Still the hazards it prefigured created no alarm; the directions of a sub-committee respecting the military order of the processions towards the place of meeting was but the expression of the public hope that lay at every heart.
While the bustle of preparation was at its height; while the flushed capital was dizzy with wild excitement, a proclamation appeared on the walls--'twas nearly evening's dusk--forbidding the proposed demonstration.

For that proclamation there was no law; scarcely any object.

It could not render the meeting illegal.

It would not entitle the chief magistrate to disperse it; for if it were proved to be constitutional, he would be answerable before the laws of his country.
It was simply a warning utterly inefficient for good or ill in any trial that may follow.

In this state of things, a responsibility of the greatest magnitude devolved on the Association, or its committee.