into the Mansion House, tore up the railings in front, and broke the windows and battered in the doors. On the arrival of the soldiers, the people withdrew from the attack and received the military with cheers. The lamps were afterward put out and the whole of Queen's Square was in darkness.
During the evening, Sir Charles Wetherall escaped from the Mansion House by clambering over roofs, and it was given out at noon on the next day (Sunday) that he had left the city: During Saturday night the rioters went back to the Council House and smashed the windows. The dragoons charged them and were met with showers of stones. On Sunday morning, while the soldiers were withdrawn from the partially wrecked Mansion House for refreshments, the mob pushed into all the rooms, threw the furniture into the street, and carried away or destroyed clothes,linen and all other things of value. The Mayor and some eight or ten other persons escaped over the roofs, as Sir Charles had before done. When the cellars were invaded, casks of wine were staved and bottles were emptied of their contents.
The dragoons quickly returned, but the mob, then inflamed with liquor, sought to revenge the death of one of their men the night before, and again attacked the soldiers with stones. The officer in command withdrew them to their quarters; but as they continued to be pelted with stones and bricks, the rearmost ones being provoked beyond endurance, turned and fired on their pursuers, several of whom were killed or wounded. After that the commanding officer withdrew his men to their quarters at Keynsham, a village five miles from Bristol thus leaving a much less number of the other division to protect the city. These, not having fired on the mob, were received with cheers, and waved their hands in token of good will, but being afterwards commanded to charge, they did so, resolutely, the result of which was to drive the rioters to the prison to set the inmates free. On their way, they broke into an anchor-smith's and ironmonger's shop, there obtaining crowbars, sledge-hammers and other implements. With these formidable instruments, they took the heavy prison gates off their hinges, battered off the locks and bars, let the prisoners out, and set the prison known as the Bridewell on fire.
At about the same time, another party attacked the new prison, built almost of massive stone and iron at a cost of nearly £100,000. The rioters forced their way into the governor's house, carried off the furniture, the prison books, the caravan and the gallows, and threw them into the river. The prisoners, 170 in number, they released and burnt everything that could be set on fire within the massive walls. Some of the leaders of the political union who had first placarded the walls did their utmost to quell the riot and stay the destruction, but the mob refused to desist, and their next proceeding was to burn down four toll-houses, followed by the firing of the Gloucester County prison. Three prisons were then burning at the same time. From the County Prison, the rioters proceeded to the Bishop's Palace and set that also on fire. The sedition had now reached a terrible height, but the act in which the lawless assembly appeared most to boast of was that of setting the prisoners free as a retaliation upon Sir Charles Wetherall's fervid denunciation of the Reform Bill. "He has come to try the prisoners, but we will save him the trouble" they were frequently heard to shout. After the Mansion House had been destroyed, the rioters, with the ready help of the released prisoners, paused and burnt all the houses adjoining. A party also forced their way into the Custom House, and there ate and drank while the building was burning over their heads. But a sudden collapse of the premises buried many of them in the ruins. Having destroyed the north side of the square in which the Mansion House stood, the rioters proceeded to west side, beginning with the Excise Office, and thence conveying fire and destruction -
