The Soldier's Wife — page 185: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

164 furnishing the local magistrates with a prutext for calling out the military force. The prozeedings of the meeting commenced, The weather was maynificent: the sun was shining bright in a cloudless sky; and a gentle | breeze mitigated the intensity of the summer heat. A wagon served as a platform for the chairman and the speakers; and all around this stage were assembled the honest sons of toil—ten thousand in number—who had _ flock- ed thither to ratify with their suffrages the pro- gest that had been drawn up against the slavery in which they were held, and to support the petition which was hunbly to implore the con- eession of their rights. An impartial and honest- minded observer would have beheld. at one Bingle glance thrown over that crowd, sufficient bo convince him that there must indeed be an immensity of wrongs to complain against, when those who were able and willing to work could obtain no work to do, and when their wretched garments and the ghastly signs of famine upon their countenances but too plainly mdicated the amount of the sufferings they had endured and were still endurmg. On the outskirts of the crowd there were several women, some with babies in their arms: misery and _ starvation were stamped upon the countenances of these un- fortunate creatures; and their very look served as asad and painful corroboration of the im- pression first made by the appearance of those on whom they were dependent for support. The infants whom these women carried, seem- ed to be pining away as if through downright want; and altogether the aspect of that multi- tude was such as to proclaim trumpet-tongued the colossai wrongs of the working classes. A chairman having been chosen, the pro- , ceedings commenced, when half a dozen per- sons on horseback were descried emerging from the town. The rumor that the Mayor and other magistrates were approaching, circu- lated like wild-fire throughout the assemblage; and aJl eyes were rivited upon the chairman, expressive of the suspense that was felt until he announced the policy which was to be adopted by the people’s leaders on the occasion. In a calm, firm voice, the chairman reminded the meeting that it was the privilege of Eng- lishmen to assemble for the purpose of discuss- ing grievances and petitioning for redress—that pucao were the objects of the present assemblage —that these objects were fully proven by the documents to be submitted for the approbation of the mecting—that as they were all unarmed, and therefore incapable of inischief even if they possessed the inclination, it would be the most outrageous exercise of tyranny on the part of the authorities to prevent the continuation of the proceedings—and that therefore it was his (the chairman’s) duty to counsel the meeting to remain tirm until the close of the business, and under po circumstances to display a dastard quailing, or to concede an ignominious submis- B10n. ‘hie speeck. was received with a tremendous outburst of applause; and even as a dead body may be galvanized, were those pale, sickly, emaciated forms inspired with # thrill of patri- THE SOLDIER’S WIFE. otic enthusiasm in the consciousness ths.t their's was the cause of right and justice, and tnat they were only performing a duty to themselves, their families. and the millions of their fellow- workers and touvers throughout the land, Searee- ly had that outburst of ten thousand voices died away, when the Mayor, accompanied by hi brother-magistrates—al] on horseback—rode up to the outskirt of the meeting. In a peremptory and even brutal manner, did the Mayor call upon the chairman to order the assemblage te disperse. ‘Jhe chairman replied, respectfully but firmly, that it was a legal meeting, assem- bled for a legal object; and he must decline to obey the mandate issued. ‘Thereupon the Nayor retorted that there was an Act of Par- liament, passed in the time of Charles II, and still extant, forbidding more than fifty persona to assemble at a time in any one place. The chairman rejoined that this was not generally behheved to be the law of the land; and he re- minded the Mayor that tuis functionary himself had frequently called meetings of the gentry and middle-class for political purposes, and at which large numbers were assembled. The Mayor flew into a passion, answering that what the gentry and the middle class might do, was quite another thing; but that the rabble and riff-raff must not be permitted to disturb the public peace. At this insolent speech the May- or was saluted by an outburst of indignation, which continued long, and might to a certain degree appear menacing, though it was nothe ing more than he deserved—for he himself tad provoked it. In the midst of the confusion, the yelling, the shouting, and the vociferating that pealed forth from all sides, and which the chatr- man was utterly unable to suppress, the Mayor read the Riot Act. He himself was a coward in his heart, as all ruffian-bullies are: he wag afraid of the storm which his own insolence had raised; his countenance was white as a sheet— his hands trembled so that he could scarcely hold the document from which he was reading —his voice was hurried, but low, tremulous, and broken—and in the midst of the din wnich was growing louder and louder, the words he uttered could not be heard a dozen yards off. Searcely had he finished, when his horse, which had for some minutes been showing symptoms of increasing restlessness, became unmanagea- ble; and swerving abruptly round, trampled a poor woman with a babe in her arms under its hoofs. The child was killed on the spot—the woman had her thigh fractured—and the terri- fic sereams which she sent forth added to the confusion and even horror of the scene. The horse gallopped madly away, the terrified May- or clinging with frantic energy to its neck; and his brother-functionaries followed him at the utmost speed of their own animals. Cries of rage and yells of execratron burst . forth from those of the crowd who were nearest to the scene of this fearful accident; and the rumor of what had happened spread like wild- fire throughout the assemblage. As is invari ably and unavoidably the case in such cireume stances, the report became exaggerated the far ther it flew; so that the general impressioa um cS) (e(0) ,00 MULE €o