THE GORDON RIOTS. (Lord Stanhope's History of England.) A.D. 1780. 1773, passed their House in 1779, when transmitted from the Commons, and, it is said, without debate. The indulgence was accepted, but the rancour was not removed. This plainly appeared from the great popular support with which even the wildest projects of Lord George Gordon were received. The petition which he wished to obtain from London was at this time the object of his especial care. It was invited and urged on in every manner by public advertisements and by per THEN of a sudden, like a meteor rising from the foulest marshes, appeared those fearful riots, to which the most rank intolerance gave origin, and Lord George Gordon a name. Then the midnight sky of London was reddened with incendiary fires, and her streets resounded to the cry of an infuriated mob; then our best and wisest statesmen had to tremble, not only for their lives, but for their hearths and homes; then for once in our annals the powers of government and order seemed to quail and succumb before the popu-sonal entreaties. It was for several lace of the capital in arms. weeks in circulation, and received many thousand signatures. То give it greater force and effect Lord George, towards the close of May, convened a meeting of the Protestant Association in Coachmakers' Hall. There, after a long speech, and in a most crowded room, he gave notice that he would present the petition to the House of Commons on the 2d of June. Resolutions were passed that the whole body of the Association and their friends would, on that day, assemble in St. George's Fields, with blue cockades in their hats, to distinguish all true Protestants from their foes. Still further to incite them, Lord George added, that if the assemblage did not amount to 20,000 he would not deliver the petition. Accordingly on Friday, the 2d of June, and at ten o'clock in the morning, St. George's Fields were thronged with blue cockades. They were computed at 50,000 or 60,000, and by some persons even at 100,000 men. The love of frolic and of staring had certainly brought many new accessions to their ranks. Appearing in the midst, and welcomed by their enthusiastic cheers, Lord George Gordon, in the first place, indulged them with one of his silly speeches. Next they were marshalled in separate bands, the main body marching over London Bridge and through Temple Bar to the Houses of Parliament. At this procession they walked six abreast, and in their van was carried their great petition, containing, it was said, not less than 120,000 signatures or marks. London, at that period, was far from yet possessing the sturdy and disciplined police which now, on any chance of riot, or even of mere crowd and pressure, lines our streets and squares. There were only the parish beadles, and the so-called watchmen of the night, for the most part feeble old men, frequently knocked down by the revellers, and scoffed at by the playwrights of the age. In the face of that mighty array so long previously announced, which Lord George Gordon was leading to Whitehall, not one measure of precaution had been taken by the Government. They had neither sworn in any special constables nor stationed any soldiers. It must be owned, however, that the reproaches on that score came with no good grace from the lips of the opposition chiefs, which had so lately poured forth their loudest clamours when, in apprehension of some tumult at the Westminster meeting, a body of troops had been kept ready. Finding no obstruction to their progress, the blue cockades advanced to Palace-Yard, and took possession of the open space some time before the two Houses met, as they did later in the afternoon. Then, with only a few doorkeepers and messengers between them and some of the principal objects of their fury, they were not long in learning the dangerous secret of their strength. The Lords had been summoned for that day, to hear a motion from the Duke of Richmond, in favour of annual Parliaments and unrestricted suffrage. Lord Chancellor Thurlow was ill and at Tunbridge, and the Earl of Mansfield had undertaken to preside in his place. But as it chanced Lord Mansfield was then most unpopular with the Protestant Associators, having not long since charged a jury to acquit a Roman Catholic priest who was brought before him charged with the crime of celebrating mass. Thus, no sooner did his carriage | tion of judgment, his grace was appear than it was assailed and its windows broken, while the venerable judge, the object of the fiercest execrations as a “notorious Papist," made his way into the House with great difficulty, and, on entering, could not conceal his torn robe and his dishevelled wig. He took his seat upon the woolsack, pale and quivering. The Archbishop of York's lawn sleeves were torn off and flung in his face. The Bishop of Lincoln, disliked as a brother of Lord Thurlow, fared still worse; his carriage was demolished, and while the prelate, half fainting, sought refuge in an adjacent house, from which, on recovering himself, he made his escape in another dress (some said in a woman's) along the leads, Lord Hillsborough and Lord Townshend, who came together, and the other Secretary of State, Lord Stormont, were roughly handled, and could scarcely make their way through the people. From Lord President Bathurst they pulled his wig, telling him in contumelious terms that he was "the Pope," and also "an old woman ;" thus, says Horace Walpole, splitting in two their notion of Pope Joan ! The Duke of Northumberland having with him in his coach a gentleman in black, a cry arose among the multitude that the person thus attired must be a Jesuit, and the duke's confessor; a conclusion, it may fairly be owned, not at all unreasonable than many others they had formed. On the strength of this their discrimina more forced from his carriage and robbed of his watch and purse. Still, however, as the peers by degrees came in, the business of the House in regular course proceeded. Prayers were read, some formal bills were advanced a stage, and the Duke of Richmond then began to state his reasons for thinking that, under present circumstances, political powers might safely be entrusted to the lowest order of the people. His grace was still speaking when Lord Montfort burst into the House and broke through his harangue. Lord Montfort said that he felt bound to acquaint their lordships of the perilous situation in which, at that very moment, stood one of their own members; he meant Lord Boston, whom the mob had dragged out of his coach, and were cruelly maltreating. "At this instant," says an eye-witness," it is hardly possible to conceive a more grotesque appearance than the House exhibited. Some of their lordships with their hair about their shoulders; others smutted with dirt; most of them as pale as the ghost in Hamlet; and all of them standing up in their several places, and speaking at the same instant— one lord proposing to send for the Guards, another for the justices or civil magistrates, many crying out, Adjourn! Adjourn! while the skies resounded with the huzzas, shoutings, or hootings and hissings in Palace-Yard. This scene of unprecedented alarm continued for about half-an-hour." shend that the peers should go forth as a body, and attempt the rescue of Lord Boston. This proposal was still debating, rather too slowly for its object, when Lord Boston himself came in, with his hair dishevelled and his clothes covered with hair-powder. He had been exposed to especial danger through a wholly unfounded suggestion, from some persons in the crowd, that he was a Roman Catholic; upon which the multitude, with loud imprecations, had threatened to cut the sign of the cross upon his forehead. But he had the skill to engage some of the ringleaders in a controversy on the question whether the Pope be Antichrist; and, while they were eagerly discussing that favourite point, he contrived to slip through them. After such alarms, however, the peers did not resume the original debate. They summoned to the bar two of the Middlesex magistrates, who declared that they had received no orders from the Government, and that, with all their exertions since the beginning of the tumult, they had only been able to collect six constables. Finally, at eight o'clock, the House adjourned till the morrow; and the peers, favoured by the dusk, returned home on foot, or in hackney carriages, with no further insult or obstruction. It was proposed by Lord Town- | their danger was far greater, since the infuriated multitude, finding no resistance, burst into, and kept possession of, the lobby. Here they raised shouts of " No popery!" "No popery!" and "Repeal! Repeal!" Meanwhile, Lord George Gordon, seconded by Alderman Bull, was presenting their great Protestant petition, and moving that the House should consider it in committee forthwith. On the other side it was proposed that this committee should be deferred until Tuesday the 6th. When, however, upon this point a division was demanded, it was found impracticable. Neither the ayes nor the noes could go forth, thronged as was the lobby with strangers, and unable, as the sergeant-at-arms declared himself, to clear it. During the debates, Lord George endeavoured to keep up the spirit of his friends, by showing himself at the top of the gallery-stairs, and making several harangues to the noisy concourse in the lobby. He exhorted them by all means to persevere; and told them, from time to time, the names of the members who were speaking against them. "There is Mr. Burke," he said, the member for Bristol;" and soon afterwards, "Do you know that Lord North calls you a mob?" Thus, their fury increasing, the House, at intervals, resounded with their cries of "No popery!" and their violent knocks at the door. General Conway and Lord Frederick Campbell, that same evening at supper, said there was The members of the Commons, as less conspicuous in their equipages than the peers, were not so much molested in passing to their House. But when once assembled, 66 a moment when they thought they | Lord Mahon, who was known to must have opened the doors and fought their way out sword in hand. Lord North, however, at this crisis showed great firmness, animating the resolution of the House by his unperturbed demeanour, but sending privately, and in all haste, for a party of the Guards. Other members made it a personal matter with Lord George. Colonel Holroyd told him that he had hitherto ascribed his conduct to insanity; but now saw that there was more of malice than of madness in it; and that, if he again attempted to address the rioters, he, Colonel Holroyd, would immediately move for his commitment to Newgate. Colonel Murray, one of Lord George's kinsmen, used still bolder language: "My Lord George, do you really mean to bring your rascally adherents into the House of Commons ? If you do, the first man of them that enters I will plunge my sword, not into his body, but into yours!" Lord George appears to have been daunted. Certainly, at least, he was silenced. Indeed, in one part of the evening, he quietly went up into the eating-room, where he threw himself into a chair and fell asleep, or nearly so, while listening to some excellent admonitions from Mr. Bowen, the chaplain of the House. Failing the incitements of Lord George, the crowd within the lobby grew less fierce. Out of doors, moreover, great exertions were making to allay the storm. many of the people as a recent candidate for Westminster, harangued them from the balcony of a coffee-house, and is said to have done good service to the cause of law and order. In this manner time was gained until towards nine o'clock, when an active Middlesex justice, Mr. Addington, appeared with a party of Horse Guards. Mr. Addington told the people in the streets that he meant them no harm, and that the soldiers should retire if they would quietly disperse, which many hundreds of them did accordingly, first giving the magistrate three cheers. A party of the Foot Guards was also drawn up in the Court of Requests, and the lobby was now cleared; thus, at length, enabling the House of Commons to divide. Only eight members were found willing to support Lord Gordon in his ignominious proposal for immediate deliberation, at the bidding and in the presence of the mob. Against that proposal 194 votes, including tellers, were recorded; and the House was then adjourned until the Tuesday following. With the adjournment of both Houses, and the dispersion of the crowd in Palace-Yard, it was imagined that the difficulties of the day had closed. The magis trates returned home and sent away the soldiers. Unhappily, several parties of the rioters were intent on further mischief. pairing to the two Roman Catholic chapels of the Sardinian and Re |