American Independence and the French Revolution (1760-1801). Various
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a farther account.
I have the honour to be, with great respect, Your Lordship’s most obliged humble servant, Shelburne.
WILKES RIOTS (1768).
Source.—Calendar of Home Office Papers, 1766–1769. Pp. 322, 323. London, 1879.
Robert Wood to Sir J. Fielding.
5 and 6 April.—Lord Weymouth has been informed that Mr. Stuart, the wine merchant, upon application to you for assistance against the mob on the night of the illumination, had not met with that support which he had reason to expect from the civil magistrate. Though this account does not agree with what his Lordship had conceived of your vigilance and activity, yet he has ordered me to acquaint you with it, and to add that though, on the one hand, he relies much on your zeal, and is ready to do justice to your diligence at the time of the late riotous proceedings, yet, on the other, he thinks it his indispensable duty to take notice of any remissness in a magistrate upon whom so much of the public order and tranquillity depends; and if Mr. Stuart’s account of this matter be founded, his Lordship desires that I will let you know it will very much change that favourable opinion which he wishes to preserve of you. His Lordship thinks it would be unfair towards you as well as to the public to keep this matter from you, though Mr. Stuart has not given it in as matter of formal complaint, but merely for the Secretary of State’s information. Lord Weymouth is willing to suppose there must be some mistake in what he has heard.
P.S.—As Lord Weymouth had taken every precaution that could be imagined in order to support magistracy and give weight to your proceedings, he is disappointed to find that there should be any complaint; and though he despises clamour, he must pay attention to facts urged by a citizen of character; and I heartily wish you may put it in his power to set you clear of imputation, which is his wish also.
The reply to this letter is dated the 5th.
Sir John Fielding gives a history of the transactions of the night, and says that, to the best of his knowledge, and to the best of his abilities, with unwearied attention, diligence, and application, he has done everything in his power to preserve peace and good order, and to detect offenders and bring them to justice, from the beginning to the conclusion of the late unhappy disturbances. Is sincerely concerned if in any respect Mr. Steward mistook his meaning, and more so that Lord Weymouth should be dissatisfied with his conduct as a magistrate. Unfortunate he has always been; at present particularly so, when his warmest endeavours to discharge a public trust with loyalty to his Sovereign, fidelity to his country, and obedience to his superiors, have been so far ineffectual as not to secure him the confidence of those by whom he would wish to be approved.—Bow Street.
RIOTS IN THE NORTH (1768).
Source.—Calendar of Home Office Papers, 1766–1769. Pp. 839, 840. London, 1879.
Duke of Northumberland to H.M.’s Principal Secretaries of State.
12 and 14 April.—Has received within these few days several letters from Newcastle, giving an account of a very riotous spirit having broken out among the sailors and other persons in that place and its neighbourhood, who have committed many outrages, a continuance of which is still greatly to be apprehended. His Grace enters into full particulars. The Mayor and other magistrates of Newcastle, and the justices of Northumberland and Durham, have been very vigilant and active on this occasion, but it is their united request, in which his Grace joins, that a regiment might be quartered and continued in Newcastle and the neighbourhood.—Northumberland House, 12 April.
Reply from Lord Weymouth, dated the 14th, enclosing a copy of the letter written in consequence to the Secretary-at-War, directing him to give orders for detaining the troops at Newcastle and the neighbourhood which are now there, and to report whether the present disposition of the troops in that part of the world may not admit of an alteration which may answer the purposes of support to the civil magistrate.
The Same to the Same.
13 and 14 April.—Submitting whether it may not be expedient that certain arms belonging to the Middlesex militia, deposited in the vestry rooms and other places of little security in Westminster and the neighbourhood of London, should be removed to the Tower, in case there should be reason to fear a renewal of the mobs and riotous assemblies.
Lord Weymouth’s Reply, dated the 14th.
It is highly improper that arms should at any time be deposited in places of little security, and particularly at present when so riotous a disposition appears among the populace. But as there are objections to depositing those arms now in the Tower, his Grace is to take all possible precautions for the present by giving the necessary orders for particular attention and vigilance upon this occasion; and in case of an attempt by the populace to possess themselves of the arms, is to call out the military, orders having been issued to the Secretary-at-War to support the civil magistrate upon every necessary occasion.
A PETITION TO GEORGE III. FROM THE FREEHOLDERS OF THE COUNTY OF MIDDLESEX (1769).
Source.—Letters of Junius. London: G. Bell and Sons. Vol. ii. 1911.
To the King’s Most Excellent Majesty. The humble petition of the Freeholders of the County of Middlesex.
Most Gracious Sovereign,
We, your Majesty’s dutiful and loyal subjects, the Freeholders of the County of Middlesex, beg leave, with all affectionate submission and humility, to throw ourselves at your royal feet, and humbly to implore your paternal attention to those grievances of which this county and the whole nation complain, and those fearful apprehensions with which the whole British Empire is most justly alarmed.
With great grief and sorrow we have long beheld the endeavours of certain evil-minded persons, who attempt to infuse into your royal mind notions and opinions of the most dangerous and pernicious tendency, and who promote and counsel such measures as cannot fail to destroy that harmony and confidence which should ever subsist between a just and virtuous prince and a free and loyal people.
For this disaffected purpose they have introduced into every part of the administration of our happy legal constitution a certain unlimited and indefinite discretionary power, to prevent which is the sole aim of all our laws, and was the sole cause of all those disturbances and revolutions which formerly distracted this unhappy country; for our ancestors, by their own fatal experience, well knew that in a state where discretion begins, law, liberty, and safety end. Under the pretence of this discretion, or, as it was formerly, and