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    not all around : a large part of the new-comers consisting of women , decently dressed . Seeing all quiet—after making the requisite arrangements in case of alarm , I went to bed . At that time the Square was remarkably still , with no sound but the hammering of the carpenters who were employed the whole night in boarding up the lower windows : but we heard a

    shout at a distance ; and I afterwards learned that the mob had been breaking the windows of the Council-house , in the centre of the town , and that a soldier , shooting at a rioter , bad killed a man who was standing at the head of a passage , and who had just come from his master ' s stable in consequence of the noise . There is no doubt that this fact had considerable influence in causing the attack on the soldiers of the 14 th , between ten and

    eleven on Sunday morning ; but when I left the Square soon after six , all was quiet there , and perfectly so through all the streets J passed in ihe way home , though the Light Dragoons were patrolling . There were then only a few soldiers at the Mansion-house , and a small number of workin ^ - ru en , of decent appearance , to whom I snoke with disapprobation of the sad

    work oC the last evening , and urged the duty of all to maintain peace and order as far as possible . They allowed the latter , but thought that Sir Charles Wetherell deserved it , and that he ought not to have come to Bristol after what he had said in Parliament . They told me that lie had escaped the night before ; which was the fact , I believe .

    The . next stage was the commencement of the worst evils . The mob collected about eight on Sunday morning , and finding the Mansion-house nearly unprotected , proceeded to break down the boarding , got into the cellars , and then began that horrid system of pillage , waste , and drunkenness , winch has not been surpassed , I suppose , in any place since the riots of Birmingham in 1791 . The necks of bottles were broken off to get at

    the liquor within ; and numbers were soon extended dead-drunk in the Square . Others went on in the direct attack on the upper rooms—probably with a view still to the Recorder , not being certain of his having withdrawn ; and when they were forcing their way , and no force was at hand to resist , the Mayor and one of the Sheriffs who had passed the night there , escaped along the roofs of the adjoining houses to the Custom-house . The

    mob appear to have been masters of the place , engaged in drinking , plunder , and destruction , for nearly two hours . When the soldiers of the 14 th were brought to the spot , no authority for charging and dispersing the rioters having been given , and the men being exposed to very rough usage from the mob , they appear to have become angry , and acted individually , and with some fierceness . Colonel Brereton , * of the 3 rd dragoon-guards , seems to have had the command of the whole of the military ; and he sent

    ? A military court of inquiry is still sitting on this officer , to ascertain whether there is ground for a court-martial ; but the proceedings are not known to the public .

    Untitled Article

    On the Bristol Riots . 845

• Citation
  • Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Dec. 2, 1831, page 845, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2604/page/49/