Nothing further has as yet transpired as to the riot
at Market Drayton. We are informed, however, that in many towns the really active opponents of the adoption of the Local Self-Govern- ment Act are persons interested either in the erection or in the maintenance for their private gain of those low public-houses, lodging-houses, and worse houses, which make necessary the erection and maintenance at the public cost of hospitals and prisons. It is very possible that the Shropshire outbreak may have been organized by men such as these, who are usually more energetic than the mere miser, who thinks that any rate he may have to pay for the maintenance of the public health may lessen somewhat the amount of those which he pays already for the maintenance of the police and the union. Meanwhile it is melan- choly to think that gentry of the former vile class, the very worst enemies of the poor man, should be able so easily to rouse him into riot against his best friends.
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