasion, to consider whether the acts of outrage and rapine which afterwards ensued were caused by the riotous proceedings which occurred at an earlier period of the same day; or whether wicked and designing persons, taking advantage of the state of excitement in which the people already were, availed themselves of it to effect their .own purposes of destruction and plunder. It may, however, be safely concluded, that if the excitement which led to the defiance of the law at the earlier part of the day had never existed, the weightier crimes, subsequently committed by the populace, would not have taken place; and it is precisely for this reason, that the law of England hath at all times held in the greatest abhorrence riotous and tumultuary assemblages of the people. No man can foresee at the commencement what course they will take, or what consequences will ensue. Though cases may occur in which the object of such assemblies is at first defined and moderate, they rapidly enlarge their powers of mischief; and from the natural effect of the excitement and ferment inseparable from the collection of multitudes in one mass, the original design is quickly lost sight of, and men hurry on to the commission of crimes, which, at their first meeting, they had never contemplated. The beginning of tumult is like the letting out of water; if not stopped at first, it becomes difficult to do so afterwards; it rises and increases, until it overwhelms the fairest and the most valuable works of man. "Gentlemen, it has been well said, that the use of the law consists, first, in preserving men's persons from death and violence; next, in securing to them the free enjoyment of their property. And although every single act of violence, and each individual breach of the law, tends to counteract and destroy this its primary use and object, yet do general risings and tumultuary meetings of the people, in a more especial and particular manner, produce this effect, not only removing all security both from the person and the property of men, but for the time putting down the law itself, and daring to usurp its place. |