The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1872-01-20 00:00:00

A "DILICE DEMONSTRATION."

On Tuesday evening the "Loyal Inhabitants of
Chelsea" purposed holding a meeting at the Riding
School at Knightsbridge "to repudiate the disloyal
and Republican sentiments" of one of the members
of the borough, and to present a loyal address to the
Queen. The meeting was, however, put an end to by
the entry of Sir Charles Mike's professed supporters,
who commenced a demonstration in favour of Sir
Charles Hinge by throwing the seats indiscriminately
about, and ended it, so far as the Riding School was
concerned, by endeavouring to set fire to the platform.
The arrangements for the meeting provided for the
exclusion of all undesirable company by the issue of
tickets of a peculiar character, all bearing a water-
mark, and with a pledge upon each that the person
using it was to observe order and to abide by the deci-
sion of the chairman. The difficultyof the tickets was,
however, got over by forgery, and the real electors
were kept from entering the meeting by a howling mob
of several hundreds, who were only kept in check by a
force of police. Even at an early period, some time
before the hour of the meeting, it required no slight
efforts to gain admittance to the Riding School, not-
withstanding the possession of a seat ticket.
Inside the school, before the commencement of
business--and hostilities—the scene was very tame
comparatively speaking. There were many supporters
of order there, Mr. Cavendish Taylor (who took the
chair), Lord George. Lennox, Lord. Alfred Churchill,
Mr. H. W. Eaton, ALP., Mr. Ashbury (of yatching
fame), Mr. J. A. Shaw Stewart, Mr. Kiel (of the
London School Board), Mr. Durrant, and Mr. Charles
Mercier. These and many others were on a strongly-
erected but temporary platform, and arranged before
them were hundreds of chairs and stools for the large
meeting expected. It was soon apparent that many
of those in the body of the hall were intent on a dis-
turbance, for they commenced shouting and crying for
the doors to be opened for the admission of those how-
ling outside, and refused to listen to anything.
The Chairman, when he rose to speak, was greeted
with cheers from his friends and howls from those
who desired to see the doors fully opened. Ile pro-
ceeded to say that he took the chair with the inten-
tion of conducting the business of the meeting and of
preserving order. He had consented to take the
chair upon the distinct understanding that this was
not to be a meeting of one party only, but. of
.all
parties combined who were loyal to the Constitution
of the country. Those who were not loyal had no
business there. He was then proceeding to say that
he would use his best endeavours to obtain for all a
fair hearing, when an unlooked-for incident occurred,
which altogether changed the current of affairs.
This incident was the clambering on to the platform
of an old man, who, by stepping over chairs and
the reporter's table, managed to reach the table in front
of the chairman. This act was hailed by the noisy part
of the meeting with delight, and they cheered the dis-
turber by the name of" Bartlett of Chelsea." The would-
be orator stood for a moment, as if astonished at his
own lossition, but when he made sundry polite salaams,
as if he proposed to speak, the indignant possessors of
the platform at once began to pull him: rom his
jo,miryinentiipeewre.h,
no sooner
ajecrtnintehrantohiselopLime
was
filled by a host of violent "coughs," who commenced at

once striking right and left with chairs, and they
violently threw one gentleman oxer rid ilidgired hffli.
The friends of these in the front sof the meeting at once
took toyelting everybody in the direction of the plat-
form with the chairs, and did not even spare their own
comrades in the foremost scramble, which, straw, to
say, was headed by a half-drunken soldier of the
Scots Fusiliers. Tables, chairs, and a large part of
the platform were completely wrecked:in a few minutes,
and the ruffians, among whom were several with huge
cudgels, at once proceeded to arrogate to themselves
the right of meeting, and carried a resolution that the
doors should be opened. However, those who had
been on the platform now mustered in such strong
force, standing in the part where the public were to
have been, that the ruffians somewhat moderated their
display, and moreover, they were at a loss what else
to do.
The respectable part of the audience then left, and
the others carried on a noisy meeting, going the length
of fighting among themselves for supremacy—the dis-
turbers being divided in their loyalty to a leader be-
tween the old man and a man in top boots. At length
the gas was turned off, and then some set fire to parts
of the broken platform, with a threat that if the gas
was not turned up they would set the wood on Me.
When this was heard Superintendent Hayes, who was
in charge of the police outside, sent in a detachment
under Inspector Arnold, and cleared the hall.
The following is the address to the Queen, signed
before the disturbance : -

"May it please your Majesty,—We, loyal subjects of your
Most Gracious Majesty resident within the borough of
Chelsea, while anxious to record our gratitude to Almighty
God in that lie has been mercifully pleased to preserve
the life of his Royal Highness the Prince of Wales, desire
at the same time to offer to your Majesty this humble assur-
ance of our deep devotion to your Majesty's person, and
our unabated attachment to the principles that placed your
Majesty's Royal House upon the Throne of these realms.
Anti profoundly sensible of the blessings this country has
enjoyed during your Majesty's benignant reign, we feel
bound to express our entire disapproval and abhorrence of
the attempts now so persistently made to sow disaffection
among your Majesty's subjects, by the dissemination of
doctrines that surely tend to the subversion of all sir most
cherished institutions. • That your Majesty may long be
spared to reign over a free, prosperous, and loyal people is
the sincere desire and constant prayer of your Majesty's
most dutiful and loyal subjects."