The result of this event, however, was a conviction throughout the public mind, of the necessity of some improvement in the police system of the country. Already had the institution of a metropolitan police force produced a firm reliance in the powers of such a body to suppress outrages of a similar description, and the adoption of some new measure, more extensively carrying out the general plan, was strongly recommended to the attention of Parliament by his Majesty, on his opening the session, on the 6th of December following. The recommendation was not unattended with good results, and the adoption of a measure sanctioning the establishment of a police force in Bristol, similar in character to that which existed in London, afforded considerable satisfaction to the inhabitants of that city.
A special commission for the trial of the persons who were in custody, and who were charged with having been concerned in the riots, commenced at Bristol on Monday, the 2nd of January 1832.
On Tuesday, William Clarke, Patrick Kearney, James Williams, Daniel Higgs, James Courtney, and John Mackay, were placed at the bar. They stood indicted for that they, in that part of the parish of Bedminster within the city and county of Bristol, with others riotously and tumultuously assembled, and pulled down and destroyed a house, the property of his majesty. Other counts in the indictment laid it as the property of the corporation of Bristol, of the citizens, of the commissioners for building the jail, and of the governor.
Having pleaded severally “Not guilty,” they were again arraigned upon the indictment for having burned down the same jail; to which also they in a firm tone put in their plea of “Not guilty.”
The attorney-general, in opening the case, said, that the charge now against the prisoners was framed on the words of the Act of the 7th Geo. IV., which contained almost in precise words the terms of the Riot Act, passed in the 1st Geo. I., “that if any persons shall riotously and tumultuously assemble together, and begin to pull down any house, &c., every such offender shall be a felon without benefit of clergy.” Under this Act of Parliament, persons tumultuously assembling together for the purpose of destroying any house were guilty of felony. With regard to the individuals now before them, it would be proved that they were riotously and tumultuously assembled together, to the disturbance of the public peace; that they were parading the town about noon on Sunday, the 20th of October, in the most riotous and disorderly manner; that after destroying the Bridewell by fire, they proceeded to the public jail, and whether for the purpose of liberating the persons there confined, or with a view to the general destruction of property, they broke into the jail, and set fire to several parts of it. Clarke was seen with a crowbar on his shoulder, actively engaged in the acts of violence and outrage at the head of the party that attacked the jail, which was a strong building, and the gates of which required considerable force to break them down. They did resist for some time all the combined efforts of the mob. At length, however, an entrance was effected by making a small hole through one of the gates, through which some of the rioters made their way, and who succeeded in wrenching them from their hinges. Arrived at the interior of the jail, the mob proceeded, amongst other acts of outrage, to the destruction of the governor’s house, which was in a short time reduced to a heap of ruins. These acts would be satisfactorily proved; and it would be also proved, that the prisoners criminally participated in those acts of outrage. To establish still more clearly the guilt of the prisoner Clarke, it would be proved that he was afterwards seen with the keys of the prison in his hand, going about in one of the public-houses in the town, boasting of what he had done—talking of the keys of the “Hen and Chickens,” or some expression to that effect, and indulging in the most violent and inflammatory language. He believed that this prisoner was rather of a superior caste, and one from whom such conduct was not to have been expected. He stated himself to have been a Dorsetshire man, and it appeared that he had for some time been himself the proprietor of a public-house. It was to be the more lamented that an individual thus raised above the common crowd should have demeaned himself in so disgraceful and criminal a manner. With regard to all the other prisoners, he did not believe that they would be affected by evidence of the same strong description; but he believed there was not one of them who would not be clearly proved to have taken a large share in the late disgraceful riots.
Several witnesses were then called, who proved most distinctly the active part which Clarke had taken in the disturbances. The trial was continued by adjournment from Tuesday to Wednesday, when the jury found Clarke, Kearney, Higgs, Courtney, and Mackay, “Guilty;” but acquitted Williams.
Clarke, the principal prisoner, appeared throughout the investigation in a most deplorable state, and his weak nerves, contrasted with his muscular figure, rendered him an object both of surprise and compassion. He fainted two or three times, and seemed in a state bordering on insensibility during the three hours which it occupied the lord chief-justice in summing up. He was a strong athletic man, rather above the common size, with nothing in his countenance indicative of the determined outrages laid to his charge. The prisoners Williams, Kearney, Higgs, and Mackay, were young men of about twenty years of age, and Courtney about the middle age; they all appeared to be of an inferior station in life, and presented nothing remarkable in their appearance.
Thomas Evans Bendall, aged nineteen, and James Sims, aged eighteen, were then placed at the bar, charged with having riotously assembled, together with other persons, to the disturbance of the public peace, and with having demolished and destroyed, or begun to demolish and destroy, a certain dwelling-house, the property of the Lord Bishop of Bristol. The attorney-general, in stating the case, said, that though by the act of parliament, the mere beginning to pull down and demolish any building was sufficient to constitute the offence with which the prisoners were charged, yet in this case he should be enabled to prove that the prisoners had been most active on this particular occasion. An attempt was made to prove that Sims was silly, but both were found guilty.
On Wednesday, Christopher Davis, a man of most respectable appearance, about fifty years of age, was placed at the bar, charged with having, on Sunday, the 30th of October, with divers other persons, riotously assembled, demolished and pulled down a certain house belonging to his majesty, called the New Jail. The attorney-general, in opening the case, described the prisoner as having acted as a leader of the mob. He would be proved to have been first at the Mansion-house, encouraging the mob by gestures and by language; to have been one of those who entered that building; to have been up during the whole night; and to have been present at all the disturbances of Sunday. He was near the Bridewell when it was broken into; he was afterwards in Queen-square and at the New Jail, where he was seen at the time that building was in flames. He would be proved to have been seen waving his hat, saying that it was a most glorious sight, and what he had long wished to see; that the churches should be pulled down to mend the highways, and that the bishops should be put down. When the Bishop’s Palace was in flames, it would be stated to them by a witness, that he appeared quite overwhelmed by joy. He expressed his readiness to head any mob for purposes such as these. He waved his hat on his umbrella, as if it were a cap of liberty. He was a man of most respectable situation in society, retired from business, and living with his family on a comfortable independence thereby acquired. From such a man a very opposite course was to have been expected—one would have thought he would have rather dissuaded the mob from their disgraceful outrages, than have given his open approval to them.
Several witnesses were then called, who sustained the opening of the attorney-general to the letter, and on the following day the prisoner was found “Guilty.”