Page images
PDF
EPUB

In the cold days of early Spring-when East wind and drenching sleet and rain come lashing down our London streets -and when nobody will dare the icy blasts of the river who has got a shilling to pay for a cab-or twopence for an omnibus, or who is provided with a couple of useable legs to walk withal when the steamers ply up and down, dripping and deserted things-one shapeless mass of oil-skins at the wheel, another on the paddle-box-then it is that the corporation of London suddenly wake up to the danger of over-crowded and too-fast-driven boats. An enthusiastic discussion accordingly takes place in the Common Council or the Court of Aldermen, and a code of bye-laws of terrific severity is forthwith drawn up and established, menacing with horrible pains and penalties the reckless skippers who shall dare to contravene them. The whole proceeding looks severe and determined. Nervous people nod their heads approvingly, and say, "All right now the Lord Mayor has taken the thing up in a proper spirit. These fellows won't be overloading their boats again in a hurry." Alas-deluded folks! Wait a bit. Blazing summer comes-and sweltering London rushes on the river. Where are the City bye-laws then? Where are the informers who were to work them-where the stipulations allotting to each passenger a certain cubic space upon the deck? Gonemelted with the hot weather-leaving the City statute-book a tabula rasa for the inscription of the same farce at the commencement of the next mayoralty.

And yet, Heaven knows, if the nuisance be still uncorrected, it is not for want of nuisance-mongers and grievance-hunters in the community. Only these gentlemen are eternally catching wrong sows by the ear. They are the cranes who wage war with the pigmies. A parcel of ragged urchins playing pitch-and-toss with dilapidated buttons in an alley-an advertising van or two; not half such an obstacle in a crowded thoroughfare as a sheriff's broad-wheeled waggon, and not a tithe so ugly in its gaudiness as that worshipful functionary's official coach—a dozen or two of emancipated mechanics and maids-of-all-work enjoying themselves in the merry go-rounds at the foot of Primrose Hill; or a knot of hard-working, honest men, scouring their skins in a cheap bath and wash-house-such are the objects which the nuisance-mongers or rather the superlative nuisance-monger-of the day delights to show his vigilance in rooting up and exhibiting to the

gaze of a world-by no means so very much scandalised at the spectacle. Sir Peter Laurie is-as everybody knows—a pestilent busy-body, always deep in some mare's nest or other, and yet occasionally making a blundering step-more by chance than anything else in the right direction. Now, here is a chance for him. Let him take to the steam-boat nuisance. He flatters himself that he has put down suicide; let him try his hand at putting down a system which may result in occasioning as many deaths in a moment as the mania for self-slaughter does in a twelvemonth. Let him forsake Primrose Hill on the Sunday afternoons, and take his stand on Hungerford Bridge-let him observe the cram, the squeeze of jostling men and women, hurrying, in unthinking merry masses, on board the rocking and unstable boats-let him observe the conduct of the steam-boat functionaries jamming the live cargoes on board as though they were packing cotton into a bale-let him observe the sickly sway of the boats, as each slowly moves away, groaning under its weight of human flesh-let him see all this, and let him remember, that all this is perpetrated in defiance of the magnates of the City-and their solemnly recorded regulations-let him observe that the interpretation put upon the City bye-laws, seems to be that they are laws for the City to give the go-by to, and if, out of such materials, he cannot erect a grievance of the first magnitude--cannot carve a nuisance of the first water-then will I be content to be on board the first steamer which pitches its living masses head over heels, to drown in Thames water, and to rot in Thames mud.

YOUNG WATSON; OR, THE RIOTS OF 1816.
IN FOUR PARTS.-PART I.

IN the following narrative, it is not our intention to enter into all the details connected with the Riots of 1816, or to dwell upon the merits of arguments urged for or against the outbreak of the 2nd of December. Such an attempt would far exceed our limits. The object of the present papers is to place before the public such facts as they are unacquainted with, and to give, it is to be hoped, not an uninteresting account of the extraordinary escapes and adventures of that rash but enthusiastic young man, whose name, in connection with the above riots, formed at the time so varied a

subject of conjecture and discourse, of popular excitement and unsatisfied curiosity. And the reader must not look upon it as a very vain or hazardous statement, when he is told that all speculation as to what became of Young Watson during the interval of three months, during the time of his rescue from Beckwith's house, on Snow Hill, and his subsequent escape to America, must ever have remained unsatisfied, but for the narrative about to be placed before him.

The intention of these papers is to trace Young Watson through his many escapes and adventures, and to relate the particulars of his concealment, together with the interesting facts connected with his ultimate flight from the kingdom.

To render these details intelligible, and to make use of such material as we have before us, it will be necessary to give a brief outline of the state of the then times, and the oppressive hardships under which the people groaned, and whose many complaints unnoticed, led to such unhappy results. Goaded to desperation by grievances alike intolerable and unredressed, the Ministry wondered that "miserable wretches, reduced to the lowest poverty and distress," should employ force, where petitions and remonstrance had proved abortive.

The accumulated evils of the time we write of, were sufficiently manifested by the frequent riots in all parts of the country. The Press gave daily accounts of fresh outbreaks in the chief towns of England, Ireland, Scotland, and Wales, whose further violence was alone kept in check by military power.

The Corn-law question then, as now, was a theme of all-engrossing interest, and petitions poured from all quarters into both Houses against its adoption. From the City of London alone one was presented containing the extraordinary number of 40,571 signatures, all obtained within ten hours.

On March 6th, 1815, a series of outbreaks took place upon the question of the Corn Bill. Crowds of people surrounded both Houses of Parliament, who menaced the members on their passage to the House, and their persons were treated roughly or otherwise, according as their opinions were for or against the Bill; and an honourable gentleman thought himself fortunate to escape from the rough usage of the mob, with the loss of his coat-tails. In this emergency the military was called out, and the Horse Guards suppressed the tumult.

Driven from Westminster, the mob repaired to other parts of

the town, and broke the windows of the houses of such members as were in favour of the Bill; the doors of others were forced, and the furniture destroyed. Lord Castlereagh's residence was attacked, and the house of Mr. Robinson (the mover of the Corn regulations) was twice assaulted. Here two innocent persons were killed by fire-arms discharged from the windows, and the Horse Guards were again called out to quell the disturbance. Lord Chancellor Eldon's house in Bedford Square was also broken open by the infuriated mob, when, through the agency of a friend, Lady Eldon, and the Great Seal, "the two things he (Lord Eldon) most valued," were conveyed over the wall into the gardens of the British Museum.

Incendiary fires, frame-machine breaking, and other outrages, also characterised the period we write of. The distress among the colliers was excessive, and these unhappy men went drawing waggons of coals about the country, in the hopes to obtain relief for their necessities. 66 Willing to work, but none of us will beg," was the inscription on the placard they carried, and the men, "who behaved themselves extremely well," received in many instances the relief they so much needed.

"

The following petition from the Mayor and Corporation of the City of London (although presented a week after our present date), fully exhibits the distress of the times. The petition entreated the Prince Regent "to take into consideration the scenes of privation and suffering that everywhere exist, and the distress and misery which has become intolerable; the commercial, manufacturing, and the agricultural interests, equally sinking under its pressure, and the impossibility to find employment for a large mass of the population; and further set forth, "the unexampled increase of the Civil List, the enormous sums paid for unmerited pensions and sinecures, and a long course of the most lavish and improvident expenditure, in every branch of government, all arising from the corrupt and inadequate state of the representation of the people in Parliament, whereby all control over the servants of the Crown has been lost, and Parliaments become subservient to the will of Ministers." To this petition the Prince Regent replied, "It is with strong feelings of surprise and regret that I receive the address and petition," &c.; plainly showing the apathy and utter disregard paid by the Ministry to the complaints of the people.

These particulars of distress and grievance, "the effects of rash

and ruinous wars, unjustly commenced, and pertinaciously persisted in," through which "the people were overwhelmed with taxation they were unable to bear against, through forcing the Bourbons on the throne of France against the will of the French people," these, and other particulars of the general suffering, will prepare the reader for the events that followed, and pave the way for the reception of our narrative, and the more immediate causes that led this rash, but not unworthy young man, and others who thought and felt as he did, to the commission of an outbreak, alike unwise in act, as unhappy in result.

We will now introduce our readers to the character and person of Young Watson-about whom so much was said, and of whose almost miraculous escapes nothing has been known.

Dr. Watson-the father of this young mann—resided at Lynn, in Norfolk, where for many years he had lived in the exercise of his profession, and whose family and connexions were highly respectable. His son James (Young Watson) was designed by his father for a surgeon, and, instructed by him in that profession, had for some short time exercised his acquirements on board ship. Sensible of the burthens under which himself and countless thousands of his countrymen were bowed down, Dr. Watson took an active part in all political questions, and some short period before our narrative commences, came to London with his son, in the hope of advantageously exercising his medical talents in the Metropolis.

Dr. Watson was a needy man, and his first home in London (we believe) was in Hyde Street, Bloomsbury. The political agitation of the time found in him a ready advocate, and he became a member of various political societies, and spoke at several public meetings upon subjects the most in debate. His son, James Watson, a young man of ardent temperament, taught by his father's example, became about this time politically known.

The person of Young Watson, in the "official" portraiture of him, was inaccurately described. He was stated to be "Five feet four or five inches in height; slim made, with dark brown hair, and sallow complexion," whereas he did not exceed five feet three inches in height, stout made, with lightish brown hair, and ruddy complexion. He attained his twenty-first year, the 24th of January, 1817, during the period of his concealment "He -to use the words of a MS. now before us, and written at the time he speaks of, to his protector, a young man of great

was

[ocr errors]
« PreviousContinue »