The Reign of George III. - (Continued.) page 5

A strong party, not satisfied with having destroyed lord Mansfield's town house, set off to burn that at Caen Wood, near Highgate. They were met and turned back by a detachment of cavalry. They were equally disappointed in their intended sack of the Bank of England. They found this mine of wealth guarded by " Arimaspians " in the shape of infantry, who had here orders to fire, and did it without scruple, killing and wounding a great many. They were more successful against the prisons. They broke open the King's Bench, the Fleet, the Marshalsea, and all the other prisons except the Poultry Compter, and set at liberty all the prisoners. They plundered the toll-houses on Black- friars Bridge, and then burnt down these and other houses and all the prisons except the Poultry Compter. There were many other public buildings on their list to be destroyed; the Mansion House, the British Museum, the Royal Exchange, and the Tower amongst them.

" The sight of the metropolis," says Dr. Johnson, " at this period was dreadful. Before the day had dawned, the whole sky was glaring with the light of conflagrations. The number of separate fires burning at the same time was counted up to thirty-six. Had the weather been stormy, the whole of London must have been laid in ashes; but, providentially, the weather was perfectly calm. The scene of the greatest catastrophe was at the distillery of a Mr. Langdale, on Holborn Bridge. This gentleman was a catholic, and his stores of spirits were a violent temptation. They broke open his premises in the evening, and destroyed everything. They staved in his hogsheads of spirits, and others collected them in pails and in their hats, and drank voraciously. The kennel ran a mingled river of gin, brandy, and pure alcohol, and men, women, and children were seen on their knees sucking up the stream as it flowed! Fire was set to the premises, and catching the spirits which flooded the floors, the flames shot up to the sky like a volcano. The unhappy wretches, who had stupefied themselves with the fiery fluid, perished like flies in the raging element. No such scene of horror had been seen in all these spectacles of violence and crime. The loss of Mr. Langdale alone was estimated at one hundred thousand pounds.

Up to this point, the whole government and magistracy appeared as much stupefied as the poor miserables who had perished in the flames of the distillery. The same sheer imbecility which had marked the whole conduct of the ministry from the commencement of the American. war, distinguished them now. With abundant warnings of the growth of the tumult, no measures had been taken in preparation. When the outrages had begun, they met in council and treated that which all persons of any sagacity saw was tending to infinite damage, as a mere trivial affair. When the monster riot had assumed all its terrible, and ruinous, and murderous greatness, North and his colleagues sate like men under a nightmare, showing no ability to cope with the popular frenzy. The king was the first to awake from this fatal lethargy. He summoned a council on this memorable morning, at which he presided, and demanded what they had to propose for the suppression of these unparalleled disorders. Such had been the cowardly spirit ol ministers, according to the memoirs of the duke of Grafton, that their servants had been going about with the blue cockade in their hats. At the king's question, the whole cabinet appeared dumb foundered. They reminded the king of the avidity with which juries in 1768 passed verdicts against officers for the discharge of their military duty in the riots which followed lord Barrington's letter of thanks for their services. It was the general opinion that no officer could proceed to extremities against a mob, however it might be breaking the law, until an hour after the riot act had been read by a magistrate. This was a monstrous perversion of the meaning of that act; but, had even this been zealously followed out, the riots must have been promptly suppressed. Officers, however, had sat for many hours together on their horses, with their troops, quietly watching the destructive fury of the crowd. There had prevailed one general stupor of cowardice and feebleness. Luckily, at this moment Wedderburn, the attorney-general, answered the king's interrogation boldly, that the riot act bore no such construction as was put upon it. In his opinion, no single hour was required for the dispersion of a mob after the reading of the riot act; and not even the reading of the act at all was necessary for the authorisation of military force where a mob was found actually committing a felony by firing a dwelling-house, and could not be restrained by other means.

Encouraged by Wedderburn's declaration, the king declared that that had always been his own opinion, and that now he would act upon it. There should be, at least, one magistrate in the kingdom who would do his duty. The council, gathering courage, then concurred, and a proclamation was issued, warning all householders to keep within doors with their families, the king's officers being now ordered to put down the riots by military execution, without waiting for any further reading of the riot act.

This proclamation was speedily followed by the steady march of soldiers to various quarters. At one moment was heard the load roar of innumerable voices in the full commission of outrage, and at the next the rattle of musketry and the shrieks of the wounded and dying, followed by a strange silence. The first troops who commenced the bloody duty of repression were the Northumberland militia, who had come that day by a forced march of twenty-five miles, and who were led by colonel Holroyd against the rioters at Langdale's distillery in Holborn. A detachment of the guards at the same time drove the mob from the possession of Blackfriars Bridge. Numbers were there killed, or were forced by the soldiers or their own fears over the parapet of the bridge, and perished in the Thames. Where the mob would not disperse, the officers now firmly gave the word of command, and the soldiers fired in platoons. Little resistance was offered; in many quarters the inhabitants, recovering their presence of mind, armed themselves, and came forth in bodies to assist the soldiers. The number of troops now assembled in and around London amounted to twenty-five thousand, and before night the whole city was as quiet - far quieter, indeed - than on ordinary occasions, for a sorrowful silence seemed to pervade it; and besides two hundred men shot in the streets, two hundred and fifty were carried to the hospitals wounded, of whom nearly one hundred soon expired. But these bore no proportion to the numbers who had fallen victims to their own excesses, or who had been buried under the ruins of falling buildings, or consumed in the flames in the stupor of intoxication.

On the morning of Thursday, the 8th of June, the metropolis had, to a degree, resumed its usual aspect. All was quiet. The shops, indeed, continued closed, and no business was transacted, except at the Bank of England. Numbers of people were seen lying about asleep after their frightful carouse - on bulks and stalls, and at the doors of empty houses. Men, women, and children were sleeping off the fumes of their debauch, and some of them were women with infants in their arms. The city looked, in places, as if it had been sacked by an invading army. Amid the smoking ruins of prisons and other buildings, firemen were seen endeavouring to extinguish the smouldering combustion- Troops were stationed in the Parks, the Museum Gardens, Lincoln's Inn Fields, at the Royal Exchange, and other places. There was blood on the pavements where the military had fired on the crowd, but the crowd itself had vanished, and was, doubtless, sunk in drowsy oblivion of its worst excesses.

On the morning of Friday, the 9th, the law courts resumed their sittings, the shops were again opened, and business resumed its regular course. The author of all these calamities, lord George Gordon, was arrested that day at his house in Welbeck Street, by a secretary of state's warrant. He gave himself up with the strange remark, " If you are sure it is me you want, I am ready to attend you." He showed little spirit or sense when brought before the privy council, and was committed to the Tower on a charge of high treason. A strong guard escorted him to his prison but it was needless; his furious adherents were now tame enough, and half-a-dozen constables would have been amply sufficient for his security. A rumour having been circulated that the prisoners were to be tried by martial law, government issued a proclamation contradicting it.

Both houses of parliament met, according to adjournment, on the 19th, and the king delivered a speech in justification of the strong measures which he had adopted in suppressing the riot. The only fault in the public mind was, that these measures had been so long delayed. Had the government adopted them at once, these riots would have been instantly suppressed, and the lamentable loss of life and property prevented. Certainly no ministry ever showed so utter a lack of business-like tact and energy, or so justly deserved the censure of the public. Addresses were moved in each house, thanking his majesty for his paternal care of the public interest, and they were very properly carried, with scarcely a dissentient voice, for he was the only man in office who had shown the least spirit. Lord Mansfield, in the peens, defended the employment of the military. What was heard with extreme surprise was his statement, that he had never been present at any consultation relative to taking effective measures earlier, never was summoned to attend any consultations on that head, nor had his opinion been asked, nor had he heard the reasons which induced the government to remain passive so long, and to act at last. The wonder was very natural, for this assertion was directly opposed to the equally positive one, that the question was discussed in his presence in the privy council on the Monday morning, and that he treated the danger lightly; equally opposed to the statement of the warning from Mr. Strahan, and his similar reply. But, as all had been apathetic or inapprehensive at first, so all were ready, now the mischief had occurred, to excuse themselves.

In speaking of the legality of the martial measures, lord Mansfield referred to the loss of his library. " I have not," he said, " consulted books - indeed, I have no books to consult." This simple passing allusion to so great a calamity, produced a deep effect on his auditors, and he went on to say, " His majesty, and those who have advised him, I repeat it, have acted in strict conformity to the common law. The military have been called in, and very wisely called in - not as soldiers, but as citizens. No matter whether their coats be red or brown, they were employed, not to subvert but to preserve the laws and constitution which we all so highly prize."

This speech of lord Mansfield - regarded as one of the finest he ever made - has always been referred to as high authority on this point, the employment of military in cases of riot. In fact, the speech expresses the simple constitutional law on the subject; it goes not an atom beyond it. Soldiers are to be employed to suppress riot where civil authority fails, but only under that civil authority. The riot act must be read by a magistrate, and then the military authority may legally be exercised without further ceremony, where a mob is in actual commission of destruction of property. As lord Mansfield expressed it, their act then ceases to be mere riot, it becomes felony. The doctrine, however, did not escape animadversion from the dukes of Richmond and Manchester; and some parties out of doors averred that lord Mansfield seemed to think, his law books being burnt, all law books were burnt.

The next day, the 20th of June, the commons entered on the consideration of the great protestant petition, praying for the repeal of Sir George Saville's act for the relief of catholics. On this occasion, Burke and lord North went hand in hand. Burke drew up five resolutions, which North corrected. These resolutions declared that all attempts to seduce the youth of this kingdom from the established church to popery were criminal in the highest degree, but that all attempts to wrest the act of 1778 beyond its due meaning, and to the unnecessary injury of catholics, were equally reprehensible. Burke, lord North, lord Beauchamp, Fox, and Wilkes, all spoke in favour of toleration. Alderman Bull and Sir Joseph Mawbey took the intolerant side. Fox spoke for upwards of two hours, saying, "I am a friend to universal toleration, and an enemy to that narrow way of thinking that makes men come to parliament, not for the removal of some great grievances felt by them, but to desire parliament to shackle and fetter their fellow-subjects." Burke spoke still longer, declaring that he was a firm friend to the established church, but an enemy to intolerance and persecution. John Wilkes, on the whole of this occasion, had shown himself remarkably wise and courageous. He had headed the armed inhabitants of his ward for the defence of the peace there; and now he severely condemned Kennett, the lord- mayor, and alderman Bull, who was taking the bigoted side in this debate. Bull had gone about the city arm-in-arm with lord George Gordon, with the blue cockade in his hat, and had allowed the constables of his ward to wear them. Wilkes declared, that if the lord mayor had done his duty, the riot would have been quashed in its birth.

The most melancholy sight was that of Sir George Saville, who, alarmed at the consequences of his bill of 1778, now seemed anxious to explain away his former votes, and to neutralise the bill which had done him so much honour. He brought in another bill to deprive the catholics of the right of keeping schools, or receiving youth of either sex as boarders at their houses. Not content with this, he moved another clause in it, to prevent Roman catholics taking protestant children as apprentices. This was opposed by lord Beauchamp, as a restriction upon trade, but it was carried; and Burke, in great indignation, declared that he would have nothing more to do with the measure. He went further: he drew up a strong petition against it to the lords, and, fortunately, the bill was there thrown out, the bishops, for the most part, very laudably voting against it. When the estimates were sent in of the losses occasioned by the riots, Sir George Saville as well as lord Mansfield most liberally declined making any claim for compensation.