“A baker by trade was endeavouring to defend the corn-factors and landed
proprietors, against whom his opponent had been inveighing; but the mob
was in no humour to listen to the ‘other side,’ and a cry of ‘Out with
him’ having been raised, the baker was pushed and dragged, and carried
off in the direction of the Marble Arch. Two or three gentlemen
interfered to defend the unfortunate man from the usage to which his
boldness had subjected him; but he did not escape even then, and he
would, undoubtedly, have received some rough treatment, had not a body
of police appeared to the rescue. The inspector on duty at that spot
evidently saw an admirable chance of giving a favourable turn to the
events of the day. Eight officers, surrounding the baker, trotted off
with him at a smart pace, followed by an immense number of persons,
among whom were those who appeared to be most bent on mischief; they ran
on, following the baker and his guard towards Apsley House and outside
the Park. Returning to the carpenter, whose audience had been
considerably thinned, he was found to be still holding forth; he
continued to speak and to declaim against ‘the powers that be,’ until
dusk, when he brought his harangue to a close.”
On the next Sunday, Oct. 21st, another meeting took place in the Park,
upon the same subject, when the same speaker congratulated his audience
on again exercising their now recognized privilege of meeting in “their
own Park.” Of course he wandered from his subject, and became violently
political. “He also propounded a plan of attaching the police to the
cause of the working classes, by appealing to them, as men and brothers,
through the intervention of tracts, adding that every citizen should be
a soldier, and every man a voter. He was winding up in a magniloquent
peroration, when a diversion in his immediate neighbourhood attracted
the attention of the greater portion of his audience towards a new
object. This was an unfortunate young man dressed in livery, apparently
an officer’s servant, whom a great crowd was chasing, hooting, and
pelting with turf. What umbrage he had given them--whether it was his
connection with a wealthy or an aristocratic master, as indicated by his
dress, or what else, it was difficult to ascertain. Some said he had
been circulating a tract among the crowd which was obnoxious to them;
others, that he was the servant of a nobleman equally obnoxious; but be
that as it may, he was followed and pelted without mercy for a
considerable distance. Being hotly pressed, he took refuge behind a
tree, but this availed him little, and he started afresh, but only to be
subjected to renewed ill-treatment. At last he took to his heels,
contrived to elude or outstrip his tormentors, and to get beyond their
reach.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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