London, or at least had been so very lately, and had come over to see the show of the coronation, and had actually seen it. I asked my lord the reason for this strange fact. Why,' says he,' a gentleman told me so that saw him there, and that he even spoke to him and whispered in his ear these words, 'Your Royal Highness is the last of all mortals whom I should expect to see here.' It was curiosity that led me,' said the other; but I assure you,' added he,' that the person who is the object of all this pomp and magnificence is the man I envy the least.' You see this story is so nearly traced from the fountain-head as to wear a great face of probability. Query-What if the Pretender had taken up Dymock's gauntlet?" (Nichols's Lit. Anecdotes, v. ix. p. 401.)

With regard to the Prince's renunciation of the Roman Catholic religion, there are two passages in his Memoranda (Times, December 27, 1864) which are valuable as showing that that event took place in 1750. With regard to the abstract fact of the Prince's conversion to Protestantism, it has already been substantiated by a letter, preserved among Bishop Forbes's MSS., from the Prince to his friends in Scotland, dated August 12, 1762:-" Assure my friends in Britain that I am in perfect health. They may

be assured that I shall live and die in the religion of the Church of England, which I have embraced.” (Chambers's History of the Rebellion of 1745, p. 422, 6th ed.) According to Hume, it was in the church of St. Mary-le-Strand, or, as it was then styled, "the New Church in the Strand," that Charles Edward formally renounced the Roman Catholic faith.

It may be mentioned that the Lady Primrose who

has been more than once referred to was the same lady whose house in Essex Street, in 1747, afforded a home to the celebrated Flora Macdonald after her release from the mild durance in which she had been detained by the Government. Lady Primrose, whose maiden name was Drelincourt, was the daughter of the Dean of Armagh, and widow of Hugh, third Viscount Primrose.

THE RIOTS OF 1780.

THESE disgraceful tumults originated in the meeting held by the Protestant Association in Coachmakers' Hall, whereat on May 29, 1780, the following resolution was proposed and carried: "That the whole body of the Protestant Association do attend in St. George's Fields, on Friday next, at 10 of the clock in the morning, to accompany Lord George Gordon to the House of Commons on the delivery of the Protestant Petition [for the repeal of the Roman Catholic Relief Bill]." His Lordship, who was present, observed, "If less than 20,000 of his fellowcitizens attended him on that day, he would not present their petition." On the day appointed (Friday, the end of June), the Association assembled in St. George's Fields. There was a vast concourse, and their numbers increasing, they marched over London Bridge in separate divisions; and through the City to Westminster-50,000, at least, in number. Lord George Gordon and his followers wore blue ribands in their hats; and each division was preceded by its respective banner, bearing the words "No Popery." At Charing Cross they were joined by additional numbers,

on foot, on horseback, and in carriages. All the avenues to both Houses of Parliament were entirely filled. About eight, the Lords adjourned, and were suffered to go home; though the rioters declared that if the other House did not repeal the Bill, there would at night be terrible mischief. Lord George Gordon was runing backwards and forwards, from the windows of the Speaker's Chamber, denouncing all that spoke against him to the mob in the lobby. Still, the members were besieged, and were locked up for four hours; and there was a moment when they thought they must have opened the doors, and fought their way out sword in hand. Lord North was very firm, and at last they got the guards and cleared the pass.

Blue banners had been waved from the tops of houses at Whitehall as signals to the people, while the coaches passed, whom they should applaud or abuse. Sir George Savile's and Charles Turner's coaches were demolished. At half-past ten, a new scene opened; the mob forced the Sardinian Minister's Chapel in Lincoln's Inn Fields, and gutted it: he saved nothing but two chalices, lost the silver lamps, &c., and the benches being tossed in the street, were food for a bonfire, with the blazing brands of which they set fire to the inside of the chapel, nor, till the guards arrived, would suffer the engines to play. The Roman Catholic Chapel in Warwick-street, Golden-square, shared the same fate; and, as the owner was a Prince of Smugglers, as well as Bavarian Minister, great quanties of rum, tea, and contraband goods were found in his house."

66

On Monday the mob gutted Sir George Savile's house in Leicester Fields, burnt all the furniture and

pictures, but the building was saved; though the rioters tore up the iron railings, which they carried off as weapons. Next day, they pulled down Sir John Fielding's house in Bow Street, and burnt his goods in the street. They then went to Newgate, to demand their companions who had been seized, demolishing a chapel. The Keeper could not release them but by the Sheriff's permission, which he sent to ask. At his return he found all the prisoners released, and Newgate in a blaze. The mob had broken the gates with crows and other instruments, and climbed up the outside of the cell which joined the two great wings of the building, where the felons were confined. They broke the roof, tore away the rafters, descended and released the prisoners. Crabbe, the poet, then a young man in London, has described the scene in his journal : "I stood and saw," he says, “about 12 women and 8 men ascend from their confinement to the open air, and conducted through the street in their chains. Three of these were to be hanged on Friday. You have no conception of the phrenzy of the multitude. Newgate was at this time open to all; anyone might get in; and, what was never the case before, anyone might get out."

From Newgate the mob went to Bloomsbury Square, pulled down the house of the great Lord Mansfield, and burnt his library: but what his Lordship most regretted to have lost was a speech that he had made on the question of the privilege of Parliament; he said that it contained all the eloquence and all the law he was master of; that it was fairly written out, and that he had no other copy.

On Wednesday, the rioters broke open the Fleet,

the King's Bench, and the Marshalsea, and Wood Street Compter, and Clerkenwell Bridewell, and released all the prisoners. At night they set fire to the King's Bench. The Warden of the Fleet had been directed by the Lord Mayor not to resist the mob, which might have been easily dispersed by a few soldiers. The conflagration must here have been terrible three sides of Fleet Market in flames, besides portions of Fetter Lane and Shoe Lane. This was called the "fatal day." Mr. Langdale, a wealthy Catholic distiller in Holborn, the day before had tried to appease the mob by money and liquor, but now they staved in the casks, and set his premises on fire; and many of the rioters were killed by drinking the spirits. Barnard's Inn, adjoining Langdale's distillery, was also fired. Seven distinct conflagrations were to be seen at once. The mob extorted money from several persons and houses, on threats of burning them as Catholics; and the Duke of Gloucester, who went disguised in a hackney-coach to Fleet Market, was stopped and plundered. This day a mob of 5,000 set off for (to sack and burn) Caen-wood (Lord Mansfield's), but were met on the road by a militia regiment and driven back.

"On Wednesday," says Dr. Samuel Johnson, “I walked with Dr. Scott (Lord Stowell) to look at Newgate, and found it in ruins, with the fire yet glowing. As I went by, the Protestants were plundering the Session-house at the Old Bailey. There were not, I believe, a hundred; but they did their work at leisure, in full security, without sentinels, without trepidation, as men lawfully employed, in full day.” The Bank was attempted the same night; but the