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Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
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Untitled Article
m stick raised by aaty one , dividing with readiness for the procession whicfo tkey seemed to feei tbeir own , and all who shared in which incurred their own expenses ; andy what waa still more , ia the evening illuminations , after the excitement of the day , maintaining the greatest order , and not
induced by the darkness of the anti-refbim party , to commit a single outrage . —Even wben the hopes of the people were bitterly disappointed ,, fey the recent decision of the Bouse © f Lords , there was no tumult ; and the public meetings , which were immediately held in Queen Square , were marked by perfect order .
But there are some who cannot change , and who cannot , early enoughy discern the signs of the times . Our Recorder is one of them . His Ian * guage in the House of Commons , conveyed among the people by the
London and the local papers , tended to vex and irritate . The remarks of the Reform journals had sometimes contributed , probably , to strengthen the vexation and the irritation y and greatly more , the bad spirit which has , been continually manifested by the anti-reform newspaper— -Felix Farlay ' s Bristol Journal—which , both on the Catholic question , where it fell in with the sentiments of the people , and on the Reform question , where it opposed them , has thrown firebrands among the supporters and the opponents o £ Ihe measures of Government on these great national objects . When the time of the Recorder ' s official visit to Bristol was approaching , there was an increasing apprehension that he would not be received as a Judge ought to be . The Editors of Reform journals , and individuals addressing the public through them , did what they could to prevent the manifestation of popular feeling towards him ; and a judicious address was published , by the magistrates , pointing out the distinction between his course as a politician , and his present duties as a Judge ; but they also obtained the aid of military from Lord Melbourne . If the magistrates had been with the people , confided in them , and had their confidence , nothing Would have been easier than to secure the protection of Sir Charles Wetherell ; If , with the reason they had to apprehend insult , and perhaps violence , towards the Recorder—for some wretched person had , that week , by a vile hand-bill , excited a mob against the Bishop of Bath and Wells
when he came to open a new church in the outparish of Bedmuister—the magistrates could have said , «* Let the intelligent part of the population unite to protect the Judge ; we will take care that he shall not mistake this honourable support for approbation of his political course' ' r-r-the people of Bristol would , I doubt not , have come forwards , and been his bod y *
guard : they might have thought that he should not , in such a political delation as he had chosen for himself , have come as Judge ; but they would , I think , have been contented to leave that consideration for future discussion . Such a course ) would have taught a grand moral lesson ; and it would have disconcerted those unprincipled , worthless wretches , who have
Untitled Article
842 On ihe Bristol Riots .
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Dec. 2, 1831, page 842, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2604/page/46/
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