13 JANUARY 1956, Page 7

A Spectator's Notebook I HAVE no doubt that the people

of London are no less lovers of liberty and loathers of oppression than ever they were. But it is as well for the bearded Marshal Bulganin, who is coming to visit us this year with his friend Mr. Khrushchev, that they are now content to express their feelings in letters to the editor. A century ago it was very different, as another bearded marshal —the notorious Haynau, who led the reprisals against the Hungarian rebels—painfully discovered. In 1850 Marshal Haynau, fresh from his butchery, came to visit London and during his stay went to look over a great Show-place, Barclay and Perkin's brewery in Southwark. He signed the visitors' book, and within two minutes the cry of 'Down with the Austrian butcher!' was resounding through the brewery. At this gathering-cry the workers of the brewery issued forth against the monster, armed with brooms and lumps of dirt. What happened thereafter is best described in the words of the Spectator (September 7, 1850).