=Source.=--_The Times_, February 9.
There is serious work before the new Home Secretary and his
working-man colleague, Mr. Broadhurst. Yesterday there occurred
the most alarming and destructive riot that has taken place in
London for many years, or perhaps we may say the most destructive
that has taken place within living memory. The destruction of the
Hyde Park railings in 1866 was in some respects a more threatening
affair, as being the work of a bigger mob; but that, unlike the
present business, was not accompanied by the wholesale destruction
of property and the looting of shops. Yesterday a mob some
thousands strong marched along Pall Mall, St. James's Street, and
Piccadilly to Hyde Park, then broke into several sections, and
returned by South Audley Street, Oxford Street, Regent Street,
and other routes, smashing windows, wrecking private carriages,
and robbing jewellers' and other shops, utterly unchecked by
the police, and leaving only one or two of their number in the
hands of the authorities.... The occasion of all this lamentable
affair was the great meeting of the unemployed which took place
in Trafalgar Square. As our readers are aware, this meeting was
but the culmination of many attempts that have been made lately
to attract public attention to what is a very real difficulty and
hardship. At last the time came for the men to gather in Trafalgar
Square. But unfortunately there was not that perfect harmony in
their proceedings which might have been desired. Some groups were
simply unemployed labourers, come in all honesty of purpose to hear
what could be said for them, and their chances of finding work.
Some were fair-traders, anxious to impress on the Government that
foreign bounties and other tariff enormities were at the root of
the mischief. But with these moderately pacific bodies were the
more dangerous element brought into the meeting by Messrs. Hyndman,
Burns, and Champion. The Revolutionary Social Democrats were there,
with the express object of breaking up the meeting called by Mr.
Kenny and his friends, and of "preventing people being made the
tools of the paid agitators who were working in the interests
of the Fair Trade League." It cannot be too clearly understood
that it was to the proceedings of these men--of Mr. Burns and Mr.
Hyndman and their colleagues--that all the subsequent destruction
was due.... Already on several occasions the fanatic Hyndman has
done his best to break the peace, from the time when, a year or
two ago, he told the crowd on the Thames Embankment that their
principle should be a life for a life--the life of a Minister for
that of every working-man who starved--down to the time when at
the Holborn Town Hall he offered to head "the Revolution." Burns
is as vehement, and his voice carries further. He yesterday told
the mob that "the next time they met it would be to go and sack the
bakers' shops in the West of London," and that "they had better die
fighting than starving." He and his red flag led the mob yesterday
in their march.