Commissions at Bristol and Nottingham — Executions — Employment of children in factories — Cholera in London — Day of fast and humiliation — Riot in Finsbury — Cholera riot at Paisley — A small one in London — Decrease of cholera — Number of deaths — Cholera in Ireland — A charm against it — Its effect on rooks — The police, City and Metropolitan.

The excesses at Bristol could not, possibly, be passed over, and a Commission, consisting of the Lord Chief Justice and two judges, met on January 2nd, to try the rioters. Various sentences of transportation and imprisonment were passed, and four men were hanged on January 27th. They were Christopher Davis, convicted of having encouraged the mob to commit acts of plunder and desolation; William Clarke, for having assisted in destroying the Gaol and Bridewell; and Joseph Kayes and Thomas Gregory, for having formed part of a mob that pillaged and burnt two dwelling-houses. Davis had retired from his business, which was that of a carrier, and in which he had amassed about £2000. Clarke, who had connections possessing considerable property, was a sawyer; the other two were common labourers. Colonel Brereton was court martialed for firing on the rioters, which so preyed upon his mind, that he shot himself on January 14th, during his trial.

Another Commission sat at Nottingham to try the rioters there, and three men were hanged.

Parliament met on December 6, 1831, and, of course, the principal business of the Session was the Reform Bill. But there were social as well as Parliamentary reforms urgently needed, one of which was the employment of children in factories, which had been much abused. Petitions poured in, in favour of shorter working hours for them, and other ameliorations of their condition. Richard Oastler, popularly known as "The Factory King," a staunch Tory and Churchman, and one of the most popular political leaders among the working-men in the West Riding of Yorkshire, championed their cause; and I will give an extract from a speech of his at a meeting held at Huddersfield, to petition Parliament on their behalf. Said he—

"Take, then, a little captive, and I will not picture fiction to you, but I will tell you what I have seen. Take a little captive six years old; she shall rise from her bed at four o'clock in the morning, of a cold winter's day; but, before that, she wakes, perhaps half a dozen times, and says, 'Father, is it time? Father, is it time?' And, at last, when she gets up, and puts her little bits of rags upon her weary limbs—weary with the last day's work—she trudges onward, through rain and snow, to the mill, perhaps two miles, or, at least, one mile; and there, for thirteen, fourteen, fifteen, sixteen, seventeen, or even eighteen hours, she is obliged to work, with only thirty minutes interval. (Shame.) The girl I am speaking of died; but she dragged on that dreadful existence for several years. Homewards again at night she would go, when she was able; but, many a time she hid herself in the wool at the mill, as she had not strength to go. (Hear.) But this is not an isolated case. I wish it were."

A correspondent writing to the Times, March 16, says—

"The children are frequently reduced to such insensibility, as not to know when they have finished their cardings, but their hands and feet have continued to perform the evolutions of their work. Many times, of an evening, when I have passed on from child to child in a woollen mill, each has turned up its little face, and anxiously inquired, 'What o'clock is't?' I have answered, 'Seven.' 'Seven?' was the rejoinder, 'Why, it's three hours to ten, isn't it? We moan't gee up till ten and past.' This, delivered in a melancholy tone, has made me thus reflect as I returned home: 'I know that you must remain at work till past ten. I know, also, that you are called out of bed at five in the morning, and although it may be eleven at night before you reach home, you must again leave your beds at five; and this, too, every morning in the year, Sundays excepted. Many of you will have to grope about in the dark for the greasy rags which scarcely cover you. No matter, you must face all weathers. Though the roads be choked with snow, and the frost would make the strongest shiver, let the winds roar, or the rain fall, still there must be no delay. At five every morning you must leave your humble homes, and, lamentable to reflect, ye 'moan't gee up till ten and past.'"

On the second reading of the "Factories Regulation Bill," March 16th, Mr. Sadler, in the course of a very long speech, made the following statement:—

"The following were the hours of labour imposed upon the children and young persons employed in a certain establishment last summer. Monday morning, commence work at six o'clock; at nine, half an hour for breakfast; begin again at half-past nine, and work till twelve. Dinner, one hour; work from one till half-past four. Drinking (afternoon meal), half an hour; work from five to eight; rest, half an hour; work from half-past eight till twelve (midnight); an hour's rest. One in the morning till five, work; half an hour's rest; half-past five till nine; breakfast; half-past nine till twelve. Dinner; work from one till half-past four. Again from five till nine on the Tuesday evening, when the labour concluded, and the gang of adult and infant slaves were dismissed for the night, after having toiled thirty-nine hours with nine intervals for refreshment (but none for bed), amounting to six hours only, in the whole. Wednesday and Thursday, day work only. On Friday morning till Saturday night, the same labour repeated, with the same intermissions as endured on Monday, Monday night, and Tuesday; only the labour of the last day closed at five, when the poor wretches were dismissed. The ensuing day, Sunday, must, under such circumstances, be a day of stupor, to rouse the children from which would often only be to continue their physical sufferings, without the possibility of compensating them with any moral good."

But no definite action was taken in the matter until the following year, when I shall have occasion to again allude to it.

In the middle of February the cholera made its appearance in London, in the parish of St. Anne's, Limehouse. On the 12th, a woman, named Fergusson, was attacked by the disease and conveyed to the workhouse. She died in eight hours. On the same day another woman and her daughter died in the same place.

Greville tells us something about its commencement, under date February 14th—

"In the meantime the cholera has made its appearance in London, at Rotherhithe, Limehouse, and in a ship off Greenwich. In all, seven cases. These are amongst the lowest and most wretched classes, chiefly Irish; and a more lamentable exhibition of human misery than that given by the medical men who called at the Council Office yesterday I never heard. They are in the most abject state of poverty, without beds to lie upon. The men live by casual labour, are employed by the hour, and often get no more than four or five hours' employment in the course of the week. They are huddled and crowded together by families in the same room, not as permanent lodgers, but procuring a temporary shelter; in short, in the most abject state of physical privation and moral degradation that can be imagined. On Saturday we had an account of one or more cases. We sent, instantly, down to inspect the district and organize a Board of Health. A meeting was convened, and promises given that all things needful should be done; but, as they met at a public-house, they all got drunk and did nothing. We have sent down members of the Board of Health to make preparations and organize Boards; but, if the disease really spreads, no human power can arrest its progress through such an AugÆan stable."

And no doubt but that, according to their lights, at that time, they did all they could to prevent its spread, but sanitary science was in its infancy—water and food were not analyzed as now. Chemistry and medicine were very far behind the present date, and as to "bacilli," they were never dreamt of.

But they could set apart a day for a "general fast and humiliation"—

"For obtaining pardon for our sins, and averting the heavy judgments which our manifold provocations have most justly deserved; and, particularly, for beseeching God to remove from us that grievous disease with which several places in the kingdom are at this time visited."

And they chose Wednesday, March 21st.

Different people take different views as to the observance of a fast day. Here and in Scotland, it means a day's holiday and excursion by rail or boat. On this occasion the Political Union of the Working Classes invited them to assemble in Finsbury Square, where they would celebrate the fast day with a meal of bread and meat, which would be provided for them, after which they would perambulate the metropolis in procession. This attracted the lower classes and the poorer labouring men, many of whom were in the greatest possible distress and destitution, and, in spite of a warning proclamation from the Home Secretary, some twelve thousand or fourteen thousand assembled in the square by eleven o'clock, and before two there must have been twenty-five thousand present. But none of the Trades' Unionists had made their appearance, nor had any of the promised cartloads of provisions. The mob amused themselves by hooting and pelting the police with stones and other missiles, and, as there could not have been less than one thousand to one thousand five hundred police in the square, besides heavy reinforcements contingent, Commissioner Mayne gave orders for the square to be cleared, which was soon done, though not without injury to police and populace. Some abortive attempts at processions were made, but they were soon dispersed by the police.

All kinds of rumours were abroad among the ignorant poor with regard to the medical profession and cholera patients. It was said that they poisoned them or used their bodies for dissection; and on this latter count there was a serious riot at Paisley, on March 24th. It came about in this way. As a preparation for the approach of cholera, a new burial ground had been laid out at Paisley, in which were interred all of the lowest class who died of that disease. Some boys having discovered two small shovels and a cord with a hook at its end concealed beneath a small bridge leading from a country road near the new burial ground, took them to the town and exhibited them there.

The public mind was so excited by the supposition that those dying of cholera were being transferred from their graves to the dissecting-table, that a crowd collected and commenced opening the graves, in one of the first of which an empty coffin was found. It must be recollected that at that time "resurrectionism," or "body-snatching," was in full vogue, to provide subjects for the dissecting room; that Burke had been hanged at Edinburgh in 1829, and Bishop at London in 1831, for having committed murder with this object.

The crowd rapidly increased, and, as more graves were opened, several were found untenanted. This excited the mob, who began by demolishing the cemetery fence. The magistrates assembled for the preservation of the public peace, and it was instantly agreed that a reward of £50 should be offered for the discovery of the offenders.

This had scarcely been resolved on before the crowd arrived in the town, bearing an empty coffin. Notwithstanding the efforts of the magistrates, they proceeded through the town, broke the windows of all the surgeons' houses and shops, those of the hospital, and then demolished the cholera hearse, and, as far as possible, everything connected with the establishment. The first time the crowd (which consisted mainly of lads and Irishmen) visited the hospital, they were persuaded to desist from their work of destruction; but, after taking a turn through the town, they came back, broke the windows, forced open the gate, and did other mischief. A patient in the hospital was struck on the head with a stone, and had it slightly cut. He called for protection against such treatment, and expired shortly afterwards. Another patient, who had recovered, and who was to have been dismissed from the hospital that day, relapsed.

There was, also, a small cholera riot in London, as we read in the Times, March 31st—

At the beginning of April, the cholera in London began to subside, and, owing to the diminished number of cases, the Treasury, on April 6th, issued an order, reducing the number of the Medical Board. Raikes, in his journal, says: "April 7.—From the daily reports, cholera seems greatly subsiding; up to last night the grand total of cases, since the commencement, are 7435, and deaths 2489." But it continued the whole year, and the death returns for the whole kingdom, from this cause, on December 3rd, were 95. The total deaths from cholera in 1831-32, are put down as 59,547. Ireland did not escape the visitation. On the contrary, the disease there was very severe, and the Times of June 16th records the following curious charm against it:—

If we are to credit the Dublin Morning Register, the cholera had a peculiar effect upon rooks—

"In the demesne of the Marquis of Sligo, near Westport House, there is one of the largest rookeries in the west of Ireland. On the first, or second day of the appearance of cholera in this place, I was astonished to observe that all the rooks had disappeared; and, for three weeks, during which the disease raged violently, these noisy tenants of the trees completely deserted their lofty habitations. In the meantime, the Revenue police found immense numbers of them lying dead upon the shore near Erris, about ten miles distant. Upon the decline of the malady, within the last few days, several of the old birds have again appeared in the neighbourhood of the rookery, but some of them seemed unable, through exhaustion, to reach their nests. The number of birds now in the rookery is not a sixth of what it had been three months ago."

The "New Police" worked so well, that the City, who have always had the right of keeping their own watch and ward, followed their example. We read in the Times of March 22nd—

"The race of street keepers, with their gold-laced coats and hats, are about to be extinguished in their last stronghold—the City. They are to be superseded by a new police force, which is to patrol the streets by day only, and which is to be paid and regulated on the model of the county police. A hundred men have been chosen and measured for their suits of blue."

And again, March 31st—

"The new City policemen, a hundred in number, will commence their duties on Monday next (April 2nd). The Police Committee of Aldermen will gratuitously perform the functions of Commissioners, but there is to be a chief officer to direct the whole system. Mr. Cope, the Marshal, has been appointed to this duty with the title of Superintendent. Mr. Cowlan is named the second, or rather, deputy Superintendent. Martin and Maclean, two of the City Officers are appointed Inspectors. The scale of wages which has been fixed in the county will be adopted in the City; but the duty will be more severe, as the men will be on their beats the whole day."

This was the humble beginning of that force, which now comprises—1 commissioner, 1 assistant ditto, 1 superintendent, 1 ditto detective department, 3 chief inspectors, 15 district ditto, 22 station ditto, 12 detective ditto, 72 sergeants, 7 detective ditto, and 795 constables; also 86 constables on private service duty.

We can judge of the work performed by the "New Police" from January 1, 1831, to January 1832, from the Official Report. They apprehended no less than 72,824 persons on different charges, viz. 45,907 males, and 26,917 females. Out of this number 2955 were committed for trial; 21,843 were summarily convicted before the magistrates; 24,239 were discharged by the magistrates; and 23,787 drunken characters were discharged by the superintendents of police, at the station-house, after they became sober. The number of persons charged before the magistrates for being drunk were 7566; of this number, 3187 were discharged, and 4379 fined five shillings; the numbers fined being, respectively, 3185 males, and 1194 females. From the above returns it seems that the police apprehended nearly 200 a day.