In the evening great strife and fighting and violence took place; the White Lion Inn, whence the Club who put in Mr. Bragge, and who are now at work for Davis, takes its name; this Inn was assailed by the people's party, and, it is said, pretty nearly demolished. Mr. Davis's house at Clifton is said to have shared the same fate; and, this and similar work, with terrible battles in the streets, having continued till Tuesday night (the 30th of June), the SOLDIERS WERE CALLED IN, AND, IT IS SAID, ACTUALLY MARCHED INTO THE GUILDHALL!
Pause, here, reader. Look at this spectacle. But, how came this to be necessary! It is said, that it was necessary, in order to preserve property. But, how came it to be so? Who began the violences? That is the question.
And I have no hesitation in stating my firm belief, that they were begun, not by the PEOPLE, but by their enemies.
I state, upon the authority of Mr. JOHN ALLEN, of Bath, whom I know to be a man of honour, of strict veracity, and (if that be any additional praise) of great property: upon the authority of this gentleman, who requests me to use his name, and who was an eye-witness of what he relates, I state, that, there were about 400 men, who had been made special constables for the purpose, who where planted near the place of election; that these men, who ought to have been for one side as much as for the other, were armed with staves or clubs, painted BLUE, which, the reader will observe, is the colour of the White Lion, or Bragge and Davis, party; and, of course, the PEOPLE, who were for Mr. Hunt, looked upon these 400 men as brought for the purpose of overawing them and preventing them by force from exercising their rights. These men committed, during the 29th, many acts of violence against the people. But, at last, the people, after great numbers of them had been wounded, armed themselves with clubs too; attacked the Blues, and drove them into the White Lion.
Here the mischief would have ended; but the Blues, ascending to the upper rooms and the roof, had the baseness to throw down stones, brick-bats, tiles, glass bottles, and other things, upon the heads of the people. This produced an attack upon the house, which was soon broken in, and I believe, gutted.
These facts I state upon the authority of Mr. Allen; and I state them with a perfect conviction of their truth.
The reader will observe, that the great point is, WHO BEGAN THE FIGHT? We have heard Mr. Allen; now let us hear what the other parties say. In the TIMES newspaper of the 2d July, it is said by a writer of a letter from Bristol, who abuses Mr. Hunt, that when the nomination was about to take place, "Mr. Davis and his party made their appearance. The friends of Mr. Davis wore blue cockades, and they were accompanied by some hundreds of persons bearing short BLUE STAVES, who had been sworn in as special constables." This is enough. Here is a full acknowledgment of the main circumstance stated by Mr. Allen: namely, that hundreds of men, sworn in as Constables, were armed with staves of the colour of one of the candidates, and that they accompanied that candidate to the Hustings.—In the COURIER of the 1st July, the same fact, in other words, comes out. The writer (of another letter from Bristol), in speaking of the precautions intended to be taken, says: "Our Chief Magistrate has summoned his brother officers together, and as the constables assembled by Mr. Davis's friends are to be all dismissed at the close of the poll, and their colours taken out of their hats, there will be no provocation on his part to Mr. Hunt's party."—This, coming from the enemy, clearly shews on which side the aggression had commenced.—Therefore, for all that followed, the party of Davis are responsible.— We shall know, by-and-by, perhaps, who it was that permitted these hundreds of Constables to hoist the colours of one of the candidates, which was, in fact, "a declaration of war against the people," and as such the letter in the TIMES says it was regarded.—Well, but the SOLDIERS ARE CALLED IN; and, as I am informed, the Soldiers were, on Wednesday morning, between five and six o'clock, addressed by Mr. Hunt in nearly the following words: "Gentlemen; Soldiers; Fellow-citizens and Countrymen, I have to ask a favour of you, and that is, that you will discover no hostility to each other on account of your being dressed in different coloured coats. You are all equally interested in this election. You are all Englishmen; you must all love freedom; and, therefore, act towards each other as brother towards brother." It is added by my informant, that Mr. Hunt was greatly applauded by the whole of his audience.—He expressed his conviction, that the soldiers would not voluntarily shoot their countrymen; "but," added he, "if military force is to carry the election, the "sooner the shooting begins, the better; and here am I," said he, laying bare his breast, "ready to receive the first ball."—Let us now see how the factious view this matter.—The COURIER abuses Mr. Hunt in the style to be expected. The TIMES speaks of him in this way: "The poll commenced at ten o'clock. In this farce Mr. Hunt plays many parts: he unites in himself the various characters of Candidate, Counsel, and Committee, as he has not one human being to assist him in either of those capacities." Well, and what then? What does he want more than a good cause and the support of the people? These are all that ought to be necessary to any candidate. What business have lawyers with elections? And, ought the people to want any committee, to tell them their duty? The Morning Chronicle takes a more sanctimonious tone. It says on the 2d of July, (in the form of a letter from Bristol): "It is much to be regretted, that the regularity and peaceable demeanour with which our elections were formerly conducted, are now totally disregarded. Notwithstanding the exertions of Mr. Davis's, Mr. Protheroe's, and Sir S. Romilly's friends, to prevent a recurrence of the outrages which endangered Mr. Bathurst's life at a late election, the procession on Saturday was assailed by vollies of mud, stones, dead cats, &c. Mr. Davis fortunately escaped unhurt, except from one stone which struck his arm." Here are two things to be observed: first, that Davis, Protheroe, and Sir Samuel Romilly's friends, the friends of all of them, are here spoken of as co-operating. Aye, to be sure! League with the devil against the rights of the people! This is a true Whig trait. But, the mud, stones, and dead cats! Who in all the world could have thrown them at "the amiable Mr. Davis?" It must have been some Bristol people certainly; and that of their own accord too, for Mr. Hunt was not there at the time.—Mark how these prints discover each other's falsehoods. The Courier of the 1st July gave us an account of Mr. Davis's gracious reception. It told us, that "RICHARD HART DAVIS, Esq. the late Member for Colchester, and the professed candidate of the White Lion party in this city, was met at Clifton on Saturday by an immense body of freeholders and freemen, consisting of the most respectble and opulent inhabitants of the city, and was preceded to the Exchange by a cavalcade of upwards of one hundred carriages, and a numerous body of his friends on horseback and on foot." But, not a word about the mud, stones, and dead cats, with which he was saluted. Yet these were flung at him; and flung at him, too, by the people of Bristol; by hands unbought; for Mr. Hunt spends not a farthing. They were a voluntary offering on the part of those men of Bristol who were not to be corrupted.
The COURIER of Thursday, 2d July, states, that both horse and foot soldiers had been marched into Bristol.
SIR FRANCIS BURDETT mentioned this circumstance in the House of Commons on Thursday evening. The Secretary at War said he did not know of the troops being brought into the city. But this will be found to have been the case.