RIOT AT KIDDERMINSTER.
[mom A CORICFSPONDE.NT.] TEE disgraceful proceedings at Kidderminster last Saturday afford another illustration of the want of preparation in this country for the suppression and yet more the prevention, of violent outbreaks. In this instance, the lives of many estimable men, and the peace and security of a town of 20,000 inhabitants, were, it appears, at a time of great excitement, under the guardianship of twelve policemen and some fifty or sixty special constables ; the latter body having been hastily summoned, without much regard, therefore, to their qualifications for the duty—without any previous organization, and probably, therefore, without any confidence in the courage, skill, and firmness of their leaders, or of each other.
It is well that the result, bad as it is, was not much worse ; for it is evident that some of the infuriated mob were bent not on wounding and bruising only, but on something little short of murder.
What renders the attack the more monstrous is' that Mr. Lowe the gentleman against whom it was chiefly directed, has distinguished himself as a friend of the working-classes ; and that it is principally by his labours that in the course of this very year the law of partnership has been so amended, by admitting the principle of limited liability, that the broad line of demarkation between the employer and the employed has been removed, and the position of partner made accessible to every prudent and industrious man in the country, however humble his occupation.
It is not too much to say, that by the: one act Mr. Lowe has done far
more for the real benefit of the working man than his opponent, whose defeat led to the revengeful onslaught, would probably have accomplished or will accomplish in the whole course of his life, were he indeed to live a hundred lives.
Several years ago, Mr. Frederic Hill, when holding the office of In spector of Prisons, recommended the appointment, throughout the country, of a large reserve police, to consist of respectable working men, engaged under ordinary circumstances in their usual employment, but fully organized and ready at all times to be called into action ; these men to be paid when on duty, and in addition to receive a small annual stipend and an annuity in old age.
We think Government would do well at once to apply to Parliament for power to establish such a force, (for the details of which we must refer to Mr. Hill's work on Crime,) and to lose no time in applying the act to the town of Kidderminster.
We hope, too, at no distant period to see adopted a suggestion by Mr. Chadwick for conducting the elections of Members of Parliament, as far as the polling is concerned, in the same way as that of Guardians of the Poor, by sending a list of the candidates to every elector and receiving from him his vote in writing. A great improvement has been made by multiplying polling-booths and bringing them near the dwellings of the electors ; but much more would be accomplished by so arranging as to dispense with booths and to have the votes given in the dwellings themselves.
By the adoption of such plans as these, by the general diffusion of po litical knowledge, and by a greater attention in our schools to moral training, we have little doubt that riots, whether at elections of Members of Parliament, or for the futile purpose of regulating wages, or indeed for any purpose whatever, would soon become things of a past age.
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