1730. MARCH OF THE MOB TO PALACE YARD. 347

of its strength, in the shape of a petition to Parliament. A hundred and twenty thousand signatures were obtained to the London petition, and Lord George Gordon, at a meeting of the Protestant Association, made an inflammatory speech, at which he announced his intention of presenting the petition on the 2nd of June, on condition that he was accompanied to the House of Commons by at least twenty thousand of the petitioners.

On the appointed day an immense concourse of people assembled in St. George's Fields;

March from

Fields.

and having been formed into several di- St. George's visions, they marched in ranks to Palace Yard. They soon occupied the approaches to the Houses of Parliament; and in the absence of any military or police force, the whole neighbourhood of Westminster Hall was in undisturbed possession of an excited and fanatical populace, mingled with whom was the rabble of London, always ready to take advantage of any opportunity for mischief and plunder. The members of both Houses who had professed, or were supposed to entertain, rational and humane views with regard to the Roman Catholics, were waylaid and insulted. Some were robbed, and not a few narrowly escaped with their lives. By a remarkable coincidence, the Lords had been summoned on that day for a motion which, under the circumstances, would seem to have been intended as a satire upon representative institutions. While a raging mob, under the guidance of a maniac, filled the streets of Westminster, and almost penetrated to the chambers of the legislature itself, the Duke of Richmond was haranguing his peers on the abuses of the Government, and recommending annual Parliaments and universal suffrage as the best means of placing the representative system on a safe and enduring foundation. The entrance of several peers and prelates with affrighted looks and dishevelled garments, newly

348 PROCEEDINGS OF THE NO POPERY MOB. CH. XXIV.

escaped from the hands of the people who, according to the Duke's plan, would form the bulk of the metropolitan constituency, had no effect upon His Grace's argument. On the contrary, he complained of the interruption, when a peer rushed into the House, and exclaimed that Lord Boston, one of their body, had been dragged out of his coach, and would. probably lose his life if he were not immediately rescued from the infuriated populace. To make the matter completely ridiculous, Lord Townshend moved that the House should adjourn in a body to the rescue of their peer; and while the question was under debate, whether the House should be attended by the mace on this occasion, Lord Boston was engaged in a warm discussion with the rioters as to the identity of the Pope with Antichrist. By a presence of mind, similar to that by which persons have sometimes parried the attacks of lunatics, Lord Boston probably saved his life; for while the interesting controversy which he had raised was at its height, he contrived to mingle with the crowd and elude his captors. The Duke of Richmond was obliged to postpone the question of universal suffrage to a more convenient season; and the Lords having ascertained from two Middlesex magistrates, whom they called to the bar, that the civil force immediately available amounted to only six constables, each peer lost no time in taking measures for his own personal safety; and Lord Mansfield, who officiated as Speaker on that day, was at length left alone to adjourn the House. In the Commons a scene of still greater excitement was witnessed. The mob swarmed through the passages, filled the lobby of the House, and thundered at the door. There was nothing to prevent them from bursting into the chamber itself, but a kind of awe restrained them at the threshold. Within the walls Lord George Gordon, raising his voice amidst the clamour and incessant cries of No

Scene in the
Commons.

1780.

SCENE IN THE HOUSE OF COMMONS.

349

Popery' outside, moved that the Protestant petition should be taken into consideration forthwith; but against this ignominious proposal, the House had the spirit and firmness to protest. An amendment was proposed, that the House should resolve itself into a committee on a day in the following week. While this question was under debate, Lord George Gordon frequently left the House to report the proceedings to his followers in the lobby-conduct which so incensed the members, that several of them threatened him with personal chastisement; and Colonel Murray, one of his own relatives, declared, that if the mob entered the House, he would immediately pass his sword through Lord George's body. The wretched fanatic, who appears to have been wholly deficient in the personal daring which fanatics generally possess, was intimidated by these menaces, and desisted from addressing the people outside. A party of Life Guards soon after appeared, under the orders of a magistrate; and the lobby and passages being cleared, the House were enabled to divide upon the motion to take the Protestant petition into prompt consideration. Out of a House of two hundred and four members, nine only, including tellers, were found sufficiently pusillanimous or perverse to vote in favour of the motion. After the division the House adjourned without having experienced further molestation. But the mob, which had dispersed on the arrival of the Life Guards in Palace Yard, reassembled in other parts of the town. A Roman Catholic chapel in Lincoln's Inn Fields, and another in Warwick Street, belonging respectively to the Sardinian and Bavarian embassies, were attacked, plundered, and burnt down, before military aid could be procured.

The next day order appeared to have resumed its ascendancy; but towards evening a crowd Mob in assembled in Moorfields, a quarter much Moorfields. resorted to by the Catholics. Menaces were uttered,

350 SIR GEORGE SAVILE'S HOUSE ATTACKED. CH. XXIV.

but no material damage was done; and neither the Government nor the City authorities thought it necessary to take measures for the preservation of the peace. On the ensuing day, which was Sunday, the mob, finding their proceedings uninterrupted, broke open the Roman Catholic chapel, together with several private houses in Moorfields, and destroyed the furniture. On the Monday a Privy Council was held, and a reward of five hundred pounds was offered for the apprehension of the persons who had been concerned in the outrages on the chapels belonging to the ambassadors; but, as it was thought the disturbances had subsided, no other extraordinary measure was taken for the punishment of the wrongdoers, or the prevention of further mischief. The consequence of this impunity was, that the tumults, which might have been suppressed without difficulty in the first instance, were revived with increased virulence, and soon assumed the appearance of a popular insurrection. On the day the proclamation was issued, not only were other Catholic chapels pulled down, but the houses of persons supposed to be friendly to the Catholics were attacked. The mansion of Sir George Savile, the eminent member for Yorkshire, who had been foremost in promoting the relaxation of Catholic disabilities, was ransacked and plundered. And that people might be deterred from bringing them to justice, the rioters inflicted vengeance on two tradesmen who had given evidence against some of their friends, by breaking into their shops and destroying the stockin-trade.

Gaols broken open.

On the two succeeding days the metropolis was abandoned to the populace. The principal gaols, including the strong prison of Newgate, were partially destroyed, and the prisoners liberated. The habitations of several magistrates were burnt. The house of the venerable Mansfield, with all its contents, comprising many valuable manuscripts

1780.

NARROW ESCAPE OF LORD MANSFIELD.

351

The

and works of art, was committed to the flames. Chief Justice himself, with his aged countess, barely succeeded in effecting their escape. These outrages were witnessed, and might have been prevented, by a party of the Foot Guards; but no magistrate could be found to read the Riot Act, and without this ceremony it was absurdly supposed that a military force could not legally interfere to suppress a tumult taking place before their eyes. At length a justice of the peace appeared on the spot, and hastily muttered the words of the statute within sight of a few drunken wretches, who were thereupon shot down in due form of law, as it was supposed, by the soldiers present.

The mob which attacked Lord Mansfield's house are said to have abstained from plunder, Attack at Lord and even to have cast the plate into the Mansfield's. flames. But a different spirit was exhibited by the rioters in other parts of the town. Numerous householders were permitted to purchase immunity from damage or loss of property by pecuniary tributes; and pillage to a great amount was carried away.

At length, on the 7th of June, being the fifth day of the riots, the King directed that a 7th of Junecouncil should be held, and that every special council. member of the Board should be summoned. At this important council, upon the prompt decision of which the fate of the capital depended, the King presided in person. But none of his councillors ventured to offer any advice adequate to the occasion. Every man felt that there was but one mode of suppressing the tumult-namely, by military force. But no man was willing to take the responsibility of advising such a measure. It was not forgotten that, twelve years before, the magistrate who had ordered the soldiers. to act, and the soldiers who obeyed his orders, had been indicted for murder; and on this very occasion, when the deliberations of Parliament were interrupted