The Sun.
London, England, 1867-11-25 00:00:00

DENIONSTRATION IN LONDON.

Yesterday morning there was a meeting on
Clerkenwell-green for the purpos?. of. organising a
procession to Hyde-park, where it bad been arranged
a funeral oration should be delivere I by Mr. James
Finlan, who has from the first taken an active part
in connection with the efforts for the release of the

convicts.
At eleven o'clock Clerkenwill-green was well
filled with people, although there was nothing like
the dense mass which aszeinbled there on Thursday
evening. Mr. Fiulan delivered an address. He
said the very day appeared to ba in mourning for
the unfortanate men (a dense fog prevailing at the
time), and throughout the whole of England and
Ireland tears were being shed for them. With re-
ference to the suggested procession to Hyde park
he wished to know whether it was the pleasure of
the meeting that it should take place in the morn-
ing or in the afternoon. Of course a large number
of the people who were expected to take part in the
procession were Irishmen, who, during the morn-
ing, would be at mass. His own impression,
therefore, was that they would have a better chance
of an imposing demonstration in the afternoon.
Mr. CAMPBELL wished to ask whether the meet-
ing considered that the unhappy men hanged at
Manchester were murderers, and to this there was a
loud response of " No."
Mr. 2ALLAGIIAN, who wore a black scarf of crape,
with a crucifix, and announced that he was an under-
taker, residing at Kerisal-green, said he intended to
have sent a hearse to head the procession. The rea-
son why he did not carry out his intention he did
not explain.
The motion that the procession should be formed
forthwith was then put and carried almost unani-
mously.
As soon as this was done some hundreds of men
fell into rank, and marched along llolborn and
Oxford-street to Hyde-park, which they entered by
way of the Marble-arch. The great procession, how-
ever, as will presently be seen, went by another route.
When those who had gone by way of Oxford-
street and Holborn arrived in the park, they pro-
seeded at once to the clump of trees in the centre,
made memorable by the meetings of the Reform
League. Between 1,000 and 2,000 people assem-
bled, but Mr. Finlan was not there, nor were there
any of the persons who are accustomed to be looked
upon as the leaders of the movement. Much dis-
satisfaction was expressed, and the people began to
look upon the whole affair as a hoax. At one time
rumour prevailed that Mr. Finlan had been arrested,
and indeed every one believed that some serious ac-
cident bad happened.
Mr. BLIGH, who distinguished himself at the
Chartist riots of 1848, rose to address the meeting.
He said they were all brothers, whose wants were
the same, and whose rights should be the same. As
it was, however, there was a different law in every
part of the United Kingdom. Consequently, the
lower orders, as they were contemptuously called,
ought to be more united than they had been. He
thought that result was very likely to be brought
about by the tremendous blunder the Tory Govern-
ment committed on Saturday morning. (Cheers.)
An indiscriminate act of cruelty had been committed
by a tyrannical Government, but that of cruelty
would be turned into a blessing, if it secured a union
between Englishmen, Irishmen, and Scotchmen for
the resistance of oppression, and the securing of
popular rights. (Cheers.) While they would keep
within the pale of the constitution they would wring
from the Government justice to the whole of the
people. (Cheers.) He could not imagine where
his old friend Finlan was, and he feared he was
absent on account of differences amongst the com-
mittee, which he saw by the papers had taken
place. He could not answer, however, for what
the papers said, for he know that very frequently
they told great- untruths. (Laughter, and hear,
hear.) If Mr. Fiulan did not come, according to
promise, he would make a point of seeing him that
evening, and taking him to task for his delinquency,
for it would be a delinquency if he did not attend
after bringing thousands of men out on that unfa-
vourable morning. (Hear, hear.) They had come,
however, willingly but mournfully, to bewail the
death of three honest patriots, men who were in
love with their country, men who had mourned for
the evils, the wrongs, the murders, the persecutions,
the prosecutions of their country, the destruction of
its trade, the sweeping away of its manufactures,
the imposition of a false Church ; in fact, had
mourned over the destruction of that beautiful
island called Ireland. (Cheers.) The poor men
who were murdered yesterday morning had loved