THE LONDON REFORM DEMONSTRATION.

Lyttelton Times, Volume XXVII, Issue 1933, 28 February 1867, Page 3

THE LONDON REFORM DEMONSTRATION.

. VIEW JFSOM A GI»UB WINDOW. (Front the Times.) We had been promised'-.by the Peformers a muster of 200,000; to 300,000 working men, but weareaccustomed to. consider that in such-calculations one cipher more or less does riot materially signify, so we, sensible persons, our expectations to about onetenth of the proclaimed, number, and found ourselves not veryfar out in our reckonings. The• procession before our club windew did not,.in all probability, exceed 20,000 to 25,000... There are not many of us, fathers.of families, who have not more or less to dp with •working: men, arid we are not all of us such ''stuck-up.people " .as to,disdain an occasional friendly chat, with them. Upon questioning my upholsterer, my ■glaaerj and several others at this time: in my immediate emplpyment, whether I should have the pleasure of seeing them at their usual avocations on " Eefbrm Monday," I perceive that they evidently resented the doubt as an affront, audexpressed themselves on the subject of political trade cotnbiDationsrvery much in the same language lieid by the jpurneymen printers—a Tact from which I inferred that all operatives in London were not of one :mind with respect to this grand demon- : stration, and were not likely to let go the substance of,their day's wages for the shadow of the day's glorification. .On leaving hom.e.and proceeding along busy thoroughfares, the sight of open shbps and workshops confirmed my -surmises; and wiienlfbund the Mall at 10 o'clock a.m. in the -'possession of disconsolate-looking '■' policemen, both . onfopt and, mounted, with hardly a trace of the "bannerets" that were to have, been on the spot half an hour earlier, I began to suspect; that. Messrs Potter and. Co. had taken me and the rest of the world in, arid that, the monster procession would not show. There was nothing particular in Pall-mail, and only a sprinkling of idle spectators were grouped here and therein Water-lop-piace. Here, however, by degrees the crowd thickened, and by the time SPine of the trade'■■companies, preceded by flags and bands, began to pour .down from east, north, and west, Verging upon the.Duke of York's Column, the wide avenue which divides Pall-mall from Pail-mall east, presented a somewhat animated appearance, and I soon looked down.upon, a sea of human heads. The majority of the ..assembled multitude belonged to the working classes, thoughapparently not to the working men's associations. Demenßtration tickets with the true Two-penny stamp were displayed here and there on hats and caps; but with the genuine " official" articles,the counterfeit was also conspicuous,—odd scraps of .paper and pasteboard, not easily distinguishable from the others at a few yards' distance. Here and there in the throng Skulking faces Weredes cried, whose owners. seemed not very anxious to be seen, and whom nobody cared much to see; but the roughs did not show in great force hereabouts at any; part of : the day, and within my.'ken there was not the slightest approach to a breach of the peace, There was not only orders but perfect listlessness among the congregated ..'..-■groupsi'.-'.'.. Men moved; leislirely, giving; way with great, gbbdhumour with now and then an attempt :;at hanter indifferently succes;Bful,.and laughter- ; ;without the true hearty ring in it. Tlie street tralfic suffered hardly- any interruption, and only an u'n unusual row .of empty hansoms, plied.vainly for hire. 1 saw a young, lady, on a white palfrey, pacing, up Regent atre'efc, andfollowed by a.sober-. looking; -unexceptionable groom at a few. paces' distance. As tlie mass , stood ;corapact; in her way, the fair rider looted; somewhat disiriayed,.and Tell back upon:; her trusty "'attendant;;, but at oue;,word from tlie latter the! docile crowd fell aside, as.if by magic, j and the damsel rode away sate and secure, a kind ef. Una trusting 'herself to thetender. mercibg 0 f tlie British ; Libii.-^an•-'■'animal ;\vhieli, with all itW : rptigliMnarie and. deep roar, is not,, after all, a lesscourteoris or,chivalrous; lion than any other, in the European, menagerie, the upber •llobrs of private Abuses were; scantily; tenanted. ;,.and.only a jew bonnets: and : shawlsj riot pf'the fair weather;sprt,.. graced tlie club balconies. Down below, in the crush/the :unfranchised sexwas also; feebly represented. There -wero.hard-featured.dames, more oftlie : ;;Rag;fair than of, thef May ; fair stamp;; ; some-of them with an unmistakably Irish cast,of couritenance... :Tiie; db-. meanour: off the; multitude was ; 'ex-; ;but .universnllyjbeneyolent; ; Not but .some of .'!■' Bright's Own,'' who bad: been;taughttoioolc upbri;clubmeri.,aa robbers of their eyed our windows askance/as they; went-fiast^

iscanning the placid faces ef some of itlie. "..'Qld Fogeys," as they flattened (heir ■inoffensive noses against the glass) but they, evidently did not wish tp.iriar the day of their triumph by any show of ill-will, and they passed the Eeform or the Carltori; with perfectly impartial forbearance.

The Sovereign People were punctual as aliSpVereighs proverbially are, and soon after..the:stroke of 12 the bugle announced the start of the mighty mass and presently.we heard tho tramp of the mounted Farriers ef the vanguard. Tlie Farriers : went past—a squad of rather ungainly: riders mostly on sorry horses.; then their brethren on foot, 1 then halfascpre or so of dingy-lppking vehicles, the'trades and societies in three divisions; and drawn up in fortyeight companies. The procession came rpn.rinescortedaud unheralded,forcing its way through the crowd as it advanced,:theicattered policemen meddling.withactbrs or spectators as little : .as they; could. At first the line of march seemed to falter and stagger, like the liquid: gushing and gurgling as it struggles through the neck of a ,bettle,r but: after twe pr three stoppages: the current of reform appeared;-to run smoeth; the liquid mass, as it were, began to glide through the solid mass, and the'progress of the sh.oW, which hjtd been at first hindered by obstruction, was henceforth only pccasiorialiy arrested by slackness in its own impetus, and the unreadiness of; some Of; the companies to follow close on each other's heels. At the beginning there were clogs, in the sequel gaps in the ranks. In spite of all this,;ihbwever, the order of march on ; the- -whole;- was admirable. Not that tlie men Iteptstep with any particular order, or.that the files seemed to obey the rules of any known discipline; but they got over/the ground at a rapid rate, nevertheless; and, in the main, they moved together in a confused but compact, ste:tdy, sweeping mass. As soon as the Farriers and carriages had made an avenue through the throng, tlie bands'struck up lively tunes, and the columns, of hatters, cordwaiuers. tailors,, and;-.carpenters, the heroes of the pageautry, came up at a double quick that Zouaves or Bersaglieri could not easily have beaten. There is nothing more inspiriting than a fast moving mass, andj although the " Marseilaise" of the tailors, and the " Garibaldi Hymn-i of the coachmakers could hardly have been more savagely murdered : than they were by their respective bands, still there were moments in which the faces of the tramping men caught fire from the Strain, and struck sparks here and there from the hearts of the most uu.impassioned spectators. The effect—if effect there was—was complex, fcr neither sounds ner sights could bear-scrutiny. The gray and brown "mass; of the artisans had but little to recommend it to the lovers of the picturesque; neither did their flags and streamers, and flowers and ribarids, and ; scarfs, and housings and trappings foremen and horses, to any great extent redeem the dulness of the show; nor did their mottoes and devices, the "Bright and Light" of the tallow-charidlers, the " Justice to Joiners" pi the carpenters, and the like, work any very exhilarating sensation among tlie crowd. Hardly a cry was taken up, hardly a sentiment found any response. Nothing seemed to affect the listless crowd so much as some ..of the gewgaws by which the arms and insignia of some of the companies were accompanied—a pair of tin doves of the Tinsmiths, a kind of Twelfth Cake of some of the guilds .in their rear, and other tawdry, unmeaning things that seemed to have but little to do with manbood suffrage'j. yet: which apparently had power to awaken hidden sympathies and to. call forth outbursts of applause. The. faces of the men were, however, worth studying; and it was difficult to dwell long upon them without feeling that their owners were, on the whole, 'men who would carry weight with them oil "any question that was fairly aud properiy propounded to them, who would take no denial to any demand When they could be fully satisfied of its reasonableness. Such long, hollow, wistful faces, such round, rosy, rollicking faces, such contracts of grave and gay, such individuality of types, so much strength and shrewdness and 'character,'-, could not easily be fqund combined in any other race. That: their feelings were strongly enlisted in-the "job " they were now engaged in, it would be equally idle to affirm or to deny. There certainly was was no very general elation among them, .except such as naturally springs from' unusual briskness of motion.. Possibly, however, the weather had a damping Effect on their spirits, for if it did not actually rain between 10 and,2, it was difficult to withstand the depression of the murky sky, or to find the paddling in deep mud an exliilarating;process. Shout they did no doubt -froiri. time to time, but they ; seldom, as Lsaid, raised a responsive cheer fromithecrpwd—at least in eur immediate ..neighbourhood, and the jivay in which.they trudged along was that; of ;meh bound to a work rather of duty than of pleasure.

'■■ ( To count the numbers would hare been no.eaav; task for the most experiencedhand:} The whole march beFpre v dur- Club., window lasted precisely: 'one" hour nnd 23 minutes. of march was kept regularly,, aiid' the step was quickest, I, reckoned that 57 rows of six men abreast T passed before mo in one .minute; . There would, therefore, have been 242;lheii; "per minute, or 28,686 : for : ;tbe; 83 'minutes; but allowing for the: slower: progress of some of the trades, and for the hindrances at the dutabiniidfi-fiquent gaps in the line, it rsyem.s .impossible to believe that more to muster. As all theimportance.'of the demonstration,, mere numbers, it can ■hardly ; be believed that the projectors and managers of the scheme can congratulate; themselves on a very signal success. It on the wnole, a harmless.. affair: enough, «but rather Beriseless withal, and neither remarkably instructive nor amusing.