On this page
-
Text (1)
-
Untitled Article
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
-
-
Transcript
-
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
Additionally, when viewing full transcripts, extracted text may not be in the same order as the original document.
Untitled Article
and draw their attention more closely to the paramount necessity there exists , that those who hold the supreme power , should also hold the supreme wisdom of the nation . How wretched must be the state of public affairs , when the rulers , on the most momentous occasions , betray the most deplorable ignorance , and those over
whom they rule are obliged publicly to reprimand them . I proceed to remark upon the evidence , which , on the popular side , was most conclusive , notwithstanding the evident attempts at subornation of perjury , got up on the side of Government . The jury were , by the conduct of the Coroner , placed in a most painful situation . There was , on his part , and on the part of
those about him , a disposition to keep back such evidence as made against the government and their agents . For the sake of compassing the ends of justice , and for the purpose of eliciting truth , the jury were therefore obliged to throw themselves into the opposite scale , and appear as the champions of the popular cause . It was an unseemly condition for honest men to be placed in ; but their stern and noble resolution to weigh all that was brought
before them , and to adhere onl y to truth , has rescued them from the obloquy which designing knaves were ready to heap upon them . It is a glorious cause of triumph for the nation to think , that , though the rulers for the time being may be weak or wicked , men of sound judgment and virtuous integrity are still to be found amongst the humbler citizens , even when taken at random , as was the case with this Coroner ' s jury .
One of the principal witnesses was a Mr . Courtney , a reporter to the Courier newspaper . As the Courier has never been accused of a tendency to ' low radicalism ,, ' there can be no reason for supposing that one of its agents would feel inclined to overcolour his evidence in favour of what is called the * mob . ' Had the
witness been a reporter for one of the more radical journals , there would perhaps have been some attempt made to throw discredit upon his evidence ; but there can be no doubt of its accuracy , and it is damnatory . ' The police blocked up every passage . The crowd had given way in all directions , and the remainder of the division commenced striking men , women , and children , 1
without distinction , and without mercy . One would suppose this evidence to be sufficient ; but that of Major W . L . L . F . De Roos , who came forward with the design of making out as good a case as he could for the police , corroborated it in a remarkable manner on his cross-examination . This man was a willing witness for the
assaulters , and an unwilling one for the assaulted , therefore his evidence is of high importance . All that he admitted in favour of the people was forced from him . It seems that he skulked in plain clothes by the side of Colonel Rowan , and looked out at the windows of a building upon the scene , watching for an opportunity to send for the troops and let them loose upon the people . To the Coroner ' s inquest he went provided with one of Colonel
Untitled Article
430 On the Conduct of the Police .
-
-
Citation
-
Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), June 2, 1833, page 430, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2616/page/70/
-