On Sunday a demonstration was held in Trafalgar Square to
protest against war with the Tiansvaal. The meeting was timed to begin at 3 o'clock, but long before the conveners arrived the Square was thronged by a large, and for the most part hostile, crowd, through whose ranks the police could with difficulty force a way for the speakers. Owing to the fierce character of the opposition, and the rowdiness of the crowd, the meeting was a complete fiasco. The speakers were pelted with various missiles, such as apples and coppers, and even, it is said, pen-knives. The nature of the things thrown
seems to show that the breaking up of the meeting was not premeditated, for when roughs prepare to break up a meet- ing they fill their pockets with stones, and do not waste pennies; but, as we have said elsewhere, the refusal of the crowd to allow Dr. Clark and his friends a hearing was utterly disgraceful, and cannot be too strongly condemned. At the same time, it must be confessed that Trafalgar Square is not a fit place in which to hold meetings on heated questions. Hyde Park is far more suitable, and we trust that in future leave to demonstrate in the Square will be refused by the Home Office. If meetings go on being held there we shall some day have a big disaster, and some three or four hundred people trampled to death. In the Park people can blow off political and moral steam without obstructing the traffic of three great thoroughfares.
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