Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume XIV.djvu/359

 RIOT 343 tributaries. About Ion. 63 W. it receives the Eio Branco, after which it turns S. E., widens in some parts to 12 or 15 m., and becomes deep and sluggish, its waters sometimes flow- ing backward during the annual rise of the Amazon. Its extreme length is about 1,200 m. Steamers ascend to Sao Gabriel. The Negro was discovered by Favella in 1637, and soon after the Portuguese founded a settle- ment near the present site of Manaos. IL A river of South America, forming the bounda- ry between the Argentine Republic and Pata- gonia. It rises between lat. 38 and 89 S., on the E. slope of the Chilian Andes, descending in four streams which unite and flow south- ward to lat. 40 30', where it turns N. E. and flows over a series of rapids to about Ion. 69 W. Here it receives the Neuquen from the north, after which it flows E. to Ion. 66, where it forms two islands, Rosas and Chole- chel, the latter, which is 210 m. from the sea, being 27 m. long by 3 m. broad. It then pur- sues a general S. E. course to its mouth in lat. 41 2' S., Ion. 62 45' W. Navigation to Cholechel island is always unimpeded. The lands along the river are well adapted to gra- zing and agriculture, and many kinds of valu- able timber abound. Carmen de Patagones, a flourishing town of 6,000 inhabitants, is situ- ated on both banks about 20 m. from the sea. The river banks near this place are thickly settled by Scotch and English farmers ; the most distant settlement is about 100 m. from the sea. The value of the exports in 1873 was $430,000. The Negro was first explored by Villarmo, who after encountering great diffi- culties reached the base of the Andes. In 1873 the Argentine government sent up an exploring party in a steamer, but after many mishaps the expedition was abandoned. RIOT (Norman law Lat. riota, riotum ; Fr. riotte, a brawl), in law, a tumultuous disturb- ance of the peace by three persons or more, who have assembled together of their own au- thority, for the purpose of assisting one anoth- er in the execution of some private enterprise, and in resisting any one who shall interfere with or oppose their proceedings, and after- ward actually carrying out that purpose in a violent and turbulent manner to the terror of the people. It is wholly immaterial whether the act intended is lawful or unlawful ; for it is not the act itself, but the manner in which it is done, which creates this particular offence. Two persons alone may be guilty of a con- spiracy, Tbut it requires three to make a riot ; and where three persons were indicted for a riot, and the jury found only one of them guilty, it was held that this verdict was void because one alone could not make a riot. Women may be punished as rioters, but infants under 14 years of age cannot. The object of assembling is commonly a private quarrel or wrong ; for the proceedings of a riotous assembly to re- dress public grievances or resist the officers of the king or state may amount to overt acts of high treason, by levying war against the sov- ereign. In the latter case, the indictment gen- erally charges that the defendants were armed and arrayed in a warlike manner, and, where the case admits it, with swords, drums, colors, and the like. But the question of riot or trea- son does not turn singly on any of these cir- cumstances ; the true criterion is : With what intent did the parties assemble whether for a private and particular, or a public and gen- eral purpose ? Numbers may supply the want of military arms and discipline, as experience has often shown, and such was the opinion of five of the judges in the weavers' case in 1675. In this case the weavers in and about London riotously assembled to destroy certain looms and machinery which had enabled those of their trade who used them to undersell the rest ; and the defendants were indicted for treason, but were finally only proceeded against for a riot ; the remainder of the court holding that their proceedings did not amount to a levying of war, as the motive was a mere pri- vate quarrel between different parties of the same trade, and related to no public or general object. On the trial of Lord George Gordon, the leader and instigator of the celebrated " no popery riots" in London in 1781, it was the unanimous opinion of the king's bench that an attempt by intimidation and violence to force the repeal of a law was a levying of war against the king. So, too, in the case of Demaree and Purchase, indicted severally in 1719, " for that they with a great multitude of people, to the number of 500, armed and arrayed in warlike manner, &c., did traitorously levy war, &c.,"it appeared that the rabble, with cries of " Down with the Presbyterians," " Down with the meeting houses," &c., undertook by force and violence to carry their threats into execution, and actually did destroy a great deal of prop- erty, and resisted the officers sent to disperse them ; and the judges agreed that this was a declaration against the " act of toleration," and an attempt to render it ineffectual by numbers and open force, and amounted to high treason. In every riot there must be such circumstances of actual force and violence, or an apparent tendency thereto, as will naturally strike ter- ror into the people ; though it is not necessary that actual force or violence should have been committed. The violence and tumult must also be premeditated ; for if they arise acci- dentally from some cause not likely to produce them, it is but an affray. Thus, if several are assembled together for a lawful purpose and a quarrel happens among themselves, it is not a riot, but only a sudden affray, and none in the assembly are guilty but those who actually participate. But even though the persons as- semble in the first instance for a lawful pur- pose and with peaceable intent, yet they may afterward be guilty of a riot. For instance, if a dispute arise among them, and they form themselves into parties or factions, with prom- ises of mutual assistance, and then make an