The Press.
London, England, 1855-10-27 00:00:00

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THE HYDE-PARK DEMONSTRATION.
There seems a probability that Hyde-park, instead
of being a pltve for the recreation of the public on
Sunday, will be used for disorderly gatherings, un-
less a stop be put to the nuisance. Last Sunday a
considerable number of persons, 10,000 it is esti-

mated, assembled on the north side of the Serpen-
tine to make a " cheap-bread demonstration." The
crowd were addressed by several persons, but soon

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turned to an amusement more to their taste—the

hustling of persons against whom, for some
capricious reason, they conceived a dislike, and the
breaking of windows. About fifty policemen, selected
for their experience and temper, were stationed about
the ground. They carried no truncheons ; at least,
such weapons were not visible if they did, and it is
understood their instructions were not to interfere
to prevent any one addressing the crowd, or to dis-
perse any group of listeners, and only to act with
temper and forbearance. About three o'clock, a
man who spoke on the previous Sunday addressed
the crowd. His speech, though ostensibly directed
with reference to the high price of bread, was in
reality a denunciation of the aristocracy, to whom he
attributed almost all the evils to which the poorer
classes are subject. He propounded a plan of at•
tacking 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. Being hotly pressed, be took
refuge behind a tree, but that 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. The bulk of the mob went northward
through the Marble Arch. Two young gentlemen
were, for some unexplained reason, chased by a
crowd, and with difficulty escaped their violence by
being humanely sheltered by a resident in Seymour-
street, whose windows were instantly smashed by the
crowd. Windows were broken in other directions,
and several of the rioters apprehended by the
police.
On Monday the prisoners were brought up to the
police-courts. At Marlborough-street, Thomas Nap-
per, a country lad, was convicted of throwing missiles
at the police in Hyde-park ; but, as Mr. Bingham
regarded him only as a country yokel, he was let off
with a fine of 7s. Martin Hussey, Bartholomew
Daly, and Anthony Shields, the first twenty, and the
two latter fifteen, years of age,were charged at Mary-
lehone with throwing stones in Wigmore-street, Ca-
vendish-square, and assaulting police officers. It
was proved in evidence that the mob was very violent,
the stones flew about like hail, and several of the
constables and other persons were injured. The
prisoners were shown to have been active in the
fray, and were each sent to the House of Correction
for a month for assaults on the police.
The next charge was more serious. John Smith,
Bartholomew Daly tone of the prisoners in the first
case), and Henry Williamson, all of them youths,
were charged with being concerned, with others, in
wilfully breaking numerous panes of glass in the
house of Mr. Attride :
Mr. Attride said :At half-past four yesterday afternoon I
saw a mob go along the Edgeware-road, and another mob
coming up Seymour-street from Cumberland-street, in the
direction from Hyde-park. Two young gentlemen came up
to me and implored me to protect them from violence I
admitted them into my house and did all in my power to
iuduce the assemblage to disperse, telling them that the
gentlemen were not then on the premises, but had gone
out at the back door. One of the mob—neither of the
prisoners—threw a stone. I laid hold of him, and after
being struck under the ear with great force he effected
his escape. A brick was thrown at me, and I narrowly
escaped being hit on the head. Smith and Williamson
did all they could to incite the mob to continue the stone-
throwing. Two panes of glass in the fanlight, and seven-
teen other panes, were broken by the missiles which had
been thrown at them.
Inspector .Jackson, I) : I was on duty at the Marble
Arch yesterday afternoon. and between four and five I saw
two mobs come out of the park; one of the mobs went in
the direction of the Edgeware road, and the other bran-
dished sticks as they went along, hooting and shonting at
two well-dressed persons whom they were following.
Stones were thrown, and one of them bad his hat nearly
smashed. The mob said, " He's not one of us—he's not
one of the people." He attempted to get into a cab, but
was seized by some of the mob, who pulled him from it,
and beat the sides of the cab with their sticks. The gen-
tlemen at length got away and went up Cumberland-street.
I and other officers tried to prevent the crowd, who seemed
bent upon inflicting injury upon them, from following
them, but they overpowered us Some hundre Is pursu.ed,
and I afterwards found them in the house of Mr. Attride.
At that time there was a large on the spot, a greattnob

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