This book, first published in 1967, examines the implications of a now-forgotten minor riot that occurred in 1833, a turbulent year with the working classes striving for recognition in a changing social order. A political meeting in London had been declared illegal, the police breaking up the crowd were met with resistance, and in the fracas a policeman was stabbed to death. A bad-tempered inquest followed, at which the jury returned a verdict of justified killing – for which a section of the public hailed them as heroes. This analysis sets the crime and verdict against the political protests of the time.
1. Reform! 2. Mobs and Counter-Mobs 3. Skirmishes 4. Unlawful Assembly 5. The Affray 6. Aftermath 7. A Remarkable Inquest 8. Some Lurid Testimony 9. Cross Purposes 10. An Interlude. Mr Smallwood’s Nemesis 11. The Fourth Day of the Inquest 12. The End of the Inquest 13. After the Verdict 14. Another Political Meeting 15. The Trial of George Fursey 16. Celebrations 17. Assessment of the Affray
Biography
Gavin Thurston