rings, and other costly articles, had its front completely
battered in, and the valuable stock literally scattered in the road
and scrambled for. Mr. Morris Banks, the druggist, had his stock of
bottles of drugs smashed to atoms. A curious circumstance saved these
premises from being set on fire. The mob had collected combustibles
for the purpose, but in breaking indiscriminately the bottles in the
shop, they had inadvertently smashed some containing a quantity of
very powerful acids. These, escaping and mixing with other drugs,
caused such a suffocating vapour that the miscreants were driven from
the shop half choked. Other tradesmen whose places were badly damaged
were Mr. Arthur Dakin, grocer; Mr. Savage, cheesemonger; Mrs.
Brinton, pork butcher; Mr. Allen, baker; Mr. Heath, cheesemonger; Mr.
Scudamore, druggist; and Mr. Horton, silversmith. Mr. Gooden, of
the Nelson Hotel, which then stood upon the site of the present Fish
Market, was a great sufferer, the whole of the windows of the hotel
being smashed in, and some costly mirrors and other valuable furniture
completely destroyed. The large premises of William Dakin and Co.--now
occupied by Innes, Smith, and Co., but then a grocer's shop--were
hotly besieged for nearly half an hour, but were, as will be fully
described a little further on, most bravely and successfully
defended. At nine o'clock many of the shops were on fire, and heaps
of combustibles from others were thrown upon the blazing pile in the
streets. The shops were freely entered and robbed. Women and children
were seen running away laden with costly goods of all kinds, and men
urged each other on, shouting with fury until they were hoarse.

The work of destruction went on undisturbed until nearly ten o'clock,
when suddenly, from the direction of High Street, a troop of Dragoons,
with swords drawn, came at full gallop, and rushed into the crowd,
slashing right and left with their sabres. They had been ordered to
strike with the flats only, but some stones were thrown at them, after
which some of the rioters got some very ugly cuts. Simultaneously
the mob was taken in flank by a body of a hundred police, which came,
headed by Mr. Joseph Walker and Mr. George Whateley, from Moor Street.
Such of the mob as could get away fled in terror, but so many arrests
were made that the prison in Moor Street was soon filled. In less than
a quarter of an hour not one of the rioters was to be seen, and the
peaceful inha