text:  Groups with lighted torches were lingering everywhere and passing the intelligence along as a member happened casually to make his appearance in the course of the night; shouts and expressions of wrath alternately arose according to the nature of the intelligence and a species of open-air legislature was held during one of the bitterest nights of winter with discussions as active though perhaps not altogether so classical as those within; yet totally free from tumult and in the spirit of a people who live with a constant reference to the laws