, were attacked, and were only saved from destruction by the
timely interference of the police. The Marquis of Londonderry and the
Duke of Cumberland were personally attacked in the park; and the latter
would probably have been killed had not the police rescued him. In the
country, also, violence and outrage became the order of the day. At
first they were confined to the counties of Derby and Nottingham, at the
latter of which places the mob set fire to the castle, the seat of the
Duke of Newcastle, one of the sternest opposers of the reform bill. The
house of Mr. Masters, also, in the vicinity, was sacked and pillaged;
and his wife died in consequence of being obliged to seek shelter under
the bushes of a shrubbery in a cold and rainy October night. In both
houses of parliament ministers loudly expressed their disapprobation of
such proceedings; but they were charged by their opponents with having
indirectly encouraged the rioters by the language they had used, and the
connexion in which they had placed themselves with large bodies of
men acting illegally. While the bill was before the lords a meeting of
political unions took place at Birmingham; and this assembly voted
an address to the king, setting forth their alarm "at the awful
consequences" which might arise from the failure of the bill; their pain
at imagining the house of lords so infatuated as to reject it; and their
earnest desire that his majesty would create as many peers as might
be necessary to carry the measure. The most violent and threatening
language was uttered by the speakers at this meeting; and one of the
resolutions agreed to was a vote of thanks to Lords Althorp and
John Russell. This was answered in these courteous terms:--"I beg to
acknowledge with heartfelt gratitude the undeserved honour done me by
150,000 of my countrymen. Our prospects are now obscured for a moment,
and I trust only for a moment. It is impossible that the whisper of
faction should prevail against the voice of a nation." This courteous
reply to a body of demagogues was severely deprecated in the house of
commons, especially by Sir H. Hardinge, Sir R. Vyvyan, and Sir Charles
Wetherell. In the meantime the spirit of insubordination seemed to
increase. At Croydon the Archbishop of Canterbury was grossly insulted
while presiding over a meeting of the Society for the Propagation of the
Gospel; and in Somersetshire the bishop of the diocese was attacked when
engaged in the solemn c