The Reformed Presbyterian and Covenanter Volume 8 (Paperback)

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can usually download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1845 edition. Excerpt: ...fury. The contest was chiefly between a lawless, infuriated mob and the military. The latter were pelted with stones, brickbats, and other missiles--were fired upon with muskets by persons in concealment and among the crowd, and were repeatedly threatened with cannon, fully loaded and dragged up in front of their ranks. Necessity required that the mob should be fired upon by the military, which was done, promptly enough, we believe, but evidently not until farther forbearance would have been criminal. Several military companies helonging to the city were called out, and long kept under armsthe Governor of the State was sent for, and repaired promptly to the scene of outbreak--he issued a strong proclamation, suited to the occasion, and ordered several companies of military from adjoining counties, who marched to the city and continued on duty till quiet was restored. Twelve persons were killed and about fifty wounded. We have called this a second series ofriot, not because it is only the second that has occurred in that city;--it has been for years, as the burning of Pennsylvania Hall and other scenes will long bear witness, notoriously theplace of riot;--but because the same elements were at workin this and in the case immediately preceding. Similar causes produced both, and in each, Papists, the foes of all righteous order, were the instigators. The first series, an account of which we gave in our June t'o., occurred in Kensington, one of the Northern districts of Philadelphia; the second was in Southwark, one of the Southern districts. The immediate cause ofthe second outbreak, was the discovery that St. Philip s Roman Catholic Church, in Sonthwark, contained a large quantity of arms and ammunition. The attack on the...