At Knocktopher, in the county of Kilkenny, on December 14th, a chief constable, with a strong party of police, went out to protect a process server in the execution of his legal duty, in serving the usual process for refused tithe. There were neither military nor yeomanry. The population prepared for murder. The sides of the road and the adjacent fields were covered with people armed with bludgeons, scythes, pitchforks, and other deadly weapons. They ferociously demanded that the process server should be delivered up to them. The police having refused, the crowd closed upon them in a narrow lane, overpowered them, and murdered twelve or thirteen of them, besides dangerously wounding several of the party.
Among the killed was the captain of the police. The accounts were that his son, about ten years old, who accompanied his father, riding on a pony, was inhumanly butchered. The pony which the child rode was stabbed to death. Five of the police, who showed some symptoms of life, after being barbarously beaten with bludgeons, as they lay insensible on the ground, had their brains knocked out by a peasant's son, not more than twelve or fourteen years old, who was armed with a scythe.
The country people, after satiating their vengeance on the bleeding bodies of the murdered police, by kicking and stabbing them, retired to their homes and usual occupations, with as much indifference as if they had just performed some meritorious deed.
On preceding page are given illustrations of a bonnet, hat, turban, and caps, as worn during the year, and, here, the different styles of hair-dressing fashionable in 1830-31.
CHAPTER X.
1832.
Commissions at Bristol and Nottingham — Executions — Employment of children in factories — Cholera in London — Day of fast and humiliation — Riot in Finsbury — Cholera riot at Paisley — A small one in London — Decrease of cholera — Number of deaths — Cholera in Ireland — A charm against it — Its effect on rooks — The police, City and Metropolitan.
The excesses at Bristol could not, possibly, be passed over, and a Commission, consisting of the Lord Chief Justice and two judges, met on January 2nd, to try the rioters. Various sentences of transportation and imprisonment were passed, and four men were hanged on January 27th. They were Christopher Davis, convicted of having encouraged the mob to commit acts of plunder and desolation; William Clarke, for having assisted in destroying the Gaol and Bridewell; and Joseph Kayes and Thomas Gregory, for having formed part of a mob that pillaged and burnt two dwelling-houses. Davis had retired from his business, which was that of a carrier, and in which he had amassed about £2000. Clarke, who had connections possessing considerable property, was a sawyer; the other two were common labourers. Colonel Brereton was court martialed for firing on the rioters, which so preyed upon his mind, that he shot himself on January 14th, during his trial.
Another Commission sat at Nottingham to try the rioters there, and three men were hanged.