POSTSCRIPT.
SATURDAY NIGHT.
The accounts from Manchester and the other disturbed districts of the North are repetitions of those received yesterday, only much worse. After General Wade and the local authorities had induced the multi- tude in Granby Row fields to disperse, on Thursday, under the threat of firing on them, a third attack was made on Messrs. Birley's mill ; which was gallantly and successfully defended by their own work- people. It was the only mill at work in Manchester. It is remarked, that, as the day went on, the crowds in Market Street (the great street in Manchester) consisted more of strangers ; that there were no women among them ; and that their conduct displayed more fierceness and or- ganization. It is calculated that there were 100,000 idle persons about the streets. In one of the,many conflicts, a Police Inspector and a Policeman were so beaten as to be considered past recovery. Three young gentlemen who were taken for the Messrs. Birley were so male- treated that two are expected to die. Five of the mob were wounded by the private watchman in resisting an attack on Messrs. Gisborn's prIntworks, in Salford. The millowners had another meeting, and re- solved to set the mills at work at all risks, in order to draw off a number of the idlers in the streets.
Yesterday morning, the same stormy elements were at work. Nearly all the shops remained closed ; the military were still occupying their stations in the town ; 4,000 special constables had been sworn in. The rioters held a meeting of delegates from the surrounding districts, at Carpenter's Hall; but the proceedings were not made known. At one o'clock in the morning, the Police surprised a party in the endeavour to tear up the Leeds Railway ; and the demands for detachments of Police or military, as the alarm increased in various quarters, were incessant. The fears in the town itself were augmented by the reports from the country districts. "The most fearful accounts," says the Morning Herald, "were received last night at the Town-hall, from the country districts. A gentleman who had just come from Heywood informed our cor- respondent that the mills had all turned out ; and that, there being no military, nor a sufficient police force, the mob were helping themselves in all directions." The mills at Blackburn were closed yesterday.
Bury was so crowded and turbulent that the coaches:could not go down the principal street. On Cheetham Hill a large body assembled and levied forced contributions. At Rochdale and Todmorden, the rioters were organised. Oldham was quietly in possession of the mob. The Sheffield Railway was blocked up by the populace at the Newton Hyde station. It is estimated that in the places around Manchester as many as 100,000 persons are out of work and engaged in the outbreak. Stock- port was seriously disturbed on Thursday. The mills were all stopped: the rioters hurt Mr. James Bradshaw, an active Tory, who refused to stop his mill at the first summons. A boy was shot ; and. an application by the Mayor for regular military aid being refused, the Cheshire Yeo- manry Cavalry were called into the town. All these disturbances seem to have been simultaneously known by anticipation, throughout the tract of country, on Tuesday. Late in the day a mob of 2,000 or 3,000 attacked the Union work- house, broke into it, and seized 700 loaves, some meal, and other pro- visions, and 5/. or 6/. in copper. They were surprised while in the building by soldiers and police ; and of 36 prisoners taken, 16 were committed by the Magistrates for trial.
Previous page
