Three principal causes of riot are, the low state of wages, the
difference in political sentiment, and the rise of provisions: these
causes, like inundations, produce dreadful effects, and like them,
return at uncertain periods.
The journeyman in Birmingham is under no temptation to demand an
additional price for his labour, which is already higher than the
usual mark.
There is no nation fonder of their king than the English; which is a
proof that monarchy suits the genius of the people: there is no nation
more jealous of his power, which proves that liberty is a favourite
maxim. Though the laws have complimented him with _much_, yet he well
knows, a prerogative upon the stretch, is a prerogative in a
dangerous state.
The more a people value their prince, the more willing are they to
contend in his favour.
The people of England revered the memory of their beloved Saxon kings,
and doubly lamented their fall, with that of their liberties.
They taxed themselves into beggary, to raise the amasing sum of
100,000_l_. to release Richard the First, unjustly taken captive
by Leopold.
They protected Henry the Fifth from death, at Agincourt, and received
that death themselves.
They covered the extreme weakness of Henry the Sixth, who _never said a
good thing, or did a bad one_, with the mantle of royalty; when a
character like his, without a crown, would have been hunted through
life: they gave him the title of _good king Henry_, which would well
have suited, had the word _king_ been omitted; they sought him a place
in the kalendar of saints, and made _him_ perform the miracles of an
angel when dead, who could never perform the works of a man,
when living.
The people shewed their attachment to Henry the Eighth, by submitting to
the faggot and the block, at his command; and with their last breath,
praying for their butcher.
Affection for Charles the First, induced four of his friends to offer
their own heads, to save his.--The wrath, and the tears of the people,
succeeded his melancholy exit.
When James the Second eloped from the throne, and was casually picked up
at Feversham, by his injured subjects, _they remembered he was
their king_.
The church and Queen Anne, like a joyous co-partnership, were toasted
together. The barrel was willingly emptied to honour the queen, and the
toaster lamented he could honour her no more.
The nation displayed their love to Charles the Second, by latticing the
forests. His climbing the oak at Boscobel, has been the destruction of
more timber than would have filled the harbour of Portsmouth; the tree
which flourished in the field, was brought to die in the street.
Birmingham, for ninety years, honoured him with her vengeance against
the woods; and she is, at this day, surrounded with mutilated oaks,
which stand as martyrs to royalty.
It is singular, that the oak, which assisted the devotion of the
Britons, composed habitations for the people, and furniture for those
habitations; that, while standing, was an ornament to the country that
bore it; and afterwards guarded the land which nursed it, should be the
cause of continual riots, in the reign of George the First. We could not
readily accede to a line of strangers, in preference to our ancient race
of kings, though loudly charged with oppression.
Clubs and tumults supported the spirit of contention till 1745, when, as
our last act of animosity, we crowned an ass with turnips, in derision
of one of the worthiest families that ever eat them.
Power, in the hand of ignorance, is an edge-tool of the most dangerous
kind. The scarcity of provisions, in 1766, excited the murmurs of the
poor. They began to breathe vengeance against the farmer, miller, and
baker, for doing what they do themselves, procure the greatest price for
their property.
On the market day, a common labourer, like Massenello of Naples, formed
the resolution to lead a mob.
He therefore erected his standard, which was a mop inverted, assembled
the crowd, and roared out the old note, "Redress of Grievances." The
colliers, with all their dark retinue, were to bring destruction from
Wednesbury. Amazement seised the town! the people of fortune trembled:
John Wyrley, an able magistrate, for the first time frightened in
office, with quivering lips, and a pale aspect, swore in about eighty
constables, to oppose the rising storm, armed each of them with a staff
of authority, warm from the turning-lathe, and applied to the War-office
for a military force.
The lime-powdered monarch began to fabricate his own laws, direct the
price of every article, which was punctually obeyed.
Port, or power, soon overcome a weak head; the more copious the draught,
the more quick intoxication: he entered many of the shops, and was every
where treated with the utmost reverence; took whatever goods he pleased,
and distributed them among his followers; till one of the inhabitants,
provoked beyond measure at his insolence, gave him a hearty kick on the
posteriors, when the hero and his consequence, like that of Wat Tyler,
fell together.--Thus ended a reign of seven hours; the sovereign was
committed to prison, as sovereigns ought, in the abuse of power, and
harmony was restored without blood.