The Express.
London, England, 1853-03-30 00:00:00

THE RIOTS AT BLACKBURN.

The proceedings of the mobs at Blackburn on
Saturday. night, very briefly alluded to in the Express
of yesterday, were very disgraceful, yet very piltry. nay
did sot rise toe dignity—if there can be any dignity in riot-
ing—worthy the interference of the military; and sold.e:s
with asty other weapons than cst-o'-ninehails were out of
place amongst such cowardly scoundrelism. The madness
of a mob wrought up to a high pitch of excitement in the
belief of some real or fancied wrong, though the sword may
be necessary to put it down, has something in it which may
command popular sympathy, but gangs of hired ruffians,
wider shelter of the night, parading street after street to.
break people's windows in revenge, because the, owners
have exercised a public right at the election, which the law
gives them, is a most disgraceful exercise of vindictive
passion.
The disorders in Blackburn on Saturday night are sc-
.,

counted for in various ways by public runtime. Vie account
is that the partisans of Mr. Ilornby had engaged people to
fight at the election, but on Saturday night, having refused
these people their wages, they attaesed the houses of cane
of the Hornby party, and other conservatives, mistaking the
authors cat these attacks for the radicals, rttadated by
attacking the houses of those who had voted or Mr. Field,n,
the liberal candidate. The landlord of • pubitc•house
Penny-street, where the rioting was worst, traces the
tumult to a much more simple issue. This is Mr. l[ugh
Briggs, of the Fleece Inn. He says that early on Saturday
evening he ejected a quarrelsome Irishman, who, knowing
his thlr. Briggs's) house wails reodestous for Horntlites,or
conservatives, raised a crowdof Irishmen round the door,

and called him "a b—y Orangeman and that thi;
was enough to induce the Irish rabble to break his
windows. Then, he says, the news of this attack
on his house being conveyed to the Brookhouse-
mills (Mr. Iloruby's cotton mills), and the people
there, supposing the attack to have been mode by Fieldeuites,
came up in a large body and retaliated. There is oue re-
markable feature about the matter, however, which scarce.y

renders this story admi,satile: that some of the houses sus•
sequently attacked appear to have had a cross chalke:t on
the front, as though previously marked out for vengeance.
Besides, an irritated mob would scarcely have gone to work
so systematically, and have succeeded in picking out so many
obnoxious parties for revenge. It is true that one or two
conservatives had their windows broken, but they were one
or two against a hundred of the other party. The great
number of Scotchmen whose houses have suffered, also
points to a premeditated attack. The houses which were
attacked lie mainly in streets in a direction from Mr.
kloroby's mill, and in streets leading out of or parallel with
them. The house of Mr. Peter Johnstone, which we men-
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tioned in yesterday's Erpress as having been attacked,
is almost close to the mill. The mob are
described as attacking it with stones and sticks,
breaking all the windows and shutters in front, and
throwing missiles with such violence against the wall that
the stems of trees trained against the front of the house
were cut in two by them. Mr. Johnstone himself was net
at home, and his family (consisting of five persons) sought
safety in the back premises. Fortunately fur them the
mob contented themselves with this manifestation of vice'
lenee, and did not enter the house. The site of Mr. John-
stone's house is called Lark-hill, and near it are some new
houses, called Primrose Bank, built by Mr. Jobnstoue. In
one of these houses Mr. James Johnstone resides, and in
another Mr. Elston. Both these houses and another ad-
joining were attacked by the mob, who broke out the win-
dows and window-frames so completely that ou Monday the
owners found it necessary to board them up. The house of
Thomas Barton, in Hannah-street, was one of those marked
with a cross in chalk, and was attacked apparently without
the slightest provocation. Barton is out a voter, but kis
sympathies were enown to be with the Fielden party, and
two lodgers of conservative polities had left him
on the previous Saturday, and taken up their
residence at a house known to be favourably af-
fected towards the Hereby party. Barton was reading
a newspaper, and two females were sitting before the fire,
when, without their hearing the footsteps of any one or ri-
ceiving any indication of approaching danger, a number of
stones were hurled at them through the window, cone
pletely smashing in the entire glass work of the front, and
naturally very much alarming the inmates. The cotton-
mill of Mr. Henry Ward, in Swallow-street, was attacked
by the same mob, and a great number of windows were
broken ; portions of the looms and some of the fine twist its
the looms themselves were destroyed. In Penuystreet the
mob attacked a confectioner's shop nearly opposite toe
Fleece public-house, breaking many panes of glass in the
shop window ; and at the house of Mr. Lonedale, 109,
Penny-street, the windows were destroyed. The windows
of the Plough Lou were broken and the framework much
injured by the stones thrown in. The shop of Mr. John
altun and that of Mr. John Dornan, in the same street,
suffered severely is a similar way. The shop and other win-
dow' is front of the house of Mr. Crewe, umbrella maker;
of Mr. Riley, joiner, next dour ; of Mr. A. Leonard, draper,
and grocer; and of Mr. Leonard, tailor, were also broken.
But one of the most serious attacks in this street was upon
the house and shop of Mr. Amyl's Wright, grocer, at the
• corner of Penny-street and Brown-street, with windows
looking into both those thoroughfares. Through the win-
dow of Mr. Wrghr's house a stone was thrown which
weighed &Vbs.; and it was whilst the mob were attack-
ing this and the neighbouring house, that shots were fired
upon the mob by some Scotehmen. At this time the mob
was so numerous that it had spread all along Brown-street
and down John-street, which is parallel with Penny-
street, at the other end of Brown-street. Most of the
houses in these two streets are occupied by Sentehmen, who
either travel with goods into the country, or employ travel-
lers, and are voters ; and 80 of this clue of inhabitants
having voted for Mr. Fielden, they were of course obnoxi-
ous to the other party. Amongst the houses attacked, and
the windows of which were broken in a disgraceful
manner in these sweets, were those of Mr. Por-
teous, Mr. John Johnstone, Mr. Bell, Mr. Ruther-
ford, Mr. Joseph Turnbull, Mr. Edward Mickle,
and Mr. Riley. In some of these houses both the windows,
frames, and shutters were broken with the missiles; and
some of the inhabitants state that the mob were not content
with using stones, but some of them, raised on the
shoulders of others, deliberately broke the windows with
large hammers and mallets. It is believed that the owners
of some of these houses, conceiving that they had a right to
defend their property when thus attacked, fired uron the
mob. Among the parties generally named as those who
fired is Mr. Annus Wright; but Mr. Wright has put out a
placard in which he denies that he used any firearms at all.
It appears that two discharge. at least took place, and two
men were carried away in a helpless state from amidst the
mob to the house of Mr. Gorton, Waterloo Hotel, en the
opposite aide of Peony-street. It was believed at the time
that both these men had been wounded with shot, and Mr.
Martlend, jua., surgeon, of the Hornby party, was
!testily sent for to examine them. One of the men,
named Thomas Towers,
_is a workman in the employ
of Mr. Hornby, and Mr. Moreland extracted not less
than six shots from different parts of his face. One of these
shots had passed through the peak of his cap, so that it is
probable that the discharge had been from an upper win-
dow. Another shot had passed through his upper lip and I
embedded itself in the upper jaw. The most serious wound
was one in the eye, whim), if the shot had entered a little
higher, would probably hate proved fatal, by its penetrat-
ing to the brain. The man is believed to be in no serious
danger, the shot being generally small, and varying from
what is called No. 7to No. 4. The other man, whose name
is Duckworth, is also a Horubyite, but had not been shut.
He had been struck, it is reported, with the butt-end of a
gun on the head, which lacerated the scalp, and inflicted
a wound which it was feared had somewhat injured the
skull. After remaining insensible for soma hours, how-
ever, he recovered sufficiently to be taken home, and is
now doing well.
Information of these riots was of course sooncarried to the
police-office, and the few men out of a force of only eleven,
at the command of the superintendent, were sent to quell
it. Generally speaking, they seem, however, to have been
very unsuccessful in ding more than merely tracing the
route Which the rioters had taken, for gangs of ruffians
engaged in work of this sort were able to move about with
great celerity, and by the time the police had arrived at any
given spot where it was said they were to be met with, the
place was generally found deserted. The night, as we have
said before, was extremely favourable for their designs. It
appears to be usual in Blackburn, as a matter of economy,
to set down certain nights in the year as those when the
moon should supply the inhabitants with sufficient light,
and the gas lamps are then not used, though uufortuaately,
sts on this occasion, the weather does net always second the
calculations of the authorities, and the streets may be cave-
loped is thickest darkness. The only man the police suc-
ceeded in apprehending was an Irishman, named Moran,
who in a drunken, disorderly state, was flourishing a poker
opposite the Fleece Inn, and threatening to break
the windows. This man was brought before the
magistrates on Monday, and held to bail till the
Preston Quarter Sessions. The magistrates of the borough
were hastily called together on the intelligence of these pro-
ceedings reaching the ears of some of the more active of their
body, who had rather anticipated some such scene of dis-
order; and at about eight o'clock they despatched a mes-
senger for the aid of the military from Burnley. A com-
pose of the 4th regiment which had left Blackburn only on
Friday morning, were brought back from Burnley by a
train on the East Lancashire railway, and entered Black-
burn at about eleven o'clock, by which time the rioters had
nearly sated their revenge. The military were taken
through those parts of the town which bad been most dis-
orderly, and in some cases large mobs congregated there
were dispersed, but there was no occasion at that time for
the soldiers to act offensively. A good deal of activity was
displayed by some of the magistrates, during the whole of
Saturday night and Stanley, is taking precautionary mea-
sures to prevent a recurrence of such disorders, and by
Monday morning a number of circular. had been printed
and addressed to upwards of four hundred of the prin-
cipal inhabitants and more respectable voters, ordering
them to present themselves at the Sessions-house en Mom-
day, to be sworn in as special constables, to preserve the
peace of the town. Circulate were also addressed by the
magistrates to the millownere and large employers of labour,
requesting them to exert their influence in deterriug their
people from taking any part in such disturbances, and trim
cougregating in groups so as to excite alarm.
We described yesterday the attack upon Mr. Peter John-
stone's son, a young man named James Johnstone, aged
about 20 years, in Peany-street, who alter being kuockeil
down by brickbat. soy the liornhyites, was followed into the
house of Mr. SI111:11, ironmonger, where be sought refuge,
and was lett in a state of insensibility, with his head bauly
cut and bruised. The ruffians who attacked the young
man in this cowardly manner, apparently for no other rea-
son than that his fatoer hail v ated for Mr. Fieiden, carried
off with them Mr. Saxith'e poker ; told on Monday afternoon,
between 1 and 2 o'cleek, Mr. P. John,t:ine, the fath ,r, be-
lieving that he hail informa•ion of the emu° in which the
poker was coecealeil, and that a couch warrant would