ARREST OF ARMED CHARTISTS IN LONDON. [From the Weekly Chronicle, August 20.]

New Zealand Spectator and Cook's Strait Guardian, Volume V, Issue 359, 10 January 1849, Page 3

ARREST OF ARMED CHARTISTS IN LONDON. [From the Weekly Chronicle, August 20.]

On Wednesday night a scene of the utmost confusion took place in Webber-street, BlackFriars, which, for two or three hours, excited considerable excitement in the neighbourhood. It appears that from private information received by the government, a stroDg muster of the P division of police was ordered to assemble at the L division in Tower-street. The men were immediately placed in reserve armed with cutlasses, and were joined by about 150 constables and sergeants of the L division. The men belonging to the M section were also on duty at the Stones-end station, under the di r ection of Mr. Superintendent Evans. About half-past nine o'clock, on a signal being made, Mr. Superintendent Rutt, and Inspectors Caiter, Evans, Arnold, and Rogers with nearly three hundred men, marched to the Angel Tavern, in Webber-street, kept by Mr. Smith. Mr. Rutt, with a pair of loaded pistols and .a cutlass at his side, entered the house, accompanied by a strong body of constables, and at the same time upwards of a hundred officers were drawn up in front of the premises under arms. The moment the police entered the tap r room or parlour a general movement took place on the part of the persons assembled there, and Mr. Rutt cried out, "If any man offers the least resistance, I will run him through," at the same time showing bis drawn cutlass. This had the desired effect, and little or no resistance was attempted. The police then, in a body, seized fourteen men who were in the room, and conveyed them, under a strong guard, to Tower-street, where, upon being searched, pistols loaded to the muzzle, pikes, three corner daggers, spear heads, and swords were found upon their persons, and others were found secreted under the seats on which they had been sitting. Some of them wore iron breastplates, and others had gunpowder, shot, and" towballs. Under one man no less than 75 rounds of cartridge were discovered. ' The prisoners were all placed in front of the lobby, and having been duly charged, their names' and addresses were taken, and scarcely a man was brought forward who was not well known to the police as being a prominent Chartist. At four o'clock a strong body of police under the direction, of superintendents Pearce and Grimwood, of the E and F division, proceeded to the o|^9es of the Mendicity Society, Red Lyoh square, where they w.ere kept in reserve till about five o'clock, when, from information* received by superintendent Pearce, the latter, accompanied by "superintendent

Grimwood, went to the Orange Tree publichouse, Orange street, ' and having satisfied themselves that a number ' of armed' Chartists were in the house, proceeded with several constables into the place, and arrested about eighteen men, armed with pistols, pikes, and blunderbusses. The landlord was also arrested, and several cabs having been procured, the whole of the prisoners were handcuffed and conveyed to the police station in Bowstreet. The public-house in question is now closed. Upwards of 300 ball cartridges were found secreted in St. James's Churchyard, Clerkenwell, by one of the constables on duty, who took' possession of them and carried them to the station.