guage reprobated the conduct of those men who had thus receded from the folemn engagements they had fo recently entered into; and Mr. Dunning fcrupled not to charge these members with direct treachery to the nation, confidering this refolution as an effectual bar to all future means and efforts of redress. So indeed it proved; for when, on a subsequent resumption of the fubject, he moved, " that the two resolutions passed on the 10th of April be reported," a motion was made from the oppofite fide of the house, "that the chairman leave the chair," which, on a divifion, was carried by a majority of 177 to 134 voices:-and thus miferably ended those deliberations, which once displayed fo fair and flattering a profpect of political reform; and thus contemptuously were the petitions of more than one hundred thousand electors configned to everlasting oblivion.

It is neceffary to recall to our recollection, that an act of parliament had passed in the course of the feffion of 1778, relieving the Roman Catholics from fome of the heavier penalties inflicted upon them in the last century. This act seemed to be well approved in England; but the fanatical spirit, unextinguished fince the days of Knox, and which at the present period discovered itself by unequivocal symptoms in Scotland, prevented the extenfion of this very defective and imperfect toleration to that kingdom. On the bare fufpicion of the intended indulgence, great tumults took place at Edinburgh and Glasgow, the popish chapel in the metropolis was destroyed, and the houses of the principal catholics attacked and plundered; on which the lord provost published a fingular proclamation, afcribing the riots to the " apprehenfions, fears, and distressed minds of well-meaning people, and affuring them that no repeal of the penal statutes would take place." Encouraged by this wretched pufillanimity, the fanatics formed themselves into a society, styled the " proteftant affociation," to oppose any remiffion of the present perfecuting cuting laws against the papists, and of this affociation lord George Gordon was chofen president, a man in the higheft degree wild, eccentric, and enthusiastical. This affo ciation was gradually extended to England, and much pains were taken by inflammatory harangues and pamphlets to prejudice the minds of the vulgar against the late wife and falutary relaxation of the penal code. It was at length determined to prepare a petition for a repeal of the law in question, which is affirmed to have obtained one hundred and twenty thousand signatures, or marks, of men of the lowest orders of fociety, whose excess of zeal could be equalled only by the grossness of their ignorance; -a combination of qualities at once ridiculous and terrible. Lord George Gordon, who was himself a member of the house of commons, declined to present this petition, unless he were accompanied to the house by at least twenty thousand men.

A public meeting of the association was, in consequence, convened in St. George's Fields, June 2, 1780, whence it was supposed that not less than fifty thousand persons proceeded in regular divisions, with lord George Gordon at their head, to the house of commons, where their petition was presented by their prefident. Towards evening this multitude began to grow very tumultuous, and grofsly insulted various members of both houses, compelling them in passing to and from the house to cry, NO POPERY! and to wear blue cockades. During the debate on the petition, lord George Gordon frequently addressed the mob without, in terms calculated to inflame their paffions, and expressly stating to them, " that the people of Scotland had no redress till they pulled down the popish chapels." After the adjournment of the house, the mob, on this suggestion, immediately proceeded to the demolition of the chapels of the Sardinian and Bavarian ambassadors. The military being ordered out could not prevent the mischief, but apprehended various of the ringleaders.

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The next day, Saturday, paffed quietly; but on Sunday the rioters re-assembled in vast numbers, and destroyed the chapels and private dwellings belonging to the principal catholics in the vicinity of Moorfields.

On Monday they extended their devastations to other parts of the town; and fir George Savile's house, in Leicester fields, was totally demolished by these blind and barbarous bigots-that diftinguished senator and patriot having had the honor to be the first mover of the bill.

On Tuesday, the day appointed for taking the petition into confideration, the mob again surrounded the parliament house, and renewed their outrages and insults. The house, after passing some resolutions adapted to the occafion, and expressive of their just indignation, immediately adjourned. In the evening the populace, now grown more daring than ever, attacked the prison of newgate, where their comrades were confined, with aftonishing resolution; and, setting the building in flames, liberated more than three hundred felons and debtors resident within its walls. Encouraged by the impunity with which they had hitherto acted, they now proceeded to lord Manffield's house in Bloomsbury Square, which they totally demolished, his lordship escaping not without difficulty, The prifons of Clerkenwell were also forced, many private houses plundered or destroyed, and scarcely did the night afford any cessation of the riots.

On the fucceeding day, the mob, rendered more defperate by the mischiefs and villanies they had already perpetrated, attacked with incredible fury the houses of various individuals, chiefly catholics, which they had previously marked for destruction. In the evening the king's bench, the fleet prison, and the new compter, were fet on fire, and, with a prodigious number of private dwellings in different parts of the town burning at the same time, formed a tremendous scene of conflagration, to which

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which London, since the great fire of 1666, had seen no thing parallel or fimilar.

The saine day attempts were made by the rioters on the bank and pay-office; but these, being strongly guarded, happily escaped that destruction which must have involved the whole nation in irreparable distress and ruin. What appeared most to excite the public indignation was the criminal fupineness of the magistracy of London * during these horrible commotions, apparently threatening to lay the metropolis of the empire level with the ground, and. which actually presented in many parts the image of a city stormed and facked.

At length the king himself declared, with laudable resolution, in council, "that, although the magistrates had not done their duty, he would not be deficient in his," and general orders were immediately transmitted to the military to fire upon the rioters, without waiting for directions from the civil magistrate, in consequence of which the flaughter was terrible; but in a short time the commotions were effectually suppressed, and by Thursday noon order and tranquillity were perfectly restored.

On that day lord George Gordon was taken into cuftody, and, after a strict examination before the privy council, committed close prisoner to the tower on a charge of HIGH TREASON, for which there does not appear to have been fufficient ground, and on his trial he was subsequently acquitted. An impeachment by the house of commons for high crimes and misiemeanors would have been a mode of procedure far more eligible and efficacious, and would indubitably have insured that punishment which his rash and infolent conduct so justly merited.

A special

!

A special commission was issued for the trial of the rioters, of whom a very great number, consisting of men very opposite in description and character, were apprehended. Lord Chief Justice De Grey, whose mild and benignant difpofition, as well as his infirm health, was ill-fuited to this painful task, willingly refigning his office; the attorney general Wedderburne was advanced to the chief jufticeship, under the title of lord Loughborough. The multiplicity combined with the precipitate and indifcriminate severity of the sentences, passed in his judicial capacity by this magistrate upon the rioters, far exceeded any thing known in this country fince the days of Judge Jefferies: such indeed as left the memory of these tranfactions impressed upon the public mind in indelible characters of blood.

On the 19th of June the parliament met pursuant to their adjournment, and the king going in state to the house of peers, made a very judicious speech, "lamenting the neceffity which had obliged him, by every tie of duty and affection to his people, to employ the force entrusted to him for the fuppreffion of those acts of felony and treason, which had overborne all civil authority, and threatened the immediate fubversion of all legal power, the destruction of all property, and the confusion of every order in the state; -at the fame time renewing his affurances, that he had no other object than to make the laws of the realm, and the principles of the constitution, the rule and measure of his conduct."

An address of thanks was deservedly voted in reply to this fpeech, without a single negative. -The general effect of these recent commotions was very favourable to administration, by inspiring a too well-founded dread of popular interposition in any shape or upon any occafion, however apparently tending to the accomplishment of the most defirable and falutary purposes. After this nothing of material import passed in either house of parliament, and VOL. II.

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