Star.
London, England, 1820-04-14 00:00:00

AFFAM AT GREENOCK.

We observe with regret a wretched attempt to re-
present the unfortunate aff..ir at Greenock as a Ra-
dical explosion, and we cannot sufficiently express
our contempt at the unfair efforts that are thus made.
We refer, nut only to the London Morning Post, but
to the Glasgow aronide of Tuesday, from which we
have given an extract. To talk of an advanced
guard being designedly misled in the streets of a'
town with which all the parties are as familiar as with
their own doors, is, to say the least of it, nonsense.—
The facts of the case
_are simply these. For time:'
immemorial there has been a grudge between the
two towns of Greenock and Port-Glasgow. The
prosperity of the former was the original cause of
this enmity, and the •erivy of the latter has, we are
told, been often an object of ridicule with the
Greenock populace. These feelings operating, per-
-1 haps, with some degree of sympathy for the pri-
soners, whose offence, though a great misdemeanour,
is net calculated to excite much moral detestation
among the lower classes, seem to have been the sole
cau-e of the riot.

The Pprt-Clasgow Volunteers, bearing in mock
triumph five miserable Radicals in a cart—them-
selves dejected and jaded, with a toilsome march
if nearly twenty
,rniles,, and being only in coloured
clothes, and these in all probability not their Sun-
day suits, accompanied with the ludicrous magni•
licence of a breathless -fifer and a tunelesi drum,
was a ectacle with which even Sir John Falstei
miAht have been ash:tined to have gone through Co-
ventry, and certainly to the school-boys of Greenock,
comidering their local feelings.it could not fail to be
.rnineutly contemptible.

That among the crowd stringers may have been
ern, and Radicals too, we have no doubt. Some

friends of the prisoners, doubtless, came with them
from Paisley, but to regard this burst of provincial
feelings as political, is at once foolish and wicked.

PRIVATE LETTER.
" GRZENOCK, SATURDAY NICIIT.

gg We have had a very unfortunate business here
to-day. In the morning it was current that the Port-
Glasgow Volunteers were to arrive from Paisley,
where they harKeen stationed, with five Railicali` as
prisoners ; and as we have no Corps here, and as the
Port-Glasgow Corps had been much pelted_ wiz!,
mud on their entry itfto.Paisley, we were curio is to
see them. Many persons expected them before din-
ner; but as they did not come, it was considered an
incurred rumour their coming at all. Wowever, they
did come about half-past five o'clock, and lcdged the
five men safely in our jail. But as they entered the
town with fife and drum, a great a owd was collected,
and on their leaving the court before the prison the
boys peltei thettil with stones. By the time they got
to the Rue-end, several of the Volunteers were much
hurt, when the men began to fire with ball-cartridge,
and continued retreating and firing to Mr.tiurnmell's
gate, when the mob left them, but not before about
twenty of them were killed and wounded.

Bailiie wine harangued the mob in the square,
and told them that' iliej.tnight• depend on justice
being done. g Now was the time, blood for blOtrel,!•
worse than the Manchester business,' &c. was their
cry; and then, 6 Let us rescue the prisoners: To it
they went, and after an hour's labour, they ac-
complished it, nobody being hurt ; as we had no
force, resistance was vain. The next cry was, To
Port Glasgow I' but they went no further than
Cartsdyke.

" It has entirely been caused by sending men with-
out uniform ; and of an unimposing appearance,
amongst people who held the Port-Glasgow people
in contempt—in tnarching in with drums beating—
in not giving the Magistrates previous notice—and,
possibly, a want of coolness in the men ; though, it
is said, they were severely pelted. If, when they
lodged the men, the Corps had been marched up by
the road to the Bank, and home by the back walks,
no mischief would have happened ; no more is ex-
pected, and an express has been sent off for troops.
None of the other prisoners in our jail were liberated.
The people were civil; but, from some mistaltea no-
dot% were determined to release. the prisoners, find-
ing the Port-Glasgow Corps had escaped them."

FROM THE GLASGOW CHRONICLE OF TUESDAY.

a The riot on Saturday night, in Greenock, in
which nine men were killed and fifteen wounded, has
occasioned much surprize. That such a calamity
should have befallen so loyal a town-where there are
no Radicals, and where field-meetings and treasonable
placards are unknoWn, while not a drop of blood has
been shed in any of the Radical haunts in Lanark-
shire, shews that the mob are more apt to act on the
spur of the occasion than on any preconcerted plan
of mischief. The following is a correct narrative of
the melancholy affair :
gg Saturday, a party of the Port-Glasgow Armed
Association, amounting to betwixt eighty and ninety,
on returning to their homes from Paisley, were di-
rected by their Captain-Commandant, Captain Don-
ley, to escort five Radicals from Paisley to Greenock
jail. They accordingly left Paisley, under the &mt.
mand of Captain Carsewell, with their prisoners ;
one of whom was a Radical leader, named M.Tag-
gart, another an Ayrshire Delegate, a third was a
person who bad been extremely active in going
about and stopping the public works.
ge The party halted for refreshment at Bishopton,
where they procured a cart for the prisoners, who
had previously walked along with their escort. They
did not halt in Port-Glasgow, but went immediately
forward to their destination. On arriving at the east
end of Cartsdyke a mob began to assemble, and to
hoot and hiss them, crying to the prisoners to keep
up their hearts, for they should soon be rescued. The
mob continued still increasing till they reached the
jail. The advanced guard were misled, by some
persons in the crowd, to take a different road from
that Which had been pointed out to them by the Ser-
jeant-Major, which led them east a quarry, where
the mob had even opportunity of arming themselves
with stones. a prisoners were then safely lodged
in jail ; but, in the burry and confusion, the gates
were shut, leaving the Serjeant-Major and a small
party on the outside. The assault then commenced
with fury, both upon those inside and outside, from
the top of the quarry, when a few shots were fired,
but pointed in such a direction as to hurt nobody.l
The gates were then opened, and the parties joined,
and marched off.

The mob continued to increase, throwing stones,
bottles, &c. from windows and closes, by which
many of the Volunteers were hurt and cut.. When
towards ltue-ervd-street, .those in the rear turned
round and spontaneously commenced it straggling
fire on the crowd in self-defence. The mob. conti-
nued to follow the military to Cartsdyke-bridge,
where they left them, and returntd to Greenock. The
mob then assembled before one of the gates of the
jail,, and were making preparations to force it open,
when they were addressed by one-of the Magistrates
from the top of the wall, and desired 'to desist. Thi,
they would not, they said;till the five prisoners were
released ; and the Magistrates, ha-ving no militar)
force to assist them,. were obliged to; comply, whet,
the mob dispersed. The five prisoners got .4f, ant,
have of yet beery discovered. The Pon-Glasser

Volunteers, and many of the respectable inhabitants,
were under arms all night, and barticadocd the
bridge at the west ead of the town to prevent an at-
tack from the Greenock mob, which had been threat-
ened.
,Indeed, a large party of them advanced icr
that purpose, preceded by a bagpiper; but findi.-.g.
the Port-Glasgow folks on the alert, they returne2.-
The result of this disastrous affair is nine kille4
fifteen wounded, many of them dangerously. •
" Of the Purt-Glasgow detachment only tl:-.ree or
rcur escaped unhurt, and many of tl:etri re.:eived
..:ch'severe bruises as to confine them to bed. Of
this number is the; Set a Very stout man,
who is unable to rise. The Adjutant was also
severely hurt. The
.Magistwes and other 'inhabit-
ants who Italie lived at Greenock most of tieeir
declare that, among the immense number at the gate
cf the jail, who attempted to force it, they could dot
recognise any of their towns-folk. It is believed
there that the whole plan was organised by a set of
desperate Radicals from Paisley, Johnston, and other
villages. At two o'clock on Sunday morning the
Staff of the Renfrewshire Militia, and a detachment
of twenty-five Ilussars,• reached town; and shortly
41terwards, a detachment of the Rifle' Brigade and
the 13th Regiment, arrived by a steam-boat. The
latter were accompanied by the Lord Lieutenant
•and Sir Michael Shaw Stewart. The town has since
been remarkably quiet. The. milk:try. first reached
Cartsdyke about lour, and the whole affair was over
before six o'clock. Two of the MCA killed, Clephane
and Cumming, were very bad Charactets. Of the
causes which kd to the melancholy results related
above, not the least is perhaps an old grudge that
has long existed betwixt the working classes of
Greenock and Port-Glasgow."