“Shortly after 7 o’clock Mr. Edmond Beales, Lieut. Col. Dickson, and other leading members of the Reform League, in a line of cabs which headed the Clerkenwell, Islington and other processions, advanced to the Arch; and, the sub-committee having succeeded in making a clear passage, Mr. Beales and his friends went up to the police, who were drawn up in line, staves in hand, some of them being mounted. The crowd immediately closed in, and endeavoured, by an ‘ugly rush,’ to effect admission. The police used their staves freely to defeat this attempt; and, it is stated that both Mr. Beales and Col. Dickson were struck in the scuffle. At any rate, after having been refused admission, and having raised the question in the form they desired, they went back to their vehicles, and, with some difficulty, managed to make their way through the crowd, in order to proceed to Trafalgar Square, there to hold the meeting, according to the programme which had been laid down. “Printed bills were distributed among the various detachments as they came up from Clerkenwell, Southwark, Finsbury, etc., directing them not to attempt to force an entrance into the Park, but to proceed to Trafalgar Square. It is much easier, however, to collect throngs of people, than to keep them in leading-strings when collected; and a large portion of the ‘masses’ were not disposed to follow implicitly the instructions of their leaders. The gates, it is true, were strongly fortified, but to throw down the railings seemed a feasible undertaking, and this was promptly attempted. The police, indeed, hastened to every point that was attacked, and, for a short time, kept the multitude at bay; but their numbers were utterly insufficient to guard so long a line of frontier, and breach after breach was made, the stonework, together with the railings, yielding easily to the pressure of the crowd. The first opening was made in the Bayswater Road, where the police, rushing to the spot, prevented, for a time, any considerable influx of people; but they could not be ubiquitous, and along Park Lane especially a great extent of railing was speedily overturned, till in the end the crowd entered _ad libitum_.