FIFTEEN TO ONE—THE CHARTIST GATHERING. [From the Times, April 11.]

New Zealand Spectator and Cook's Strait Guardian, Volume IV, Issue 320, 23 August 1848, Page 4

FIFTEEN TO ONE — THE CHARTIST GATHERING. [From the Times, April 11.]

We were told ihat 200,000 men were to inarch through London, and take up their statiou on this new Runnymede. Every attempt was mide to procure that number. The railways till brought their contingents, far and near. The remotest suburbs were ransacked and swept cor contributions. The siiow-bilJ was to increase as it rolled from Stepney, from Highgate, or Pdddinjrton. The programme contained an endlesa enumeration of trades. Irish rebellion hoisted its banner; and 'orty thousand Irish labourers of the metropolis were invited undpr Emmett's name. The fasces of the Republic and the crimson cap of liberty were displayed to attract their admirers. There was nothing exclusive in the procession, wjiich, by the variety in its ranks, invited the accession of all. What was the result? If our readers are not accustomed to estimate numbers standing 01 in motion, they will hardly believe what we have taken the utmost pains to ascertain and know to be true. The sum of all the processions that crossed the bridg s towards Kennington Common yesterday was not more than three thousand. \\ c doubt whether more than three thousand were added from south of the Thames. At the crisis of the meeting the total number on the Common, including the most incurious and indiffereut of the spectators and bystanders, was not 20,000. Our estimate is confirmed by the best ai thoriiies. Of these 20,000 only l(\000 had anything to do with the demonsuation, or gave their "moral" weight to the cause of the day. Look now to the other side. There were ] 50,000 special constables spontaneously enrolled .agaiust the movement, and testifying to us dangerous and reprehensible character. There you have the proportions of the day — 150,000 toIO.OOO — 15 to 1. To every man or bay in London yesterday, disposed to bully and intimidate the Legislature, and ready to carry a pike against it, there were fifteen picked and trustworthy men who could procure vouchers to their respectability, who look an oath to defend the Qu< en's peace, and were ready to wield a truncheon in its defence. Do not forget that good reader — fifteen to one. We make no invidious comparisons as to the quality of the two articles ; and as to soldiers and police we have almost forgotten them. This settles the question. In common fairness it ought to be regarded as a settled question for years to come. The Chartists and Confederates made the challenge, and chose the field and trial of strength. They must stand by their choice. They chose to disturb die metropolis for the chance of something coming of it. They fished for a revolution and have caught a snub. V\ c congratulate them on their booty, which we hoj c they -will divide with their partners at Dublin. It is perhaps a fortunate circumstance that so momentous a question as the ir-^e action of the British Legislature should be settled thus decisively, thus peaceably, thus by citizens, not by arms, thus in the streets and not in the field, and thus in the metropolis of the empire. The dexterous prudence that hid from the arena the very sight of arms, so that not a soldier, not a pensioner, scarce even a policeman, was seen, will greatly distinguish this event from the grand military dramas which have recently ended in the catastrophe of states or of kings. For this rare result we have to thank the man ixhose greatest boast it is to have learnt the skill of peace in an experience of war. It is the mode and manner of this day's decision which imparts to it an instructive and final character. Now that the question has been settled, and , the citizens of London have decided that Parliament shall on no pretence be debarred from free and full deliberat on, it is time to consider the cost of this advantage. The metropolis must not always be made the sport of the terrible announcements we have lately heard. It must not have to provide against a revolution once a month, and be reduced to a state of siege every time a braggart threatens either " moral" or "physical" demonstrations. A population, reckoning only the densei part of the metropolis, of one million persons, was yesterday obliged to suspend its ordinary occupations, and lose a day to industry and improvement. Even he military movements and other preparations were not without serious cost. The present event is worth the cost, but we do not want another. If we are threatened with another, it will be time to think of some cheaper, less troublesome, and more summary way of suppressing the nuisance.