there was a very real demand for the
enfranchisement of the town workman--the agricultural districts remained
unawakened--and Reform Leagues and Reform Unions sprang up as they had done
in 1831. Then in London came the incident of the Hyde Park railings, which
gave a distinct impetus to the Reform movement. What happened at Hyde Park
was this: the London Reform Union decided to hold a monster demonstration
in Hyde Park on July 23rd, but the Chief Commissioner of Police had
declared the meeting must not take place, and ordered the gates to be
closed at five o'clock. Mr. Edmund Beales, and other leaders of the London
Reform Union, on being refused admittance, drove away calmly to hold a
meeting in Trafalgar Square, but the great mass of people remained outside
the park, "pressed and pressing round the railings." Some were clinging to
the railings; others deliberately weakened the supports of the railings.
Park Lane was thronged, and all along the Bayswater Road there was a dense
crowd. The line was too long for the police to defend, and presently, when
the railings yielded to the pressure, the people poured in to the park.

"There was a simultaneous, impulsive rush, and some yards of railing were
down, and men in scores were tumbling and floundering and rushing over
them. The example was followed along Park Lane, and in a moment half a mile
of iron railings was lying on the grass, and a tumultuous and delighted mob
was swarming over the park. The news ran wildly through the town. Some
thought it a revolt; others were of opinion it was a revolution. The first
day of liberty was proclaimed here--the breaking loose of anarchy was
shrieked at there. The mob capered and jumped over the sward for half the
night through. Flower beds and shrubs suffered a good deal, not so much
from wanton destruction, as from the pure boisterousness which came of an
unexpected opportunity for horseplay. There were a good many little
encounters with the police; stones were thrown on the one side, and
truncheons used on the other pretty freely. A few heads were broken on both
sides, and a few prisoners were made by the police; but there was no
revolution, no revolt, no serious riot even."[81]

The Guards were called out, and a detachment arrived at the park, but the
people only cheered the soldiers good-humouredly. Not even a blank
cartridge was fired that day.

The Government, however, took the Hyde Park disturbance with extreme
seriousness. "No