Ministers are, doubtless, desirous to preserve to private banks number of partners. Twenty-two country banks declared the connexion and the business they have taken so many their insolvency in the course of one year. Yet so little attenyears to acquire; but while they keep that in view, they will tion did government bestow on the subject, and so wholly was be under the necessity of considering that persons possessing the consideration of the Bank of England directors confined the important privilege of issuing bank notes ought to lodge to their own establishment, that the unfortunate limitation undoubted security somewhere, so as to remove all question of to six partners was again inserted in the Bank of England their responsibility. Such a measure has not yet been Charter, when renewed in 1800. This insertion was proproposed to country bankers; but they have anticipated its ductive, as might have been foreseen, of new scenes of emdiscussion, and have found it to involve the following consi-barrassment: in 1810, twenty country banks stopped payderations. Country banks in England serve, as in Scot-ment; in 1812, seventeen; while, in 1814, 1815, 1816, the land, as a medium for the transfer of money from one class of persons to another. From those who have money to lend, they receive deposits and pay interest at 3 per cent.; while to those who stand in need of advances, they lend money at an interest of 4 or 5 per cent., the difference forming their profit. Now the depositors, say the country bankers, are their most valuable customers; they are the select friends of the partnership, and ought certainly not to rank second, in point of security, to those of the public who happen (frequently by accident) to be holders of their notes. This argument has some claim to attention; but it should be borne in mind that there is an essential distinction between the position of a depositor in a country bank, and a holder of its notes. The one makes an election without any control: he believes in the security of the bank, and he lends his money to it. The other is, to a certain degree, compelled to take the notes; for, if they constitute any large portion of the currency of a district, an individual cannot refuse to receive them, without the most serious inconvenience. The workman might, in the event of such a refusal, be deprived of employment, and the shopkeeper of customers. Let us hope, therefore, that it will be found practicable to obtain security from country bankers or their sureties, without depriving them of any great part of their capital. Various kinds of security would be eligible; funded property; mortgages on land and houses; and, to a certain extent, personal bonds, might answer the purpose of government. Chartering Country Banks in England. We come next to a question which, like the requisition of security from bankers, ought long since to have engaged the attention of government;-the granting of charters to the principal country banks in England, as was done above a century ago to those of Scotland. The origin of this most unfortunate defect in our banking system was as follows. So long ago as the year 1708, a joint-stock association, called the Mine Adventure Company, began to issue promissory notes, payable to bearer, like those of the Bank of England; on which the latter, having made a very opportune advance of money to government, obtained an act of parliament to the effect that "it should not be lawful for any body-corporate, or any persons whatsoever, united in partnerships exceeding the number of six persons, to issue any notes payable on demand;" in short, that no bank for circulating notes, except the Bank of England, should have more than six partners. The metropolitan bank, bearing from the first the name of Bank of England (not Bank of London), might allege, in some degree, a claim to a circulation of its notes throughout the kingdom, and a right to restrict the business of country bankers. Had it been made incumbent on the latter to give security for their issues, the interest of the public would have been provided for, and the Bank of England could hardly have complained of the grant of charters; but to limit all country banks to six partners, was to deprive them of a stable foundation; permitting them, indeed, to circulate notes, but providing that these notes should be of secondary credit. At the time this enactment took place, and for many years after, the extent of injury arising from it was not perceived, because there were few country banks in England, and, of course, few failures among them; but, during the last half-century, the case has been very different. After the year 1770, a progressive increase took place in the cotton and iron manufactures. The extension of our town population brought an addition to the number of provincial banks. Liverpool, Manchester, Leeds, Birmingham, Norwich, Hull, all became populous. This increase continued during the ten years of peace that followed 1783, a period of prosperity and general content. But the sudden check given to trade by the war of 1793, fell directly on country banks, and brought but too clearly into view the pernicious effect of the act which forbade their having a sufficient average number was nearly thirty. Lastly, in the two years Small Notes of Country Bankers. In 1797, when leave was given to the Bank of England to circulate small notes of 17. and 27., the same privilege was conferred on country bankers, and continued to be exercised by both until 1821. In that year the small notes of the Bank of England ceased to be issued, their place being supplied by sovereigns. In regard to the small notes of country bankers, the case would have been the same, had not that been a year of agricultural distress. At that time witnesses were examined, and an elaborate report was made on the subject by a committee of the House of Commons. The prices of corn and cattle continued equally low the year after, and led to such complaints from the landed interest, that ministers could not refuse their request, that the small notes of country bankers should continue to have currency some time longer. A clause to that effect was introduced into an act of parliament, and small notes continued, much more than sovereigns, to be the circulating medium of country districts during the years 1823, 1824, 1825. An opinion then became prevalent, that the extravagant speculations of the last of these years had been fostered by the too ready issue of small notes on the part of country bankers; and early in the session of 1826 an act was passed for their being called in in the course of three years. This act was passed almost by acclamation. The considerations that are alleged, and with some reason, for the re-issue of small notes, are the following: 1. Notes of 17. and 21. are a currency for petty payments or purchases; not for speculation in either buying or selling. 2. There was no speculation of consequence in corn or other country produce during 1824 and 1825; they were almost the only articles exempt from the mania of the day. 3. Country bankers cannot, as the governor of the bank informed the parliamentary committee of last year, maintain a larger issue of notes than the wants of their districts require: they issue only on demand, and the extent of the demand depends on the prices current in their neighbourhood at the time. 4. Excitement and speculation may be carried to a great height in countries devoid of small notes, and, even in some measure, of bank paper; witness the case of France in 1830. At that time credit was so extended, and bill transactions had been so multiplied in France, that the re-action in trade consequent on the troubles in Paris and Brussels was most serious and long-continued; and was hardly inferior to the re-action in England in 1826. Three years elapsed between passing the act for calling in the small notes and their actual recall. On the appointment last year of a committee on banking affairs, it was expected that a re-issue of the small notes of country bankers would be called for by several of the persons examined. Little, however, was said on the subject, the witnesses considering that in the event of a commercial alarmthe chief trouble to the bankers would arise from the hum bler classes, who are commonly the holders of small notes. If country banks in England were to be put upon a solid footing, uniting security and public accommodation, the recurrence of alarm would be prevented. If, however, it should still be thought expedient to prevent the issue of small notes, attention should be given to the point of making 57. and 107. notes of the Bank of England a legal tender, and thus enabling country bankers to pay small sums in such notes instead of gold. This would be a considerable accommodation to country banks, who are at present obliged (see evidence of Henry Burgess) to keep nearly half the amount of their circulation in gold. Of Bank of England notes a much smaller proportion would suffice, satisfied as the partners would be, that when a supply was wanted they would have merely to send for it to the neighbouring branch of the Bank of England. The plan of making 5. and 107. Bank of England notes a legal tender, is advised by several witnesses examined before the late committee;-men who never issue notes, and have consequently no interest in the question, such as Mr. Tooke, the Russia merchant; Messrs. Glyn and Grote, the London bankers; Mr. Norman, the Bank of England Director; and others. The effect of improvements in banking is, to reduce the charge of discount to the public. Such would be the consequence of the proposed measure, and it would have the farther advantage of rendering the Bank of England the place of deposit for metallic currency for the kingdom at large. The directors would then know, much more distinctly than at present, the amount for which they would have to provide in case of adverse exchanges. BRANCH BANKS OF THE BANK OF ENGLAND. These form the latest appendage to the great establishment in Threadneedle Street. The towns in which branch banks have as yet been established are Manchester, Leeds, Bristol, Swansea, BANKING IN SCOTLAND. From the mixed picture presented by country banks in England it is gratifying to turn to those of the northern part of the island, however inferior to the southern in wealth and population. The contrast affords one more example, that the distress which has at different times pressed so heavily on England is, in several points, the result of our own mismanagement, and would not on any occasion have reached such a height, had country banking been left to its natural course. The distinction between the two countries hitherto has been, that the one has possessed great capital without freedom in the mode of employing it; the other a limited capital with complete liberty in its appropriation. Hence a stability almost uninterrupted in its banking establishments; no alarms, no runs, such as prevailed in England to so fatal an extent in 1793, 1814, and 1825. 66 Lord Liverpool, in one of his speeches against the use of small notes, adverted to the state of France in the years 1814 and 1815; though twice invaded and overrun, there was," said his lordship, "no panic in the public mind as to money, because, the currency was not small notes, but gold and silver." We have here an example of the mistakes into which even a well-informed mind is apt to fall when eager in a particular argument. Had Scotland the misfortune to be invaded, the inhabitants would not question the solvency of their banks, but would consider their money safer there than in their own custody. And in England, alarm, when it occurs, arises not from the currency being in paper, but from the banks being of insufficient capital, in consequence of the unfortunate restriction as to partners. The amount of bank paper circulated in Scotland is between three and four millions, of which more than half are in notes of 17. and 27. The number of banks in Scotland which issue notes is thirty, of which the three principal hold charters; viz. The Bank of Scotland, established in 1695; capital progressively augmented to 1,500,000l., its present amount. The Royal Bank, established in 1727; capital 1,500,000?. The British Linen Company, incorporated in 1746; capital 500,000l. It was in the year 1826 that the Bank of England began to establish these branches, at the suggestion, it was said, of the late Lord Liverpool, and for the purpose of lessen- Of the other banking companies in Scotland, several have ing the inconvenience and loss arising from the frequent a great number of partners; to the extent of two, three, discredit of country banks. The branches were not ex-four, or even five hundred; but as they act without charters, pected to be productive of profit to the Bank of England, nor have they proved so. each partner is liable to the extent of his property. The management is uniformly in a body of directors chosen by In laying down regulations for their branch banks, the the shareholders. These often conduct business at small Bank of England directors have carefully avoided inter-profit to themselves or the bank. But insolvency on the part fering with the business of country bankers. Their agents of a Scotch bank is extremely rare. Where the transactions at the branches allow no interest on money deposited with are extensive, the number of partners affords complete secuthem, nor do they permit any one to overdraw his account. rity; and where the partners are few, the concern is, in The latter is occasionally done by private bankers, and gene- general, very prudently managed. rally without risk, in consequence of the intimate knowledge they have of the affairs of their customers. The branches further consult the convenience of the neighbouring bankers by supplying them with gold when required, and by lending at the moderate interest of 3 per cent. Bank of England notes to those bankers who think fit to use them instead of notes of their own. As yet, however, few bankers have thought fit to withdraw their notes from circulation, being under an impression that their respectability in the eyes of their neighbours would be lessened by the withdrawal, and by substituting Bank of England notes in their place. A branch bank is further useful in a large town like Leeds, in receiving gold from the bankers who happen to hold more than they require, and in supplying gold to those who stand in need of it. Lastly, branch banks are useful for the safe transmission of money from a country town to London, or vice versa, the rule being to take charge of such payments at the branch bank without any expense but postage. It is fit to add, that the Bank of England, after having agreed, on the deposit of certain securities to advance a sum of money to a country bank, has not, under any circumstances, contracted such credits. The stamps and other charges on the notes of a country banker cost from 1 to 2 per cent. annually on the amount of his circulation; so that several persons believe it would be a public advantage, that the bank paper in circulation were almost wholly of the Bank of England. Of the whole paper-money of the Bank of England, about three-fourths are in circulation in the metropolis, and its district; the remaining fourth in country parts, particularly in Lancashire. Notes of 1. have been issued in Scotland during more than a century, being suitable to a country which at that time was poor and thinly peopled. In 1826, when parliament called in small notes in England, a similar attempt was made in regard to Scotland; but a committee being called for by the Scots members, the result was a determination in nowise to interfere with the existing system in that part of the island. Ireland preserved her small notes in like manner. It is customary with banks in Scotland to give what they term "cash credits," that is, to make advances of money on receiving personal security from the friends of the borrower. An individual, whether engaged in trade or farming, finds two neighbours or relations, of fair character and circumstances, who become his guarantees to a bank, to the extent of 500l., or any given sum. The money is forthwith advanced by the bank, and an account opened with the party, in which he receives credit for the sums, however small, which it may suit him to pay from time to time in reduction of his debt. The persons receiving this accommodation are generally industrious and respectable, otherwise their relations or neighbours would hardly become responsible for them. Another custom of banks in Scotland has a title to unqualified approbation; we mean that of allowing interest even on small deposits. They perform the part of savingbanks on a large scale. The depositors are very frequently mechanics or humble tradesmen; yet the aggregate of the sums so deposited in the different banks to the north of the Tweed, is said (Evidence before the Parliamentary Committee on Banking, in 1826,) to amount to twenty millions. A similar service is rendered in various parts of England by country banks. But in Scotland it is an established practice'; and the depositors are wholly free from anxiety, there not being one example in a century of money being lost by confiding it to a bank. BANKING IN IRELAND. The history of country banking in the sister island may be termed a bad epitome of that of England, the same faults, unhappily, having been committed, and the evil arising from them having been much more conspicuous. It is now half a century since there was established in Dublin a national bank, with privileges similar to those of the Bank of England, and containing most unfortunately in its charter a clause, that "no other bank issuing notes should consist of more than six partners." This was, doubtless, inserted on the part of the Bank of Ireland to give it a monopoly of the circulation. In a country so advanced in civilization and trade as England, the defects of public institutions are frequently neutralized by the prudence and reflection of individuals; but in Ireland, an agricultural country, with comparatively little experience in trade, the case was very different, and the delicate business of banking has been conducted in provincial towns with very little method or judgment. What has been the consequence of that and of the unfortunate limitation to six partners? The failure of one bank after another, so that out of a total of fifty country banks in Ireland, no less than forty have stopped payment; and of these ten failed in one year, viz. 1820, all in the southern part of the island. The exemption from paying in cash granted to the Bank of England in 1797, was extended in that year to Ireland, and led forthwith to a great increase in the circulation of bank paper. From little more than half a million sterling in 1796, the circulation of the Bank of Ireland was carried by the end of the war in 1815 to three millions. At present it is twice that amount, and the income of the bank is large, -the rate of discount charged by it being higher by 1 per cent. than in London or Edinburgh. In the north of Ireland banking is better understood than in the south, and in 1825 a joint-stock bank was formed at Belfast with a capital of half a million, under the title of the Northern Banking Company. In the same year there was established in London the Provincial Bank of Ireland, with the large capital of two millions, subscribed chiefly in London. That great establishment has since appointed in all the chief towns of Ireland branch banks, which have been of the greatest service to the public, and supply the void caused by the unfortunate failure of the local banks. Happily the Provincial Bank and the Bank of Ireland carry on their business in perfect harmony, their agents at the different towns giving cash for the notes of either bank indiscriminately. The amount of the bank paper current in Ireland on account of the Provincial Bank and the Northern Banking Company is between two and three millions. The charter of the Bank of Ireland extends to the year 1838, and the restriction as to six partners cannot be removed from country banks before that time, except by a special arrangement between government and the Bank of Ireland. The capital of the latter is 3,000,0007. SAVINGS BANKS. Our view of the Banking System of Great Britain would be incomplete, if it did not comprehend a slight notice of those admirable institutions for the safe deposit of the accumulations of the humbler classes, the Savings Banks. The political impostors, who, in their ignorance or roguery, confound the ideas of currency and capital, denounce Savings' Banks as withdrawing so much from the circulating medium as the deposits represent in money. This attempt at delusion comes too late. The people know that what is accumulated in Savings Banks is so much capital saved from unproductive consumption ;-and they know, in the same way, that if the Birmingham, or any other currency fanatic, could be allowed, to-morrow, to coin as many notes as he pleased, not a penny would be added to the national riches. On some future occasion we may return to this subject. In the mean time we give the following Summary of Savings' Banks in England, Wales, and Ireland, for 1832; with the increase (i) and decrease (d) as compared with 1833. CONCLUDING REMARKS. We have now passed in review the principal events in the history of the Bank of England since it was first constituted, nearly 140 years ago. Throughout almost the whole of that long period the management of the persons intrusted with its direction has been marked by prudence and consideration. Confining themselves to the proper business of their establishment, they have looked steadily to a secure investment of their funds, satisfied with a moderate profit when assured of the safety of the principal. They have, all along, avoided taking part in speculative enterprise, however alluring the profit. The plausible scheme of traffic to the South Sea, above a century ago, was declined by them in the same manner as the no less plausible project of working the mines of Mexico was declined, in the year 1824. The great change in the situation of the bank took place after the exemption from cash payments in 1797. Extremes are always productive of injury, and this change added too largely to the profit of the bank-for it altered to rapid accumulation that gradual acquisition of property which had marked its transactions during a century. But even these augmented gains led to no imprudent adventure on the part of the directors. Their extended means continued to be applied to the same objects; to assist the mercantile body by discounts, and to facilitate to government the payment of its vast expenditure. Great errors, doubtless, were committed in carrying that expenditure to such a length, and in failing to consider that a day of reckoning and retribution must come; but these were considerations for ministers and the parliament. The blame to be attributed to the Bank of England directors was applicable to many others during the THE INQUEST ON ROBERT CULLEY. war; to the great majority of our merchants and public men. THE verdict delivered within these few days by the coroner's It arose from deficient information in regard to trade and jury, in the case of the policeman who met with his death finance; for none of them appear to have profited by the at the late meeting in Coldbath-Fields, is even more translessons of history. Holland, a commercial state like Eng-cendantly absurd than we had anticipated it would be from land, had borne, a century earlier, the burden of resisting the previous proceedings of its authors. From the comthe power of France; but there was no distinct record of the mencement of their labours, indeed, the persons to whom manner in which evil had arisen to her from undue expendi- we are indebted for this new exposition of the law afforded ture. The case was the same as to the injury arising to this us abundant means of perceiving how well qualified they country from the heavy charges attendant on the wars of were for the discharge of the duty which had devolved upon 1756 and 1775. Historical writers give very imperfect views them; but we put the most charitable interpretation we could of the injury caused to productive industry by war and upon their various escapades, and certainly did not imagine taxes; while our public seminaries present as yet but that, when they came to perform the last and most solemn feeble means of instruction in that department, highly im- obligation of their oath, they would commit themselves by so portant as it is to the merchant, the member of parliament, tremendous a display of inconsiderate and presuming ignoand, above all, to a public minister. How vast a sacrifice rance. It is well, however, as matters have turned out, that might have been spared had either the members of the we have the whole of their conduct before us: nothing can cabinet, or the directors of the Bank of England, been aware be desired better calculated to neutralize the mischief of the of the hazardous situation in which their paper circulation verdict than the report of the inquest. was placed after it ceased to be convertible into cash! Though it continued suitable for the payment of all public expenses at home, the case was very different in regard to expenditure abroad, the foreign exchanges being perpetually put to hazard by the payment of subsidies, or by keeping up troops in any great number on the continent. Had public men been aware of the insecure foundation of our circulating medium, they would have paused before beginning a second war in 1803, or forming a new coalition in 1805. They went on blindly, thinking that as our bank paper had stood its ground during several years, it would continue to do so; and they became alive to its insufficiency for foreign payments only when it was too late to recall their steps. From these distressing errors in banking and finance, it is satisfactory to advert to the benefit arising from a legitimate and prudent use of public credit. If it present nothing brilliant or wonderful-nothing like what filled the imaginations of our countrymen above twenty years ago-it will be found to comprise much that is useful and substantial. To go back to a primitive age: the origin of banking is to be traced to a plain and obvious cause; the advantage of having a place of safe deposit for money, jewels, and other precious effects. Such was the earliest object of banks; but as the population and wealth of the towns or districts in which they were situated increased, they were made useful for other purposes; particularly for advances of money to government and individuals. In a country like England, where money and bill transactions are so frequent and on so large a scale, banks are of the greatest use, saving to merchants and others the trouble and risk of carrying sums of money from place to place, or of keeping them, at a degree of hazard, in a private house. The convenience arising from banking is most strongly felt when it happens to be for a season out of our reach. Those of our countrymen who have resided in France, have had ample opportunity of seeing, in the provincial towns, the inconvenience of carrying about silver in bags; and of having none but individual merchants, or rather dealers, to apply to for the discount of bills. That extraordinary verdict is in the following terms :"We find a verdict of Justifiable Homicide on these grounds, -That no riot act was read, nor any proclamation advising the people to disperse; that the government did not take the proper precautions to prevent the meeting from assembling; and that the conduct of the police was ferocious, brutal, and unprovoked by the people; and we, moreover, express our anxious hope, that the government will, in future, take better precautions to prevent the recurrence of such disgraceful transactions in this metropolis." Now, what a strange jumble, under the shape of an exposition of reasons, have we here. The slaughter of the policeman, it seems, was an act of justifiable homicide, because "the government did not take the proper precautions to prevent the meeting from assembling." The persons who tell us this might as well have told us that the man was justifiably killed because Lord Althorp did not make what they deemed a good speech, a few evenings before, in the House of Commons. Supposing the government to deserve this charge of negligence or mismanagement, was that the fault of the policeman? Was he to be therefore considered as deprived of all right of protection, and subject to be put to death with impunity? The consequences of the general application of this principle would be somewhat new. Whenever it was conceived that an act of interference, legal in itself, had not been gone about in the best of all possible modes, we might expect to find the officers of justice not only resisted in the execution of their duty, but, when opportunity served, stabbed to the heart. The murder, or assassination, as we have been accustomed to regard it, would be justifiable homicide. But," as the gravedigger in Hamlet asks, “is this law?" "Ay," as his companion answers, marry is't; crowner's quest law." a 66 The poor policeman, however, according to these jurymen, deserved to be killed on another account. "No riot act was read, nor any proclamation advising the people to disperse." And what of that? Has any authority laid it down, till now, that an illegal assembly may not be disLarge cities, like London, Paris, and Amsterdam, are re- persed by officers of the peace, armed only with their batons, markable for the subdivision of employment, and for the without the riot act being read? The riot act, indeed, makes simple and economical form thereby given to the business it of houses of the greatest capital and connexion. In no line is that more remarkable than in banking, particularly in London. No commission is charged on receipts or payments; nor is any interest allowed on deposits. The emolument of the banker arises from the use he may make of the money deposited with him by his connexions, or, as they are familiarly termed, his customers; a profit which must be small when interest is so low as it has been for several years; it can be great only by the extent of business done. In former times bankers in London were accustomed to circulate their promissory notes like country bankers, but during fifty years and upwards they have relinquished that practice, and circulate only notes of the Bank of England. This was one important step towards simplifying, in other words improving, the business in the metropolis. The changes which require to be made in country banking will all tend to the same result; and will benefit the public, inasmuch as diminution of expense is always in the event a national benefit. felony in any one to remain on the ground longer than an hour after it has been read; but to be present at an illegal meeting at all is a misdemeanour at common law. Any individual, who is so present, may be apprehended; and, if he shall resist, force may be used for that purpose. It may be used whether the riot act has been read or not. The performance of that ceremony makes no difference as to the officer's right either to take offenders into custody, or generally to use force to clear the ground. Most especially, nothing so wild was ever imagined, until this jury told us so, that it was the reading of the riot act alone which made it in any degree a crime for a person seized by an officer in a mob to retaliate upon his assailant by stabbing him to the heart. Such an act might, or might not, be justifiable on other grounds altogether; but to put its justification on this circumstance, is simply to show an entire ignorance of the law bearing on the subject. We come then to the third allegation of the jurors-" that the conduct of the police was ferocious, brutal, and unprovoked by the people." It is the only statement they make in the least degree like a ground for their verdict; but even if it were made out, it certainly would not in law support that extraordinary delivery. The plain English of the de clamatory rumble of epithets," ferocious, brutal, &c." can be no more than that the attack of the police was made with undue impetuosity, and that they used their batons with wanton and unnecessary violence. It is not alleged or insinuated either that their advance itself for the purpose of capturing the flags was, apart from its circumstances, illegal or unauthorized; or that it placed the unresisting people in such clear and imminent danger of losing their lives that no chance of safety appeared except in a resort to deadly weapons. And yet, if even all this had been asserted, it would have been a sufficiently bold and unusual thing (especially for a coroner's jury, whose constitutional duty it is in all cases of the least doubt to send the person at whose hands another has met with a violent death to take his trial before a higher tribunal) to return a verdict of Justifiable Homicide. Manslaughter, or Excusable Homicide, is the most lenient description which even in the case supposed could properly be applied by such a jury to the act of taking away life. But it is indeed something altogether unheard of till now for a jury of any kind to declare that if, in attempting to disperse a mob, or in forcing their way to the hustings in order to seize the leaders and their illegal banners, the police shall knock a few individuals down, who may afterwards get kicked and trampled upon, the people shall be perfectly justified in turning upon them with deadly weapons; and that any of the unfortunate officers of the law who shall fall in the encounter by pistol-shot or dagger, shall, in so far as the verdict of the said jury can effect that object, perish without those who slew them being even sent to trial for the deed. staff over the shoulder, immediately stabbed him with his dagger, and then ran off. It does not, however, distinctly appear that this was the policeman who was killed; and the scene of the transaction, near the Union public house, Bagnigge Wells, would seem to imply that it was not, Culley having certainly received his death-wound in Calthorpe Street. However, the foreman, in his conversation with the coroner after the delivery of the verdict, intimated his disbelief of the evidence of this witness; and, at any rate, it would not have made out a case of justifiable homicide. As for the evidence of the woman Hamilton, after she had been browbeaten in the vulgar style which marked the whole of these proceedings, one of the jurors, | when she described the instrument with which the man was stabbed as resembling a butcher's steel, sneeringly remarked, "Then it may have been a piece of wire for aught you know;" an interruption which called forth from the coroner the exclamation, "Good God! gentlemen, witnesses are not to be treated in this way:"-another juror, a Mr. Alexander, had the decency to declare, that if he must speak his mind, he did not believe one iota of what she had stated. Fricker's account was, that when Culley stepped forward and seized one of the banner-bearers, he saw a young man, a mere boy, seize Culley, who fell immediately. It is plain, that the persons who brought in a verdict of justifiable homicide could have put no faith in this statement. Of the real circumstances of the homicide, therefore, which they thus boldly justified, we are warranted in affirming as we have done, that they knew and could know nothing. If this doctrine is in future to be law, we will not mince The two witnesses by whose evidence the jury seem to have the matter, but will say at once that the possibility of society been most influenced, were a Mr. Nathaniel Stallwood, of 13, holding together is at an end. The doctrine laid down by Calthorpe-Street, who was the first person that presented these jurors is nothing else than a sanction to any act of the himself for examination; and a Mr. William Henry Goore, wildest insubordination. What is to be expected to come of of Broadway, Worcestershire, solicitor. Both these indiviit, for one thing, except that whenever a public meeting is duals testify to great violence having been exhibited by the called, under the avowal, it may be, of the most treasonable police. Stallwood is a most amusing personage. He apand revolutionary purposes, the desperadoes by whom it is pears, if we may trust the newspaper report of the inquest, convoked, and their partisans, will come, as this verdict says to have gone about on the day of the meeting representing they may and ought to do, one and all of them armed? And himself as a justice of peace for the county. This is proved, which of them, if any attempt should be made by the civil not only by Mr. Thomas and Mr. Jeffery, but by Mr. Wilforce to disperse the assemblage, will have the least hesi- liam Carpenter, the Editor of the True Sun, who was one of tation in shooting or poniarding any officer of the law who the witnesses on his own side. However, it appears that he may come within his reach? It will be too good an oppor- has no claim to the character which he thus assumed, havtunity for the ruffian to neglect of despatching without risking, according to his own confession on the third day of the a few of his natural enemies. There only needs a certain inquest, been some time ago struck out of the commission. degree of confusion, which is easily got up, to ensure the He stated at the same time, that the Duke of Portland relaw's actual approval of what he has done; for that, we may fused to allow him to see the evidence upon which he was without exaggeration say, is really the meaning of a verdict dismissed. He has probably seen quite as much of it since of justifiable homicide. It is the sentence which would be as he cares to see; for it has been published to all the passed on a magistrate if he were brought to trial for super-world in the Times. As for Mr. William Henry Goore, intending the execution of a malefactor under a legal warrant. he professes to be a solicitor, and possibly is so. I was The law has no higher testimony of absolute innocence and passing down Gray's-Inn-Lane, on Monday last ;" the propriety of conduct to bestow in any case in which it is clear newspaper makes him begin his evidence. He does not let that one man has fallen by the hand, or under the orders, it appear, observe, that he was on his way to the meeting, of another. And this is the meed, it may almost be said, of or that he proceeded thither with any particular object. praise and honour, which the persons who sat on the late He merely, having met a body of people carrying banners, inquest have taken upon them to bestow upon the hidden turned round and marched along with them. Entering into perpetrator of the foul assassination they were charged to conversation, he told them of Lord Melbourne's proclamainvestigate. They must, of course, feel somewhat surprised tion, of which they were not before aware; but they consiand disappointed that the hero, or patriot, whom their high dered it, it seems, not effective or legal, because it was not authority has thus justified, has not yet chosen to come for- signed by his lordship. The witness does not say that he ward and avow himself. They could hardly have expected put this idea in their heads. He afterwards proceeded to less, while they were drawing up his honourable acquittal, counsel them to be exceedingly guarded in their conduct at than to hear of him exhibiting himself openly in the streets the place of meeting, because the police were lying in amnext morning, bloody dagger and all. bush close at hand. Notwithstanding all his sagacity and prudence, however, Mr. Goore, wise and wary as he was, had the bad luck to be knocked down in the confusion himself. Then, according to the newspapers, he goes on to swear; Perhaps forty or fifty policemen walked over me, treading on and bruising various parts of my body, before I could recover strength to raise myself from the ground." No wonder to find him adding, "I was very much bruised." However, he was immediately after able to assist a gentleman to his gig, who had received two cuts in the arm, one of which had broken the limb, but who, if we may believe Mr. Goore, refused to tell his name, lest the government should say he was in some way concerned in getting up the meeting. The next instant we find the witness flying to the assistance of another man, who had received a wound in the skull. This person he took along with him to the office of the True Sun, feeling exceedingly anxious, he declares, that the thing should be made public. But Mr. Goore But the strangest of all the circumstances attending this unexampled verdict remains to be noticed. Its authors actually thereby pronounce their justification of a transaction of which, by their own confession, they know nothing whatever, except that it terminated in the loss of the policeman's life. They indulge, it is true, in various conjectures upon the subject. One juror, the first day, started the ingenious hypothesis that Culley might have been stabbed by one of his own comrades. They certainly did not bring in their verdict upon their belief of any of the direct evidence which was brought forward. There were only three of the witnesses, at least according to the newspaper report, who spoke to having seen the man stabbed-the girl Mary Anne Perkins, the woman Mary Hamilton, and the boy Henry William Fricker. The girl said the act was committed by a person dressed like a working man, but having a respectable appearance, who, having received a blow from a policeman's |