other principles. But still they are a mixed body; have never acted together as politicians, or exerted political influence. In proof, the mayor is a Reformer, and presided at the meeting held in Bristol for the congratulating the French on their revolution. Several of Mr Protheroe's family are members, all Whigs. Nor can it be shewn that the corporation ever issued one political document, or ever expressed any unity of political opinion. But they were an authority, and therefore to be vilified, and, if possible, put down. They administered law, and therefore they were to be contemned; in property were aristocrats, and therefore were to be detested, and, at the proper time, victims. Corporate property promises excellent pillage, and we need not say into what hands revolution would throw it. Has the sober citizen no alarm for those charitable funds, by which his children, if unfortunately left destitute, may be educated to habits of industry, and in the fear of God, when he sees the characters of the brawling orators that stretch out their hands for their grasp? We will not insult the present trustees with a comparison. The attempt, however, has been long making, and is now making, that this trustship should change hands; and, accordingly, every nerve is strained to render them objects of public odium, (we are speaking of the corporation of Bristol,) to render their authority despised-a nullity-and the first order of persecution has been issued against them.

In such a state of democratic influence, among a populace deluded and goaded to revolutionary fury, and in such a state of reviled and despised authority, did the Reformers of Bristol determine, in their wisdom, to shew the utmost mark of insult towards Sir Charles Wetherell, the manly, sturdy, honest opponent of Reform, whose duty, as Recorder of Bristol, compelled him to visit the city at the usual jail delivery. In this state of things, did the magistrates do their duty?—We shall see. They were aware, in the general relaxation of law, of their own diminished power. They were aware of more than ordinary risk to themselves; that every movement they might make would be scruti

nized with a jealous eye, with all the eyes of a democratic Argus; that every effort they might make to preserve the peace might be hopeless: and they laid their knowledge and their fears before the Government, from whom they expected the protection of the city. Let us now see how that protection was afforded.

But, first, let us summarily dismiss the charge that has been brought against one other party, as the cause of the riots-Sir Charles Wetherell himself; nor would this charge be worth a moment's consideration, had it not been allowed for weeks to run the round of all the Ministerial prints-a sufferance reflecting little credit on the Secretary for the Home Department; and had it not been the object of a pamphlet, dedicated to Lord Melbourne, by Thomas John Manchee of Bristol, in which the author's malignity, overstepping all discretion, exposes and makes plain his purpose, while his facts and his inferences are in dismal confusion and contradiction. We never read any thing written in a worse spirit. When we remind the reader that the Ministers have themselves vindicated Sir Charles Wetherell, and stated that he not only met with their concurrence, but that they should have considered his absenting himself a relinquishment of his high duty, nothing more need be said on that subject. The viper is shaken from the hand, and though bloated with venom, was innocuous. We will occasionally, perhaps, make some use of the pamphleteer's admissions, as they may at least be taken in evidence of the spirit and motives of his party.

-we

Sir Charles Wetherell had declared that there was a reaction;". this was a crime to be atoned for only by his blood-a crime and high misdemeanour against the "sovereignty" that imprinted, says this boaster of liberality and lover of liberty, on the minds of " the people, a deep-rooted aversion." "The people". quote the pamphlet-" having made up their minds to express their disapprobation of Sir Charles Wetherell, should he attempt to enter the city with the usual parade, affected no concealment of their intentions. They proclaimed them at the corner of every street ;-their denunciations were not less loud than deep." This

determination, then, of" the people," and their denunciations loud and deep, having been proclaimed with a sovereign authority not to be questioned, and information of " matter deep and dangerous" pouring in upon the magistrates, as we before stated, with discreet and proper caution they laid the whole state of the case before the Government, and, from that moment, with the Government lay the great responsibility. The Corporation, in what the Reformer calls "a detestable spirit of faction," sent a deputation to the Secretary for the Home Department. How are they received? They are thwarted in their urgent solicitation for aid, by Mr Protheroe, member for the city, the choice of an illegal body-the Political Union.

From the Morning Chronicle.— "The following is an extract from a letter addressed by Mr Protheroe to Mr Herapath, the Vice-President of the Bristol Political Union, after he (Mr P.) had been informed that Lord Melbourne had complied with the request of the deputation, (Sir Charles having had an interview with Lord Melbourne, and made some sort of representation,) to send a body of soldiers to guard the Recorder into the city:

"SIR-on Thursday night I received a note from Lord Melbourne to wait upon his Lordship, as did my colleague, Mr Baillie. I had bets that the subject related to the Cholera, or Wetherell. I found a deputation in the room for military to protect the city from riot, and Wetherell from attack. I argued against the policy of the proposal, and stated, that if we could be secured from thieves and adventurers from other places, that I could, with the aid of friends, (the Union,) keep all in perfect order! I offered my services to attend Wetherell, and to do all this, provided I might be allowed to enable the people of Bristol, thus constrained, to express in some measure their strong and unalterable disapprobation of Sir Charles Wetherell's political conduct, that we might be all insured from the insidious conduct of the Tories, who, if the people are quiet, would say there is reaction against the Bill."

The pamphleteer, lauding Mr Protheroe, says, "He did insist that the

people should be allowed to express their opinion in every legal and constitutional way, in order that Sir Charles might have no pretext for again misrepresenting their sentiments on the subject of reform." This is, we presume, confirmation from authority.

His bets, forsooth-he had bets on the Cholera and Wetherell, to announce in his official letter to the vice-president! What! a member of Parliament, sent to represent the city of Bristol, stipulate with his Majesty's Secretary for the Home Department, for having the King's judge, the representative of the King's Majesty, insulted! "He did insist," and did not Lord Melbournefor we have not heard that he had been tailorized into humble submissiondid not he kick him, as an English gentleman should have done-kick him out of his office, though it were down twenty pair of stairs, for an impertinent puppy? Let him make his bets on Wetherell and the Cholera with his nasty Union people, if he please, but to stand in the presence of an English gentleman with such a proposal, deserves the stocks or the pillory! Think too, Christopher North, of his offering the protection of his person to Sir Charles. The grandest of the Lions of England under the protection of the Ape! One honest growl from the noblest of animals would have frightened the monkey into fits-have annihilated him and his bets on Cholera and Wetherell. Yes; he did want to ride in the carriage with Sir Charles, that he might grin with delight at the hisses and groans he had stipulated for, and note them in his pocketbook; that he might give a good account in his place in the House of the reception of an AntiReformer. He was ambitious, not to protect, but to bear testimony that the insult was complete. This scene was more disgraceful than that between Lord Grey and the Tailor. Can it be possible, we ask, that Lord Melbourne, Secretary of State for the Home Department, listened to a proposal to promote or to allow the King's Majesty to be insulted in the person of his judge? Yet you have Mr Protheroe's written word for it. And to whom does this political jackanapes send in his official account of his proceedings? To Mr

Herepath, vice-president of the Political Union, which Political Union thereupon demand of the magistrates abdication, and assume their power, cause the proclamation of the corporation to be torn down, and put up their own placards in its place. But after this deputation of the magistrates, and this intimation of the determination of the people, and this remonstrance from a member of the city, what is the conduct of the Government? Do they send a sufficient force to protect the King's authority" to protect the city from riot"-for that, as the member admits, was the object of the deputation? Not one hundred soldiers were at any time in the city, "to keep down"-they are the words of the pamphleteer-" an insulted population of an hundred thousand." The magistrates provided, it is admitted, three hundred constables. If it be asked, why they did not furnish more, let the Reformer tell; and, indeed, he is either the vile slanderer of the citizens, or a true historian of Reform and its consequences of the spirit of democracy -its foul and poisonous influence. The writer and the Reformers will settle the point between them. "Now, let the magistrates state, if they did not early discover a general indisposition on the part of the respectable inhabitants and tradesmen to enrol themselves among the special constables. The necessary consequence of this indisposition was, that only the more violent of the Tory party were sworn in; and these were found so few in number, that it became necessary to hire men to act with them as special constables." Now, though we doubt not this is every word untrue, yet, admitting the fact, here the Reformers entirely vindicate the magistracy, unwittingly, for not providing more; if it be not true, we have no fact to reason upon, and the respectable inhabitants are slandered. They likewise vindicate the magistrates, by shewing that there was no apparent necessity for a larger force, in an assertion that "This series of awful calamities were committed by a mob which was never in possession of any arms, and which, if it had been opposed with judgment and decision, by a very small organized force, had no

moral or combined physical means of resistance." But mark the further blundering of this malignant writer -for he afterwards admits they had sledge-hammers,” and “ that a soldier, we are told, was wounded by a pistol-ball." In his ill-conditioned zeal to attack the magistrates, he defends them, for he charges them with procuring an insufficient force, while he is proving that a small one alone was necessary; that the mob consisted of but a few wretches, and that they were "an insulted population of an hundred thousand."

But we do assert, without fear of contradiction, that if the apprehensions of the magistrates were founded on correct information-and it is now pretty well proved that they werethe responsibility-the whole responsibility of the security, not only of the King's representative, but of the city, rested with his Majesty's Ministers. And here a question naturally suggests itself-Were they, too, willing, in their Reform zeal, that insult should proceed to a certain length? We fear their delusion as to their own power to command their mobs to go "thus far, and no farther," will be as fatal to the constitution, if this odious Bill be not firmly resisted, as it has been to the second city in the kingdom. For the present, however, it may not be improper to direct their attention to the profitable lesson read to them, not by their " schoolmaster," but by the Lord Chief Justice. "A riotous and tumultuous assem blage of people gathered itself together, with an object, and for a purpose, which no honest man or wellwisher to the laws of his country can sufficiently reprobate, I mean the open and avowed purpose of treating with insult and indignity, if not personal violence, a gentleman placed in a high judicial station, bearing the authority of his Sovereign, in the administration of the criminal law within this city, and during part of the very time engaged in the actual exercise of his judicial functions." "No honest man can sufficiently reprobate"!!! Did Lord Melbourne reprobate such intention? Did honest Mr Protheroe reprobate the object of his stipulation? Did the mass of Reformers, the respectable Reformers, honest men, reprobate it? Did his Majesty's Ministers reprobate

it in their "Whereas," when they so nicely omit the name of the King's judge, and include him among their "divers persons."

There was another lesson the Lord Chief Justice read, which, had it been learned by the Cabinet earlier, might have averted the calamities of Bristol.

"For in the case of offences at once so alarming to the public tranquillity, and so dangerous to the property and safety of individuals, it is of the first importance to make it known to all, that enquiry and punishment follow close upon the commission of crime, in order that the wicked and ill-disposed may be deterred, by the dread of the law, from engaging in similar enormities, whilst the peaceable and industrious may look up to it with gratitude and affection, for the safeguard which it extends over their persons and property." Did the "enquiry and the punishment follow close upon the commission of crime,” in the cases of the outrages at Nottingham, Dorchester, and Derby? Had punishment followed close, the Commission at Bristol might have been unnecessary. Had Ministers attended to the spirited, constitutional recommendation of Sir Charles Wetherell himself, this sack of the city might have been spared.

In order to do justice to this spirited remonstrance, we will extract part of the debates.

"That day," Sir R. Vivyan is speaking," the Marquis of Londonderry was waylaid a second time, and severely wounded. (Hear.) Those who were taunted as mock Reformers, had been described as unfriendly to the extension of the liberties of the people. He denied the charge. (Hear.) He hoped that Government, after all that had passed, would see the propriety of so modifying their late Bill as to make it a safe measure, which would not scare and alarm the advocates of our ancient institutions; and he was glad to perceive that Ministers already evinced symptoms of a disposition to abate somewhat of their demands. At present, he could not forbear complaining of the system by which it was sought to make converts to Reform. Handbills were placarded through the town, fringed with black, and

bearing the names of the majority of the Lords, who were thus pointed out to the vengeance of the public, and marked as fit objects, if necessary, for the knife. (Cheers.) In no one instance did he see the police interfere to prevent the circulation of such documents; but Ministers, he concluded, were but too happy in their prospect of advantage from any contingent riots which it was likely would ensue." (Cheers.)

Lord Althorp said, "With regard to his letter to the Birmingham Union, his feelings must be very different from what they had hitherto been, before he could disdain to return a courteous answer to the communication he had received.”

Mr Bankes "would tell the noble Lord, that he preferred the whisper of his (Mr B.'s) faction to the clamour of his Lordship's mob."

4

Lord John Russell said, "He did not hesitate to state, that he had not contemplated the majority of the Lords in the phrase so often referred to. But there might be factions in Parliament notwithstanding, which looked to their own interests, and promoted their own ends, by opposing the Reform Bill. (Hear.) After this explanation, he should be sorry if the House thought that any blame attached to him; and he hoped that angry discussion might not arise in the present state of public feeling."

Sir Charles Wetherell said, " Probably his Lordship's letter was written from inadvertence-a word not unknown to the Cabinet. Let me ask," said Sir Charles, "would the noble Paymaster of the Forces recommend merely calmness and soothingsyrup for the popular irritation, if Woburn Abbey had been burnt down instead of Nottingham Castle? The Duke of Newcastle's mansion has been burnt down because he voted against the Reform Bill; and by a happy convertibility of public opinion, which changes with the utmost rapidity, and without the possibility of control, Woburn Abbey, Tavistock Abbey, Althorp House, and Losely, may be the next to be sacrificed." Sir J. Wrottesley spoke "to order. The right honourable gentleman was pointing out places to be objects of popular fury." The Speaker conceived that it was out of order. Sir C. Wetherell-" I do not apprehend

that the people-the tide of the mob -the turbid flowing base,' will need my information, if they at any future period should have a spark of fire for any of those splendid fabrics. I was going to conjure Government not to act on the inferior principle of soothing popular passion and calming irritation, but at once to take offenders into custody, and punish them. For this purpose I would remind the noble Lord and his coadjutors, that those who are now friendly to Reform, may hereafter be its enemies, and that the smallest change in the wind of politics will blow the flame from the mansions of their opponents to their own. When revolution begins, no man can tell where it will end, nor whose property may be sacrificed to the alternation of popular fury; and every man who thinks differently from me on such a point, may have the brains of a coxcomb, but not the intellect of a man.' (Cheers.)

Bravo, Sir Charles, we most readily cry. Readers, the riots and burnings at Bristol had not yet taken place. We have only a remark to make on the foregoing. According to Lord John Russell, he did not mean to call the majority in the House of Lords a faction. Indeed!! And according to his doctrine in politics, any fool or knave that can excite such a 66 present state of public feeling" must gain his ends and objects, however mischievous, if it be the rule in such case to stop angry discussion, and yield to the state of public feeling the fool or knave have created. We will not waste words on such impudent, un-British poltroonery. But we think we are advancing rapidly in tracing the causes of the Bristol Riots.

That Sir Charles Wetherell must and would attend the jail delivery was now well known to Political Union and stirring Reformers, the keepers of the merciless mobsthose bloodhounds to be let loose at the fitting time; and that their pack might be more keen for their sport, raw and reeking and smelling fresh of blood was the frequent food held up to their ravenous gluttony. They had been put upon the scent, and were made eager for the game they had to hunt down, even to the death. It was now that agitation and

excitement was indeed at work "at the corner of every street,” and that there should be no mistake, the Political Union send their orders, under the signature of the Secretary for the Council, to the Magistrates, that they should abdicate, couched in language insolent with prospective power. This was not unadvisedly done, it might answer a double purposeMinisterial authority they cared little about-that was already defunct in their estimation, and if they were not secure of, they were at least regardless of, its impotent favours. They might succeed in setting aside the local authorities, then-with a clear stage before them, they might be— Kings, Emperors, demigods in the pantheon of some Provisional Government, to be proclaimed as safety might allow; and the example might have been quickly followed-and we should never have heard enough of the heroes of the glorious "Three Days of Bristol." If they could not prevail upon the Magistrates to resign-the attempt would at least have the effect of making them odious to the people, and thus they would disarm them of their authority, and might afterwards condemn them, in the hour of tyranny, for a weakness they could not help. If the people are quiet," said the member for the city to Mr Herepath, the Vice-President, "they will say there is a reaction." They shall not keep quiet-was the order. What was the result? Thanks to the brutal lust of intoxication, the city was spared from the miseries of successful revolution-the first fruits of the Reform Bill, that Magna Charta of thieves, and like the prophetic scroll of old, written "within and without with lamentation, and mourning, and woe."

The Magistrates were now in no ordinary danger, and in judging of their conduct we should not, we must not, shut our eyes to the facts, and through carelessness in reasoning, admit either the outcry, or the arguments of their previously avowed virulent enemies. The Magistrates were in no ordinary danger, we repeat; they felt themselves almost deserted by the Governmentworse than deserted by a great part of the citizens, who were sick and poisoned to the soul by the Reform