FOOTPATHS. 



137 



in a crowded meeting at Cairo Street, the Music Hall being 

 refused to them, laid down the law of the case. The moment 

 they understood their rights to these paths, they were alive. 

 Meetings were nightly held," and they filled the avenues to 

 the Music Hall hours before the public meeting. Many more 

 than those who had obtained admittance remained, throughout 

 the long evening, outside. Peter Rylands, Esq., then Mayor, 

 presided. The most active requisitionist was greeted on rising 

 with a " perfect hurricane of groans : " he had not much sym- 

 pathy from those who remembered how, three years before, 

 he had encouraged those who put down by clamour the pro- 

 moters of the Health Act. The amendment was moved by 

 Mr. Holbrook Gaskell, then of Prospect Hill. In the course 

 of a long and able speech, he asked, " Was it not the case 

 that they were on the point of closing up that path by a brick 

 wall, when my friend Mr. Carpenter passing that way dared 

 them to proceed ? (Loud applause. Three cheers for Philip ! 

 very heartily given). They would have closed that footpath, 

 but he stopped them ; and if you are indebted to the Footpath 

 Society, he first of all deserves your thanks. (Cheers renewed.) " 

 The surveyor of highways also testified that Mr. Carpenter was 

 the first to communicate with him on the matter.* After the 

 amendment had been seconded by the late Mr. E. Robinson, and 

 another requisitionist had spoken, there were " loud cries for 

 Carpenter ; " but he made no response, and Mr. Lawless, a 

 popular speaker among the working-men, addressed the meeting 

 at their call. When the amendment was put, it was carried by 

 about twenty to one ; and the vast crowds separated, after loud 

 cheers, about midnight. We have quoted from a very full 

 report of the meeting (February 6, 1854) which was published 

 separately. Philip put forth the following handbill : — 



# His father, Dr. L. Carpenter, August 19, 1836, had received the 

 thanks of the Bristol Liberal Association for inducing Lord Holland to 

 procure the insertion of a clause into the Common Fields Inclosure Bill, 

 exempting waste places in the vicinity of large towns from the operation of 

 the Bill. Dr. L. C. used to relate with great spirit how a shoemaker had 

 prevented the closing of a footpath through a royal demesne. (See the 

 " Life of Gilbert Wakefield," vol. 1. pp. 258-265.) 



