Charles Bradlaugh: a Record of His Life and Work, Volume 1 (of 2): With an Account of his Parliamentary Struggle, Politics and Teachings. Seventh EditionRobertson, J. M. (John Mackinnon)
History
Charles Bradlaugh: a Record of His Life and Work, Volume 1 (of 2): With an Account of his Parliamentary Struggle, Politics and Teachings. Seventh Edition
Robertson, J. M. (John Mackinnon)
Bradlaugh, Charles, 1833-1891
"Mr Mitchell.--Did you see any other rush of the police at the
people?--I saw several rushes. I could not understand the reason for
them at all, except on one occasion; I saw one mounted superintendent
stretch out his arm, and I saw a rush immediately in the direction
that his arm went.
"What sort of a horse had he?--I could not see; I was on the sward. I
only noticed a mounted man.
"You would not know him if you saw him again?--Yes; I think so: I
should certainly know him if I saw him mounted.
"Can you say whether he had whiskers or not?--Yes; I think he had, but
that is more an impression than anything else.
"Did you see them strike any woman?--I saw in the rush, in one of
them, a man and two women thrown down, and I saw the police run over
them. They did not strike them, but they ran right over them. I made a
remark to my father-in-law: 'It is lucky they are no sisters of mine,
or else they would stop to pick them up.'
"You did not go into the Park to resist the police?--Decidedly not.
I went in consequence of seeing the notice of Sir Richard Mayne
forbidding it, and to see what took place there.
"Out of curiosity?--Not exactly. I had heard it said that they were
rabble, and I did not believe it, and I went to see for myself.
"Your indignation was not excited till you got there?--Not till some
time after I had been there. At first I should have come away. The
police were doing nothing, and at first everything seemed to be very
quiet. There was no kind of meeting, except that there had been a
large concourse of people. I should have come away but for those
rushes of the police amongst the people.
"They were not a disorderly crowd?--No.
"Cross-examined by Mr Ellis:--
"You spoke of Sir Richard Mayne's proclamation as forbidding this
meeting. Did you read it?--Yes.
"Does it forbid it?--The tenor of it seemed to me to be forbidding the
assemblage, and I had not heard then, and have not heard now, that
Sir Richard Mayne has any power to forbid my going into the Park;
therefore I went.
"I think that the language of this proclamation is, that all
well-disposed persons are requested to abstain. You do not call that
forbidding?--When those police notices are put up I remember one place
where I was requested to abstain from going to, some few years ago;
and when I went there I found that the request to abstain was enforced
in a precisely similar way, by striking the people with truncheons who
went there. That was at Bonner's Fields.
"Were any persons struck with truncheons there?--Yes.
"Surely the police were armed with cutlasses?--I think I remember
two being drawn as well; but I know some of them were struck with
truncheons. I was struck with a truncheon myself, so that I am
perfectly capable of remembering it.
"You were at Bonner's Fields?--I was.
"Mr Stuart Wortley.--Is there anything else that you wish to
add?--Nothing.
"The witness withdrew."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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