1-150-976 - The Cartoon Collector/Heritage-Images

The Great Unemployed, 1886. The Chief Commissioner of Police, Sir E Y Henderson, sits dozing in his chair, surrounded by papers detailing the minor events recently in the news, whilst outside the window can be seen a scene of great disturbance. This cartoon illustrates a meeting which took place in Trafalgar Square of the mass unemployed. After a number of inflammatory speeches, the meeting developed into a riot after it was infiltrated by troublemakers. The police were unable to control the crowd until one enterprising officer managed to put a cordon of officers across Oxford Street. The Chief Commissioner had to bear the blame for the fiasco and shortly afterwards he resigned. From Punch, or the London Charivari, February 2, 1886.