Having perused, with attention, the report of Mr. CHARLES KING, and FRANCIS SEYMOUR LARPENT, on their examination of the _unfortunate_ occurrence at Dartmoor, on the 6th of April last:
We, the undersigned, being there at the time this _unfortunate_ occurrence took place, deem it a duty we owe to the surviving sufferers of that bloody transaction, to our fellow citizens, and ourselves, to make some remarks upon such a singular report. Although we presume the door is forever closed against any further investigation of that ever to be remembered transaction, we cannot help, however contrary it may be to our wishes to irritate the public feeling, already so much excited, entering into a detailed investigation of that report.
In the committee's address to the public on the 27th of June last, preceding the publication of the affidavits of some of the prisoners, taken on that melancholy affair, they have justly anticipated what would be the report of the commissioners, after their investigation; they drew their conclusions from the singular manner in which the investigation was conducted. The report commences by stating, that, after carefully perusing the proceedings of the several courts of inquiry, instituted immediately after that event, they proceeded immediately to the examination, upon oath, of ALL the witnesses, both American and English, who offered themselves for that purpose.--How far this part of the report is correct, we shall leave the public to judge.
On the arrival of the commissioners at the depot, the committee of the prison were sent for; after waiting some time at the door of the room, where the inquiry was held, they were called in separately and questioned as to their knowledge of the transactions of the sixth.--The depositions of those who were eye witnesses of that disgraceful scene were taken; some were questioned as to the general conduct of Shortland, previous to that affair; it was represented by them as it would have been by all, as being universally _cruel, overbearing and oppressive_. After having finished the examination of the committee, they requested them to bring forward all the evidence that was likely to cast any light on the subject of inquiry. They accordingly returned into the prison, and drew up a list of the names of some of the eye-witnesses of that day's occurrence. Although they could have brought hundreds to the examination, and the sum of whose evidence would have amounted to the same, yet the committee not wishing to impede the progress of the investigation, by a redundancy of evidence, they were careful to select such men as were most likely to give a clear and distinct account of all the circumstances as they occurred under their knowledge, taking care, at the same time, to procure those whose different situations afforded them an opportunity of witnessing that transaction, from the commencement to the close. Such was the evidence the committee had selected, to the number of about fifty, VERY FEW of whom were ever examined, although they were kept waiting in the turnkey's lodge (where they were ordered to stay until called for) during the hours of investigation. In the course of the inquiry, it seems, the commissioners found it necessary to survey the particular situation of the prisons, and the points from which the different attacks were made; they accordingly came into the yard for that purpose, and after having been shown all the places from whence the firing was continued, where the crowd of prisoners had assembled on the first alarm, and where the hole, so much made a handle of, had been made--after a slight survey of these different places, they retired into their session room, leaving orders, once more, with the committee to hold their evidence in readiness, as they would soon be called upon for examination. The committee replied that they had been in readiness since the commencement of the inquiry, and were then only waiting their orders to appear before them, feeling happy in the idea of having it in their power to show to the court, and to the world, by the evidence they had to produce, that the attack of Shortland on the defenceless prisoners, was premeditated and unjustifiable in ANY point of view.