MARY CARPENTER. 69 



turpentine and brushes, and smeared turpentine 

 around to make the place burn more fiercely. With 

 their axes also they cut holes in the floors of the 

 burning houses, so that the air might enter and fan 

 the fire. The consequence was, the flames burnt 

 so fiercely that in some instances the rioters them- 

 selves were unable to escape, and perished with the 

 burning buildings. 



Miss Carpenter was one of those who had to look 

 on powerless while Bristol was in flames. She knew 

 none better how miserable and ignorant the people 

 were who had done this thing ; how they were ani- 

 mated by hatred of the classes above them, feeling 

 that they were wronged, though they could not have 

 said how. She knew, too, that to a degree the hatred 

 was justified, and that it was the cruelty and injustice 

 of society which were driving these dangerous ones to 

 crime. The Bristol riots broke out on the last Sun- 

 day in October. Mary Carpenter's biographer tells us 

 that "the contrast between the peaceful sunshine of 

 the autumn morning and the dreadful glare of the 

 fire-lit sky at night fixed itself ineffaceably in her 

 remembrance ; and her heart was filled with a deep 

 pity for those whose mad passions had brought on 

 the innocent such calamity and disgrace. The im- 

 pression deepened as day after day brought tidings 

 of fresh crime and misery. She began to ponder on 

 the causes of the outbreak, and to find their place in 

 the general circumstances of the time, and the desire 



