The Sun.
London, England, 1829-05-07 00:00:00

THE RIOTS IN MANCHESTER•

MANCHESTER, TUESDAY EVENING.

After the destruction of Mes,N. Parkers' factory on
Monday aftereo m, there were no further attempts upon
any others. Up to a very bite hour the party of Dragoons
continued to parade the streets. They ciuld not, how-
ever, disperse the crowds of people esseteb!ed at the corner
of almost every street leading into Ancoats•street, and
after dark scarcely any person having a good coat on his
back was allowed to pass without molestation ; smite were
pushed from one side to the other—others were pelted
with piect s of the webs, which had beers taken from the
looms and trampled in the dirt, and several, we believe,
suffered in pocket as well as in person, though we have
not heard of any that were robbed of a very considerable
amount. Between ten and eleven o'clock the numbers
began gradually to decrease, and by half-past twelve o'clock
the streets were almost as deserted as they usually are at
that hour. The masters of most of the factories, spinning
as well as weaving, kept parties of men, armed with so re
implements as were to be had, during the whole of the
night watching the premises, and it was feared these pre-
cautions were not taken unnecessarily.
On Tuesday morning, 'up to nine o'clock, all was as
quiet as usual, save here and there a little knot of fellows,
at the corners of the streets, leading to Ancoats. By a
constant accession of numbers, a great mob was assembled
by ten o'clock, and they first, after completely emptying a
bread-cart which was passing, proceeded along Ancoats-
lane, calling at the bakers'-shops, and from thc most pru-
dent of them receiving a few loaves, from some four or
five, from others eight or ten. With a few loaves the mob
were quite satisfied, and proceeded with their levying con-
tributions, in this manner, along Oldham-street, until they
came to the shop of a baker, of the name of Hogarth,
who refused to give them any, and, brandishing a knife,
declared his determination to defend his property. This
was the signal for a volley of stones, and its half a minute
the windows of his dwelling-house, over his shap, were
shattered to pieces; his shop door was broken in, and it
was not till nearly all the bread in his house was distri-
buted amongst them, that they were appeased. It was
now eleven o'clock, and no check whatever had been put
upon the snob. Shortly afterwards a party of the Dra-
goon Guards arrived at the spot ; but too late to take any
of the rioters into custody. The Guards continued to
parade along Oldham-street and Ancoats-street, in vain
attempting to disperse the multitudes that lined the
streets, by galloping along the pavement, and into the
narrow streets. They did not effect their purpose, but
they succeeeed in preventing any other depredations there.
While they were thus occupied, a party of the snob began
to levy contributions in Piccadilly and Bank Top, in
the same manner as they had been previously doing, only
calling at every house, and receiving not only bread, but
what would purchase it. The Guards were brought from
Ancoats-street to Bank Top, and paraded backward and
forward ; but as soon as they bad passed a few yards, the
solicitations for bread were renewed, and as all the resi-
dents threw something or other, eatables or money, from
the upper windows, the doors and under windows being
all closed, there was not the slightest damage done to any
of the houses. The mob thus proceeded to the upper end
of Bank Top (about half a mile), where they were met by
a body of the Ardwick Police and special constables, artred
with cutlasses, and these, by a determined and indiscrimi-
nate attack upon the first of the mob, succeeded in pre-
venting their progress into the Ardwick district ; but their
success had only the effect of turning the mob into other
streets. In the meantime, the part of the mob left in An-
coats-street were making the most" of their time by pro-
ceeding in an opposite direction levying contributions, and
occasionally all but emptying some of the provision shops
of their contents. One baker fired several shots of blank
cartridges from his windows, hut the only effect would
have been a complete demolition of his premises, had not
the police and a party of the Coldetreans Guards come op-
portunely to his assistance. I❑ this way did the mob
proceed from ten o'clock till three. As soon AS the mili-
tary went to one place, the mob commenced at another,
and so great was the fear of them, that most of the shops,
even in comparatively distant parts of the town, were
shut, the owners not knowing how soon they might have
a visit; all business was at a stand.
The only object of the mob during the whole of Tues-
day seemed to be to satisfy their hunger. No attempt what-
ever was made to destroy any factory or to molest the
workpeople in them, as had been done on the previous
day. It was indeed melancholy to see with what avidity
they grasped at the loaves which were given to them, and
with what care they picked up out of the mud up,m the
street the smallest fragments which fell in the struggle to
obtain a part of the bread. The miserable emaciated coun-
tenances of many of them showed distinctly enough that
their eagerness was not without cause. At one shop where
they called twice, the shopkeeper addressed them on tha in-
justice of corning twice to him in one day, and begged that
they would not, by spoiling him to day, disable him from
relieving them to-morrow. The address had the desired
effect, and the man's loaves were spared.
I think it unnecessary to give the names of the sufferers
on this occasion, or to attempt a description of each indi-
vidual attack. I deem it sufficient to state, that a line of
shops extending a mile one way, crossed by another line
extending half a mile, with all the shorter streets lying be-
tween their extremities, were at the mercy of the mob for
the greater part of the day.
The question is now, what will be attempted next ?
The men are obviously reckless, and one may hear, as one
goes along the street, the open expression of their senti-
ments. I heard two women in discussion opposite the
baker's shop which had been emptied This is not
reet, Mary," said one ; " this poor man may be as badly
off as ourselves, and I say it was not reet to take his
bread."—" Its 'no use talking so," replied the other;
" are the men to let their bairns die for want of bread ?
What's the use asking who it belongs to when they mun
have it ?" At New Cross, the very centre of the dis-
affected district, the scene at one time showed the preva-
lent feeling very strongly. A person of the name of
Fletcher had fired a pistol from his window. The mob in
return broke his windows. The police-officers, with a
recruiting-officer, came to his aid, and the yelling and the
execrations of the mob when driven off were absolutely
terrific. Had the beadles or soldiers been unfortunate
enough to hurt any of the mob, 1 am convinced that every
one of the party would have been destroyed, fur the excita-
tion needed but such an event to lead to bloodshed.
There have been twenty-five persons in all taken into
custody, lent the charges against them are, of course, not
yet known, and if they have only been pointed out to the
Police, which is the case with several of them, their ex-
amination will, most probably, be put off for some days,
in order to give the parties who pointed them out an op-
. portunity of coming forward to identify them.

TUESDAY NIGHT, HALF-PAST EIGHT.

Since three o'clock there has not been any plundering ;
but the crowds still remain in the streets, and the parties
of the Dragoon Guards and the Coldstream Guards, with
a party of the police, and numbers of special constables,
contieue to parade in every direction. A notice was post-
ed in the streets in the afternoon, in which the borough-
reeve and constables requested " respectable persons" to
proceed to the Town-hall, aad be swora in special consta-
bles-0 aid in preventing these calamitous riots, The
following notice, by the Magistrates of the division, is just
now being posted up in the town :