JB/109/138/001

Click Here To Edit

1820. Apr. 4
Collectanea. Morng Chron's View of Ministry's conduct on the Manchester Massacre
1
Morn. Chron. April 4. 1820.

"The diversity in the constitutions of various minds would
"make us hesitate to accuse a contravertionalist of want of
"good faith in argument, because he professes to be satisfied
"by reasons which appear to ourselves to be insufficient; but an
obstinate perseverance in arguing a question which his
adversaries do not raise, and thus avoiding the question to
which they require an answer, has long been named and
noted by all systematizers of the art of wrangling as one
of the meanest tricks of a practical sophist (ignoratio
elenchi). The Courier, in spite of repeated corrections professes
to believe that the Magistrates of Manchester
are accused, because, being at liberty to produce evidence
in defence of their conduct, and of that of the yeomanry
they did not produce any such evidence. This is a sophism
of the species that we have described. No one has
wondered that the Magistrates, being the accusers, have
not entered into a regular defence of their own conduct,
"Whose memory is written on the earth,
"In yet-appearing blood."

What has been remarked is this. In the course of the
Parliamentary discussions which followed, as well as
in the paragraphs of the Ministerial Papers, which
almost accompanied the strokes of the sabres at Manchester,
the defence of the magistrates was founded on
various assertions respecting the conduct of the people
who attended that meeting. It was said that
the people advanced, openly armed with formidable bludgeons, and secretly provided with fire-arms,
that others had large pockets filled with stones; that
they were incited by their leaders to resist the
cavalry; that they did resist the cavalry; that pistols
were fired by them, and that they gave many other indications of their sanguinary intentions, which it is now as
disgusting as it is useless to repeat. No one can
doubt, that if proofs of all these assertions could
have been offered, they would have been highly relevant
to the matter in question at York; and
that if they had been satisfactory, the defendants
who were identified with the proceedings would
have been found guilty on these counts of the
indictment on which they were acquitted. "Mr Justice
Bayley," according to the Report of the trial,
"said Mr Hunt was at liberty to ask any questions
"tending to shew that the conduct of the meeting
"was:" and Mr Hunt did ask such questions. He
examined also witnesses also to prove, so as far as a negative can

Identifier: | JB/109/138/001 "JB/" can not be assigned to a declared number type with value 109.
Date_1	1820-04-04	Marginal Summary Numbering
Box	109	Main Headings	Parliamentary Reform
Folio number	138	Info in main headings field	Collectanea Morng Chron's View of Ministry's conduct on the Manchester massacre
Image	001	Titles	Morn. Chron. April 4 1820
Category	Collectanea	Number of Pages	1
Recto/Verso	recto	Page Numbering	E1
Penner		Watermarks
Marginals		Paper Producer
Corrections		Paper Produced in Year
Notes public		ID Number	35793
Box Contents