Well, the day came, and so did the people, in their thousands, until it was reckoned that there were about 30,000 present; and soon after six the speechifying began. And when that was over, the people dispersed without the slightest disturbance worth mentioning, or without more than a dozen policemen being, at any one time, seen upon the ground. The Times of May 7th thus winds up its account of the meeting:
“At a little before 8 o’clock most of the meetings began to disperse, and the crowd to quit the Park, in a quiet and orderly manner. In some cases, where the stations were quitted early, speakers not named in the programme took the places of the official orators, and held forth for a time; but the interest had died away, and none could retain their audiences long, even where, in one case, the speaker was a lady, and declaimed, with singular vehemence, about the rights of women. As the crowd from one of the stations was leaving, one of the reformers seized a pickpocket, who had taken a gentleman’s watch, and who succeeded in passing it away to a confederate, in an instant. Others of the same gang made an effort to rescue the prisoner; but, with the aid of some detectives, who instantly came up, he was forced along in the direction of the police barracks. Thither an immense crowd followed, which, passing in through the narrow, funnel-shaped entrance, between walls, made, for a time, a crowd so dense, that it seemed as if some lamentable result would ensue. Yet the reformer and the detectives stuck to their prisoner, and the great mass of the concourse around them most earnestly cheered them in their endeavour to secure him. When at length he was forced through the pressure of the mass into the station, great cheers and clapping of hands arose on all sides at the success of the capture, and those who at first had attempted to rescue the prisoner at once slunk away. After this nothing worth notice occurred. Only five prisoners were apprehended, three for picking pockets, and two for gambling.
“At ten o’clock the police and military were withdrawn; at eleven the Park was quite clear, and all the streets adjoining even emptier than usual. No accident of any kind took place, as far as the police were able to ascertain.”
The Reform League had not done with Hyde Park yet awhile. On July 31, 1867, it issued the following poster and handbill:—“Reform League. ‘To your tents, Oh! Israel.’—A monster meeting of the working men and other inhabitants of the metropolis will be held in Hyde Park, on Monday evening next, August 5th, at 7 o’clock, under the presidency of the Reform League, to express the public indignation at the Parks Prohibition Bill, attempted to be passed through an expiring and self-condemned Parliament, by the enemies of all popular rights; and also to protest against the attempt of the House of Lords to rob the lodger of his franchise.”
The meeting duly took place, and passed away without event. The League was on its last legs. As The Times observed,—“Yesterday, however, the League put forth its strength for a final effort, but sad to say, it failed egregiously. It made a grand effort of despair, but it lacked the strengthening impulse which that feeling ordinarily instils. A dull, lethargic passiveness pervaded every movement of the demonstration.”
CHAPTER XIX.
Demonstrations against the Irish Church, 1868—In favour of Fenians, 1869—Regulations made by Commissioners of Works—Fenian Demonstration, 1872—A speaker sentenced—Meeting about the Eastern Question, 1878—Fight—Preaching in the Park—Modern instances—May-Day and May 6, 1894—Against the House of Lords, Aug. 26, 1894.
On Sunday, July 19, 1868, there was a demonstration in the Park against the Irish Church: then there was one in favour of the Fenians in Oct., 1869. But it is not worth chronicling all the meetings that have taken place since the time when the Commissioners of Works settled upon the place of public meetings, and the routine necessary before they were held.