ng in the racks in the
guard-barracks (even if they knew of any being there) it is
childish; for how easy would it have been for the commanding
officer, on the shortest intimation of such an attempt, with one
blast of his bugle, to have called all his guards to the spot
before a hundredth part of the prisoners could have got into the
yard, and by that means instantly put a stop to any further
proceedings on their part.

We cannot conceive how Mr. King can possibly come forward and say,
on these grounds, it appeared to him that Captain Shortland was
justified in giving the order for sounding the alarm bell, when,
if he found the prisoners were conducting themselves improperly,
had he sent for the committee (as always had been his custom
heretofore, when he had any charge against the prisoners for
improper conduct) and told them that the prisoners were breaking
the wall (which circumstance, as has been published before, was
not known to one tenth of the prisoners) and requested them to
have represented to those engaged in it, the consequences that
must ensue if they persisted in such conduct, we have not a
moment's hesitation in saying, they would have put a stop to any
further proceedings of that kind.

That part which relates to the breaking of the iron chain which
fastened No. 1 gate, and which follows next in the report, says
there was no evidence to show whether it was done before or after
the alarm bell rang. As this was a material point on which they
grounded Shortland's justification, we have to regret that the
evidence we had to lay before the commissioners, and which would,
in our opinion, have sufficiently cleared up that point, was not
examined.

On the ringing of the alarm bell, the rush towards the gates
leading into the market square was so great (attracted as has been
before stated by curiosity) that those in front were irresistibly
pushed forward by those in the rear, and if the chain had not
broke, the lock must have given way to the pressure, and by this
opening, it is but natural to suppose, that a number must have
been shoved into the square, in front of the soldiers, who were
drawn up in a line across the square, with Shortland at their
head.

If, as the report now goes on to state, there was no direct proof
before them of a previous concert