London,--a thing common enough amongst the absolutist governments on
the Continent, but unheard-of in England in those days. They
appointed the youngest and cleverest of their generals to command the
proclaimed district; a man who had won a certain sort of reputation
in the disgraceful wars in which the country had been long engaged
from time to time. The newspapers were in ecstacies, and all the
most fervent of the reactionaries now came to the front; men who in
ordinary times were forced to keep their opinions to themselves or
their immediate circle, but who began to look forward to crushing
once for all the Socialist, and even democratic tendencies, which,
said they, had been treated with such foolish indulgence for the last
sixty years.

"But the clever general took no visible action; and yet only a few of
the minor newspapers abused him; thoughtful men gathered from this
that a plot was hatching. As for the Committee of Public Safety,
whatever they thought of their position, they had now gone too far to
draw back; and many of them, it seems, thought that the government
would not act. They went on quietly organising their food supply,
which was a miserable driblet when all is said; and also as a retort
to the state of siege, they armed as many men as they could in the
quarter where they were strongest, but did not attempt to drill or
organise them, thinking, perhaps, that they could not at the best
turn them into trained soldiers till they had some breathing space.
The clever general, his soldiers, and the police did not meddle with
all this in the least in the world; and things were quieter in London
that week-end; though there were riots in many places of the
provinces, which were quelled by the authorities without much
trouble. The most serious of these were at Glasgow and Bristol.