C RECORD OF PERSECUTION,

Under the Administration of LIVERPOOL, CASTLEREAGH, CANRINO, SIDMOUTH, &c.

RICHARD CARLILE, of Fleet Street, Publisher, was arrested on the 14th of August, 1817, on three warrants granted by Mr. Justice Holroyd, on the oath of one Griffin Swanson, a common informer, for publishing the Parodies, the sale of which had been suppressed by Mr. Hone, but for which Mr. H. was afterwards put on three several trials, and as often acquitted, to the great joy of the People, to the great grief of the Administration, and Sir Samuel Shepherd, Knt. Attorney-General, to the acceleration of the death of the thes Chief Justice (Ellenborough), and to the intoxication of the present Chief Justice, to see his great prototype defeated as well as himself, On the 15th, he was committed to the King's Bench Prison, by Mr. Justice Holroyd, in default of bail, to the amount of £800, on the three several warrants. On the 13th of November, being called on to plead, he was surprized with a fourth information by the aforesaid Attorney-General, founded on the 18th No. of Vol. I. of Sherwin's Political Register.' On the 20th of December, he was liberated, after an imprisonment of eighteen weeks, by entering into recognizances of £300, without either of the four informations being submitted to a Jury then or ever afterwards.

et

On the 16th day of January, 1819, he was informed that the Society for the Suppression of Vice," had presented a bill to the Grand Jury, then sitting at the Old Bailey, on a charge of blasphemous libel, for the publication of the Theological Works of Thomas Paine. Bail was immediately presented, and the arrest prevented. The Indictment was removed by Writ of Certiorari, to the Court of King's Bench, at the instance of the Society, and further bail required on the first day of Hilary Term, when an Information was also presented to the Court by the Attorney-General (Shepherd) against the same publication. To both the Indictment and Information, the defendant imparled, under an order to plead within the first eight days of Easter Term.

On the 11th day of February, a warrant was granted against the defendant, by Chief Justice Abbott, on an oath made by George Pritchard and Thomas Fair, that defendant had continued the sale of Paine's Theological works, and that the said George Pritchard intended to prosecute. This warrant was put in force at eight o'clock in the evening, and by ten o'clock defendant was lodged within the walls of Newgate. On the 15th day of February, he was brought from Newgate, by a writ of Habeas Corpus, to the cham bers of Mr. Justice Bailey, and bail was tendered and taken (a third.

time) to appear and answer to the charge against the same publication. (Pritchard is Solicitor and Secretary to the Society for the Suppression of Vice, and Thomas Fair his clerk. The solicitor to so litigious, so immoral, and so secret a Society, must derive no small profit from his situation. For instance, any poor and weak-minded creature, who may be prosecuted at the instance of this Society, if he comes forward and expresses contrition and penitence for the alledged offence, the prosecution is withdrawn, on the condition that the defendant pays this fellow Pritchard, £20 or £30, for what are called expences incurred.)-On the first day of Easter Term he pleaded to an Information and Indictment, and, in addition to those, had presented to him another Laformation, at the instance of the aforesaid Attorney-General, founded on No. 6, Vol. IV. of Sherwin's Weekly Political Register, and another indictment at the instance of the aforesaid Society, founded on that part of the first volume of the Deist, entitled "Palmer's Principles of Nature." To these last two he again imparled, and on the 4th day of Trinity Term he prayed the Court to stay this accumulation of Informations and Indictments, until those to which he had already pleaded, and was prepared to defend, were disposed of, but the lenient and impartial Judges of the Court of King's Bench, forsooth, could see no need of this, and he must stand prepared to defend five, or perhaps nine, Informations and Indictments at the same time, should it be the pleasure of the Attorney-General. And, after all this, defendant expects, when he has the honour and the satisfaction of meeting the Attorney-General in the Court, (once the Court of Justice,) to hear him expatiate the mildness of the English laws. The sittings after two different terms, (that is to say, Easter and Trinity) have been suffered to elapse without bringing the question to an issue, whilst the publications have invariably continued on sale.

On the 21st day of August, being Saturday, he was arrested by a warrant from Johu Atkins, Lord Mayor of the City of London, and lodged in the Giltspur Street Compter. The warrant set forth, that defendant had published a malicious, seditious, and inflammatory libel, tending to create disaffection in the minds of his Majesty's subjects, and breaches of the peace. On Monday the 23rd, he was conducted to the Mansion House, and brought before the Lord Mayor, who, on finding bail were ready, said, that he should require twenty-four, if not forty-eight hours notice of bail, which was evidently for the purpose of annoyance, and to gratify the malicious caprice of John Atkins, the Lord Mayor, as the names tendered were unexceptionable.

On Tuesday, August 24th, he was brought again before the said John Atkins, Mayor, and by a capricious discretion that would have disgraced any other magistrate but John Atkins, Mayor, was commited for want of sureties. The person objected to was Mr. Wooler, who holds a house at 58, Sun Street, Bishopsgate, another at Croydon in Surrey, and large premises, as printing.offices, at 76, Fleet Street, and who, I rather think, has as good an income as John

Atkins, Mayor, himself. A. Mr. Lindsay, a merchant in the city, then tendered himself instead of Mr. Wooler, when John Atkins, Mayor, said he should require forty-eight hours to enquire after him. Mr. Lindsay offered to deposit the amount of bail, when John Atkins, Mayor, refused, and by way of making another effort to obtain a Baronetcy, and a Treasury Borough, committed him for want of sureties.

On Thursday, August 26th, he was again brought before John Atkins, Mayor; and this person not being able to carry his capricious discretion any farther, accepted the bail, but with the threat that if he continued the sale of the Letter, he should do it at his peril. RICHARD CARLILE.

N. B. The persecution of any individual, of a political nature, under the present administration, may be recorded in the pages of the REPUBLICAN, if sent and signed by the sufferer himself, or should he be dead, by his nearest relative, stating their connexion with the deceased as to kin, and procuring a respectable witness as to the facts. As the hour of retribution is near at hand, the Editor is anxious to have recorded the sufferings of the People in the cause of Reform.

R. C.

To the purchasers of Sherwin's Weekly Political Register.-Those Gentlemen who wish to complete their Sets of this Work, are advised to do it as soon as possible, in order to prevent disappointment, as very few back Numbers are left on hand.

TO CORRESPONDENTS.

The LIFE of THOMAS PAINE, with Observations on his Writings, critical and explanatory; to which is added an APPENDIX, containing several of Mr. Paine's unpublished Pieces, by W. T. SHERWIN, is just published, and may be had of Mr. CARLILE, and all political Booksellers, Price 7s. 6d. bds. with a Portrait.

"KILLING NO MURDER; with some Additions, briefly discourst in Three Questions fit for Public View; to deter and prevent single Persons, and Councils, from usurping Supream Power." By COLONEL TITUS. Elegantly printed in Quarto, on superfine wove Paper, hot pressed. Price 4s. 6d. It may be proper to state, that this Pamphlet was written in Opposition to the Authority of Cromwell; and its Effect on that Tyrant was so great, that he never smiled afterwards. Until the present Edition was published, it was so scarce, that Copies have been sold for Three and Four Guineas

each.

Printed by R. Carlile, 55, Fleet Street.

No. 2. Vol. 1.] LONDON, FRIDAY, SEPT. 3, 1819. [PRICE 2D.

On his thanking the Magisterial and Yeomanry Assassins of Manchester for MURDERS COMMITTED by them on the 16th of August last.

SIR,

London, August 30, 1819.

THE general indignation and disgust excited in the public mind, in consequence of the atrocious Murders committed by the Yeomanry Cavalry, at the instigation of the Magistrates of Manchester, on the bodies of the inhabitants of that town, assembled in a legal and peaceable meeting, for the purpose of discussing the best means to obtain a redress of their grievances, and a radical reform of the representative system, could have been exceeded by nothing but the Chief Magistrate of the country sanctioning, and actually returning thanks to the murderers!!!This, Sir, it ap pears you have done, through the medium of your Secretary of State for the Home Department, the ever-memorable SIDMOUTH; and as the document cannot be too generally read, or too much known, I shall here insert it, and make such observations upon it as to me seem necessary.

"Whitehall, August 21, 1819. "My Lord,-Having laid before the Prince Regent the accounts transmitted to me from Manchester, of the proceedings at that place on Monday last, I have been commanded by his Royal Highness to request, that your Lordship will express to the Magistrates of the County Palatine of Lancaster, who attended on that day, the great satisfaction derived by his Royal Highness from their prompt, decisive, and efficient measures, for the preservation of the public tranquillity; and likewise that your Lordship will communicate to Major Trafford, his Royal Highness's high approbation of the support and astistance to the civil power afforded on that occasion by himself and the officers, non-commissioned officers, and privates, serving under his command.

"I have the honour, &c.
(Signed)

"To the Earl of Derby, &c. Knowsley."

"SIDMOUTH.

R. Carlile, Printer, 55, Fleet Street, London.

It would appear, Sir, from this Letter, that the instigators of those murders committed on the 16th of August, by the persons whom I have before alluded to, have been allowed to communicate with the Administration and Exécutive, on their own crimes, and that their account of the proceedings has alone been attended to. This, Sir, is not acting on the principles of English jurisprudence. It is one of the grossest violations of moral decency ever placed on record. Hundreds of disinterested persons were assembled to witness the proceedings of that day, who were competent to give an unbiassed and unprejudiced evidence of the murders com mitted, and of the conduct of both parties; namely, the People assembled, and the Cavalry who sabred them. Yet not one individual has been sought after to elucidate any one: circumstance, or any one tittle of evidence; and the offend ers are allowed, by our virtuous, sanctified, and sapient rulers to exculpate themselves by telling their own tale, without being confronted with any honest man who witnessed the conduct of both parties.

His Lordship is further made to say, that your Royal Highness derived great satisfaction from the prompt, decisive, and efficient measures pursued by the Yeomanry Cavalry on that day, and expressed your high approbation of the conduct of Major Trafford in leading them on-To do what? To cut down with their sabres a peacable and defenceless People. What language can be found sufficiently strong to mark this with a due reprobation? How shall the future impartial historian record, with the necessary effect, that a Prince of the House of Brunswick, whose ancestors ascended the throne on the condition of keeping it only by their good behaviour, or as our Judges are presumed to hold their authority (quamdiu se bene gesserint) as long as they behave themselves well, that the Regent of Great Britain has publicly sanctioned the slaughter of several hundred of his unoffending subjects, and has not taken one step to satisfy himself of the facts of the case, or shewn the least disposition to protect any other portion of his People from a similar slaughter, but, on the other hand, has given every encouragement to it? Will he not rank him as a competitor with the most ferocious and cruel of the Deys of Algiers? Will he not enclose the page within a black border, which records the sanction of an English Prince to such a bloody deed? Reflect, Sir, on what you have done, and make to your indignant countrymen the necessary atone ́ment. Let those be brought to justice who have advised you