Extract from ‘The Bristol Gazette’ on a riot in Bristol, 3 November 1831, D

Transcript

We firmly believe, from our own observation and from the concurrent [agreeing] testimony of numerous persons of all political principles present, that if it had not been for the very indiscreet zeal [energy] of some of the volunteer constables, no further disturbance would have taken place. True it is that some stones – we are sure they did not exceed half-a-dozen – had been thrown, and some very trifling injury had taken place. The constables, however, aided by some very young gentlemen, who loudly made a boast of their principles, charged into the crowd, and made themselves particularly busy in apprehending various individuals, whom they dragged into the Mansion-House, using their staves without mercy. The mob, who at this time were quite unarmed, raised a cry of “To the Back,” where piles of faggots [bundles of sticks] for firewood are usually kept, and in a short time about fifty, principally boys, returned with sticks. A kind of rescue was attempted, which ended in the rout of the mob [defeat of the crowd], and the constables proceeded back in triumph.