efusal to pay taxes was openly recommended in the last
resort, and votes of thanks were passed to Althorp and Russell. The
former, in acknowledging it, wisely condemned such lawless proceedings;
the latter unwisely made use of a phrase which gravely displeased the
king: "It is impossible that the whisper of faction should prevail
against the voice of a nation". Both were called to account in the house
of commons for holding correspondence with an illegal association, but
disclaimed any recognition of the Birmingham union as a body, and fully
admitted the responsibility of the government for the maintenance of
order.

This assurance was about to be tested by the most atrocious outbreak
which disgraced the cause of reform. On Saturday, the 29th, Wetherell,
as recorder of Bristol, entered the city to open the commission on the
following Monday. Of all the anti-reformers, he was perhaps the most
vehement and unpopular, but his visit to Bristol was in discharge of an
official duty, and had been sanctioned expressly by the government.
Nevertheless, the cavalcade which escorted him was assailed by a furious
rabble on its way to the guildhall, and from the guildhall to the
mansion house, where he was to dine. For a while, they were kept back or
driven back by a large force of constables, but, on some of these being
withdrawn, their ferocity increased, and threatened a general assault on
the mansion house. In vain did the mayor address them and read the riot
act; they overpowered the constables, and carried the mansion house by
storm, the mayor and the magistrates escaping by the back premises,
while the recorder prudently left the city. At last the military were
called upon to act, and two troops of cavalry were ordered out. But the
military as well as the civil authorities showed a strange weakness and
vacillation in presence of an emergency only to be compared with the
Lord George Gordon riots of a by-gone generation. After making one
charge and dispersing the populace for the moment, the cavalry were sent
back to their barracks, and when one troop was recalled on the following
(Sunday) morning, the rioters were all but masters of the city. Many of
them, having plundered the cellars of the mansion house, were infuriated
by drink; they broke into the Bridewell, the new city jail, and the
county jail, set free the prisoners, and fired the buildings. They next
proceeded to burn down the mansion house, the bishop's palace, the
cu