DUST OF THE PAST

Taranaki Daily News, 2 June 1934, Page 13 (Supplement)

DUST OF THE PAST

STAGES IN PROGRESS

(By

“Historicus.”)

Time has wiped out many of London’s historic buildings. The passing of some has been a matter for regret; others have gone the way of all things none too soon. This last might le truthfully said of the old Fleet Prison, the site of which was sold .to the London, Dover and Chatham Railway on June 2, 1864, the last vestige being removed some four years later. This sink of iniquity dates as far back as the 13th century. Always a hated place, it was burnt by Wat Tyler, and later by Lord George Gordon’s rioters. Incidentally the flames of the Great Fire of London blazed around it. Its marriages made it notorious and all readers of Dickens must be familiar with the experiences of the immortal Pickwick in the Fleet. In one room “here, four or five great hulking fellows engaged in noisy and riotous conversation over half-emptied pots of beer. In another a man with his wife and a whole crowd of children might be seen making a scanty bed on the ground. ‘ A young woman with a child in her arms, who seemed scarcely able to crawl, from emaciation, and misery, was in conversation with her husband.” Dirt, squalor, swagger and-mis-ery; such was the Fleet. Who would regret its passing?

On June 2, 1780, Lord George Gordon, half-crazed and fanatical younger son of a Scottish Duke, appeared at the entrance of the House of Commons, of which he was a member. Lord George had been an indifferent naval officer and was’ now an unconsidered backbench legislator who had attracted no notice in the House of Commons save for occasional eccentric behaviour. Outside the House he was president of a Protestant Association and the hero of the traditionally anti-Catholic mob of St. Giles and the other London slums, which on June 2 marched behind him to present a petition praying Parliament not to relax any of the laws against Catholics. Gordon took the petition in. The mob thronged after him into the lobbies, jostled the members, made them mount Protestant cockades in thenhats and shout “No Popery” to save their skins.

Inside the closed doors the indignant House voted to adjourn consideration of the petition. Gordon came out and harangued the mob. The Government sent for the Life Guards, at whose approach the Protestant patriots marched off and burnt, without interference, the chapels attached to the embassies of catholic powers. Fervour increasing and the Government being still afraid to interfere, they went on to sack and burn the chapels of English Catholics, and then commenced a general assault on the houses of any prominent persons who differed politically from Lord George Gordon. He by this time was advising respect for the law, but his followers were opening Newgate and the other prisons ana releasing the gaolgirds. These with their friends sacked London pretty thoroughly before the Government collected . its wits and enough troops to intervene. For once George lll.’s stubborn determination served his country well. Finding that his Ministers and magistrates would not act he called out the troops himself and rioters fled from the burning shops, prisons and distilleries. Dickens has described the Gordon Riots in “Barnaby Rudge.”

On June 5, 1783, one hundred and fifty-one years ago, man made his initial flight. The two Montgolfiers ascended by means of a fire balloon, and actually sailed in the air for about ten minutes. If the day ever comes when we can take passage to the moon, this first flight will still remain as the greatest event in the history of air conquest. For man had started on his triumphant progress to the clouds. Ye s were to elapse before any real advance was made, but a way . had been found and tested. Balloons, of course, became general. Imagination created all sorts of strange devices for further improvement. One Frenchwoman representing Europa ascended on a bull. But the more serious side of the science of flight continued through the years to be considered in all its importance. Gas bags in time reached a measure of perfection. With the creation of high-class engines, propulsion and guidance began to dispute with the winds, although it i$ within recent memory that Zeppelin and Santos Dumont were compelled to choose fine days for their attempts .to navigate the atmosphere. Even to-day gas bags are uncertain quantities. It was not until the first man began to glide that the history of flight took a really definite turn. This was in 1903 when - Orville Wright demonstrated the possibilities of the engine-driven glider by making a first flight lasting 12 seconds. Thirty-o»e years have passed since that day. We have seen the Channel, the Atlantic and the Tasman conquered by plane. Many of our bravest pioneers have passed in the great progress. So far as perfection is concerhed their lives have not been spent in vain.

The Reform Bill received the Royal Assent on June 7, 1832, thus ending another chapter' in the history of England. It had been a fierce fight. Much had been gained and lost on both sides. Bold bad barons, who had so strenuously and hopelessly attempted, like Canute, to stem the tide of progress, retired to their castles, hot and bothered, and “proletariat” looked round to count the spoils and greet the rising sun. The Bill did many good things. But while it admitted the middle classes to a share of the law-making power, working “proletariat” found the sun did not shine for them. They had been used in the fight but left out of the spoils. Thus no sooner had the old chapter in Parliamentary reform closed than the new one opened with loud lamentations from the great unrecognised. A conference brought a new programme, and a new “ism,” that was to terrify not only the “bold bad barons,” but most of the respectable people of the land. Chartism was born. Helped by the unruly spirits that gather naturally where the sparks of grievance cast their fiery particles. Chartism was to smoke and splutter for many a year. The People’s Charter, as it was called, does not seem a very terrible affair nowadays. Its points were six—manhood suffrage, annual Parliaments, vote by ballot, abolition of the property qualification, payment of members and« the division of the country into equal electoral districts. Most of them are accomplished facts now, but we still clamour for those perfect pastures that seem for ever -ver the horizc .