The Express.
London, England, 1866-07-31 00:00:00

OUR CONTEMPORARIES.

(THIS DAY.)

THI WORM DEMONSTRATION.

The first leading article in the Times of this

morning is written by one who was present at the Agri-
cultural Hall last night, and who describes hia impressions of
the scene while entering into a disquisition upon demonstra-
tions generally. The concourse last evening, be Nays, will
be admitted by everyone who was present to have
been highly respectable and well-conducted, and com-
posed to • great !extent of a higher class than might
have been expected to attend. To bring so large
and so decent an assemblage together is certainly an
achievement for the League, and they will do well to
make the most of it, for the proceedings that followed
were hardly worthy of the audience and the occasion. The
twenty thousand people and upwards who congregated in
the hall were the " demonstration," which might be
called imposing ; but the effect would actually have been
far greater had they separated in silence after having
shown their numbers, for the scene that followed
made clear above everything the futility of such
gatherings for any useful political rapes*. Before
the proceedings commenced the people in the body
of the hall were essentially of the middle class, while the
liaise galleries were filled with • still niece select society,
and the proceadons that subsequently arrived were made
up of real working men, with • considerable mixture of
rather well-dressed young men, belonging apparently to
the superior clam of artisans. Though for the purpose of
discussion these immense gatherings are utterlyuselees,
it must not be for a moment supposed, the Times sap,
that it underrates the importance of such • gathering.
Whether attracted by curiosity or by political sympathy,
there the people were, and their assembling been witness
to the interest which they feel in political questions.
The Post treats such demonstrations as notoriously and
unquestionably illegal, when they lead to obstructions
in the streets. It urges that the government and
the police stop them at coma If people want to
hold • meeting, they have a perfect right to do so
in a proper place ; but they should go to that place as they
go to church, to the theatre, or to a review—that is, sepa-
rately, and one by one. To prevent these mobs from col-
lecting at first would be easy enough. Disperse the first
individuals who arrive and the rest as they come up.
The Herald describes the demonstration as ending in an
utterly humiliating and ridiculous fiasco, and insists that
Mr. Bastes and his friends greatly strengthen the hands
of the conservative government. The professed report of
of the proceeding' given by the Renal is a travestie of all
that occurred ; almost the only serious observation which
is made being that the peaceable demeanour of the
gathering was probably due to the knowledge on the part
of the Leaguers that the government had • sufficient force
in hand to put down a disturbance at a moment's notice.
The Telegraph estimates the numbers at 40,000, and ob-

serves that such an sioembly reduces the Reform question
to one simply of date and extent. It Is no longer ex-
cusable for any but Tories and the insane to debate
whether there must be • Reform Bill ; the points of
interest are changed, and we bare simply to discuss the
question—When shall we have it, and what shall now be
its limitations

The Star observes that perhaps an equally remarkable
cdreumstanoe with the gathering inside the Hall was the
division of the outlying muses into several great meetings.
Every pUery staircase was made into a platform, and at
every such station speeches were made that might well
have taken their place in the reported proceedings of the
night. Language is inadequate to realise the exciting
I elements of the occasion. No Mend of reform could wit-

nem it without a sense of pleasure that the people of
London should so nobly have vindicated themselves from
the charge of unpatriotic apathy.