The Portland daily press., 1881-02-03
London of December II, 1858, which Macaulay

A<ouuOn VI OOCOmucT 1000, winch MacauldV
thus describes:
Another day of agitation and alarm closed.
and was followed by night the strangest and
most terrible that England had ever seen. Ear
ly in the evening an attack was made by the
rabble on a stately house which had been built
few months before for Lord Powis, which in
the reign of George the Second was the resi-
dence OF the Duke of Newcastle, and which is
still conspicuous at the northwestern angle of
Lincoln's Inn Fields. Some troops were sent
thither; the mob was dispersed, tranquility
seemed to be restored and the citizens were re-
tiring quietly to their beds Just at this time
arose a whisper which swelled fast into a fear
full clamor, passed in an hour from Piccadilly
to Whitechapel, and spread into every street
and alley of the capital. 1t was said that the
Irish whom Feversham had let loose were
marching on London, and massacring every
man, woman and child ON the road At one
in the morning the drums Of the militia beat
to arms. Everywhere terrified women were
weeping and wringing their hands while their
husbands were equipping themselves for the
hight. Before two the capital wore q face of
stern preparedness which might well have
been approaching Candles were blazing at
all the windows The public places were as
bright as at MONDAY. All the great avenues
were barricaded. More than twenty thousand
pixies and muskets lined the streets. The late
daybreak of the Winter solstice found the
the Londoners retained vivid recollection of
what they called the Irish Night. When it
was known that there had been no danger at
tempts were made to discover the origin of the
rumor which had produced so much agitation.
1t appeared that some persons who had the
look and dress of clowns Just arrived from the
country had first spread the report in the sub
urbs little before midnight; but whence these
men came or by whom they were employed re-
mained a mystery. And soon news arrived
from many quarters which bewildered the pub
lie mind still more. The panic had not been con-
fined to London. The cry that disbanded Irish
soldiers were coming to murder the Protes-
tants had with malignant ingenuity, been
raised at many places widely distant from each
other. Great numbers of letters, skilfully
framed for the purpose Of frightening ignorant
people, had been sent by stage-coaches and
wagons, and by the post, to various part, OF
England. All these letters came to hand al
most at the same time. In hundred towns
at once the populace was possessed with The
belief that armed barbarians were at hand,
bent on perpetrating crimes as foul as those
which had disgraced the rebellion Of Ulster
No Protestant would find mercy. Children
would be compelled by torture to murder
their parents Babes would be stuck on pixies,
or flung into the blazing ruins Of what had
lately been happy dwellings. Great multi
tudes assembled with weapons the people in
some places began to pull down bridges and
to throw up barricades but soon the excite
ment went down. In many districts those
who had been so foully imposed upon learned
With delight, alloyed By shame, that there was
not single Popish soldier within weeks
march.