Adventure | Science Fiction | Ghost stories | Poetry | Children | History

Book

Open Original Text

ief; one mounted man,
'V. 32,' backed his horse right on to Mr Beales and myself, and the
example being followed by another mounted policeman, some confusion was
created, and this was evidently the result desired by the police. The
truncheons were all out, and some rough intimations given to those in
front that mischief was meant." On his demand being made and refused,
Mr Beales and his colleagues turned, as had been arranged, to lead
the meeting by different routes to Trafalgar Square. Mr Bradlaugh's
division turned down Park Lane, but some of those on the outside, being
irritated by the behaviour of the police, made an attack upon the
railings of the Park. Having read numerous accounts of this episode, I
should judge that the first railings fell partly accidentally through
the enormous pressure of the moving crowd, and were partly torn up in
anger. When a few rails had given way, the idea of gaining ingress
to the park in that manner spread through the crowd like a flash of
light, and in a few minutes many yards of railings were upon the ground
and the people leaping excitedly over them. Mr Bradlaugh, strenuously
adhering to the programme of his leader to carry the meeting to
Trafalgar Square, set himself to the difficult task of restraining
the wild tumult and preventing the mass from destroying the railings
and forcing an entry. After a little, although not before he himself
had been knocked down, he was successful, and his column resumed its
orderly and peaceful march to Trafalgar Square, "whence, after much
speechifying, we all went home." The _Times_ remarked that in his
efforts to prevent a breach of the peace "Mr Bradlaugh got considerably
hustled ... falling under the suspicion of being a government spy." It
is little to be wondered at that the people hardly knew friend from
foe, for the confusion and excitement were so great that they were for
a moment bewildered. The police, said the _Morning Star_,

 "hit out with their truncheons like savages who, having been under
 temporary control, were now at full liberty to break heads and cut
 open faces to their hearts' content. It mattered not to them whether
 the interloper had actively exerted himself to force an entrance, or
 whether he had been merely hurled in the irresistible crush of those
 who pressed behind. Wherever there was a skull to fracture, they did
 their best to fracture it; everybody was in their eyes an enemy to
 whom no mercy was to be shown. The mob was at first stunned by the
 vigour of the assault, but presently turned upon the aggressors and
 repaid blows with their kind--in the end inflicting as much punishment
 as they received."

In any case the police attempt to prevent the people entering the
park was futile, for although the more orderly passed on to the
appointed meeting-place, in the course of half-an-hour many thousands
gained admission through the openings made in the railings. At
length, the police confessing themselves powerless, the military were
called out and marched through the park. Lord Derby, in the House of
Lords, asserted that altogether not less than 1400 yards of railings
were pulled down, and complained loudly of the injury done to the
flower-beds and other "property of the Crown;" but on this head a
rather remarkable statement was made by Mr Cowper, M.P., formerly First
Commissioner of the Works, who expressed himself against holding public
meetings in the Park. Mr Cowper said that when the crowd (composed,
according to the _Times_, of "London roughs") had

 "forced down the railings and made good their entrance to the Park,
 they abstained from injuring the flowers, and even in the heat and
 hurry of the disturbance, they frequently went round along the grass
 so as not to tread upon the flower-beds and borders."

After all their prohibitions and precautions to prevent the people
from holding orderly meeting and giving public expression to their
opinion, backed too as they were by police and soldiers, the Government
could only feebly say in the House that the measures they had taken
had prevented "some part of the contemplated proceedings from taking
place." They might also have truthfully added that these same measures
had also brought about the destruction of the Park railings, and
numerous broken heads, "proceedings" which were not "contemplated," at
least, by the conveners of the meeting.

A week later, before the excitement had time to cool down, another
great meeting was held in the Agricultural Hall, and I have often heard
my father say he had never seen gathered together in any building
so many men as found their way into the Agricultural Hall on that
occasion. He reckoned there must have been upwards of 25,000 persons
present, without counting those who came and went away in despair at
not being able to see or hear on the outskirts of so large a crowd. The
great difficulty seems to have been to hear the speakers, and with such
a vast assembly it is not surprising to find that many of them could
only be heard by those nearest to the platform. Mr Bradlaugh himself
felt how impossible it was to make every one hear. He moved the second
resolution, praying the House of Commons to institute an inquiry into
the conduct of Sir Richard Mayne and his subordinates at Hyde Park
on the previous Monday, and wound up what the _Times_ describes as a
"telling speech," with his favourite quotation from Shelley's "Masque
of Anarchy."

One of the results of this week of disturbance was the arrest of
several "good men and true," amongst whom was Mr Nieass, whose recent
death his friends and co-workers have good reason to mourn. On the
evening of July 25th Mr Bradlaugh was suddenly summoned to Bow Street;
some member of the Reform League Council was reported to be under
arrest. When he reached the police station he found Mr Nieass, who had
been seized by the police in the Strand on a charge of inciting the
people to resistance, whereas, as it was afterwards proved, he had been
persuading them to disperse, and but for Mr Bradlaugh's pertinacity, Mr
Nieass would have been, as others actually were, locked up all night,
in spite of the fact that good bail was offered.

The Reform movement seemed to grow and spread through England with
marvellous rapidity. The great meetings in London found their echo in
great meetings in the provinces. As Mr Bradlaugh was not possessed of
any mysterious power of reduplicating himself, he was not of course
present at all these gatherings, although he somehow (I hardly know
how) contrived to make time to attend a goodly number. On the first
day of September, 12,000 persons met at short notice on Brandon Hill,
Bristol, Mr Beales and Mr Bradlaugh attending as a deputation from
London. I find it noted[88] that Mr Bradlaugh was much applauded during
his address, and that he sat down amidst long and continued cheering
and waving of hats. In the _Bristol Times and Mirror_ there is a letter
about the meeting from "A Man in the Crowd," and among much that 

Previous Next