The Sun.
London, England, 1820-11-21 00:00:00

ILLUMINATION Al LEFDS.

It was not to be expected that the faction at Leeds, who
have so lung distinguished themselves by acting in opposition
to the Government of the ,Country,.would let the TRiomra !
of the'Queeti•pass' over without scone attempts at disturbing
the tranquillity of the town.. Accordingly, at a Vestry Meet-
ing, held on Monday. to elect new Trustees to the Work-
house, the great -ringleader and instigator broached the sub-
je et of an Illumination,' by way, as telermed it, of gaining
soma expression of the general wish : as.if it were possible to
obtain eny thing like such an expression, from a Meeting
consisting of about one hundred persons; at least one-third
of whom were decidedly opposed to the measure. This at-
tempt, however, proved abortive; and the Meeting was very
properly dissoked. The respectable part of time persons pre-
sent left the Church ; but the Radicals, -wishing- to come to
some determination, called Mr. LiVesey to the. Chair ; acid
be was occur:tingly. proceeding to business,
when he was in-
terrupted by' the 'Churchwardens, and desired to quit the
Chtir6,- Thus foiled, a Meeting was held at the White,Horse
Inn, in the afternoon of the same day, consisting of
sol}►e of
the•perions who bad signed the Requisition to the:Mayor,
for calling a Meeting to petition against the Bill of Pains

and Penalties. At this Meeting it was very judiciously
determined, not to illuminate;—but to establish a fund, fir
some charitable purpose, to be called Queen Caroline's fund;
and hand-bills, to that purpOrt, wet e circulated in the course
"of the afternoon. On Tuesday, they found that the cash
would-come in so slowly as to expose their fund to the ridi.-
cule of their opponents ; and another meeting was held on
that evening, to consider what was to be done. At this meet-
ing, 25 persons attended; and they stated it as their opinion,
that the wish to illuminate was very general indeed ; and .it
was resolved, that an illumination should take place„onty
two of the persons present opposing it. A Deputation, con-
sisting of Messrs. Clapham,Gaunt, and Willans, was appoint, -
ed to wait on the Mayor, requesting bins to fix a day for the
purpose ; but the worthy Magistrate, knowing something
more of the general wish of at least the respectable inhabi-
tants, than. the White Horse Committee, refused, in concur-
rence with the unanimous opinion of his brother Magistrates-,
to give any sanction whatever to a measure, which was
only calculated to disturb the peace of the town. And
ou Wednesday, the following Lkand-bill was issued from the
Court-house :
" The Mayor and Magistrates having received its-forma-
tion, that it is the intention of some individuals to illuminate
their houses, on Thursday evening, the 16th lost., and hay-
ing, on the other hand, reason to believe; that such a mea-
sure is highly objectionable to great numbers of the inha-
bitants of the town ; they therefore deem it their duty to
express their disapprobation of the measure, as likely tu en-
danger the public tranquillity.-7-Should an illumination,
however, take place, the Magistrates hereby assure the
public, that effectual measures will be taken to secure, as far
as in them lies, to every individual the privilege of acting as
be thinks right, consistently with that most important ob-
ject, the preservation of the public peace."
The self-constituted authorities, however, scorned to bow
to the wishes of the Magistrates, but determined to proceed.
This determination was announced by hand-bills; and itt
the course of Thursday every means was taken to render the
Illumination general. The Mayor, wisely resolving to be
provided with a sufficient force to resist any attempt tocons-
mit a breach of the peace, issued notices on Thursday morn-
ing, requiring the inhabitants to attend at the Court-house
in the afternoon, to be sworn in Special Constables, and its
the short space of four hours, nearly 400 respectable persons
took the oaths.
The evening—the hour of anticipated triumph—arrived;
but instead of niump -# it proved a most bitter dissappoin
in t-
ept. The Illuminat . was partial indeed, except in those
parts of the town, lin kited by the very lowest classes.
About half of the shops in. Briggate were lighted up : and
the proprietors of many of those were only induced to put
candles in their windows, some from 'the fear of having
them broken, and others lest they should be injured in their
trade; This latter reason operated very powerfully among the
publicans, throughout the town. '
The special constables were on duty at seven o'clock ; and
they pinioned the streets in the different divisions, till near
eleven. At that hour, the lights were extinguished, and the
streets perfectly quiet. During the evening, there were no
attempts at cr eatinF, any disturbances, except hissing and
hooting at the special constables ; which occurred several
times. One party was followed from Kirkgate, through Vi-
car-lane, and up Lowerhead-row, to the White Swan, in the
Market Place, by a considerable mob, groaning,. hissing, &c.
But, as they refrained from personal violence, no notice was
taken of their- other insults. A number of gentlemen who
accompanied Mr. Wm. Beckett down Briggate, were also
honoured by similar marks of disapprobation from the sove-
reign mob. We have not heard that any accidents occurred ;
and we know of only one gentleman who had any windows
broken, and he had only a single pane. The precautions
taken by the Magistrates, and the determined aspect of the
loyal part of the community, intimidated and overawed those,
who would otherwise have been ready to commit similar wit-
rages to those which disgraced the metropolis.
The transparencies were not numerous; and those that
were exhibited, with one or two exceptions, were mere daubs.
The fate of the Milan Conspiracy, represented by Truth
strangling the Hydra of Corruption, was placed in the centre
of the News Room window, over the Mercury Office.—Mr.
Hutchinson the painter, exhibited a Green Bag, suspended
from a gallows. Mr. Taylor, Surgeon, Kirks-ate, had three
figures standing in the pillory, inscribed, " Non mi Ricordo,"
" Doub!e Entendre," and " 1600 per month ;" on a scroll
above was the motto, " Thou shalt not bear- false witness
against thy neighbour." There were several Crowns with
the letters " C. R."; and one wag in Kirkgate, displayed a
tomb, with a female weeping over it ; we suppose lamenting
the departed modesty arid delicacy of our " virtuous" Queen !
In Vicar lane, a Venus was placed in a window—no inappro-
priate device.—The house of the Printer of The Mercury was
most,brilliant ; it looked literally in a blaze—and was orna-
mented with a transparency, which we took to he a crown;
but an inscription underneath, informed us, it was the
" Regina Still," no doubt out of compliment to the taste of
Brandy-burgh House.
On the whole, the Leeds illumination evinced the complete
triumph of loyalty, sound sense, and just feeling. Instead of
exhibiting a " magnificent blaze of light, the simultaneous
offering of an unitiuenced population," it required, witti one
or two exceptions, the aid of the moon and the gas, to find
out where time illumination really was. A few houses were
brilliantly lighted ; but the very great majority had only just
sufficient light to make " darkness visible." The groups of
windows with a few penny candles stuck in to save appear-
ances, etidently displayed the feelings of the owners; and
proved, clearly enough, that, if they had either been assured
that such efficient protection would have beers afforded them,
or that they would not have suffered in their business—they
would have.shewn no symptoms of rejoicing at the ttigniph of
the Queen.—London, and other towns, present sufficient in-
stances of the excesses committed by the " Liberals" ou the
property of those who do not chose to surrender the right of
acting in conformity with their own opinions ;
.and there is
no doubt, bat similar conduct would have been pursued here,
if the Magistrates had not set an example of firmness, which
was followed by the people. The victory was complete, and
it SLIMS the Magistrates, that if they will do their duty, theme
is a large majority of the rank, property, talent, and virtue
of the town, at all times ready to support them

ILLUMINATIONS AT EDINBURGH.
In consequence of some persons having posted up hand,.
bills yesterday morning, calling upon the inhabitants to inn:-
mit-vete in the evening, the Lord Provost, Magistrates, and
Sheriff, apprehensive that such a measure might lead to riot,
as has been the case in London and- Glasgow, issued a pro- -
clamation, recommending to the inhabitants to abstain from
any Illumination, and at the same time intimating their de-
termination to maintain the public peace, and to protect the
•inhabitants Eigainst all attempts to disturb it, by employing
for that purpose the Civil -and Military Force which tile law
placed at their disposal. At six o'clock, however, lights be-
gan to. be shewn in different parts, and by seven many houses
in the High-sheet, and other parts of the city, were Monti-
.nated, but the lighting up was by no means general. In the
New Town, a few houses were lighted in Prince's. street, two
or three in George-street, Queen-street, and York-place.—
Rose-street, and Thistle-street were entirely illuminated.
The streets were crowded with people, and at nine o'clock
hands of young men, seemingly bent on mischief, perambu-
lated.different street in the New Town, demolishing windows
'that were not illuminated. The Lord -Provost's house, in
Abercrowhy place, was attacked, and all the windowsbroken.
Street, and at the•head of Leith Wall“
Many houses shared the same fate in York Place, Prince s-
By sonic unaccimntabie omission the mob were allowed to
remain 61)&00u-bedposseksion of the High-street, till ntzr
II o'clock, and gettiog buider front being unrestrained, hi eke
a great num • her of windows on the • North- and South Bridge 4
'
and • High•st rect.
TheiL.Pd provost and Magistrates had made every arrange-.
tricot to suppress tumult—a strong detachment of the 711 a
Dragoon Guards from Piershill Barracks, and the Edinbuign
Troop of Royal Mid Lothian Cavalry, were stationed at the
Riding School-the Edinborgh Volunteers were under arms,-
two compOnies of theltide Brigade from the Castle were in
• the Cothmercial Butat—,all the ordinary and extraordinary
Constables. were on duty; which, together with the Police,
formed a force sufficiently powerful to preserve the peace of
the City, It Was not, howevr, thought necessary to call Nina
'Cavalry nature .
tookt he
placein tethem to act till half-past ten, when a great deal of mischief
speedily dispersed the mob in the High Street and on the
IB)uriiid:re nothingl,land committed.
o f a The
serious
made their appearance.—(Edinburgh Courant, Nov. 184
Riding.
Schoolrtley