but this preliminary is by no means a condition precedent to the exercise of the common-law powers of suppressing riots.
The crown cannot charge upon the local rates the expense of maintaining soldiers called into a district by the magistrates to suppress a riot (re Glamorgan County Council, L.R. 1899, 2 Q.B. 536); but the cost of extra police drafted in. for the like purpose falls on the rates of the district into which they are drafted (see Police Act 1890, s. 25). Until 1886 persons whose propertyywas damaged by riot had a civil remedy of an exceptional character by action against the hundred in which the riot took place. This remedy was a survival of the pre-Conquest liability of the hundred to guarantee the orderly conduct of its inhabitants. The hundred was made liable in case of robbery by the Statute of Winchester (1285).[1] That and subsequent acts were repealed in the reign of George IV., and their provisions were consolidated by an act of 1827 which gave a remedy against the hundred in the case of felonious demolition of churches, chapels, houses, machinery, &c., being feloniously demolished by rioters. The last instance of the use of this exceptional remedy was in the case of a riot at Worthing, and the remedy was abolished in 1886. When the Piccadilly riots occurred in that year no one knew that the injured shops were in the hundred of Ossulston, and difficulties arose in applying the old procedure. So an ex post facto statute was passed (the Metropolitan Police Compensation Act 1886) for a special settlement of the claims, and the old statutes were repealed and replaced by the Riot Damage Act 1886. Under this act compensation is payable where rioters have injured or destroyed houses, shops, buildings, fixed or movable machinery and appliances prepared or used for or in connexion with manufactures or agriculture, or for mines or quarries, or vessels stranded or in distress (see Wreck), or have injured, stolen, or destroyed property in houses, shops or buildings. The compensation is payable out of the police rate for the district in which the damage is done; or if it was done afloat, for the district nearest to the scene of action. The claim is made on the police authority for the district. The time and form for making claims and the mode of fixing the amount of compensation is regulated by rules made by the Home Secretary on the 30th of June 1894 (Stat. R. and O. 1894, No. 636). In adjusting the amount regardishad to the conduct of the claimant, viz. as to precautions taken by him, his share, if any, in the riot, or provocation offered to the rioters. Failure to carry out a programme for athletic Sports has been held to debar a claimant from compensation for damage done by a riot among the disappointed spectators who had paid to see the sports. The claimant must give credit for insurance money, or any other compensation received in respect of the damage; but the insurers or persons who paid such compensation may tile a claim against the police rate for the amount paid by them. Persons dissatisfied with the award of the police authority may sue for the recovery of their, claim subject to a liability to pay all the costs if they do not get judgment for more than the amount awarded. The action, if it is not for more than £100, is to be brought in the county court. The remedy is available in the case of stranded ships plundered by rioters (s. 515 of the Merchant Shipping Act 1894).
The Riot Act does not extend to Ireland, but similar provisions are contained in an act of the Irish Parliament passed in 1787 as amended by acts of 1831 and 1842. These acts create a special offence punishable by penal servitude for life, viz. sending notices, letters or messages inciting or tending to riot. Under the Criminal Procedure Ireland Act 1887 (a temporary act) summary proceedings may be taken against rioters. The civil remedy against the county or borough for malicious injury to property, real or personal, including ships. in distress and their cargo, is wider than in England or Scotland, but it includes malicious injury by rioters where the injury is a crime within the Malicious Damage Act of 1861. Claims are now dealt with in the county court, and not as formerly by the grand jury and judge- of assize (Local Government Ireland Act 1898, s. 5).
In Scotland a riot may be either “ rioting and mobbing ” or “ rioting and breach of the peace.” The first is much the same as riot in English law. Mobbing consists in the assembling of a number of people and then combining against order or peace to the alarm of the lieges (Alison, Cr. Law of Scotland, vol. i. p.'5o9; Macdonald, Criminal Law, 180). The second offence occurs when concourse or a common purpose are wanting. Numerous acts against rioting and unlawful convocation were passed by the Scottish parliament, beginning in 1487. The Riot Act (1716) applies to Scotland. There is a civil remedy against the county or burgh in which a riot takes place in respect of damage done by the rioters to houses, churches, buildings and ships, and buildings or engines used in trade or manufacture. The remedy is given by a series of statutes of 1716, 1812, 1816, 1817 and 1894. The procedure for its enforcement is now regulated by the Riotous Assemblies (Scotland) Act 1822, and amending statutes. The county or burgh authorities may adjust claims without litigation, and pay them out of the general assessments.
British Dominions.—In India the offence of riot, as defined by s. 146 of the Penal Code, consists in the use of force or violence by an unlawful assembly (which must consist of at least live persons, s. 141), or by any member thereof in the prosecution of the common object of such assembly (see Mayne, Ind. Criminal Law, ed. 1896, p. 489). In Ceylon and the Straits Settlements provisions based on the Indian Code are in force. In most of the settled Colonies the English law as to riot applies subject to local legislation. The Criminal Codes of Canada (1898, ss. 79–86), New Zealand (1893, ss. 83–89) and Queensland (1899, ss. 61–67) adopt the substance of the English law as to riot, in terms borrowed from the English draft Code of 1880. In those of the West Indies whose common law is based on that of France, Holland or Spain, the English law as to riot has been applied by ordinance, e.g. in British Guiana (Criminal Code 1893, tit. xix), and St Lucia (Criminal Code 1888, tit. xxv). In the South African colonies the English law of riot does not apply, but under the Dutch Roman law there exists a similar offence, known as public violence ” (vis publica), i.e. the use of violence and force by which the public rest and order is endangered and the authority of the lawful authorities and officials is set at naught. The offence was capital (see Van Leeuwen, Roman-Dutch Law, tr. by Kotze, 1886, vol. ii. p. 294; Morice, English and Roman-Dutch Law, 1903, p. 334). Similar provisions based on the French Penal Code are inforce in Mauritius (Penal Code of 1838).
United States.—In the United States the law is based upon that of England (see Bishop, Amer. Cr. L., 8th ed., 1892, vol. i. s. 534, vol. ii. ss. 1143 et seq.). In some states there is a statutory proclamation for the dispersion of rioters in terms almost identical with those of the British Riot Act. The City, town, or county is by the statutes of many states rendered liable for damage caused by rioters, with or without a remedy over against the persons who did the damage (see revised Laws of Massachusetts, ed. 1902, chap. 211, sects. 2, 8).
RIO TINTO (Minas de Rio Tinto), a mining town of south-western
Spain, in the province of Huelva; near the source of
the river Tinto, and at the terminus of a light railway from the
port of Huelva. Pop. (1900) 11,603. Rio Tinto is one of the
greatest copper mining centres in the world; and it is from the
discoloration of its waters by copper ore that the river derives
its name. Besides the town of Minas, several villages are peopled
by the native miners, whose numbers exceed 10,000; and one is
occupied solely by British mine officials. The surrounding
country is covered for miles with heaps of slag, and has been
reduced to a desert. In 1903 the output of the mines included
840,000 tons of copper ore, worth more than £500,000, besides
a relatively small quantity of iron and manganese. Almost the
entire product is dispatched to Huelva for shipment to Great
- ↑ There is a curious exception still on the Statute-book depriving persons robbed while travelling on the Lord's Day of any right to compensation from the hundred (Lord's Day Act 1677, s. 5).
