by bad criminal laws, bad prison
regulations, and the worst conceivable police, such of the members of
both Houses of Parliament as had not taken the precaution to be already
at their posts, were compelled to fight and force their way. Their
carriages were stopped and broken; the wheels wrenched off; the glasses
shivered to atoms; the panels beaten in; drivers, footmen, and masters,
pulled from their seats and rolled in the mud. Lords, commoners, and
reverend bishops, with little distinction of person or party, were
kicked and pinched and hustled; passed from hand to hand through various
stages of ill-usage; and sent to their fellow-senators at last with
their clothes hanging in ribands about them, their bagwigs torn off,
themselves speechless and breathless, and their persons covered with the
powder which had been cuffed and beaten out of their hair. One lord was
so long in the hands of the populace, that the Peers as a body resolved
to sally forth and rescue him, and were in the act of doing so, when he
happily appeared among them covered with dirt and bruises, and hardly to
be recognised by those who knew him best. The noise and uproar were on
the increase every moment. The air was filled with execrations, hoots,
and howlings. The mob raged and roared, like a mad monster as it was,
unceasingly, and each new outrage served to swell its fury.

Within doors, matters were even yet more threatening. Lord
George--preceded by a man who carried the immense petition on a porter's
knot through the lobby to the door of the House of Commons, where it
was received by two officers of the house who rolled it up to the table
ready for presentation--had taken his seat at an early hour, before the
Speaker went to prayers. His followers pouring in at the same time, the
lobby and all the avenues were immediately filled, as we have seen. Thus
the members were not only attacked in their passage through the streets,
but were set upon within the very walls of Parliament; while the tumult,
both within and without, was so great, that those who attempted to speak
could scarcely hear their own voices: far less, consult upon the course
it would be wise to take in such extremity, or animate each other to
dignified and firm resistance. So sure as any member, just arrived, with
dress disordered and dishevelled hair, came struggling through the crowd
in the lobby, it yelled and screamed in triumph; and when the door
of the House, partially and cauti