cution
was ordered to be prepared. On April 4th the Bill was introduced to
the House of Commons, and a motion was made that it be read a first
time. Much, however, had happened out-of-doors since the day when
Walpole introduced his {318} resolutions. Even at that time there was
a great excitement abroad, which, brought crowds of more or less
tumultuous persons round the entrances of the House of Commons. The
troops had to be kept in readiness for any emergency that might arise.
The least thing feared was that they might have to be employed to keep
the access to the House clear for its members. [Sidenote: 1733--The
Bill abandoned] By the time the first division had taken place, the
tide of popular passion had swollen still higher. As Walpole was
quitting the House a furious rush was made at him, and but that some of
his colleagues surrounded, protected, and bore him off, he would have
been in serious personal danger. But the interval between that event
and the introduction of the Bill had been turned to very practical
account by those who were agitating against him, and the country was
now in a flame of excitement. The _Craftsman_ and the pamphleteers had
done their work well. The most extravagant consequences were described
as certain to follow from the adoption of Walpole's excise scheme. A
minister once allowed to impose his excise duty upon wine and tobacco,
and--thus shrieked the mouths of a hundred pamphleteers and
verse-mongers--he will go on imposing excise on every article of food
and dress and household use. Nothing will be able to resist the
inquisitorial exciseman. It was positively asserted in ballad and in
pamphlet that before long the exciseman would everywhere practise on
the daughters of England the atrociously insulting test which was
attempted on Wat Tyler's daughter, and which brought about Wat Tyler's
insurrection. The memories of Wat Tyler and of Jack Straw were invoked
to arouse popular panic and fury. Strange as it may now seem, these
appeals were successful in their object; they did create a popular
panic, and stir up popular passion and fury to the uttermost height.
Not even Walpole attempted any longer to argue down the monstrous
misrepresentations of his policy. The fury against him and his excise
scheme grew hotter every day, and at one time it was positively thought
that his life {319} was in danger. Tumultuous crowds of people
gathered in and around all the approaches to the