DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.70302#0263
LIFE OF LORD GEORGE GORDON. 231
habitations of persons of that religion. The prisons were
the next objects of their vengeance; Newgate, the Fleet,
the King’s Bench, the New Bridewell in St. George’s
Fields, and the New Prison, Clerkenwell, were totally de-
molished, and the prisoners, to the number of 2000, set at
liberty. The houses of Sir George Savile, Sir John
Fielding, the Justices Hyde, Wilmot, and Cox, and many
other private individuals, among whom were those who had
been active in apprehending and giving evidence against
the rioters, were either plundered or burned. Lord Mans-
field’s residence in Bloomsbury-square, likewise fell a
sacrifice to their fury ; his lordship’s library containing a
great number of valuable manuscripts, and among the
rest two hundred note-books in his own hand writing,
was burned ; and his fine collection of pictures shared the
same fate. The scene presented by the conflagration of
the houses belonging to Mr. Langdale, an eminent distil-
ler, at the bottom and middle of Holborn, was horrible be-
yond description, the fury of the flames being greatly
increased by the vast quantity of spirits they contained.
The Bank, the Inns of Court, the Arsenal at Woolwich,
and the Royal Palaces were threatened, and such was the
universal stupor which had seized the inhabitants of the
metropolis, that it is possible the brutal populace might
have succeeded in their attempts, had not government
proclaimed martial law, and released the military from all
dependance on the civil authority. What numbers re-
ceived their deaths from the hands of the soldiers amidst
these dreadful scenes it is impossible to state with cer-
tainty, but more are said to have destroyed themselves by
inebriety, in which condition they were burned or buried
in the ruins of their own making. This was particularly
the case at the distilleries of Mr. Langdale, from whose
vessels the liquor ran down the middle of the street, and
being taken up by pailfuls was held to the mouths of the
besotted
habitations of persons of that religion. The prisons were
the next objects of their vengeance; Newgate, the Fleet,
the King’s Bench, the New Bridewell in St. George’s
Fields, and the New Prison, Clerkenwell, were totally de-
molished, and the prisoners, to the number of 2000, set at
liberty. The houses of Sir George Savile, Sir John
Fielding, the Justices Hyde, Wilmot, and Cox, and many
other private individuals, among whom were those who had
been active in apprehending and giving evidence against
the rioters, were either plundered or burned. Lord Mans-
field’s residence in Bloomsbury-square, likewise fell a
sacrifice to their fury ; his lordship’s library containing a
great number of valuable manuscripts, and among the
rest two hundred note-books in his own hand writing,
was burned ; and his fine collection of pictures shared the
same fate. The scene presented by the conflagration of
the houses belonging to Mr. Langdale, an eminent distil-
ler, at the bottom and middle of Holborn, was horrible be-
yond description, the fury of the flames being greatly
increased by the vast quantity of spirits they contained.
The Bank, the Inns of Court, the Arsenal at Woolwich,
and the Royal Palaces were threatened, and such was the
universal stupor which had seized the inhabitants of the
metropolis, that it is possible the brutal populace might
have succeeded in their attempts, had not government
proclaimed martial law, and released the military from all
dependance on the civil authority. What numbers re-
ceived their deaths from the hands of the soldiers amidst
these dreadful scenes it is impossible to state with cer-
tainty, but more are said to have destroyed themselves by
inebriety, in which condition they were burned or buried
in the ruins of their own making. This was particularly
the case at the distilleries of Mr. Langdale, from whose
vessels the liquor ran down the middle of the street, and
being taken up by pailfuls was held to the mouths of the
besotted