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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
commenced that attack upon the Mansion-house , which led to the reading of the Riot Act , and , after a great deal of mischief had been done , to the introduction of the troops of the 14 th Light Dragoons , The humanity , and , it is understood , the religious scruples , of the Mayor , aided , perhaps , by the indecision or the fearlessness of his counsellors , delayed too long that measure , which , if the military were , in any result , to be employed ,
should have been quite arranged against the time of need . If the soldiers had , as the tumuliuous excitement increased , been brought near the spot , promptly to follow the reading of the Riot Act with the dispersion of the mob on their continuing their attack , it is probable that the subsequent evils would have been prevented . If , however , any lives had been then lost , the Mayor would , no doubt , have been exposed to severe censure ; for no one
could have supposed it possible that those evils would occur : but considering what had taken place at Derby and Nottingham , I think he would have been quite justified , even on the Saturday , in quelling the riot by military aid . Some young orphan ladies , one long confined to her couch , lived the next door but one to the Mansion-house ; and I went down to see them at seven , on Saturday evening , when I first heard the serious character which the riot had assumed . I found the soldiers in tolerable numbers near the Mansion-house , the special constables in some force , and every thing appa ~ rently quiet ; and though I heard that the mob had prepared to fire the
Mansion-house , I thought , that with such protection , there would be no danger . My young friends were as collected and fearless as I could desire . It was obviously undesirable to remove them , unless there was some real necessity ; and I left them a little before eight , stating that I would return at ten , and pass the night at their house if they felt it would be any relief to their minds . On leaving the house , I saw symptoms of excitement among the -people , who . seemed in great force and restless : but when I
came down at ten , ( accompanied by my son , that he might , on his return , inform my family I was safe , *) I found a much greater number of persons assembled , especially in the small courts in front of the houses , and saw the soldiers ( as they often did afterwards ) galloping singly about the Square , driving the people away , but obviously doing no injury to them . We had scarcely entered the house , however , when the soldiers began resolutely to clear the courts and the road , in the line of the Mansion-house ; still without any fierceness of manner , and I believe with sabres sheathed . At the first interval I accompanied my son out of the Square ; and on returning found the same process repeating , but got back safely . Such was the state of things till midnight ; not a single person injured , as far as I could see , and the lamps were burning in the part of the Square where we were , if
? I mention these personal circumstances , as among your readers I have many personal friends .
Untitled Article
644 On the Bristol Riots .
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Dec. 2, 1831, page 844, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2604/page/48/
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