either a foreknowledge or predestination of its fate in the upper house, or that he did not actually disapprove of it, I cannot determine. The exclusion of the contractors would probably, in some degree, have promoted Burke's twofold object, restriction of profusion and diminution of corruption.

A motion was made by General Conway for reconciliation with America. It proposed to remove all their just complaints, but not to acknowledge their independence. It was opposed by the Ministers, who thought it humiliatory as to this nation, and ineffectual as to the object. It was very faintly supported by Burke and the Rockingham part of Opposition, who thought it totally inadequate to the objects.

Although the eminent abilities of Burke had not succeeded in procuring in Parliament the desired reduction of expence, associations continued to be formed by men of talents and property, both in London and other parts of England, the object of which

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was reform; an object which they expected ultimately to obtain. Meanwhile, an association for a very different purpose, and composed of very different persons, gave rise to proceedings of the most disorderly and licentious kind. A Protestant association had been formed in England, consisting of persons of nearly the same rank and character which composed that of Scotland; persons, who, though many of them were well meaning friends to the Protestant religion, were generally ignorant, and esti mated Popery by its former, not its modern state; and who were for applying towards Papists that intolerant spirit which constituted one of the worst qualities of Popery during the ages of ignorant credulity and clerical usurpation. No man of liberal sentiments, of any party, had any connection with them they consisted chiefly of persons equally low in rank with those who, in latter times, make up the bulk of the London Corresponding Society. Their object was to procure the repeal of the law of 1778. They framed a petition to Parliament, to

which one hundred and twenty thousand of those enlightened theologians put either their names or their marks. It was resolved, that as many of the petitioners as possible should attend at the presentment of their petition. An advertisement for that purpose, signed by Lord George Gordon, was issued. Fifty thousand, at least, assembled with this view, June the 2d, in St. George's Fields: thence they proceeded to the House of Commons, where their petition was presented by their President. The theologians insulted several members of both parties in Parliament. A mob, whether of Protestant associators, other rabble, or both, displayed their zeal in fire-brands, and burnt several popish buildings. The outrages continued, and rapidly extended to the persons and houses of others as well as Roman Catholics. The prisons were destroyed, and their inhabitants let loose, to co-operate with the mob. London, for a week, was the scene of uproar, plunder, and conflagration; the military force only saved the city from destruc

tion. Such are the effects of demagogues, under whatever pretence, inflaming the populace by false representations of grievances. Burke's house and his person also were threatened, as being a strong supporter of Sir George Saville's bill, and suspected to be a Roman Catholic. He was represented in some of the papers as a Jesuit in disguise ; and in the print-shops he was exhibited in the dress of a Friar, trimming and fomenting the fires of Smithfield. All this vulgar calumny he treated with contempt. The nickname, Neddy St. Omers, he was constantly called, and the public actually believed that he had been brought up at that seminary, a calumny which he never thought worth confuting. He always treated common abuse with indifference, and, perhaps, no man experienced more of it. It is worthy of observation, that through his political life he was more vehemently blamed and abused by his censurers, and more rapturously praised and even adored by his admirers, than perhaps any man that ever lived.

The effects which the riots produced on the public mind deserve notice. Previously to this period an English mob was generally considered as a test of the public opinion, the overflowing of popular energy; and military interference was deemed highly dangerous, if not altogether unconstitutional. This seemed to be the opinion of the Duke of Newcastle when he kept a mob in pay, ready trained and disciplined, to support the then recent accession of the house of Hanover, and to suppress Tory mobs; a mode of conduct which had a more successful, or at least a more popular effect than having recourse to military force. The Newcastle mob, as it was called, was long remembered with respect.

The conduct of the mob of 1780 destroyed for ever the credit and consequence of such a body. This has been, upon the whole, deemed very fortunate for the internal peace of the country, as it has taught Government to oppose the smallest beginnings of riot or