DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.70302#0264
232
LIFE OF LORD GEORGE GORDON.
besotted multitude, many of whom killed themselves with
drinking non-rectified spirits. In the streets men were
seen lying upon bulks and stalls in a state of brutal insen-
sibility and contempt of danger : boys and women were in
the same condition, and many of the latter with infants in
their arms.
At length after the metropolis had been for nearly a
week at the control of a lawless rabble, peace and order
were again restored by the exertions of the military, sta-
tioned in the most important parts of the town. The
militia and troops for thirty miles round had been sent for;
so that London and its neighbourhood was now awed by
a force of 20,000 men ; which proved more than suffi-
cient to quell disturbances unparalleled in the annals of
the country, and which had endangered the very exist-
ence of the empire.
In the heat of his too successful enthusiasm, Lord
George wrote a letter, which he sent for insertion to the
conductor of a morning paper. In this letter, addressed
to his religious associates, he recommended them to nou-
rish the noble spirit that had so laudably taken possession
of them, and told them that he did not in the smallest
degree doubt that an unlimited compliance with all
their requisitions, would be the consequence of this
perseverance. At the same time he annexed a kind of
exhortation for the preservation of peace and good
order; but as this concluding suggestion was too re-
pugnant to the general tenor of the epistle, and far
too faintly urged to produce an adequate effect, the
printer deemed it the best step he could take for the wel-
fare and quiet of the country, to send a copy of the let-
ter to government, which he accordingly did, in a note
to Lord Hillsborough. A cabinet council was imme-
diately convened, and it was the unanimous opinion of
the members, that the letter was of a very inflammable
tendency
LIFE OF LORD GEORGE GORDON.
besotted multitude, many of whom killed themselves with
drinking non-rectified spirits. In the streets men were
seen lying upon bulks and stalls in a state of brutal insen-
sibility and contempt of danger : boys and women were in
the same condition, and many of the latter with infants in
their arms.
At length after the metropolis had been for nearly a
week at the control of a lawless rabble, peace and order
were again restored by the exertions of the military, sta-
tioned in the most important parts of the town. The
militia and troops for thirty miles round had been sent for;
so that London and its neighbourhood was now awed by
a force of 20,000 men ; which proved more than suffi-
cient to quell disturbances unparalleled in the annals of
the country, and which had endangered the very exist-
ence of the empire.
In the heat of his too successful enthusiasm, Lord
George wrote a letter, which he sent for insertion to the
conductor of a morning paper. In this letter, addressed
to his religious associates, he recommended them to nou-
rish the noble spirit that had so laudably taken possession
of them, and told them that he did not in the smallest
degree doubt that an unlimited compliance with all
their requisitions, would be the consequence of this
perseverance. At the same time he annexed a kind of
exhortation for the preservation of peace and good
order; but as this concluding suggestion was too re-
pugnant to the general tenor of the epistle, and far
too faintly urged to produce an adequate effect, the
printer deemed it the best step he could take for the wel-
fare and quiet of the country, to send a copy of the let-
ter to government, which he accordingly did, in a note
to Lord Hillsborough. A cabinet council was imme-
diately convened, and it was the unanimous opinion of
the members, that the letter was of a very inflammable
tendency