DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.70302#0262
230
LIFE OF LORD GEORGE GORDON.
number of men will no doubt send down private orders to
his ministers to enforce the prayer of your petition.”
It is said, that while the mob was raging and roaring
in the lobby, General Conway seated himself beside Lord
George, and addressed him to the following purpose:—
“ My lord, I am a military man, and I shall think it my
duty to protect the freedom of debate in this house by
my sword; you see, my lord, the members of this house
are this day, all in arms. Do not imagine that we will
be overpowered or intimidated by a rude, undisciplined,
unprincipled rabble. There is only one entry into the
house of Commons, and that is a narrow one. Reflect that
men of honor may defend this pass; and that certainly
many lives will be lost before we will suffer ourselves to
be overawed by your adherents. I wish in one word, my
lord, to know whether it is your intention to bring those
men, whose wild uproar now strikes our ears, within the
walls of this house.” General Conway had scarcely done
speaking, when Colonel Murray, a near relation of his
lordship advanced, and accosted him in the following
manner:—“My Lord George, do you intend to bring
your rascally adherents into the House of Commons?
If you do—the first man of them that enters, I will plunge
my sword not into his, but into your body.”—It is said,
that Lord George was much intimidated by these menaces,
and it was in consequence of them that he desired the
populace to be quiet, and to trust to the goodness of their
cause and to his Majesty’s clemency and justice.
The mob on dispersing from Palace Yard, repaired
partly to the Catholic chapel in Duke-street, Lincoln’s
Inn, and partly to that in Warwick-street, Golden-square,
which they demolished. This outrage was succeeded
during the following days by the destruction of all the
Catholic chapels and mass-houses, as well as the private
habitations
LIFE OF LORD GEORGE GORDON.
number of men will no doubt send down private orders to
his ministers to enforce the prayer of your petition.”
It is said, that while the mob was raging and roaring
in the lobby, General Conway seated himself beside Lord
George, and addressed him to the following purpose:—
“ My lord, I am a military man, and I shall think it my
duty to protect the freedom of debate in this house by
my sword; you see, my lord, the members of this house
are this day, all in arms. Do not imagine that we will
be overpowered or intimidated by a rude, undisciplined,
unprincipled rabble. There is only one entry into the
house of Commons, and that is a narrow one. Reflect that
men of honor may defend this pass; and that certainly
many lives will be lost before we will suffer ourselves to
be overawed by your adherents. I wish in one word, my
lord, to know whether it is your intention to bring those
men, whose wild uproar now strikes our ears, within the
walls of this house.” General Conway had scarcely done
speaking, when Colonel Murray, a near relation of his
lordship advanced, and accosted him in the following
manner:—“My Lord George, do you intend to bring
your rascally adherents into the House of Commons?
If you do—the first man of them that enters, I will plunge
my sword not into his, but into your body.”—It is said,
that Lord George was much intimidated by these menaces,
and it was in consequence of them that he desired the
populace to be quiet, and to trust to the goodness of their
cause and to his Majesty’s clemency and justice.
The mob on dispersing from Palace Yard, repaired
partly to the Catholic chapel in Duke-street, Lincoln’s
Inn, and partly to that in Warwick-street, Golden-square,
which they demolished. This outrage was succeeded
during the following days by the destruction of all the
Catholic chapels and mass-houses, as well as the private
habitations