suffrage, and above all
peace, as remedies for the high price of food. Parliament was summoned
for October 29. On the 26th, a meeting in Copenhagen Fields,
Mary-le-bone, at which 150,000 persons are said to have been present,
adopted a strongly worded "remonstrance" to the king, praying for
parliamentary reform, the dismissal of the ministers, and a speedy
peace. When the king went to open parliament a large crowd greeted him
with hisses and cries of "Bread! Peace! No Pitt!" His carriage was
pelted, and a missile, probably from an air-gun, broke the glass. On his
return the same cries were raised; there was more pelting, and the king
was only rescued from the crowd by the arrival of some horse-guards.
George, than whom no braver man lived in his dominions, remained
perfectly calm throughout these scenes, read the royal speech without a
sign of excitement, and the next night went with the queen and the
princesses to Covent Garden theatre, where he was received with
enthusiasm. The soldiers also acted admirably and abstained from hurting
any one.

[Sidenote: _REPRESSIVE ACTS._]

The insult to the king and the proceedings of the corresponding society
were met by repressive measures. Proclamations relating to the outrage
and to seditious assemblies were followed by two bills, one introduced
in the lords by Grenville, the other in the commons by Pitt. The first,
the treasonable practices bill, extended the crime of treason to spoken
and written words not followed by any overt act, and created a new crime
by subjecting to heavy penalties any one convicted of inciting others to
hatred of the sovereign or the established government. The second, the
seditious meetings bill, forbade all political meetings of which notice
had not previously been given by resident householders, and empowered
any two justices to dissolve a legally constituted meeting at their
discretion by using the riot act. Both these measures were grievous
encroachments on liberty. Apart from its extension of the law of
treason, the first might be used to prevent all discussion of political
reforms; the second checked the public expression of opinion on public
affairs. The ministry, however, was acting in accordance with the will
of parliament and of the vast majority of the respectable part of the
nation, who were alarmed and indignant at the success of seditious
agitators in exciting political discontent among the uneducated classes.
England was engaged in a