The Athens post. [volume] (Athens, Tenn.) 1848-1917, 1855-08-03
PUBLIC SENTIMENT IN ENGLAND.

If Sebastopol does not soon fall, there is
some prospect of the British Government, and
even the British Constitution, being destroy
ed. Discomfort is assuming tie form of vio
lence, and the expression given to public
opinion in Hyde Park again last Sunday was
very remarkable. Some one hundred and
fifty thousand persons assembled ostensibly
to show their opposition to Lord Robert Gros-
venor's Sunday Trading Bill, but really to ex-
press their hatred and contempt for the aris.
tocracy. The police were sent forth in great
numbers and used their slaves on the heads
of men, women, and children indiscriminant-
ly, and made more than one hundred prison
ers. Some soldiers sided with the people
The next day Lord Robt. Grosvenor, in alarm,
withdrew his obnoxious bill, and the magis-
trate discharged most of the prisoners.
Still the people were not satisfied, and con-
ficts with the police were taking place in all
parts of the city. Those housekeepers who
sheltered flying policemen had their windows
smashed. and it was feared as late as Wednes-
day afternoon that Lord Robert Grosyenor's S
house in the Marlborough street Police Office,
would have been taken by force. However,
an armistice is granted until Sunday, when,
among the many agreeable things promised
us, is the march Of 100000 armed ehartists on
London, the determination with the army, the
disarming of the police, the assault ON the
Club House. and the establishment of equal
laws for everybody. Seriously. there is gen
the country, and unless the government con-
sent to the prosecution of the police for their
brutal conduct in Hyde Park, nothng,on
earth can save a collision, and this time it
will be an armed one.
As q few instances of the savage behavior
of the police it may be adduced that people
quietly walking along were beaten on the
head until they fell senseless; that arms and
wrists were broken, and that some store keep
ers were followed into their houses and cut
down there. Few acts Of retaliation took
place, as the people seemed taker entirely by
surprise. One only have heard Of which
fully avenged the outrage. A policeman
stuck down asmall boy close to the market
women, who instantly seized the man, took
his staff from him, and beat him till he fell a
mass of bruises to the earth. They made
good their escape, and other police coming up
could only procure a shutter and carry their
comrade to the hospital. ..
The government up to the present time has
refused to listen to the complaints, but it is
probable they will eventually give way
Lord Palmerston is inclined to treat the whole
matter as joke, and the Home Secretary,
Sir George Grey, remembers that he easily
quelled the rising in April, ls4s, and that he
can do the same now. But the temper of the
times is widely different. Then the people
rose in mere imitation Of the French Revolu-
tion; now they rise to avenge the humilia-
tions they have suffered abroad, through the
general incompetency of their rulers. Then
the Duke of Wellington, at the head of
powerful army, guarded the city; now there
is not soldier, with the exception, perhaps
of few troops, that would not join the peo
pie, for they know that all the aleviation
which their comrades in the East have OBJ |
taned, has been through the sympathy Of |
the public. The choice has been given to the |
government of reform or revolution, and |
nothing but the former can long keep back |
the latter.