The New Hampshire Gazette And Historical Chronicle

On Monday the first of December Sir Henry Gould, Knt. one of the Justices of the Court of Common Pleas, opened the special Commission for the Trials of the Rioters in the County of Norwich: Ten were capitally convicted, and received Sentence of Death.--At Oxford, four from Abingdon were capitally convicted, two of them received Sentence of Death, and two to be transported for 14 Years,--At Reading, Berks. four were ordered for Execution, and four to be transported for seven Years.--They were tried for riotously assembling, and demolished and pulling down several Houses, Barns Mills, &c. and seizing Quantities Corn, Meal, and other Provisions. -- His Lordship, in his Charge to the Grand Jury, informed them, that from his Majesty's Lenity, the Commission issued on this Occasion was for the trying Felonies and Accessories thereto, whereas most of these Delinquents were guilty of High treason; but that his Majesty in Mercy to them, had avoided their being indicted for that most capital Offence :--That he could not help thinking, that the common People had been actuated by a Spirit of Licentiousness, and had mistaken this Darling of the Lawless, for Liberty, the Birthright of the Subject and the Support of the Constitution; but that the true Spirit of LIBERTY was the Right of every Subject to act as he pleased in Conformity to the Laws of his Country, and in so doing to be certain of their Protection.