The
Social Democratic Federation (SDF) organised
a meeting for 13th February, 1887 in Trafalgar Square to protest against
the policies of the Conservative Government
headed by the Marquess of Salisbury.
The government decided to ban the meeting and the police were given
the orders to stop the marchers entering Trafalgar Square. The SDF
decided to continue with their planned meeting and as a result the
marchers were attacked by the police. George
Barnes was one of those who was badly injured by the charging
police horses. Some of the protesters were arrested and later two
of the leaders of the march, John Burns
and Robert Cunninghame Graham, were
arrested and later sentenced to a six-week prison sentence.
Bloody Sunday (13th February, 1887)
(1)
Sir Charles Warren, head of the Metropolitan Police, sent a letter
to the Home Secretary calling for 20,000 special constables to deal
with socialist meetings in London (22nd October, 1887)
We
have in the last month been in greater danger from the disorganized
attacks on property by the rough and criminal elements than we have
been in London for many years past. The language used by speakers
at the various meetings has been more frank and open in recommending
the poorer classes to help themselves from the wealth of the affluent.
(2)
Walter
Crane later described
what took place on Bloody Sunday on 13th
November 1887.
I never saw anything more like real warfare in my life - only the
attack was all on one side. The police, in spite of their numbers,
apparently thought they could not cope with the crowd. They had certainly
exasperated them, and could not disperse them, as after every charge
- and some of these drove the people right against the shutters in
the shops in the Strand - they returned again.
(3)
In his book, My Days and Dreams, Edward
Carpenter described the events of Bloody Sunday.
A socialist meeting had
been announced for 3 p.m. in Trafalgar Square, the authorities, probably
thinking Socialism a much greater terror than it really was, had vetoed
the meeting and drawn a ring of police, two deep, all round the interior
part of the Square.
The three leading members of the SDF - Hyndman, Burns and Cunninghame
Graham - agreed to march up arm-in-arm and force their way if possible
into the charmed circle. Somehow Hyndman was lost in the crowd on
the way to the battle, but Graham and Burns pushed their way through,
challenged the forces of 'Law and Order', came to blows, and were
duly mauled by the police, arrested, and locked up.
I was in the Square at the time. The crowd was a most good-humoured,
easy going, smiling crowd; but presently it was transformed. A regiment
of mounted police came cantering up. The order had gone forth that
we were to be kept moving. To keep a crowd moving is I believe a technical
term for the process of riding roughshod in all directions, scattering,
frightening and batoning the people.
I saw my friend Robert Muirhead seized by the collar by a mounted
man and dragged along, apparently towards a police station, while
a bobby on foot aided in the arrest. I jumped to the rescue and slanged
the two constables, for which I got a whack on the cheek-bone from
a baton, but Muirhead was released.
The case came into Court afterwards, and Burns and Graham were sentenced
to six weeks' imprisonment, each for "unlawful assembly".
I was asked to give evidence in favour of the defendants, and gladly
consented - though I had not much to say, except to testify to the
peaceable character of the crowd and the high-handed action of the
police. In cross-examination I was asked whether I had not seen any
rioting; and when I replied in a very pointed way "Not on the
part of the people!" a large smile went round the Court, and
I was not plied with any more questions.
(4)
J.
R. Clynes, Memoirs (1937)
Angry Labour leaders announced that, on Sunday, November 13th, 1887,
Trafalgar Square would be stormed. Squadrons of military, fully armed,
and powerful detachments of police, were drafted there to resist any
such attempt. On the appointed day, workers led by Burns and others
tried to force a way through the armed ranks, to demonstrate the rights
of free speech. Bricks and stones were flung, iron railings crashed
on sabres and bayonets, dozens of workmen were wounded, and the attack
was beaten off. Burns and others were arrested.
A month or two later, another effort was made to storm the Square,
and a workman was killed. Burns made a speech at the funeral, and
was again arrested. At his trial at the Old Bailey, H. H. Asquith
was Counsel for the Defence. Burns was sentenced to six weeks' imprisonment;
later, he and Asquith were Cabinet Ministers together.
(5)
The Times (14th November, 1887)
It was no enthusiasm for
free speech, no reasoned belief in the
innocence of Mr O'Brien, no serious conviction of any kind, and no
honest purpose that animated these howling toughs. It was simple love
of disorder, hope of plunder it may be hoped that the magistrates
will not fail to pass exemplary sentences upon those now in custody
who have laboured to the best of their ability to convert
an English Sunday into a carnival of blood.
(6)
Henry Hamilton Fyfe, My Seven Selves
(1935)
When the unemployed dockers marched on Trafalgar Square, where meetings
were then forbidden, I enrolled myself as a special constable to defend
the classes against the masses. The dockers striking for their sixpence
an hour were for me "the great unwashed" of music-hall and
pantomime songs. Wearing an armlet and wielding a baton, I paraded
and patrolled and felt proud of myself.
My old gentleman (his boss at The Times newspaper) at the office
was a Tory of uncompromising violence. He would have had the unemployed
shot down. He thought that Gladstone, the Liberal leader, was literally
possessed of a devil.
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