Page:A biographical dictionary of eminent Scotsmen, vol 4.djvu/123

Rh to the mouths of the deluded multitude, many of whom dropt down dead on the spot, and were burned or buried in the ruins.

The following is said to be a copy of the returns made to lord Amherst of the killed and wounded by the military, during the disturbances:—

To this fatal list, which, it will be seen, is exclusive of those who perished by accident, or their own folly or infatuation, may be added those whom the vengeance of the law afterwards overtook. Eighty-five were tried at the Old Bailey, of whom thirty-five were capitally convicted, forty-three acquitted, seventeen respited, and eighteen executed. At St Margaret's Hill forty were tried under special commission, of whom about twenty were executed. Besides these, several of the rioters were afterwards from time to time apprehended, tried, and executed in various parts of the country. Amongst those convicted at the Old Bailey, but afterwards respited, probably on account of the immediate occasion for his services, was the common hangman, Edward Dennis, the first of his profession, we believe, who was dubbed with the soubriquet of Jack Ketch. In concluding our account of these riots, we may mention that similar disturbances also broke out at the same time at Hull, Bristol, Bath, and other places, but were suppressed without almost any mischief, and no bloodshed.

On Thursday the 8th, the commons met, according to appointment, but as it was still thought necessary to keep a guard of military round the house, a state of investment incompatible with free and deliberative legislation, they immediately adjourned to the 19th. On Friday, a meeting of the privy council was held, when a warrant was issued for the apprehension of lord George Gordon. This was forthwith put into execution, and lord George was brought in a hackney coach to the Horse Guards, where he underwent a long examination, and was afterwards committed a close prisoner to the Tower, being escorted by a strong guard of horse and foot. It is scarcely necessary to state, before tracing the subsequent career and fate of this singular individual, that no repeal of the toleration act took place. The question was taken up in the house of commons on the very first day after the recess, when all parties were unanimous in reprobating the desired repeal, and the "Protestant Petition," which had given occasion, or been made the pretext for so much mischief and loss of life, accordingly fell to the ground.

Having given such ample details of the cause, rise, and progress of what some zealous protestant writers of the day termed, rather inconsistently, the "Popish Riots," it would be equally tedious and supererogatory to enter into a lengthened account of the trial of the individual upon whom government charged the onus of the fatal events. The proceedings, as may be imagined, engrossed the undivided attention of the whole kingdom, during their progress, but almost the sole point of interest connected with them now, after such a lapse of time, is the speech of the celebrated honourable Thomas Erskine, counsel for the prisoner, which has been regarded as one of the very highest of those flights of overpowering eloquence with which that remarkable man from time to time astonished his audiences, and, indeed, the whole world. The trial of lord George Gordon did not come on until the 5th of February, 1781; the reason of this delay—nearly eight months—we do not find explained.