tholics who abjured
the temporal jurisdiction of the pope to purchase and inherit land, and
freeing their priests from liability to imprisonment. The bill, which
only affected England, was passed without a division in either house,
and the government proposed to bring in a like bill for Scotland the
next year. Violent protestant riots took place in Edinburgh and Glasgow,
and such strong feeling was generally manifested in Scotland against the
proposed measure that it was abandoned. The relief act excited
discontent in England, and protestant fanatics, encouraged by the
success of their party in Scotland, agitated for its repeal. A
protestant association was formed, a crack-brained member of parliament,
Lord George Gordon, was made president, and a petition for the repeal of
the act was signed by nearly 120,000 persons.

On June 2, 1780, some 60,000 persons marched under Gordon's leadership
to Westminster with their monster petition. They violently assaulted
many peers and compelled members of both houses to cry No popery! and to
put blue cockades in their hats. Gordon addressed them, and named Burke
and other members as specially hostile to their cause. The commons
refused to give the petition immediate consideration; the lobbies were
thronged by the mob, and North sent for the lifeguards to protect
parliament. On their arrival the mob left palace-yard and partially
destroyed the chapels of the Sardinian embassy in Duke street, Lincoln's
inn Fields and the Bavarian embassy in Warwick street, Golden square.
The next day was fairly quiet, but on Sunday, the 4th, finding that no
measures were taken to enforce order, they sacked other catholic chapels
and some houses. By Monday the riots assumed a more dangerous character;
the mob passed out of the leadership of religious fanatics and was bent
on plunder and destruction. East of Charing Cross London was almost at
its mercy. There was no efficient police force; military officers and
soldiers had learnt the risk they would incur by firing on a mob without
the order of the civil power, and the magistrates were for the most part
timid and inactive. Wilkes was an honourable exception, and showed
courage and firmness in dealing with the rioters. Virtually unchecked,
the mob sacked chapels and houses, plundered shops, and burnt Savile's
furniture before his door. During the next two days Newgate was partly
burnt and the prison broken open, the other principal prisons either
destro