2 PAPERS RELATING TO THE panied by music " of a like nature and tendency," that is, playing party tunes or singing party songs.
An assembly of persons meeting and parading, or joining in procession under any one of the foregoing circumstances, falls within the meaning of the Act.
By Section 2 of the Act, any justice of thv peace apprised of the assembly is bound to take"proper assistance, and command such unlawful assembly of persons or procession to dispesse, using the form of proclamation contained in the Act.
By the third section, persons refusing to disperse within one quarter of an hour from their being thus commanded so to do, may be apprehended, and punished by summary conviction before two magistrates; and all such parties, whether so commanded to disperse or not, and even though they should dispeise 6n being commanded to do so, may be indicted for the misdemeanour, undei the fiist section of the Act, and brought to trial for said offence at the sessions or assizes.
With respect to arches, flags, or banners erected on or over the public highway, and the displav whereof may be calculated to provoke animosity between Her Majesty's subjects of different religious persuasions, they may be removed by the magistrates and constabulary under their control.
Sometime* the bases of these arches are erected on the premises of individuals, and not on the public highway, though the arches are afterwards made to cross the highway; but wherever such arches are extended over the highway they partake of the character of nuisances, and the magistrates have a right to remove the same, and, if it be necessary, to go upon the grounds of individuals for that purpose; and the constabulary, acting under the direction of a magistrate, may do so, uiking care to do as little damage as possible, and to use no more force than is necessary for the purpose; and the same observation applies to the practice of extending lines or flags, or other party emblems, from one house to another, across the street, so as to make a species of arch or line under whit h the people must pass.
The exhibition of flags and party emblems in or from public-houses is effectually provided against by the 6 &.
7 Will.
4, c.
38, ss„ 8 & 9, and should be carefully suppressed accord¬ ingly.
By the former of these sections, every person licensed to sell spirits by retail, who shall hang out or display, or suffer to be hung out or displayed from or out of his home, or place of business, any sign, flag, symbol, colour, decoration, or emblem whatsoever, except the known and usual and accustomed sign of such house or place of sale, is liable to a penalty of 2 /.,
and his license may not be renewed, or may be forfeited altogether; and by the latter section, any magistrate or chief constable, or any constable authorized by a magistrate or chief coustable, may enter such house and remove and destroy all such flags, &c.
The justices of the peace should understand that it is their bounden duty, within their respective jurisdictions, to act upon the powers thus vested in them by law for the suppression of these illegal proceedings, against which the above statutes are directed, and that they will be held, collectively and individually, responsible for any violation of this law which may occur in their dis'rict, of which it shall be found that they have had notice; and where it shall appear that they have not made use of their authority and the means at their disposal to suppress such proceedings, and bring those cancerned in them to justice.
In every case when the magistrates hear of a procession being formed in defiance of the Act, or when they have reasonable grounds to apprehend that such a procession may take place, they should be prepared with sufficient assistance to proceed to the spot, and should use the most prompt exertions to disperse the assemblage, and apprehend the principal parties engaged in it, and proceed against them in the manner provided by the statute.
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In the case of small parties, not exceeding 20, and not having any arms, it may be suffi¬ cient to proceed in the course pointed out by the statute, to read the proclamation to dis¬ perse, which should be done in the following words, viz.:—
" Our Sovereign Lady the Queen chargeth and commandeth all persons being here assembled, immmediately to disperse, and" peaeeably to depart, upon pain of fine or imprisonment, according to the Statute passed in the Thirteenth year of the Reign of Queen Victoria, to restrain party processions in Ireland."
The names of as many as can be identified in the procession should be ascertained and taken down as soon as possible.
'' If the parties really disperse on the proclamation being made, or within one quarter of an hour after, the object of its being made having been "attained, .no
further proceedings need be taken at the time; but the names or descriptions of the parties identified should be repwited for further directions as to the proceedings against them, if it shall be deemed expedient.
If the parties forming the procession do not disperse in the time prescribed after the pro¬ clamation has been read, the magistrates, with a view to proceeding on the summary powers of the third section, may.
apprehend the parties offending, on the spot, either with or without a warrant ; or if that course cannot conveniently be taken, an information may afterwards he exhibited, on which the justice before whom it is exhibited may issue his warrant to apprehend the accused.
It will not be necessary, in proceeding on the summary jurisdiction, to make up at the time a formal conviction; but the minutes of the evidence, in each case, should be carefully preserved.
It
