59

brought his force to the court house; did not know Messrs.
Valiant and Young were arrested at the time; Mr. Hindes
told witness to take a force to the court house; over a hun-
dred policemen had been stationed on Baltimore street; the
regular force is about 358, in addition to which there were
700 special officers summoned by order of Messrs. Hindes and
Wood; can't tell whether the specials had been summoned
before Gov. Swann had removed the old board; they were
summoned before Saturday. Some were summoned on Fri-
day and some on the Thursday preceding; on Thursday wit;
ness thinks the first written order was given for special of-
ficers; the magistrates of the stations swore in the specials-
Justice Whalen, Showacre, Spicer, Hebden and Johnson
swore them in; can't tell how long it would take to summon
700 men; the board gives the order to the marshal and he to
the captains, and thence through the officers those summon-
ed are brought in; the crowd in the Criminal Court room on
Saturday was not as large as the crowd present now.

Mr. Stirling read from the Baltimore American of the 2d,
a communication from Messrs. Young and Valiant, relating
to their plan of action in regard to the men of the force, &c.,
which was offered as testimony.

Archibald Stirling sworn.—Witness was in the Criminal
Court on Saturday, at the time of the issue of the warrants
for the new commissioners and sheriff; at 4 o'clock there was
an immense crowd in front of the court house; went to the
window and saw three or four hundred men rushing in an
excited manner up Lexington street towards Charles street;
the court room became emptied in consequence of the excite-
ment and desire to see what was the matter; a short time be-
fore witness had left the office of the Commissioners on Hol-
liday street, in front of which an immense crowd had also
gathered; saw a large crowd in the Court House alley,
among them two squads marching shoulder to shoulder up
the alley into the court house; they were rough looking men;
went back to the Criminal Court room and heard a great
uproar outside, a noise of rushing to and fro; the impression
made on witness was that there was going to be a seizure of
the court house; saw a bailiff arrest a man, who struggled
violently; it was thought by several gentlemen in the court
room that an attack was going to be made on the. Criminal
Court; Judge Bond told witness that he had sent for a police
force to protect the court house; the noise was so great that
the court could transact no business; this occurred about half
an hour before the warrants were issued, in the neighborhood
of 12 or 1 o'clock; to witness it appeared that the crowd on
Holliday street were, of one stripe, and the one around the court
house of another; everything looked like a collision between
these two crowds; witness was not sworn on Saturday before
Judge Bond.