d as one of his
most settled opinions the belief that George III. was himself a Papist
at heart; and, under the influence of this strange idea, he drew up a
petition to Parliament which he invited all the members of the
Association to accompany him to present. His summons was received with
enthusiasm by his followers. The number who, in obedience to it,
mustered in St. George's Fields, which he had appointed as the place of
rendezvous, was not reckoned by any one at less than fifty thousand, and
some calculations even doubled that estimate. Whatever the number may
originally have been, it was speedily swelled by the junction of large
bands of the worst characters in the metropolis, who soon began to
display their strength by every kind of outrage. They commenced by
attacking some of the Roman Catholic chapels, which they burnt; and,
their audacity increasing at the sight of their exploits, they proceeded
to assault the houses of different members of Parliament who had voted
for the measures which had offended them. Because the Chief-justice,
Lord Mansfield, had lately presided at a trial where a Roman Catholic
had been acquitted, they sacked and burnt his house, and tried to murder
himself. The magistrates, afraid of exposing themselves to the fury of
such a mob, kept for the most part out of the way; and though the troops
had been put under arms, and several regiments from the rural districts
had been brought up to London in haste, the military officers were
afraid to act without orders. Left to work their pleasure almost without
resistance, the rioters attacked the different prisons, burnt Newgate
and released all the prisoners, and made more than one attack on the
Bank of England, where, however, fortunately the guard was strong enough
to repel them. But still no active measures were taken to crush the
riot. The belief was general that the soldiers might not act at all, or,
at all events, not fire on rioters, till an hour after the Riot Act had
been read and the mob had been warned to disperse; and no magistrate
could be found to brave its fury by reading it. There seemed no obstacle
to prevent the rioters from making themselves masters of the whole
capital, had it not been for the firmness of the King himself, who, when
all the proper authorities failed, showed himself in fact as well as in
name the Chief Magistrate of the kingdom.[70] He summoned a Privy
Council, and urged the members to adopt instant measures of rep