It broke out with violence at Sunderland among the filthy and degraded; but it did not become so dreadful a plague as many that had visited England in previous times. It proved a benefit in this, that it awakened people to the necessity for cleanliness in the thoroughfares, and prompted the benevolent to help those who were attacked with the disease on account of their privations and unhealthy habitations in wretched, damp country villages. A board of health was established, and England was from that period awakened to the duty of care for the public health, which, we have seen, was a matter of slight consideration in earlier days. [[A.D. 1832.]] {299}Riots continued while the reform bill remained unsettled; for this was the only argument that those ignorant, lawless people who took part in them could bring to bear against those who opposed them. The consequences of these proceedings were dreadful. In Derby the town jail and many houses of the respectable inhabitants were destroyed, and in Nottingham the ancient castle belonging to the Duke of Newcastle was completely demolished. The rioters even marched upon St. James's Palace under pretence of presenting addresses, and several mansions in the neighborhood were stoned. Fortunately they first attacked the Duke of Wellington's house, which gave the troops ample time to assemble for the protection of the palace. A riot in Bristol lasted three days, during which all the public buildings were set on fire, and the toll-gate was pulled down. The prison-doors were burst open, and all the prisoners liberated; dwellings and warehouses were completely demolished, and the property destroyed in that one town alone was valued at half a million of pounds. At last the military attacked the rioters, and, after several were shot down, order was restored; but many had perished in the flames they themselves had kindled, after having drunk to excess of the liquor they had stolen. Public meetings were held in every part of the kingdom to express dissatisfaction,--particularly in the large manufacturing towns, some of which were frequently set on fire. In November a meeting of the political union of the working-classes was announced, their object being to demand universal suffrage, vote by ballot, and yearly parliaments; but government took the matter in hand, and the leaders of such illegal proceedings were frightened into abandoning them for the time being. These scenes of excitement {300}produced their effect, even across the channel in France, where demonstrations were made by men who attacked some of the principal places, and were only dispersed at last by the appearance of the National Guard in their midst. Lord Eldon wrote at the time on this subject: "The French are more volatile than we are; they have travelled somewhat quicker on the road to ruin than we sluggish Englishmen travel; but we are, I fear, on the same road."