petition itself assured the king that these citizens viewed" with horror and alarm" the infliction of death or transportation on criminals who had only burned and plundered great part of a peaceable town; that these outrages were merely excesses committed in moments of excitement and desperation, to which they were driven by the conduct of sir C. Wetherell, the Duke of Newcastle, and the rejection of the reform bill; and that justice would not be done, if the individuals, who had thus been the cause of the riots, did not share a similar fate with the rioters.

Loud complaints had been heard that the long continuance and ruinous extent of the riots at Bristol had been mainly owing to the mismanagement of the military who had been called out, on that occasion, for the protection of the city. Government ordered a preliminary investigation of the conduct of Colonel Brereton, who had commanded at Bristol.

It was carried on by a Court of Inquiry, for the purpose of ascertaining, as is done in ordinary cases, by a Grand Jury, whether there existed sufficient cause to institute a more particular investigation. The decision of that tribunal rendered it necessary to bring colonel Brereton to trial before a Court Martial. The trial began at Bristol, on the 9th of January. The charges against the accused were characterized by major general sir Charles D'Albiac, who had been president of the court of inquiry, and was now appointed to prosecute, as containing some "which bore upon the face of them every character of culpability unprecedented in the case of a British officer." The charges stated that, on the evening of the Saturday, after the VOL. LXXIV.

outrages had begun, and the riot act had been repeatedly read, the colonel did not act with any vigour or effect in obeying the directions of the magistrates to disperse the mob, but conducted himself in a feeble and temporizing manner, calculated only to encourage the rioters: That on the Sunday, the second day, when he had brought the military for the protection of the mansion house, he sent back the 14th light dragoons to their quarters, in the very heat of the riot, under the pretext that their presence only irritated the popuface, and shortly afterwards sent them away five miles from the city, alleging that the men and horses were already too much exhausted to be useful, which was not the fact, and positively refusing to comply with the directions of the magistrates to call them back, although the riot was hourly becoming more destructive and alarming: That, when required to protect the jail which the rioters were attacking, after having already destroyed the Bridewell, he gave positive orders to the cornet whom he put in command of the detachment sent for that purpose, on no account to use force, but only to go to the jail and come back-which the troops accordingly did, although, when they arrived at the jail, the mob had broken into it, and were in the very act of liberating the prisoners, and setting fire to the governor's house: That after the rioters had made their way into the court of the bishop's palace, and had forced the main door of the palace itself, the colonel, although he himself took post within the court, with a detachment of military, remained wholly inactive during the commission of various acts of outrage by the rioters, [E]

under his own eyes, "refusing, or omitting to comply with the application of certain of the Bishop's servants, as well as of certain constables and other persons there present, to afford them assistance, in order to check the outrages of the rioters, and to save the said palace, and the property therein contained, and on the contrary thereof, he the said lieutenant colonel gave most peremptory orders to the said detachment not to use any violence to the rioters, or to that effect, and passively permitted certain of the rioters returning out of the said palace, laden with its plunder, to escape, and at the same time released, or caused to be released, certain of the said rioters who had been apprehended in or about the said palace, in the act of committing outrages, or carrying off plunder, and whom the persons apprehending them had consigned or offered to consign to the custody of the said detachment:" That, on the Sunday evening, when the mansion house was in flames, although he was on the spot, at the head of a detachment of troops, he not only made no attempt to arrest the progress of the fire, or prevent farther outrages, but, after looking on for a few minutes, actually marched away the troops, and ordered them to return to their quarters, leaving Queen Square utterly unprotected, the consequence of which was that, during the night, two entire sides of it were burned down: That, although he received at midnight a letter from the mayor, requesting and authorizing him to take whatever steps, and issue whatever orders he, as military commander of the troops, might think necessary to check the destruction which was

going on, he paid no attention to it during four hours-went to bed in the mean time--and, when called out of it by a magistrate about four o'clock on Monday morning, manifested great reluctance to act, pretending that the troops would be of no use: That, on various occasions during all the three days, instead of resisting and putting down the rioters, he temporized with and yielded to them, "frequently shaking hands with them, addressing them familiarly, and even using to them language which reflected on the conduct of a portion of the troops under his command, and which was calculated to add to the irritation of the rioters, and at the same time to augment their confidence in their own strength and power." Colonel Brereton sunk under the weight of the evidence by which these charges were supported. The fourth day of the proceedings of the court martial closed with the examination of the officer whom he had dispatched to the jail at the head of a detachment, with orders, as the witness expressed it, "on no account to use any violence, but to go there and return. On my arrival at the jail I saw an immense mob collected together. I marched up the men to the jail door, and saw a great number of people inside knocking things to pieces. marched my men back. Colonel Brereton asked me what I had done at the jail? I said I had done what he told me to do-nothing; that I had seen an immense mob at the jail destroying it, and had done nothing to check them. He told me he had heard I had shot four men there. I replied I had done nothing of the sort, and he said I had acted perfectly right." Before the court assembled on the

I

fifth day of its proceedings, Colonel Brereton had shot himself.*

Another court martial was subsequently held on Captain Warrington, who had commanded a troop of the third dragoon guards. The charges against him were to this effect, that, when informed, on the Sunday night, that the mob was about to set fire to the custom house, he neither turned out with his troop for its protection, nor communicated to his commanding officer the information which he had received: that, on the Monday, although he received positive written instructions from the mayor to take the most effective and decisive measures in his power for quelling the riot, he neither acted on them, nor transmitted them to his superior officer, but kept his troop inactive in its quarters, till he was again applied to, an hour afterwards, by a magistrate in person, while the mob, during the interval, had fired and sacked several houses: That although it was his duty, as being the only commissioned officer with the troop, except a young cornet of sixteen months service, to be constantly at its quarters to direct its movements, and take the command of any detachment which might be called upon to act, he, on various occasions, either had been absent, or had sent out detachments to act under the command of that young officer, he himself remaining

• v. Chronicle.

at home. The court martial found him guilty of the first and second charges, and of the greater part of the third, and sentenced him to be cashiered. The king, however, while approving and confirming the sentence, allowed the captain, in pursuance of an unanimous recommendation of the court, to retire from the service by selling his troop.

The reformers of Bristol did not aim at the military. Their object was to strike down the civic authorities whom they had abandoned, or coldly supported in the day of need. Their organs and partizans insisted that the magistrates should be put on their trial, because their want of energy and discretion had been the prime causes, it was said, of all the outrages. Ministers consented. The attorney general was ordered to prosecute, the prosecution having no other value or end, in the eyes of its instigators, except the hope of rendering the corporation and the magistracy odious. Mr. Pinney, the mayor, was tried at the bar of the King's Bench for neglect of his duty as chief magistrate of the city. The jury not only found him not guilty, but declared their opinion that, in a situation of great difficulty, and when deserted by those from whom he was entitled to expect aid and encouragement, he had conducted himself with great firmness and propriety.

N the 17th of January, when parliament assembled after the recess, ministers expressed their intention of going into committee on the Reform bill on the 20th. Mr. Croker and Mr. Goulburn resisted this proposition as bringing the House into a consideration of the details of the bill, before it had been put in possession of that information without which no proper judgment could be formed concerning them. On the night of the adjournment it had been stated, that all the necessary information would be timeously furnished; that part of the documents would be furnished on the 22nd, and the remainder on the 26th; but, up to the present hour, this information, so essential towards considering the very complicated scale by which disfranchisement was to be regulated, had not been laid before them. Of such papers again as had been produced, there was scarcely one which did not seem to have been studiously drawn up

in such a way as to perplex and mislead. Thus, the bill proposed that counties having a population of not less than 150,000 should send four members to parliament. All, therefore, that was required was, a specification of such counties as had that extent of population. But the account was given in such detail, and was so artfully* constructed, that an individual could not arrive at this simple point, without going over 12,000,000 or 14,000,000 of figures. The counties were divided into districts and sections-the population was not given in totals; neither did the returns already produced contain the numbers of ten of the boroughs which were to be disfranchised. The whole list of the boroughs, and the order in which they stood, according to the scale of Lieutenant Drummond, were liable to be changed by the addition of those ten boroughs. It was impossible, moreover, to go into committee without having the necessary in

formation as to the limits of the several boroughs, with reference to which the number of their houses and amount of their taxes had been calculated. The furnishing of information should be accelerated; and such a day should be fixed for the committee as would leave time for the proper examination of these documents.

Lord John Russell and Lord Althorpe would not consent to any delay of the committee. It had been found that, in the papers given in, there were some deficiencies and some errors; but they had hoped that a great number of correct copies of the borough population returns would have been ready in the week after parliament had adjourned. They had unfortunately been disappointed; and all those who were concerned in the production of these documents regretted that they could not be got ready so soon as had been expected. Some of the tables were then under consideration, and others had been laid before parliament previous to the recess. It was, however, considered useless to produce a number of papers, some of which, it appeared on examination, would have to be corrected by others. Therefore, when Lieutenant Drummond mentioned that it would be necessary to make corrections in some of the papers, he had at once been told, that it would be better to keep back the documents, in order that the corrections might be properly made. The papers were now ready, and would in the course of the week be placed in the hands of members. As to the ten boroughs omitted in the list on which that gentleman had founded his calculations, the reason assigned by him for so doing was that they were so insignificant and so exceedingly

various-some having a few houses and paying a considerable portion of assessed taxes, while others of them had a great many houses and paid but a small portion of taxes-that their omission would make no material alteration in the calculations. Lieutenant Drummond had been so busily occupied that he was not able to produce the desired information regarding them; but it would be furnished forthwith. The county list, again, which had been referred to, had never been intended to give the total population of the counties. It had been drawn up with a view to the division of counties, that each division might contain, as nearly as possible, the same numbers; and it shewed, therefore, the population of districts. At all events, nothing had been stated, which required the House to delay the committee. It would not be necessary, on going into committee, to begin with the discussion of any of the schedules. Those parts of the bill, to which the papers particularly referred, might be postponed while other portions of the bill might be proceeded with. The enacting clauses, even those which regarded the boroughs, might be as well discussed without the information in question; and thus sufficient time would be afforded for the examination of the documents.

On the 20th, when the motion was made for the House going into committee, Mr. Croker repeated his objection to their proceeding in the state of imperfect information in which they were even now left. In the new lists, some of which had been laid before the House only that morning, there occurred what had been called some trifling alterations; but they could scarcely deserve that name, when they had