answer was printed on large placards, which placards were posted all
over the city, appointing the meeting to be held on the following
Monday. All this was accomplished in less than three hours, though the
little clan of pretended Reformers, Messrs. Allen and Co. had been
humdrumming about it for three weeks, without even getting the
requisition signed. I wish I had a list of the brave men's names who
so promptly signed this requisition; I would certainly record them. I
remember that Mr. Crisp, the hatter, and Mr. Rolf, the shoemaker, and my
tenant, Mr. Young, the builder, in Walcot-street, were three of them;
Mr. Hickman, not being a householder, did not sign it. The day came, and
a hustings was erected in my yard, and when I arrived, not only was the
place full from top to bottom, but all the roofs of the buildings were
covered with people. This also I had anticipated, and provided for. I
had got two carpenters' benches already loaded in a cart, which, upon a
signal being given, were to be taken to the Abbey Grove, to which spot
it was my intention to move that the meeting should adjourn. Accordingly
as soon as I got upon the hustings, I moved that the meeting should
forthwith adjourn to the Abbey-Grove. This was seconded, and, although
it came very unexpectedly, yet it was carried by acclamation. The cart
with the carpenters' benches reached the Abbey-Grove before we did, and
they were placed under the wall of the Abbey-Church. Thither I and
my friends walked, the immense multitude, of from twelve to fifteen
thousand persons, following us through the Marketplace, where many
of the military were drawn up; for, in spite of the example of
peaceableness which, in the week before, the people of Bristol had
exhibited, the worthy Mayor of Bath had ordered out all the troops,
Lancers and Somersetshire Yeomanry; and he had likewise been occupied
the whole of the previous days in swearing in a large body of the
gentlemen and tradesmen of the city, to act as special constables.
These, of course, being present at the meeting, swelled our numbers very