tive fury of the crowd. There had prevailed one general endeavouring to extinguish the smouldering combustion. stupor of cowardice and feebleness. Luckily, at this moment Troops were stationed in the Parks, the Museum Gardens, Wedderburn, the attorney-general, answered the king's Lincoln's Inn Fields, at the Royal Exchange, and other interrogation boldly, that the riot act bore no such construc- places. There was blood on the pavements where the tion as was put upon it. In his opinion, no single hour military had fired on the crowd, but the crowd itself had was required for the dispersion of a mob after the reading vanished, and was, doubtless, sunk in drowsy oblivion of its of the riot act; and not even the reading of the act at worst excesses. 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 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, govern. ment 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 peers, 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 hal 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 be 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 แ 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." carried; and Burke, in great indignation, declared that he 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 The session was closed by the king on the 8th of July, in riot act must be read by a magistrate, and then the a speech in which, after noticing the unhappy occurrence military authority may legally be exercised without further of the riots, he announced the prosperous condition of the ceremony, where a mob is in actual commission of destruc-affairs of the American war, and still flattered himself tion 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. that his subjects there would be brought to a reunion with the parent state. These anticipations were premature; the successes were only temporary. In the course of July the rioters were brought to trial. Those prisoners confined in the city were tried at the regular Old Bailey sessions; those on the Surrey side of the river by a special commission. The lord chief justice De Grey, being in failing health, resigned, and Wedderburn took his place as lord chief justice, under the title of lord Loughborough. His appointment gave great satisfaction; but this was considerably abated by his speech at the opening of the commission, in which he indulged in very severe strictures on the rioters, who had to appear before him as judge. Of the one hundred and thirty-five tried, about one-half were convicted, of whom twenty-one were executed, and the rest transported for life. Amongst the convicted was Edward Dennis, the common hangman; but he received a reprieve. The trial of lord George Gordon was postponed through a technical cause till the following January, when he was ably defended by Mr. Kenyon and Mr. Erskine; and the public mind having cooled, he was acquitted. Probably, the con viction of his insanity tended greatly to this result, which became more and more apparent-his last strange freak being that of turning Jew. 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 lordmayor, and alderman Bull, who was taking the bigoted side in this debate. Bull had gone about the city arm-in-hostile nations; thus, whilst under a nominal alliance, they 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 From this episode of fire and fanaticism we recur to the general theme of the war with Spain, France, and America, in which England was every day becoming more deeply engaged. From the moment that Spain had joined France in the war against us, other powers, trusting to our embarrassments with our colonies and those great European powers, had found it a lucrative trade to supply, under neutral flags, warlike materials and other articles to the actually furnished the sinews of war against us. In this particular, Holland, the next great commercial people to ourselves, took the lead. She furnished ammunition and stores to the Spaniards, who all this while were engaged in besieging Gibraltar. Spain had also made a treaty with the Barbary States, by which she cut off our supplies from those countries. To relieve Gibraltar, admiral Sir George Rodney, who was now appointed to the command of our navy in the West Indies, was ordered to touch there on his way out. On the 8th of January, when he had been only a few days out at sea, he came in sight of a Spanish fleet, consisting of five armed vessels, convoying fifteen merchantmen, all of which he captured. These vessels were chiefly laden with wheat, flour, and other provisions, greatly A.D. 1780.] ACTION OFF CAPE ST. VINCENT. 255 needed at Gibraltar, and which he carried in with him, treacherous shore, continued the fight, and the Spaniards sending the men-of-war to England. On the 16th he fell in with another fleet off Cape St. Vincent, of eleven ships of the line, under Don Juan de Langara, who had come out to intercept the provisions which England sent to Gibraltar. Rodney had a much superior fleet, and the Spanish admiral immediately attempted to regain his port. The weather was for a time defended themselves bravely. The battle continued till two o'clock in the morning; one ship, the San Domingo, of seventy guns, blew up with six hundred men, early in the action; four ships of the line, including the admiral's, of eighty guns, struck, and were carried by Rodney safe into port; two seventy-gun ships ran on the dispatched admiral Digby home with a portion of the fleet, and then with the rest made sail for the West Indies. Digby, on his homeward route, also captured a French ship of the line and two merchant vessels laden with military stores. This blow to the Spanish maritime power was never altogether recovered during the war. Other English captains were nearly as successful as Digby. Rodney, on arriving in the West Indies, found a combined fleet of French under the count De Guichen, and of Spanish under admiral Solano; but he was not able to bring them to a general engagement, and they eventually managed to elude him, Solano taking refuge in the Havannah, and De Guichen conveying the home-bound merchant ships of France. Disappointed in his hopes of a conflict with these foes, he sailed for the North American coasts. Scarcely had he quitted the European waters, however, when the Spaniards took a severe revenge for his victory over them at St. Vincent. Florida Blanca, the minister of Spain, learnt, through his spies in England, that the English East and West Indian traders were going out under a very foolishly feeble escort-in fact, of only two ships of the line. Probably the great defeat of the Spaniards at St. Vincent had made the English government rashly confident, for nothing but the rashest confidence could have sent out such a fleet, freighted with two millions' sterling worth of merchandise, in a time of war, when French and Spanish squadrons were abroad. Elated at the news, Florida Blanca collected every vessel that he could, and dispatched them, under admirals Cordova and Gaston, to intercept this precious prize. The enterprise was most successful. The Spanish fleet lay in wait at the point where the East and West India vessels separate, off the Azores, captured sixty sail of merchantmen, and carried them safe into Cadiz. Never, it was said, had so rich a booty entered that port before. The two vessels of war escaped, but in the East Indiamen were eighteen hundred soldiers going out to reinforce the troops in the East. This, though it was a severe blow to our trade, was but a small part of the damage which the active spirit of Florida Blanca did us. He promoted with all his energies the system of armed neutrality which had long been projected on the continent to cripple our power. As we have said, many nations-Swedes, Danes, Russians, and Hamburgers, but pre-eminently the Dutch-whilst professing alliance, or at least neutrality, as regarded us, were secretly sustaining our enemies-the French, Spanish, and Americans-by carrying them not only general merchandise, but actually military stores. England knew that if she permitted this process there was little chance of bringing any of her antagonists to terms; she therefore insisted rigidly on the right of search, and on the seizure of all such contraband articles under whatever flag they were conveyed. Not only did Holland supply France and Spain in Europe, but she allowed the American privateers to carry their English prizes into their West Indian ports for sale. All this time Holland was not only bound by the most immense obligations to this country for the millions of money and the tens of thousands of men which we had sacrificed for the security of her independence against France, but she was also bound by treaty to furnish us certain aids when we were attacked by France. From the year 1778 Sir Joseph Yorke, our ambassador at the Hague, had made continual remonstrances against this clandestine trade with our enemies; and France, on the other hand, had, by alternate menaces and persuasions, exerted herself to induce the Dutch to set England at defiance. In this she succeeded to a great extent. Count Welderen, the Dutch ambassador in London, complained of the interruptions of their trade by the English, and continued to ship supplies to France and America. Sir Joseph Yorke, on the other hand, assured the States General that we should be ever ready to restore any goods seized that were not strictly contraband, but that the combination of France and Spain against us, to maintain the rebellion of our colonies, rendered vigilance indispensably necessary; that any ships seized for carrying contraband articles should be restored on the easiest and most amicable terms. He also reminded them that the king of England had refrained from claiming the succours stipulated for by the most explicit treaties, and to be rendered on demand under circumstances like the present; that, more than this, it was not the wish of his Britannic majesty to interfere with the exportation of any articles to France, except warlike and naval stores. Sir Joseph assured them that, having been official resident at the court of Holland for seven-and-twenty years, their high mightinesses had always found him most zealously disposed towards them, and might now estimate accordingly the sincerity of his assurances. This statement called forth a similar appeal from the duke de Vauguyon, the French ambassador, accompanied with a menace, that if they did not resist the claims of England, France would withdraw the advantages promised to their flag. The Dutch were not bold enough to encounter at once the vengeance of England, and France therefore issued an order, revoking all the privileges promised to the flag of Holland, except so far as regarded the inhabitants of Amsterdam. Much correspondence ensued, the Dutch maintaining a specious neutrality, but still continuing to carry timber and naval stores to France. Sir Joseph Yorke was therefore instructed to demand from the States the succours stipulated by treaties, and which might have been demanded the moment that France declared war against England. He observed that Spain had now joined France, and that the moment was arrived for the Dutch government to show their sense of all the blood and money which England expended for the defence of their country and the protestant religion; or whether she was to be left, now her turn of trial came, to contend against the whole house of Bourbon alone, abandoned by those whom she had so long and so essentially served. The result was precisely such as has always been the case when generous and prodigal England has called for a return of her gigantic efforts for the continental nations. Four months were suffered to elapse without an answer, and, before this period had passed, the Dutch had offered a fresh insult to her ancient and quixotic ally, by allowing Paul Jones to bring into their ports the English prizes taken off Scarborough. Sir Joseph Yorke demanded that the ruffian, who was at once a rebel and a pirate, should be |