The members of the various Trades Unions of the Metropolis
in- tend to meet on Monday morning, in Copenhagen Fields, for the pur- pose of preparing and transmitting to the King, through the Home Secretary, a petition to revoke or mitigate the sentence passed on the Dorchester convicts. They propose to marsh in procession through theprincipal streets to Whitehall, with banners and other insignia. This is an unwise proceeding. It cannot be expected to accomplish its professed object : what else is it likely to accomplish ? Such an array of numbers may frighten the timid ; it may be turned to account by rogues ; it may be made the pretext for a political panic. Above all things, save us, people and rulers, from the curse of acting under the influence of base, cowardly, cruel, un.Enylish-lihe panic!
From the tone of some of the newspapers to-day and the parade of preparation as if an enemy had landed on our coast, the Government would seem to hint that all good citizens ought forthwith to put them- selves into a decent condition of alarm. Cabinet Council meetings- Rroclamations—troops marching on the Metropolis—bivouacs of Guards
and Artillery on Sunday night—musters of the Police at six o'clock on Monday morning, with cutlasses and fire-arms—such are the signifi- cant indications. " Something too much of this : " caution is good, but alarm may be carried too far. Lord MELBouitsE will peradventure profit by his Calthorpe Street experience, The Unionists, on their part, appear to be well-disciplined, and to have adopted judicious regulations for avoiding breaches of the peace in their Saint Monday gathering.
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