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    in this trifling -contention , as we have nearly passed two hours . We have fasted since ten o ' clock this morning , and we protest against this treatment . If you will not have our verdict , please yourself , as you have the power . Dismiss us , and procure an abler jury ; and let God and our country decide between us . ' To this the Coroner replied ,

    • Gentlemen , I consider your verdict disgraceful to you , but I thank you for your great attention to the case . ' It is to be hoped that the time will arrive , when public opinion will act as a restraint to prevent judges from thus insulting honest men , who have conscientiously done their duty . I have been thus minute in recounting the proceedings on the inquest , because an impression has gone forth that the jury were actuated by the

    feelings of political partisans , in giving such a verdict . Those who read this statement , copied from the Times' report , will doubtless do them justice , and unite in a feeling of pride that such men are to be found amongst the humbler classes of Englishmen . Those who may think that I have reviewed the conduct of the Coroner too harshly , will do well to turn to that part of the report which describes Mr , Alexander , one of the jurymen , 4

    as asking whether the Secretary of State was justified in sending 1700 policemen amongst a peaceable crowd ? ' To this the Coroner made answer , ' There were not so many . ' Mr . Alexander then reminded him that the fact had been proved by witnesses ; on which he rejoined , in a tone of the most intemperate vulgarity , So much the better ; they were an unlawful assembly . ' This surely requires no comment .

    The great argument which the partisans of the Whigs use in their defence is , 4 the meeting was illegal . ' But this is shirking the true question at issue . Illegal meetings of one kind or another take place every day , and many other things are doubtless illegal under the operation of the Castlereagh c Six Acts . ' The question at issue is , whether the meeting was of sufficient importance to render it necessary to put it down by force , such as was

    resorted to , and whether it was put down in a mode as little as possible calculated to irritate ignorant people ? Now it has been proved in evidence , that the meeting was utterly contemptible , both in its composition and objects ; that it was rather a matter for laughter than serious notice ; that it is most probable , that had Colonel Rowan or Mr . Mayne gone forward , calmly to expostulate with the leaders , the whole crowd would quietly have dispersed . This they failed to do ; but in lieu thereof despatched their brutal attendants , with delegated authority ; and the longstanding ill-feeling which has existed between the police and the populace has now been heightened , possibly to a state of mortal antipathy on both sides . This is a grievous evil . The police have , from their first establishment , been regarded by the people as a species of Government spies , and , therefore , though incomparably the most efficient , and least mischievous , body of men

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    434 On the Conduct of the Police .

• Citation
  • Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), June 2, 1833, page 434, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2616/page/74/