THE LAW OF RIOT.
[TO TEE EDITOR OF THE "SPECTATOR"] Sin,—There is one point obscure in your otherwise excellent article on " The Law of Riot,"—namely, what is the meaning 'of the delay of one hour prescribed in the Riot Act P I under- stand the ease to be this. Persons who assemble in a manner to cause reasonable alarm, commit a misdemeanour, for which they may be arrested by the police, but not shot down. This misdemeanour may, however, be converted into a felony, either by the assembly resorting to violence, or by its refusal to disperse within an hour after the Riot Act has been read by a Magistrate, and then this felony, like any other felony, may be put down by killing. The Riot Act neither reduces nor enlarges the right and duty of any armed citizen to stop the commission of any felony by force ; it only empowers a Magistrate to convert a misdemeanour into a felony in a par- ticular case. This, I take it, is the law ; but the practice, commonly supposed by all parties to be the law, is that soldiers may not lawfully fire until the Riot Act has been read by a Magistrate, and that, when it has been read, they may fire without any waiting for the hour's delay prescribed by the Act. The practice is better than the law, and should be converted into law. But I doubt whether the provision you suggest—that the chief officers of a regiment should be made Magistrates ad hoc—is enough. So grave an act as firing upon a mob ought to be conducted with the forme of direct civil authority.—I am, Sir, &o., A MAGISTRATE.
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