Never was a stranger Whit Monday passed in town or
country. Although the calendar had converted the vernal into a summer holyday, the weather reconverted it into winter, with the whole- sale disappointment of drenching rain ; and political unsettle- !mut, again, drew forth, in lien of mere festive expeditions, bands of the discontented, of police and soldiery. Picnics on Hamp- stead Heath or Wimbledon Common were exchanged for picnics of "Peelers" in Bonner's Fields.- Bad weather and good police arrangements quite frustrated all the great simultaneous meetings that had been advertised by "the Chartists" : such skeleton meetings as did gather melted away under the vigilant eye of the authorities and the pelting of the rain ; and when the huge pleasure-vans returned to London at night from Hampton Court or Epping Forest, they found the capital not yet in possession of Mr. Feargus O'Connor and a Provisional Government, but much as usual on a Whit Monday, only muddier.
Peaceful persons consoled themselves for the trouble and wrong by the assurance that Queen Victoria was not dethroned, and that if "England expected every man " &c., the duty had been punctually performed. The •tax on the patience, not to say the pockets of the public, however, ought to be stopped once for all. At present, any set of persons who choose to call themselves "Chartists" can play off the same trick that the ass Brancaleone plays in the story—putting on a lion's skin and scaring nobler animals. We say " call themselves Chartists," for it is evident that the politicians of the working classes organized in advocacy of " the six points " are made answerable for many less worthy classes who borrow their name : we see that St. Giles 's furnishes its con- tingent of Irish " Confederates," and that the pickpocket interest is largely represented at these meetings. It is not pleasant to be panic-stricken, or even put to the trouble of preparing defences, for nothing. At present, any ten men who choose for the nonce to)ke-" Chartists " can distribute placards shadowing forth revolu- tion, and so provoke a general turn-out of special constables, with much marching and countermarching of police and troops. Now we believe that the existing law would call these troublesome originators of the turmoil to account : if not, it should be made to do so ; and at all events it should be made clear to the meanest capacity, not only that London streets are to be kept sacred against mob riots and obstructions, but that those who assume the office of invoking such assemblages incur a real responsibility. The authoritative declarations on that subject are not yet suf- ficient'. explicit and peremptory.
