“We have had time,” he read, “to recover ourselves a little from the
intoxication of last night. Before embarking on prophecy, it will be as
well to recall the facts. Up to yesterday evening our anxiety with
regard to the Eastern crisis continued; and when twenty-one o’clock
struck there were not more than forty persons in London--the English
delegates, that is to say--who knew positively that the danger was over.
Between that moment and half-an-hour later the Government took a few
discreet steps: a select number of persons were informed; the police
were called out, with half-a-dozen regiments, to preserve order; Paul’s
House was cleared; the railroad companies were warned; and at the half
hour precisely the announcement was made by means of the electric
placards in every quarter of London, as well as in all large provincial
towns. We have not space now to adequately describe the admirable manner
in which the public authorities did their duty; it is enough to say that
not more than seventy fatalities took place in the whole of London; nor
is it our business to criticise the action of the Government, in
choosing this mode of making the announcement.
“By twenty-two o’clock Paul’s House was filled in every corner, the Old
Choir was reserved for members of Parliament and public officials, the
quarter-dome galleries were filled with ladies, and to the rest of the
floor the public was freely admitted. The volor-police also inform us
now that for about the distance of one mile in every direction round
this centre every thoroughfare was blocked with pedestrians, and, two
hours later, as we all know, practically all the main streets of the
whole of London were in the same condition.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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