with pickaxes and gunpowder succeeded in levelling the whole, amidst discharges of guns and pistols. The Sheriff and a detachment of the Enniskillen dragoons promptly attended, against whom several shots were fired, which the soldiers alleged contained ball, but which was denied by the people, who asserted that the fire-arms were never loaded with ball, but merely used in the way of amusement. A very great proportion of the crowd, finding themselves closed in on all hands by the judicious disposition of the military, took to the river, and fortunately none of them were drowned. The dragoons, although convinced that they had been fired upon, acted with the greatest forbearance, and only one man was in any way injured by them. Forty-three

prisoners were brought into town, charged with being concerned in this affair, but after judicial examination on Monday, they were all dismissed except one, who was sentenced to a short term of imprisonment.

MILL WORKERS' RIOT.

On Monday, 9th September, 1823, the proprietors of power-loom factories in the city having engaged a number of new tenters and dressers to supply the place of a large body who had struck work for an increase of wages, during the breakfast hour, a crowd of several thousands assembled in Hutchesontown, and the confidence of the evil-disposed increasing with the number of spectators, from hissing and hooting, they began to throw stones, and several of the new workers were

roughly handled.

The Gorbals police proceeded instantly to the spot, but the crowd was so large, they did not effect its dispersion. Shortly afterwards, the Sheriff with a strong body of officers appeared, and some persons manifesting every disposition to proceed to extremities, a strong detachment of the Enniskillen dragoons was procured from the cavalry barracks. A party of dragoons was kept in readiness during the day, and although the streets were thronged, all was quiet till about seven o'clock, when the mills stopped work. As the new hands made their appearance, they were forthwith assailed with the usual symptoms of disapprobation, but they were protected from personal injury by the soldiers and a guard that had been previously marshalled for the purpose, and the greater part were escorted. Observing the streets so thronged, the new hands in one of the factories, along with one of the patrole, remained some time after the machinery was stopped, with the view of going home unperceived. It was so far fortunate they did so, for the belligerents repaired to this factory, and demolished between twenty and thirty panes of glass. While the work of destruction was going forward, the new hands sallied out in a body, and being mostly provided with pistols, for their own protection, fired several of them among the mob. Not expecting such a reception, the terrified delinquents fled in all directions, and the streets soon afterwards became quiet as usual. No further opposition was offered at any of the mills.

Since the above tumult, no disturbance worthy of record has disturbed the domains of the venerated saint.

273

CHAPTER IX.

MEMORABLE FIRES AND FLOODS.

"The city sadd'ning in a cloud,

Seems swath'd already in her shroud,
Till struggling forth all fiercely came,
Thro' crackling domes, the prison'd flame."

ANON.

"Wide o'er the brim with many a torrent swell'd,
And the mixt ruin of its banks o'erspread,
At last the roused-up river pours along:
Resistless, roaring, dreadful, down it comes
From the rude mountain and the mossy wild,
Tumbling through rocks abrupt, and sounding far.

Herds, flocks, and harvests, cottages, and swains,
Roll mingled down."

SEASONS.

THE various "Fires and Floods" which have taken place at different periods within the City, form no very unimportant eras in its history.

FIRES.

The first great conflagration which we find recorded in the annals of the city, took place on the 17th day of

July, 1652, and threatened the town with universal ruin. It broke out in a narrow alley upon the east side of the High-Street, and within a short space, burnt up six alleys of houses, with several very considerable buildings. While the inhabitants of the neighbourhood were assembled for the removal of the goods, and hindering as much as possible the spreading of the flame, the wind blowing from the north-east, carried such sparks of the fire in the opposite direction, as kindled some houses on the west side of the Saltmarket, insomuch, that both sides of that street were totally consumed, and in it the most extensive edifices of the town. From the Saltmarket, the fire was carried by contiguous buildings to the Trongate, Gallowgate, and Bridgegate streets, where a great many houses, with the furniture of the inhabitants, fell a sacrifice to its fury. This calamity continued near eighteen hours, before the great violence of the fire began to abate. In this space of time, many were reduced to poverty, and the dwellings of nearly one thousand families utterly consumed.

The greater part of these unfortunate sufferers were obliged to betake themselves to the shelter of huts erected in the fields, till more comfortable accommodation could be got ready. By Saturday evening, numbers had returned to the city, and it was hoped that the calamity was completely over. Unluckily, however, this was not the case, for betwixt the hours of seven and eight on Sunday morning, the fire broke out afresh on the north side of the Trongate, and continued burning violently

till near twelve at noon. This new accident not only destroyed a great number of dwelling houses, and occasioned the pulling down of many more, but it so terrified the whole of the inhabitants, that they carried from their houses what moveables they had, and betook themselves for several nights to the open fields, where they continued till all danger of re-ignition had been removed.

This event, by which one third part of the city was destroyed, is attested in a letter from Colonels Overton and Blackmore to Oliver Cromwell, wherein they reckon the damage at no less than one hundred thousand pounds sterling. Cromwell, upon the receipt of this letter, and of a representation by the magistrates, generously set on foot a subscription for their relief. To this cause, how serious soever at the time, the city was partly indebted for that regularity and elegance which has since distinguished it.

1677.-The next great conflagration in the city took place on the third day of November. Early on the morning of that day, the inhabitants were aroused from their repose by loud cries of fire. The whole population was soon on the spot, and found good occasion for their nocturnal alarm. A malicious boy, the apprentice to a blacksmith, being menaced and beaten by his master, was determined on revenge, and, accordingly, at one in the morning, set his work-shop on fire, which stood at the head of the Saltmarket, at the back of the street tenement on the west side. No sooner did the torch