ement that he did not
know what the great mass of the people had to do with the laws except to
obey them. The Earl of Lauderdale pilloried this utterance, thereby
consoling himself for being in a minority of 5. In the Commons Fox
mustered 22, as against 167 for the Government (6th November-14th
December 1795). Meanwhile monster meetings of protest were held on 12th
November and 2nd and 7th December, the two last in Marylebone Fields,
which now form the greater portion of Regent's Park. The orderliness of
these vast throngs, comprising perhaps a quarter of a million of men,
affords a strong argument against the two Acts. Lord Malmesbury much
regretted that there was no rioting, now that all was ready for its
repression. After the passing of those "barbarous bloodthirsty" measures
(as Place called them) the country settled down into a sullen silence.
Reformers limited their assemblies to forty-five members; but even so
they did not escape the close meshes of the law. Binns and Jones,
delegates of the London Corresponding Society who went to Birmingham,
were arrested there; and the Society soon gave up its propaganda. All
but the most resolute members fell away, and by the end of 1796 it was
L185 in debt.[423]

Undoubtedly these measures mark the nadir of Pitt's political career.
Nevertheless, the coincidence between the London Corresponding Society's
meeting at Islington and the attempted outrage on George III was
suspiciously close in point of time; and a dangerous feeling prevailed
throughout the country. Pitt, as we shall see, took steps to alleviate
the distress which was its chief cause; but after the insult to the King
he could not but take precautionary measures against sedition. After
such an incident, a Minister who did nothing at all would be held
responsible if the monarch were assassinated. Some coercive measures
were inevitable; and it is clear that they cowed the more restive
spirits. Among other persons who wrote to Pitt on this topic, Wilson,
formerly his tutor at Burton Pynsent and Cambridge, sent him a letter
from Binfield, in which occur these sentences: "The Sedition Bills also
have had so good an effect. Our farmers can now go to market without
being exposed to the danger of having republican principles instilled
into them while they are dining." Apparently, then, the loyal efforts of
Berkshire magistrates extended to the interiors of inns. Whether the two
Acts were not needlessly prolonged is open to