12 FEBRUARY 1887, Page 3

It is difficult to write history even when the events

occurred yesterday, and at our doors. On Wednesday, the papers had long accounts of Socialist rioting in Clerkenwell, and of an attack on the shop of Mr. Geering, a butcher, in Compton Street. Next day, there were ample details, and especially an account, purporting to be from Mr. Gearing himself, of the way he bad driven off the mob with two revolvers, one loaded with blank-cartridges only and his cutting-knife. On Friday, how- ever, appears a little note from the Commissioner of the Police, utterly denying the rioting, declaring there was no plunder, and affirming that the brave butcher did not arrive at his shop till twenty minutes after the Socialists had dispersed.