The circumstances were: On Tuesday, the 4th of November, 1817, a public notice was issued, warning the inhabitants against illuminating their houses, or celebrating the anniversary of the Gunpowder Plot, by means of fireworks. Notwithstanding this prohibition, a number of persons, chiefly boys, assembled on the Old Steine, at twilight, in the evening of Wednesday, the 5th, and let off squibs, serpents, crackers, &c. The civil power, in number 16,—headboroughs and patrol,—at the head of which was Mr. John Williams, the High Constable, immediately interfered, and took into custody the offenders against the edict. This sort of warfare lasted until nine o’clock, when a lighted tar-barrel made its appearance. The authorities espied it, and, after a stout resistance by the populace, it was captured and extinguished. Much irritation was engendered in consequence, and the mob, deprived of their fun, seemed inclined to mischief, and, the principal object of their displeasure being the High Constable, they attacked his house, the Baths, which stood on the site now occupied by the Lion Mansion. Mr. White, also, in Castle Square, who had made himself very prominent in the affair, came in for his share of the spleen of the rioters. Stones were hurled with great violence, and the windows of their houses were soon smashed in. Greatly alarmed, Williams sent a message to Mr. Serjeant Runnington, the resident magistrate, and also to the guard-house at the Infantry barracks, Church Street, demanding the aid of the military. Several companies of the 21st regiment of Fusileers, who had but that day arrived in Brighton, marched with fixed bayonets to the Steine, the avenues to which they quickly occupied. The Riot Act was read by Serjeant Runnington, and the utmost dismay prevailed. About this time several squibs being let off near the soldiery, an attempt was made to capture the offenders. Dreadful to relate, however, while charging, one of the military accidentally thrust his bayonet into the body of Mr. Rowles, a headborough. The steel entered just above the hip, and, passing through, appeared three inches on the other side,—the wound proved to be mortal,—and the ill fated man lingered, in the utmost agony, until half-past seven on Thursday evening, when he died, leaving a pregnant wife and three infant children to lament his untimely end. Two of the patrol, Slaughter and Burt, were also so wounded with the stones, cast by the mob, that they were obliged to be carried home, where they remained for some time in a very dangerous state. A woman, also, was wounded in the head with slugs, fired from a pistol. The disturbance lasted until a late hour of the night, and the military did not repair to their barracks until two or three o’clock the next morning. On the following morning, the persons who had been apprehended for creating the disturbance, were brought before the sitting magistrates, Mr. Serjeant Runnington and Mr. Hopkins, at the Town Hall.