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an impassioned and short-sighted po pulace is least willing either to comprehend or submit to with patience. Laying aside, therefore, alike the soundness and the subtleties of economics, the populace only saw, in the proposed bill, a measure for raising the price of grain, the most necessary article of their subsistence, for interposing a legal barrier as it were between the poor and the blessings of a plentiful harvest, and for enriching the corn-factor, farmer, and landholder, the engrossers, as they esteemed them, of the fruits of the earth, at the expence of the poor, who could not exist without that article, of which they held the monopoly. Causes much less nearly affecting the immediate interests of the lower class will often excite riots in great cities; but any measure which touches, or threatens to touch, their subsistence, comes strait home to their business and bosoms, and never fails to do so. In the present instance, the mob of London, like Shakespeare's plebeian Romans, conceived that the object of their misery was but "an inventory to particularize patrician "abundance;❞—their sufferance proposed as a gain to the landed gentry. Their natural disposition to tumult was greatly aided by placards at the corner of every street, which, while ostensibly they only invited the people to petition parliament against the obnoxious measure, had in fact the effect of irritating the public discontent, and instigating the populace to acts of riot and disorder. The consequence was, as in Rome, a cry, "to the Capitol.

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Accordingly, on the 6th of March, when the corn bill was in discussion in a committee of the House of Commons, a riotous mob taking possession of all the avenues to the House, and of the entrance to the lobbies, not only interrupted the members by threats and indignities, but even by acts of

personal violence endeavoured to extort from individuals a promise to oppose the bill. The secretary to the admiralty was insulted, hustled, and even struck, because he refused firmly either to tell his name, or give them any satisfaction concerning his intended vote. He escaped with difficulty from their hands, and made his way into the House, while his servants were maltreated, and his carriage broken to pieces. The power of eloquence was never more favourably displayed than in the case of the Attorney General (Sir W. Garrow), who, by expostulation, succeeded in persuading the rioters to let him enter the House without personal injury, upon a solemn promise that he would vote according to his conscience. Other members were insulted and hustled, one of whom (Sir Frederick Flood), excited some laughter by declaring, that he had been bandied about in the hands of the mob like a basket of mackerel at Billingsgate, and that at one time he verily believed he had been quartered alive. The interference of the peace-officers being unable to put a stop to these disgraceful scenes, the military were sent for to support the civil magistrate, and their exertions, which were made without harming an individual, soon cleared away the mob from Palace-yard, and the avenues to the House of Commons. Their appearance, however, gave such alarm to an honourable Member (Mr Lambton), that, with the feverish apprehension, or affectation of apprehension, of the standing army, which it is thought patriotic to express in season and out of season, he gravely rose, insisted upon know. ing why the House was surrounded by bayonets, and demanded an instant adjournment. At this moment the ears of the honourable member might have been regaled by the clamorous menaces of a furious populace,

assembled in the very lobby of the House, for the avowed purpose of intimidating the members of the legislature in their deliberations; and his eyes, if theirs be the channel of communication he is most in the habit of trust ing, might have read an answer to his question in the marks of ill-usage exhibited by such members as had undergone the discipline of the mob. But, notwithstanding the evidence of his own senses, it was not until several witnesses had been examined at the bar, that Mr Lambton became finally satisfied that the soldiery were brought down, not to overawe the House of Commons, but to protect them from the threats and actual violence of a riotous populace.

Upon the whole (as might have been expected from the British spirit of our legislators) the violence, by which the populace attempted to overawe the House, produced exactly the opposite effect. Several members, whose opinions were not before completely made up, were decided in favour of the bill, from the determination to shew they were not to be debarred from their duty by popular clamour and violence. Many of those who opposed the bill, and had advised that the measure should be at least postponed, now agreed with its supporters that a dilatory course might inspire the populace with a dangerous belief that their measures of intimidation had made some impression, and consented therefore to the immediate and final discussion. And the vote of the night was decisive in favour of the corn bill, by a more triumphant majority than had accompanied the measure in any former stage of its progress. The resentment of the populace did not subside upon their being driven from the vicinity of the House of Commons by the military. They divided into parties, in order, by a simultaneous attack, to destroy the pro

perty and houses of the members un, derstood to favour the corn bill. A small and desperate band, which at first did not exceed seventy or eighty in number, went to the house of the right honourable F. J. Robinson, the original mover of the bil!, and obtaining admittance by a stratagem, proceeded to destroy the whole furniture, with books, pictures, papers, and property of every description, and ended by dashing the windows into the street, and breaking the doors down. Having thus completely sacked the habitation of the obnoxious member with whom the bill originated, they proceeded to those of others, whom they regarded as its supporters. Lord Darnley's house and Mr Yorke's were attacked. The rioters were unable to force admittance into the latter, and were alarmed in their attack upon the former, when they had penetrated into the hall, so that less damage was sustained than at Mr Robinson's.

Neither peace officers nor military appeared in sufficient force to disturb the mob in these riotous proceedings. If this was little creditable to the police of the metropolis, the conduct of two eminent law-lords shewed the firmness and spirit worthy of those selected to administer justice to a great nation. The rabble assembled before the Lord Chancellor's house in Bedford-square, and having giving three cheers, deliberately proceeded to force their way into the premises, by breaking open the doors. Lord Eldon, by a private door, through which he had let out his lady and family into the gardens of the British Museum, introduced two files of soldiers; and finding the mob had succeeded in forcing their way into his house, and were commencing the destruction of his property, his lordship exhibited the Chancellor of England in a new character, by personally leading his military auxiliaries to the charge.

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The rioters fled with great alarm before this inferior, but unexpected force; not, however, till the Lord Chancellor had with his own hand made two of their ringleaders prisoners. Lord Ellenborough behaved with equal spirit. On the mob appearing before his house, and commencing their usual violence, he came out and demanded their purpose; and being answered with menacing shouts of "No corn bill!" he placed before them, in a few brief words, the folly and danger of their conduct, with such effect, that they greeted him with three cheers, and carried their clamours and fury elsewhere. These were the events of the Monday night. It has seldom happened that riots, having been allowed to proceed to a certain height, without an effectual check, subside till they arrive at a fatal crisis. What is in the first day a popular start of violence, becomes on the next a system of organized plunder and destruction. Every great city contains a certain number of persons, to whom theft and rapine are familiar: and in London, at this period, there existed several associations who were led to join in such scenes of tumult, and to aid the thoughtless rioter, and the more determined professional depredator, from the instigation of political zeal. The tumults, therefore, assumed on the Tuesday a more systematic form. The rioters, dispersed in parties through different and remote quarters of the city, selected their objects of vengeance, by learning at the beerhouses in the Meuse-lanes the names of such members of parliament as inhabited the adjacent streets. They then proceeded to the work of destruction, not in one large mass, but acting in different parties of limited numbers; and to add to the general alarm which their tactics produced, as the night was dark and the wind high, they sometimes accomplished

VOL. VIII. PART I.

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their purpose while the soldiers were in the next street, without their having notice of it. When a party of the military did come up, the rioters dropped their implements of mischief, and appeared to be the wondering and innocent spectators of the ruins they themselves had made. The mansions of Lord King, Earl Bathurst, and Sir William Rowley suffered severely; the sashes and doors being demolished, the windows dashed in, and the iron railings broken down and converted into weapons for storming the street-doors. The houses of many other distinguished members of the legislature were injured in a greater or less degree.

The rioters, whatever care they might mean to take in selecting the victims of their fury, fell into various mistakes, and frequently broke the windows and assaulted the houses of persons who had nothing to do with the state measure which they resented so deeply. The following instances of such errors were ludicrous. Mr Morritt (member for Northallerton, and known to the literary world as the advocate of the Iliad against the criticisms of Bryant) had_spoken in favour of the corn bill. From the similarity of the names, the mob visited with their vengeance the house of Mr Morris the Indian director; and the classical defender of Homer had his windows broken only by proxy. At another time the mob announced their next object of vengeance by shouting "Let's to Berkeley Paget's." A gentleman enquired what possible pretext they could have for attacking the house of a brave officer, who had no concern whatever with the corn-laws. It was replied by one of these sagacious orators, that the individual in question was no officer, but a brewer, and deeply concerned in grain speculations. An ecclaircissement ensued, and it was found out

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that these "most sweet voices" had confounded Colonel Berkeley Paget, with Messrs Barclay, Perkins, and Co.

But the events of the 7th March were unfortunately not all of a ludicrous nature. A guard of soldiers had been posted in Mr Robinson's house, which, as we have said, had sustained the first fury of the mob on the preceding evening, and had again been visited by them in the course of the day. The guard were supported by some of that gentleman's servants, armed to protect what property their master had left, and to repel the rioters, who had repeatedly demanded to know where Mr Robinson was; and threatened death to him and all who protected him. About seven o'clock at night a party of the mob entered Burlington-street, and again attacked the ruins of Mr Robinson's house. The military, after warning them of their danger, and loading their pieces in their presence, at length fired from the windows. Several of the mob were wounded, but the persons killed were unfortunately a young midshipman named Vize, and a female called Jane Watson, innocent spectators of the tumult, if those can be termed entirely irreprehensible, who, though gazing on the mob out of mere curiosity, increase their confidence by giving an appearance of numbers, and put themselves in the way of danger from the means which at last must be used to suppress them. It is probable that no mob would ever appear so formidable as to defy the civil power, were the mass of idle, curious, and unthinking spectators to be withdrawn from the determined and active rioters. The deaths of these persons were not the less accidents deeply to be regretted, since, however prudent and proper it may be to repress the spirit of curiosity in such cases, it cannot

but be thought most natural to indulge it.

The riots did not cease even with this fatal accident. In the course of Wednesday (8th March) fresh outrages were committed, and some for which no pretext whatever could be alledged. An attack was made on the house of Sir Joseph Banks, whose whole life had been devoted not to politics but to science, and some property and papers were destroyed. Fortunately, the arrival of the military saved the inexpressible loss to knowledge which might otherwise have been sustained by the destruction of his library and scientific collections. Similar violence disgraced different parts of the metropolis; and it seemed that the audacity of the rioters increased with the forbearance of the soldiery, who conducted themselves with the most uncommon temper and discretion; hardly assuming even the blameless license of self-defence, though subjected to every species of outrage in language and action. In the meanwhile a scene passed in the House of Commons, which, though doubtless not so intended, must have led the mob to believe they were not without a friend and advocate even within the walls of that House.

On the forenoon of the 6th there had been a meeting of the electors in Old Palace-Yard for petitioning against the corn bill. Their representative, Sir Francis Burdett, seems (like the general who said he was a Venetian before he was a Christian) to have remembered that he was a landholder before he was a patriot, and therefore approved of the corn bill. But to have avouched such sentiments in the House of Commons would have risked his popularity with his constituents; and therefore, as a compromise between his opinion and his

rious mob, for the purpose of protecting the lives and property of the family,)-nothing less than military murders; and he thought there were symptoms, on the part of government, to supersede the civil authorities which were the constitutional guardians of the public peace, and to erect in their room a military despotism!!!" To such sophistry, mixed with such truckling subservience to the humours of the rabble, did this honourable member stoop in his misdirected ambition, forgetting that the true patriot equally despises the bended brow of tyranny, and the shouts and menaces of a misguided multitude. Mr Robinson, against whom this speech was principally directed, and who surely had already suffered enough, both in property and feeling, rose to reply under the greatest emotion. He stated "the ravages committed by the mob upon his house on the Monday; their outrageous return the next day, with threats of murder against him and his domestics; and made it plain that the soldiers posted within the house were at length, and after long forbearance and repeated warning, compelled to fire in their own defence." Mr Robinson's speech was interrupt

character as a patriot, the member for Westminster absented himself from the House during the discussion of this obnoxious measure. At the meeting he gilded over this desertion of his post, by a jest worthy of his conduct. "He did not chuse," he said, "to join in the mockery of debate he might have many reasons for staying at home-he should say generally, that he did not like to go to any house that was filled with bad company, and where they kept late hours." This fool-born jest was thought worthy of the applause of the meeting; and Sir Francis Burdett, though he insinuated that his sentiments were in favour of the measure so clamorously condemned, and made the subject of such execration by his constituents, was dragged home in triumph, because he had not had the manliness to discharge his duty as a legislator, in asserting his own sentiments in opposition to theirs. Apparently, however, he thought, upon reflection, that some declaration of sentiments more decidedly accommodated to the popular taste was necessary to maintain his post as the favourite of the rabble. The incident which happened at Mr Robinson's house on the 7th seemed to furnish a favourable opportunity to regained by tears, which testified the grief what ground Sir Francis might have lost in the opinion of the good people of Westminster. When he rose in his place on the 10th to present the petition against the corn bill, he spoke of the question as one of little real importance, and avoided either granting or denying it. But, while he slightly touched on the irregularities of the mob," he deprecated the fatalities which had occurred, and the placing soldiers in ambuscade, for the purpose of attacking and destroying the lives of unwary multitudes. He called such fatalities, (the placing of armed men, namely, within a house which had been twice broken into by a fu

which he felt, as a man of humanity, at á fatality to which he was no way accessory, and for which the immediate agents were justifiable in the eyes of God and man. He concluded, by entreating the honourable baronet, if he was really moved by that regard for the people which his language expressed, to desist from misrepresentations calculated to produce the most unhappy effects, both towards the peace of the country and the safety of his fellow-subjects. All felt the force of this appeal; and Sir Francis Burdett himself endeavoured to escape from the charge of pointing out an innocent individual as

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