Continuing the Nottingham Guardian report 30th October 1851, on a meeting to establish a fountain in the Market Place. The last section reproduced ended with Mr. Mahon calling for a vote of thanks to Messrs Hollins for offering to provide the water for the proposed fountain. As I said previously, I have presumed this Mr. Mahon to be Jeremiah Mahon, a bookseller of Long Row, Nottingham. As you read through the reporting of this meeting it becomes clear that he had recently published a leaflet/booklet where he defamed many people, and that those folk were not well pleased with what he had written about them. The article is reproduced below as written. The CHAIRMAN asked if any one would second the motion, and after a short pause a person exclaimed "No." Loud cries were instantly raised demanding that he should be turned out. A rush was made towards him, and he was roughly seized and ejected in a break neck manner, a method of silencing opposition which was resorted to several times during the night. The motion having been seconded was carried. Mr. CHAMBERLAIN, smith, in proposing a resolution to the effect "That the Mayor and Town council of Nottingham be respectively memorialized for permission to erect a fountain in Nottingham Market Place, in commemoration of the Great Exhibition, which fountain the memorialists would agree to remove in three years if a more eligible site were recommended by a majority of the inhabitants of Nottingham,"- took occasion to speak in strong terms of censure at the disgraceful manner in which the majority of the meeting had conducted themselves, by shouting down opposition. They had assembled to discuss the best means of placing an ornament in the town, but he confessed that they, instead of being an ornament, were a disgrace to the town. (Loud cries of "Hear, hear.") Mr. HIAM seconded the motion, which was opposed by a sturdy band at the corner of the platform, who however no sooner raised their hands against it than the groundlings shouted "turn them out;" a step which they seemed to attempt when The CHAIRMAN said, "as to the expenses of carrying on this question a subscription should be collected, at the doors on the present occasion, for the expenses hitherto that have been paid, has been at the expense of Mr. Mahon; consequently it is not right that he should be at all the expense, and therefore there will be parties at the door to receive whatever you may think well to give." He moved "that a subscription be entered into to defray the current expense that is incurred." Dr. LEY seconded the motion, in order to have the opportunity of asking Mr. Mahon a question. He had been accused of having been connected with those publications which Mr. Mahon had sent out. Now he wished to ask him whether that were true or not. (Hear,hear.) Mr. MAHON, without taking notice of this question said he perceived one gentleman in the room whom he considered he had ill-used in those publications, and he begged to make a public apology to him and to ask his pardon. He referred to Mr. Fidler. (A voice; And what have you said about Mrs. Pickering?) (Hear, hear.) Dr. LEY insisted upon having an answer to his question. Mr. Mahon replied that he (Dr. Ley) had no connection with the publications whatever. Mr. FIDLER claimed the right of an Englishman to be heard on this matter. When MR. Mahon published this filthy document, to which allusion had been made, it was a matter of principle with him that he (Mr. Fidler) simply on the presumption that he opposed the fountain, should be a black leg, a drunkard, and a frequenter of bad houses. But observe the contrast, Mr. Mahon had now tendered to him an apology for what he had done; he had ascertained that instead of opposing he had expressed his willingness to support the fountain, and therefore he was an honourable man. (Hear, hear, and cheers.) Was that an apology that he ought to accept? Would any man who had been grossly calumniated by Mr. Mahon and his partizans accept it? - for he did not give Mr. Mahon credit for possessing sufficient brains to compose all that had been written, filthy and outrageous as it was, - parties were behind the screen making the bullets which they gave him to discharge. (Hear, hear, and a voice, "Turn him out.") To resort to such a species of annoyance was disgraceful to the community, and while thus standing forward in the defence of his own character, he defied any man, calling himself an Englishman, to turn him out of that room. (Vehement applause.) He could have wished the matter was in better hands, but until it was, God help them. (Laughter.) MR. MAHON had no idea of maligning Mr. Fidler in the publications, and asserted that the description to which he had referred was not meant as a description of him. (Cries of "Oh, oh.") The description was not given to any particular individual. One person had one fault, another had another, and another had another. They were the faults of some half-dozen classed together; but he assured Mr. Fidler that it did not apply to him. Note: I found Jeremiah Mahon on the 1851 census, but neither he nor his family could be found on any subsequent census. Either the "hired men" who attacked him as per the first extract I reproduced finally got him - unlikely - or, more likely, he and his family emigrated. Mr. Fidler would appear to be John Fidler, a tinplate worker living on Milton Street in 1851. I cannot trace Mr. Hiam nor Dr. Ley - the spellings may well be phonetic. The last part will be sent tomorrow Brian Binns _____ No virus found in this message. 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