windows of which popped out the heads of a score of Orangemen, menacingly displaying the muzzles of firearms. T h e withdrawn banners were again brought up inside to the windows, and hailed with a deafening yell of execration. O n its ceasing, the Mayor, from the street, in a loud, authoritative voice demanded the surrender to the authorities of the obnoxious ensigns, which was indignantly refused, whereupon his Worship and several other Magistrates n o w with him, as if to compel obedience to his mandate, entered the hotel, and proceeding up the stairs, were confronted on the lobby by an advanced guard of Orangemen and the landlord, w h o doggedly impeded any further progress. Simultaneously with this check a volley was fired from the windows into the street, at the opposite side of which Father Geoghegan and M r . John O'Shanassy were in conversation. From the direction taken by the bullets, it was believed that the marksmen had aimed at the two individuals named, for a ball, after grazing the priest, slightly wounded in the shoulder David Hurley, a grocer, standing behind him. At the south-west corner of Queen and Little Bourke Streets there is still an hotel, which at the time I a m writing of was known as the St. John's Tavern, and kept by Mr. John T h o m a s Smith. At the m o m e n t of the firing there was in the bar, having a glass of beer, one T h o m a s O'Brien, a non-belligerent. Mrs. Smith, the landlady, fancied she saw the barrels of guns thrust from one of the Pastoral windows opposite, and calling on a waitress to do likewise, she threw herself flat on theflooroutside the bar counter. They had hardly done so when a bullet whistled through the window, passed over the prostrate women, and entering O'Brien's jaw dislodged four of his teeth, ran up his tongue, and stuck near the root. T h e m a n was removed in excruciating agony to his h o m e in Little Flinders Street, and he was so bad next day that his dying deposition was taken. Life and he had no intention of so speedily dissolving partnership, for he rallied considerably. Meanwhile, the bullet formed an abscess, which burst on the tenth day, when the ball was extracted; but instead of rolling out of his mouth it passed the other way, and he swallowed it. It remained in his system for a year, and in July, 1847, Dr. D. J. Thomas succeeded in ridding him of so unwelcome a lodger. It was n o w after four o'clock, and Alderman Russell, Messrs. Moor, B. Heape, and E. Westby, J's.P., were on the ground. All the police in town were present, and the military marched up from the barracks. T h e Pastoral Hotel, now barricaded, was forcibly entered, and several of the inmates were arrested, including William Hinds and John James, w h o were alleged to have been ringleaders. T h e house was cleared, and the prisoners sent away to the watch-house. Mr. Moor then addressed the outside assemblage, and pledged himself that no Orange festival should take place that evening, and by his persuasions the people were induced to disperse. O n e hundred special constables were at once enrolled as peace-preservers, and the mounted and border police were ordered to patrol the streets during the night. T h e ordinary police and military were kept in readiness for action. All the hotels were directed to be shut up, and the Mayor and several magistrates remained at the police office to be at hand for any possible emergency. But the night passed over in comparative quiet, without anything occurring to disturb its tranquillity, except the occasional report of a shot from a gun or pistol. It was stated that several shots had been fired at the hotel windows, though this is open to doubt. At all events, indentations declared to be bullet marks were pointed out on a portion of the wall facing the intersection of the two streets. THE POLICE COURT.
The morning of the 14th was ushered in with feelings of general disquietude, and the great centre of attraction was the Police Office, where a Bench of Magistrates, comprising the Mayor, Messrs. James Smith, and Benjamin Heape, was formed at 10 o'clock. T h e small weather-board room in the (now) Western Market Square, used as a Court, was densely crammed, and hundreds of persons were congregated outside, in eager expectation of what was to come on, the larger majority being decidedly of an Anti-Orange complexion. T h e proceedings were several times interrupted by explosions of hisses, which the Magistrates ineffectually endeavoured to suppress, and it was with difficulty that an open outbreak of violence was averted.
