Sunday last passed over in perfect tranquility. The town indeed was thronged with visitors of both nations, who arrived in thousands from the surrounding districts by railway, and almost every kind of conveyance which could be pressed into the service. One or two of the trains from Manchester did not start until nearly an hour after the time fixed for departure, in consequence of the numbers who crowded there. The day being beautifully fine, though excessively hot, the principal scenes of the late outrages were visited during the day by these eager sightseers, who strolled with indefatigable curiosity about the oonfined and hilly streets, and no doubt contributed largely to tbe revenues of the publicans. No ebulitions of feeling, however, took place, beyond a few remarks on passing the chapels or houses in Rock-row from some of the more intemperate of either nation. Still not the slightest interruption to the perfect peacefulnesss of the town occurred. The Catholic services in the school-room of St. Joseph were attended by crowded congregations; but although there was at one time during the morning a crowd of several hundred persons assembled in the neighbourhood, they appealed to be solely actuated by a certainly not very intelligible curiosity, and no molestation was offered to the worshippers. The various Protestant Sunday-schools also walked as usual from their school-rooms to their different churches and chapel without interruption or annoyance.

It is to be regretted that, notwithstanding what has occurred, there are parties still ready to incur the responsibility of keeping alive for electioneering purposes the irritation of feeling between Catholics and Protestants, by such placards as the following, which has been posted within the last two or three days, and contains in direct terms an approval of the disgraceful outrages of last week.

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Bibliography

The Riot at Stockport” The Illustrated London News 21 (10 July 1852): 2922-30. Hathi Trust Digital Library version of a copy in the University of Michigan Library. Web. 17 December 2015. The text above to which paragraph has been added for ease of reading was created from the web version with ABBYY FineReader. — George P. Landow


Last modified 18 December 2015