The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1868-11-28 00:00:00

FENIAN DEMONSTRATION IN HYDE-
PARK.

On Sunday last Hyde-Park was again disgraced by 1
a field-day of the London "roughs," who assembled
there in the names of the murderers who were executed
at Manchest,r this day last year for the murder of
Police-sergeant Brett. The murderers are called the
" martyrs, ' and it was intended to make the London
streets the scene of this demonstration, but effective
police measures prevented this being done, as will be
shown, and the proceedings took a different order to
' that
ignorant mob
by those who led on the misguided
and ionorant mob which on Sunday flocked into the
Park.*
'rite purpose intended, and the prposers of the
demonstration, may be gathered from an inflammatory
handbill which had been distributed among the
dwellers in the courts about the worst parts of
Bethnal-green, Whitechapel, Southwark, Greenwich,
Deptford, Ratcliff -highway, Gray's-inn-lane, Holborn,
and other plac ffi about the metropolis. The bill
Iwas printed in green, with a deep mourning border,
and headed by a funeral cross. Its printed contents
were

" IRELAND FOR EVER!

"Anniversary of the martyrdom of Allen, Larkin,
and O'Brien.

" A funeral procession, with a select hand, will march with
all the ceremony due to the memory..! our Irish ish.rtyrs at
Nlaowliester—Allen, Laikin, and Illirien-011 ',lmlay, Nov.
22, from Clerkeuwell-green, throtiA I%mi:lomi-street,
Fleet street, Strand, Cockspur-street, Waterloo-place, Pen-
man. St..lames's-street, Hyde Park, en route to
the Reformers"Eree, where orations in honour of the neirtyrs
will he delivered by Messrs James Millen, .lames Doyle,
Mod iruni, Campbell, Wade, Healy, M'Sweeny, and other gen-
tlemen who have promised to attend.
"11.quiesrant to Pace.
The procession will start from Clerkenwell-green at! o'clock,
and will reach Hyde Park at 320."

The great centre of attraction for " roughs " on Sun-
day morning was, of course Clerkenwell-jireen—not
that the working-men of Clolenwell have anything in
common to do with the peculiar class of agitators, for
this industrious parish contributes nothing but the
melancholy open space called the "Green" to these
agitations and a proposal to enclose the space has met
with considerable ,smiphrt in the locality, so greatly is
the disgrace of these demonstrations felt by the
Clerkenwellers. The police orders were that no gather-
ings were to be• allowed on the "Green," and very
large bodies of police were on the ground and about
the adjacent streets to enforce the order. It was ex-
pected that Finlen would come at about eleven o'clock
to harangue the Irish and others, aml people began to
congregate only to be moved on. The morning was
not an inviting one for out-door assemblages, and the
police on the "Green" had for the first two hours com-
paratively light duties. But a little after one o'clock
the roughs began to arrive in droves, most of them dis-
playing their popular sympathies by wearing green
rosettes and streamers of the same hue. As fast as
they came they were moved on, and presently, when
Filar!' himself came, he was followed off the "Green,"
muisl which he walked with a chagrined air. He and
his associates assembled in a neightmut lug publichouse,
whence, after a short time, they emerged towards the
city. The police never stirred from the neighbour-
hood, and so effected the purpose of the authorities
in preventing a procession being formed on Clerkenwell-
green.
The provessionists thus prevented from carrying
out their purpose with band and banners, proceeded
to form their procession to Hyde Park in another
fashion—by walking four abreast and forming line as
they marched. In this way some two to three hundred
of very rough fellows, without one decently dressed
person among them, dragged their way through the
dirty streets and drizzling rain towards the park. As
they went their bees were increased, and they
amounted to between 500 and 000 by the time they
paraded down Piccadilly, and as they entered the park
their numbers received a still greater increase. They
gave a loud shout when they found, most likely to their
surprise, that their passage to the park was quite unim-
peded. They niarched straight towards the clump of
trees where the Refomi League people held their
demonstrations last year, and on one of the seats
around a tree was found James Finlen, with a select
Fathering of the class whose peculiar vocation it h
bee to "demonstrate." The crowd soon came, and
the Irish part of the mob was quite ready to assail
Finlen ls having nothing to do with Ireland or the
Irish. There were some shouts, calling him all sorts
of peculiar names, garnished with certain expletives,
and forcible hints to him to look after his family.
The secret of this untoward demonstration is to 6.
found in the fact that other procession•sts had met and
carried a resolution to the effect that James Millen
should be desired to refrain from damaging the cause
of Irish liberty by his self-assumed championship,
which all honest Irishmen must heartily repudiate
and detest."
Such were the sentiments of those who hissed
Finlen, but it mattered little whether they were
friends or foes, for the uproar, amid cheers for Ireland,
the shouting to people to climb and not to climb the
trees, and the swaying backwards and forwards of the
mob, which had now increased to several thousands,
was such as to drown any personal exclamations. For
a long time no speech could be heard, and it was only
when the chairnmn summoned the attention of the
gatheringby the utterance of some frightful expletives
against the authorities for interfering with the pro-
cession, that the least heed was paid to the "chair."
Another man then spoke in the same strain, and with
the like garniture'of adjectives, and the mob because
somewhat quiet for a short space, during which the
first speaker harangued them in a speech, the only
coherent part of which were bitter denunciations of
the Government. He called upon the people of
Ireland to be prepares! to wrest their country from its
rulers, and ti, maintain their right to a distinct
nationality and Government.
Three groans were given for Government officials—
Sir Richard Mayne, Mr. Gathorne Hardy, and others.
Finlen then essayed to speak, and commenced by
calling for "three Omen' for Ireland and the glorious
Fenians !" The cheers were given, awl also attention
to some extent to what the speaker said; but of his
speech it is not necessary to say much more than that
it was its own confutation •, for, if the exaggerated
chargra of tyranny which he shouted against the Crown
of England were in a twentieth degree true, it is not
possible that he would have been allowed to stand
there and shout them. He concluded by saying that
he would issue a proclamation in the name of glorious
Fenian Republicanism, and call upon the noble body
whom he saw before him to ,to something, more than
mere talk, and this was to release Ireland from the
"bloody odious rule of the British aristocracy."
There was cheering at this, and the crowd seemed to
get more unmanageable as the inflammatory language
was apoken. Those around the tree allowed the ve•
porters to pass out, and were even courteous to the
Press representatives, but outside the roughs were de-
sirous of calling them pollee spies and treating them as
such. It was IMPOSSibIe to hear went was said after-
wards. The people vol ped around the trees, in the
pouring min, and cheered all the sentiments which
were uttered, especially when anything was said about
Fenianism. The meeting was not over at dusk, when,
from the absence of police, it became seriously danger-
ous for persons of decent appearance to stay longer,