Riot part 2

Here's the second part.  This one's shorter. Please comment.

Saturday, September 25, 1875 

The first rumblings of trouble landed on the desk of Mayor Francis H. Medcalf on Friday, September 24th, in the form of a petition signed by several concerned citizens. 

REQUISITION OF CITIZENS  

To his Worship the Mayor of the City of Toronto:-  

SIR,- We, the undersigned inhabitants of the City of Toronto, observing the reputed organ of our Roman Catholic fellow-subjects, the Irish Canadian newspaper of the 22nd instant, an editorial article headed “The Provincial Council” in which it is openly announced that a public “Procession,” accompanied by “Music”, “Bands,” and “Singing,” and by  “Bishops,””Children,” “Students,” “Thurifers,” “Acolytes,” “Priests,” “Deacons,” and other orders, dressed in “Dalmatics,” “Copes,” and all the paraphernalia of “Full Pontificals,”and “Regalia,” and “inviting the various Societies to line the streets,” and believing that such a public and ostentatious display on the Lord’s Day is an open violation of the law, and is (as we have been informed and believe) likely to lead to serious breaches of the public peace of the city, which it is the duty of all good citizens to preserve; we, therefore, respectfully request that you will use your authority, as the Chief Magistrate of the city, to prevent the said “Procession,” “Music,” “Singing,” and “Banners,” but not to interfere with the peaceful and orderly attendance of such as may feel disposed to attend the religious ordinances of the Church in a quiet, peaceful and Christian manner. (Emphasis mine)  

Toronto, 24th September  

Signed, etc.  

The signers do not mention where they received their information that the procession was ‘likely to lead to serious breaches of the peace of the city.’  However, all the signers belonged either to the Orange Lodge or to its youth branch, the Young Britons.  Both groups would deny having organized any protest, but the evidence indicates that members were talking to each other about taking matters into their own hands.  This letter could be seen as some of the members trying to stop the trouble before it happened. 

Whether or not processions on Sunday were legal was a question that would be hotly debated over the course of the next week.  But what is exceptional is that the Orangemen were warning that other Orangemen may try and break up this procession.  While the procession as described in The Irish Canadian was an elaborate affair, it was also going to be a rather short one, lasting about half an hour and staying almost completely within the environs of the Cathedral, which was largely Catholic territory.  Generally speaking, the Protestants did not much care what the Catholics did in their part of the city.  This time was different. 

In response to the Requisition, Mayor Medcalf- himself a high ranking Orangeman- forwarded the letter to Archbishop Lynch, with a letter of his own. 

MAYOR’S OFFICE,  

TORONTO, Sept 25th, 1875.  

To His Grace Archbishop Lynch, St. Michael’s Palace:-  

SIR- I wish to call your Lordship’s attention to the enclosed requisition which has been forwarded to me, and respectfully ask if it is your intention to have such a procession to parade the public streets of this city on Sunday next. If such is your Lordship’s intention, I would respectfully suggest for your consideration the advisability of well considering the consequences that are likely to arrive from the same. An answer by the bearer, who is instructed to wait your Lordship’s convenience, will much oblige. (emphasis mine) 

Your Humble Servant,  

(Signed,) F. H. MEDCALF,  

Mayor.  

P.S. Please return with your answer the requisition now sent to you, that I may preserve it with several others that are now in my possession.  

(Signed,) F.H.M  

Seeing as this was the day before the procession, there could be some difficulty in cancelling the pomp and ceremony, which had obviously been prepared over some time.  Yet Archbishop Lynch read the warnings and the possible threat contained in the letter, and gave the Mayor his response through the rector of the cathedral. 

ST. MICHAEL’S PALACE,  

TORONTO, September 25, 1875.  

To His Worship the Mayor of Toronto:-  

SIR,- I am directed by his Grace the Archbishop to answer your communication of this morning accompanied by a petition from a few citizens, and to state that we intend to proceed to our cathedral and attend the religious ordinances of our Church on to-morrow in the manner expressed in the petition, viz: “Quiet, peaceful and Christian.”  

I am, Sir, your obedient servant,  

(Signed,) J. J. SHEA,  

Rector of the Cathedral.  

That Archbishop Lynch blinked in the face of the threat seems a little unusual for the man.  Prior to this he did not often capitulate to the wishes of the Protestants.  Witness his letter to the editor of The Globe.  Perhaps he was concerned about his first Provincial Council, and did not wish it to be marred or ruined by violence. He would later confess himself amazed that any sane person would object to he and his suffragen bishops and their priests processing from the east end of the cathedral to the west end.  It would seem that both men went back to their duties, Archbishop Lynch’s mind most likely on the preparations for the First Provincial Council.  Neither the Archbishop nor the rector nor anyone else who heard the warning seemed to realize they were overlooking something very important. 

On the evening, a large number of the faithful, many in their regalia, along with some bands, went to the Grand Trunk Station to meet the bishops arriving from elsewhere in the province and to escort them with music and cheers to the Episcopal Palace, which was beside the Cathedral.  There were also two squads of uniformed police on hand to prevent any trouble that may occur.  It is unlikely that Archbishop Lynch was able to inform them that there had been warnings of trouble for the upcoming council, but the bishops seem to have understood that trouble was a possibility on their own.  They dismissed the bands and sent them home, and then hurried off to the episcopal palace on their own without any fanfare at all.  The various societies and all their regalia and banners were left wandering around the station, wondering when the bishops were going to show up, before heading to their homes around nine o’clock. 

No trouble happened this evening.  The Orange Lodge and the Young Britons both had the time, date and place of the arrival of these bishops, where they would be vulnerable, yet the Protestants stayed away this time and made no known attempt to interfere, not even with the Catholics in their offensive regalia and carrying their banners.   Later on in the week they would claim that the idea of processions on the Sabbath were what they truly found repugnant, and perhaps they were telling the truth. 

And so the day with its ominous warnings ended quietly, with the Protestants and the Catholics returning home to their beds to sleep the night through.  Tomorrow would be a very busy day.