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    fives thousand effective persons , which would have ended the riot : but on * the part of the authorities all was uncertainty and indecision ; and the re * quest of the Mayor was too inadequately answered by the inhabitants

    at large * No one seemed aware of the , extent of the danger which was approaching ; and this had been increased greatly by the removal of the 14 th from the city , contrary , it appears , to the opinion of the Magistrates * for which a heavy responsibility rests somewhere , as the military inquiry will probably prove . It was a fatal error , when all the soldiers which could be had should have been prepared for the most decisive measures . From the rempval of the soldiers from the Mansion House , there seems to have been a pause of preparation ; and the next stage of the riot , was one of power and vengeance . The worst part of the population seem now to have been forming their plans * ( not yet extending to the indiscriminate destruction , of the later part of the night , ) which were executed with a degree of daring , of system , and of perseverance , which shews their con ~

    sciousness of power and their being practised in villany , and proves thai they were under leaders . About half-past one the worst began . They were now the mob of destruction , without personality . They commenced with attacking the Bridewell , which they soon opened , and of course released the prisoners . This seems to have been designed to rescue those who had been sent there the day before . At that period , from the peculiar situation

    of the place , in a long and narrow passage , they might at once have been checked by a small force ; and notice of this was timely given to the magis-r tracy : but from this time all was helpless and hopeless ; and I will satisfy Hoyself with saying this $ for steps for a searching inquiry have now commenced ; and what I observed myself , respecting the course of the magistracy , and whajt I know others have to declare , will probably be stated in a different form . I will therefore confine myself to a summary of facts .

    The mob that committed the subsequent outrages was never large alto- * gether ; and , in its parties , it was a small number that did the mischief . iVt the time they were proceeding from the Bridewell to the Jail , they could not have been more than from five to six hundred ; and the number migjht have been less . I saw them , about a quarter after two , as . they were coming down Clare Street on their way . They were a convpaqt body ,

    without stragglers or attendants . They moved with great expechtiou ; and their object was well known ; for when I first saw them , at some distance , persons near me said they were going to break open the Jail . Most of them had bludgeons ; some had hatchet 3 ; and others were armed with iron palisades , from the front of the Mansion-house , All I noticed were the

    dregs of the city ; and a large part were under twenty years of age . A small force of soldiery , or three or four times the number of citizens , in paut armed , might easily have checked them ; and from the peculiar local i * ties , it would have tyeen easy * with , preparation , to defeat their attack on the JaiU The sledge hammers with which they broke it open , they procured

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    On the Bristol Rwts . 84 ?

• Citation
  • Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Dec. 2, 1831, page 847, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2604/page/51/