STATE OF LONDON.—NOthillg can exceed, considering the greatness of the
public disappointment, the quiet which has prevailed in London during the whole of the week. On Monday there was a very considerable crowd assembled in Pee:::mment Street, and in the neighbourhood of the two Houses; and the :1 Iteform Peers and Commoners, as they passed down—such at least d' them as were recognized by the people—were hissed. Among tleen were the Puke of Wellington ; whose carriage, from the mourning liveries of the servants, is conspicuous at a distance, and whose features are familiar to every man in Loudon. The Marquis of Londonderry also, who rode in a cabriolet, was booted, and one fel- low, more violent than the rest, struck the 3Iarquis's anti with a stick : and this was all that took place,—though the Chancellor's Seeech, price ld. and the list of the majority, were bawling at every tern. On Tues-
day, the crowds were seitiewhat ixeater than on ate t. ; end on Wed- nesday, from the lont of idlers which the procession of the delegates of the several parishes drew together, the mob mustered in yet greater strength than on tither of the two previous days. There wits, however, no marked display of via lence in the neighbourhood of the two Houses, although in various ether parts of the town slight disturiances took place. A few of the windows in the mansion of the Marqffis of Bristol, in St. James's Square, were damaged, early in the erzernoon, by the boys that waited to view the return of the procession—the procession itself had already passed. Some of the Police, who had taken prisoner one of the rioters, and were proceeding down Pali Mall with him, were pelted with stones taken freed a heap in ‘Vaterloo Place, so that they were forced to run for safety. One of the Superintendents, in pain clothes, was also severely beaten by the mob in the neighbourhood of Marlbo- rough House. • There was a considerable assemblage of persons iu Hyde Park between two and three o'clock ; and a parcel of boys that were among them threw some stones at the Duke of Wellington's windows. In the first instance, only one or two panes were broken ; but soon after general volley of stones commenced, and the destruction of nearly every pane in the house was the consequence. The throwers—chiefly pick- pockets—were attacked by the Police ; but the young villains were too powerful for them. The constables were afterwards reinforced, and se- veral of the offenders were captured and conveyed to Knightsbridge Bar- racks. About five o'clock, the Marquis.of Londonderry was recognized in the Park, on his way down to the House of Lords, on horseback. He was almost immediately surrounded, and pelted with pebbles and mud, until he was nearly blinded. The Marquis drew a pistol from his pocket, and threatened to shoot the first man who threw another stone : fortunately he was prevented from putting in execution this perilous threat, by the entreaty of Mr. Trevor, who accompanied him. His Lordship was con. siderably bruised, and was compelled to go home in a hackney-coach. These—with the exception of a contest between about five hundred rag. muffins, whom Hunt brought over from the Rotunda on Monday night, in order to hoot the Ministers, and who were very properly not allowed to pass Westminster Bridge—make up the list of the riots in London during the week.
It seems of very small importance to estimate numbers, in a case where propriety and peace would have been better protected had there been no numbers at all : but as even that fact, trifling and inconsequen- tial as it is, has been dwelt upon by the enemies of the Bill, it is not alto- gether unworthy of notice. ,Mr. Hunt, on Monday, said the crowd in Parliament Street and Palace Yard was not one for twenty of those that assembled at the time of the Catholic Bill, nor one for a hundred of those who assembled during the Corn Bill discussions. The capacity of Hunt to estimate numbers, is nearly as notorious as his knowledge of Latin. It may be recollected, that en his return from Preston, he magnified a couple of hundred men and women who waited his arrival, together with the two or three hundred passengers who stopped to gaze upon the motley assemblage, into a band of twenty thousand. Of the numbers who beset the Parliament House in 1815, we know nothing ; but we happened to visit the Commons every night that the Catholic Bill was in Parliament, and of the crowds at that period we can speak. On Monday night, the pavement was thronged for about two hundred yards below Westminster Bridge : during the Catholic discussions, the crowd never extended farther than from the entrance of the House of Lords to the corner of Westminster Hall. On Monday night, there were, we should say, on a rough guess, about 6,000 or 7,000 people gathered together, including gazers, who al- ways make the crowd : the largest muster in 1829 did not exceed GOO or 700. The groans on Mondey night were thundering : in 1829, they were like the hurrahs of the half dozen of starved city guard in the Siege of Calais. We recollect well the earnest endeavours of the Tory press at that time to get up a decent hiss against the Duke of Wellington ; but they could not prueure a sufficient number of geese for the purpose, notwithstanding, time vehemence of their own gabble. On one occasion, the twin proprietors of a morning paper went down to join their sweet voices to time cracked pipes of the hypochondriacal old men and ragged children whom the bluster of my Lord Winebilsea and the twopenny trash of Lady Farnham had collected in Old Palace Yard ; and we well recollect the triumphant announcement of next day, "that the Duke of Wellington had been hissed the previous evening by a number (number 2) of well- dressed gentlemen ! " When Hunt would endeavour to persuade the old women of Parliament that the people of London feel on the subject of Reform no more zeal than they felt on the Catholic question, he displays as little respect for the memory as the understanding of his hearers. He cannot forget, neither can they have forgotten, the result of his amendment on Mr. John Halcomb's motion at the Crown and Anchor in 1829. We should really have liked to see him adventure an analogous amendment to Sir Francis Burdett's motion in the Crown and Anchor on Monday last—lie would have received a lesson which would have served him for one week's earnest study, although he did get a good " edication " in his youth.
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