Fenian Demonstration in Hyde Park

THE FENIAN DEMONSTRATION IN HYDE PARK.

Superintendent Williamson, accompanied by a gentleman from the Board of Works, has applied to Mr. Newton at Marlborough Street, on November 4, for summonses against the speakers at the Fenian meeting in Hyde Park on Sunday last, for acting in contravention of the Parks Regulation Act. Mr. Newton said he saw by the papers that morning that the Act of Parliament was not a valid Act, therefore the addresses delivered by the speakers were lawful addresses. He should like to have the matter properly argued before him before granting the application. Whether it was an Act of Parliament or not, the magistrates were being placed in a somewhat ludicrous position. Mr. Knox had informed him that according to the law officers of the Crown the Act was a valid Act, but in the papers of that morning the contrary was stated. The gentleman from the Board of Works said he might state that the opinion of the law officers of the Crown was taken, and they were clearly of opinion that the Act could be enforced. Mr. Newton said the magistrates at that court had, under the Act, been asked to send four persons to prison for selling pictures, medals, and such things in the Park, and yet a fair had been permitted by the police to be held there without interference. He should order the summonses to issue.

Source: The Week's News, November 9, 1872, Page 1419