The Sun.
London, England, 1852-07-22 00:00:00

NORTH NORTHAMPTONSHIRE

ELECTION.

SERIOUS RIOT AT WELLINGBOROUGH—THE
MILITARY CALLED OUT.
WELLINGBOROUGH, JULY 20.—Within the last
twenty-four hours the inhabitants of this town have
been alarmed by one of the most serious riots that has
occurred here since that which nearly terminated in
the Earl of Cardigan's death in 1832. At the present
moment all violence is suspended ; but a superintendent
of police lies, it is feared, at the point of death, the ex-
citement of the people is extreme, and nothing but the
presence of a strong military force, which arrived this
morning from Weedon by special train, guarantees the
preservation of the public peace.
In accounting for the origin of this outbreak, I must
say one word on the relation in which the great hulk of
the population stand to the proceedings of the present
election. Wellingborough is a thriving little town,
situated in an agricultural district, but itself subsists
almost entirely by the shoe trade. This is pretty nearly
the condition of all the surrounding villages; the men
who reap the harvests derive the greater portion of their
income trom labour performed on the seat. After this I
need not say that the population is most deeply interested
in the maintenance of free trade. This has increased
the amount of their employment as well as enhanced
the value of their remuneration, and they know it.
To a man they are supporters of the policy of Cobden
and Sir Robert Peel. On Wednesday last the nomina-
tion of
candidates took place at Kettering, and it was
expected of the great Whig families, in which the
county abounds, that they would sanction, and even
initiate, the candidature of some one who might rally
round him all the supporters of free•trade and liberal
government and so oust Mr. Mounsell, whose boast it
iS to have gained no new idea during the last twenty
years. The excitement wasgreat, as it was learned
that the Spencers and Fitxwilliams were unprepared to
take any share in such a battle, and two independent
freeholders nominated on their own responsibility the
Ron. George Wentworth Fitzwilliam, already returned
for Peterborough. A poll was demanded, to take place
on Monday, and it was thought that at least the electors
would have an opportunity of recording their pro-
tests against the principles of protection, which had
been so openly avowed by the old Members. As the
day of poll arrived it was announced that Mr. Fitzwil-
liam refused to stand, would not even sit if elected, and
that thus two Protectionists must be returned. As, how-
ever, there were legal difficulties in the way of with-
drawal, the form of polling voters for the Tory was gone
through, and yesterday, accordingly, the poll opened at
Kettering, Clipstone, Thrapstone, Peterborough, and in
this town. The Tories cams up in high feather. The
farmers, booted and well horsed, were loud in their
triumph and early in their cups. A large crowd of arti-
sans and others stood round the Wellingborough polling-
booth, every now and then expressing their mortifi-
cation at seeing big, burley, well-to-do men abusing
their privileges as electors to vote to themselves
a tax on their (the spectators') bread. Instead of con-
ciliating the unenfranchised, the Protectionist voters
aggravated them by word and gesture, taunted them
with their desertion by the Fitzwilliam family, and by
this means increased the excitement of the bystanders.
At length one of the voters, a young farmer of Finedon,
came up, and professed to fraternise with the crowd,
praised the " big loaf system," and said he was going
to plump for Fitzwilliam. Arrived at the polling-booth,
he bawled out, with needless ostentation, " Stafford
(Derbyito) only," and then turning round to the
crowd greeted them with a horse-laugh. The patience
of the bystanders was now fairly gone, and a pebble
struck the farmer's head. He immediately turned round
and brandishing a stick threatened to knock the brains
out of the first man that cams near him. The stones
now came flying about the booth in a perfect shower, the
poll-clerks fled with the magistrates, and the people
Swept the temporary erection away in an instant. A
few farmers now came to the rescue of their injured
fellow, and the mob consolidated its force, and bore down
upon them. The county police, only six in number,
under Superintendent Knight, advanced to restore quiet,
and the agriculturists withdrew. The police, unble sorely
cope with a mob of nearly a thousand, were
mauled, the mob using stones, sticks, the fragmhaeendta.
of the poll booth, or whatevercame
In this melee, by what hand or
instrumentto
has not yet been ascertained,
-Hight received a wound in the head which rendered
Superintendent
him insensible, and he was carried off the field for dead.
The magistrates' had in the meanwhile transferred the
poll books to the Hind Hotel, the head-quarters of the
Conservative party, there intending to keep open
less timeopen the poll.
The mob then proczeded to the Hind, and
than I can record they destroyed the entire front of the
the aeger op thet crowd abated
house. For want of opposition, th police being limited
to defensive measures,
her two
and an armistice took place. It wa h n found that,
besides the policeman, about 50 others on both
:sides had
received injuries of
has his skull fractured, another more than
man, it is believed, d. uves,rity. One
ribs; broken leads are
of. and con-
tusions are thought
nothinghe fray, Lib)
In the midst owfast ut 000 P,2,1 , a
sent to
tele-
graphic dispatch
80
of
the
rrWeedon". for troops, and at
four this morning a tlighlanders arrived by
in and are now quarter°
special tilt
:d at the White Hart
This day the excitement is still
Inc. great. The
e is surrounded
polling
"Li'demonstrations with large crowd, but
only pacific.
Occur
• Special constables
in to the
are sworenumber of 40, and now occupy the
yard of the Hind Hotel,