The Chronicles of Crime or The New Newgate Calendar. v. 2/2: being a series of memoirs and anecdotes of notorious characters who have outraged the laws of Great Britain from the earliest period to 1841Pelham, Camden
History
The Chronicles of Crime or The New Newgate Calendar. v. 2/2: being a series of memoirs and anecdotes of notorious characters who have outraged the laws of Great Britain from the earliest period to 1841
Pelham, Camden
Crime -- Great Britain; Criminals -- Great Britain; Newgate (Prison : London, England)
persons, including females, were cut down with sabres, and while some
were killed, the number of wounded amounted to between three and four
hundred. In a short time, however, the ground was cleared of its
original occupants, and as they fled in all directions, military
patroles were immediately placed in the streets, to preserve
tranquillity.
It would be almost impossible to give any lengthened or minute
description of this riot, or "massacre," as it has always been called by
the radical opponents of government, without in some degree entering
into the very strong feeling of party prejudice, which has been
universally excited upon the subject. The real circumstances of the case
may be said to be unsettled even to this day; and while the magistrates
and their friends declare that, the Riot Act having been read, the
subsequent proceedings on the part of the soldiery were both justified
and necessary, the friends of the people as invariably deny the
allegation of the reading of the Riot Act, and therefore contend, that
the introduction of a military force was harsh and unconstitutional. The
whole transaction does not appear to have occupied more than ten
minutes, in the course of which time the field seems to have been
cleared of its recent occupiers, and filled with different corps of
infantry and cavalry. Hunt and his colleagues were, after a short
examination before the magistrates, conducted to solitary cells, on a
charge of high-treason, and on the following day notices were issued by
the magistrates, by which the practice of military training, alleged to
have been carried on in secret, by large bodies of men, for treasonable
purposes, was declared to be illegal. Public thanks were, by the same
authority, returned to the officers and men of the respective corps
engaged in the attack; and, on the arrival in London of a despatch from
the local authorities, a cabinet council was held, the result of which
was, the return of official letters of thanks to the magistrates, for
their prompt, decisive, and efficient measures for the preservation of
the public tranquillity; and to all the military engaged, for the
support and assistance afforded by them to the civil power.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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