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![handle is hein.slavery/ssactsengr0573 and id is 1 raw text is: 3 STARK 77. REDFORD V. BIRLEY 773
REDFORD V. BIRLEY AND OTHERS.
(Trespass by A. against B. C. D. and E. Plea, not guilty, and justifications (inter
alia) that the defendants were acting in aid of civil authority in executing a
warrant, and also in dispersing a riotous and unlawful assembly, at which A.
was present, &c. A. proves that be was struck by B. whilst he and C. D. and E.
were acting with a common object, as the members of a yeomanry corps of
cavalry ; he cannot go into evidence to shew that other individuals were wounded
on that occasion. In support of the above special pleas of justification, evidence
is admissible of the meeting of numbers of persons in the night-time ; of ex-
pressions used by them at the time tending to shew the object of their meeting,
and that it was for the purpose of being drilled, although it be not proved that
the plaintiff was one of the party. Evidence admissible of the fact, that the
drillings previous to the meeting excited the alarm of individuals. Evidence
admitted of conversations between strangers going to a previous meeting to be
drilled, in order to shew the object of the meeting. A statement made to a
committee of magistrates appointed to provide for the public security, by a
number of persons in the town of Manchester, expressing their apprehensions
for the safety of the town, is admissible in evidence to shew the propriety of
calling on the military to act in aid of the civil power. A warrant having been
issued by the magistrates at the time of the meeting for the apprehension of
several persons present at the meeting, evidence is admissible of the refusal
on the part of the constables to execute the warrant, and of the grounds of such
refusal. Resolutions passed at a meeting of persons held at a distant place, and
proved to have been read and proposed by the person who presided at that
meeting, and who also presided at the meeting in question, are admissible with
a view to prove the existence of a conspiracy, and the nature and object of the
present meeting. What constitutes an unlawful assembly.)
This was an action against four defendants for assaulting, wounding, and cutting
the plaintiff on the 16th day of August 1819, at Manchester.
[77] The defendants pleaded,, first, that they were not guilty, and also several
special pleas (a) of justification, some of which, in substance, charged the [78] plaintiff
(a) As the proceedings with regard to the special pleas of justification in this case
may tend to illustrate an important principle as to the divisibility of special pleas of
justification, and also to elucidate the points of- law determined in this case, it may
not be improper to subjoin an abstract of these pleas. The defendant pleaded, first,
not guilty.
Secondly.-That on the said 16th day of August, the plaintiff, together with other
malicious seditious, and disaffected persons, to the number of 60,000 and more, being
armed with stones, bludgeons, and other offensive weapons, unlawfully assembled
together, and committed a riot and breach of the peace at Manchester, and that the
defendants seeing and observing the said riot and breach of the peace to be committed,
upon their own view requested the said plaintiff and the said other persons to separate
and disperse themselves; and that because the said plaintiff and the said other
persons so assembled together would not, after being so requested, separate or dis-
perse, or refrain from further breaking and disturbing the peace, and because the
defendants could not otherwise restore public peace and tranquillity, or hinder the
said plaintiff and the said other persons from further breaking the peace, the defend-
ants justified (in the usual technical form) the committing the supposed trespasses in
order to restore the public peace, and to hinder and prevent the said plaintiff and the
said other persons so assembled from further breaking and disturbing the peace.
Thirdly.-That an unlawful and seditious conspiracy had been entered into by
divers wicked, seditious, and ill-disposed persons, to the number of 200,000 and more,
for the purpose of moving and exciting discontent and disaffection in the minds of the
liege subjects of His late Majesty, and for the purpose of moving and exciting the liege
subjects of His said late Majesty to hatred and contempt of the government and
constitution of the realm as by law established, and by unlawful and seditious means,
and by the wicked and malicious combination of great numbers of disaffected and
seditious persons, to alter the government and constitution of this realm as by law
established; and that before the said 16th day of August, A. D. 1819, divers of the said
last mentioned ill-disposed, wicked, malicious, and seditious persons, to the number](ViewImageLocal?handle=hein.slavery/ssactsengr0573&div=1&collection=&method=preview&ext=.png&size=3)