I am only doing now what I have ever done; and ever will continue to do - that is adapting past experience to present reform in the light of high ideals and future objects.

The demonstration ended in the 'Bloody Sunday' claJohn Burnss; Burns was imprisoned for six weeks. He worked at his trade in various parts of England having joined the Amalgamated Society of Engineers in 1879. By this time he had left the SDF and with fellow socialist Tom Mann was focusing on trade union activity as a leader of the New Unionist movement.

He was anti-alcohol and a keen sportsman. He was a socialist and then a Liberal Member of Parliament and Minister. John Elliot Burns (20 October 1858 – 24 January 1943) was an English trade unionist and politician of the late 19th and early 20th centuries particularly associated with London politics.