under the influence of fear; and it plainly appears that the safety
of the publick in their lives and property originated rather from the
_tempered_ madness of the rioters, than in any dread of resistance from
the Police or the Military. We are told of the marching of troops,
and of orders issued to Magistrates to be vigilant; yet the populace,
inflamed by politicks, even ventured to chalk No. 45 on the coaches
of the nobility as they passed through the streets. The cause of this
irritation I hardly need inform my readers was Mr. Wilkes, whose
conduct in attacking the Ministry had excited ministerial anger to a
degree that alarmed all ranks of people lest arbitrary proceedings
should be substituted for constitutional, to gratify that resentment;
and some of the decisions of the Courts proved their fears to be
well-founded. Thus far I have thought it necessary to state the cause,
but by no means intend to enter into the merits of the case, which I
shall conclude with Mr. Wilkes's address to the Gentlemen, Clergy, and
Freeholders of the county of Middlesex, in order to explain the origin
of the subsequent bloodshed.
"Gentlemen,
"In support of the liberties of this country against the
arbitrary rule of Ministers, I was before committed to the
Tower, and am now sentenced to this prison. Steadiness with,
I hope, strength of mind, do not however leave me; for the
same consolation follows me here, the consciousness of
innocence, of having done my duty, and exerted all my poor
abilities, not unsuccessfully, for this nation. I can submit
even to far greater sufferings with cheerfulness, because
that I see that my countrymen reap the happy fruits of my
labours and cruel persecutions, by the repeated decisions
of our sovereign Courts of Justice in favour of liberty. I
therefore bear up with fortitude, and even glory that I am
called to suffer in this cause, because I continue to find
the noblest reward--the applause of my native country, of
this great, free, and spirited people.
"I chiefly regret, gentlemen, that this confinement deprives
me of the honour of thanking you in person according to my
promise, and at present takes from me in a great degree the
power of being useful to you. The will, however, to do every
service to my constituents remains in its full force; and
when my sufferings have a period, the first day I regain
my liberty shall restore a life of zeal in the cause and
interests of the county of Middlesex.
"In this prison, in any other, in every place, my
ruling passion will be the love of England and our free
Constitution. To those objects I will make every sacrifice.
Under all the oppressions which ministerial rage and revenge
can invent, my steady purpose is to concert with you, and
other true friends of this country, the most probable
means of rooting out the remains of arbitrary power and
Star-chamber inquisition, and of improving as well as
securing the generous plans of freedom, which were the
boast of our ancestors, and I trust will remain the noblest
inheritance of our posterity, the only genuine characteristic
of Englishmen. I have, &c. &c.
JOHN WILKES.
"_King's-bench Prison, May 5, 1768._"
Some circumstances had induced the populace to suppose it was the
intention of Government to remove Mr. Wilkes from the King's-bench to
the House of Commons on Tuesday, May 10. Many idle and curious persons
probably assembled near the gates to _kill_ an hour by gazing at a man
who had excited their attention, and many others doubtlessly attended
for riotous and unjustifiable purposes, which Mr. Wilkes or any real
patriot must have disapproved, though in the usual blindness of zeal
those purposes are generally disregarded as unworthy notice in the
cause of liberty, when violent men choose to espouse her interest.
A detestable incendiary, a successful villain, to whom I attribute
the innocent deaths of those that fell on this fatal day, pasted
certain doggrel lines on the prison walls which were read with avidity
by the mob, and contributed to inflame their minds; they demanded
the appearance of the prisoner with shouts, and at length several
Magistrates and the military arrived, the paper was taken down, the
riot commenced, the soldiers fired, and a young man named Allen fell
under such circumstances as occasioned the following trial.
"Summary of the Trial of Donald Maclane, on Tuesday last, at
Guildford Assizes, for the Murder of William Allen, jun. on
the 10th of May last in St. George's Fields.
"Mr. Serjeant Leigh, Counsel for the prosecution, having
opened the trial with a speech suitable to the purpose,
proceeded to an examination of witnesses, and produced two,
one Skidmore a discharged marine, and one Twaites a country
lad, who had been about a fortnight in Mr. Allen's service as
an ostler. These evidences swore positively to the identity
of the prisoner, and were the only people on the part of
the prosecution, who declared any knowledge of his person.
The latter, however, differed in his own accounts of the
transaction; and the testimony which he gave before the
Coroner was contradicted by the deposition which he gave into
Court.
"The next witnesses, Okins and Brawn, swear that they were in
the cow-house with Mr. Allen at the time he was shot; and the
latter particularly says, that he was going to strike down
the soldier's musquet, which was levelled at the deceased,
but that another soldier seeming ready to present at himself,
the care which he had for his own life, together with his
terror at the situation of Mr. Allen, obliged him to retire.
Okins says, that when he heard the soldier threaten Mr.
Allen, he (Okins) fell down with an excess of apprehension;
neither, however, though so near to the soldier, could swear
to his identity; and what is the more remarkable, each was
unseen by the other, Okins never once recollecting Brawn's
being present, and Brawn being equally ignorant of Okins.
Several other witnesses appeared for the prosecution, but
as they prove nothing so material as the evidences already
mentioned, and chiefly tend to clear up what is universally
admitted, namely, Mr. Allen's being wholly unconcerned in the
riots of the day, it is not necessary to take any particular
notice of them.
"The evidence for the prosecution being ended, the prisoner's
Counsel produced their witnesses; the first of whom, Samuel
Gillam, Esq. declared, that on the 10th of May, having been
previously applied to by the Marshal of the King's Bench
prison for a guard, he came into St. George's Fields, where
a detachment of one hundred men, properly officered, had
been ordered. Here the mob were exceedingly riotous; and Mr.
Gillam tells us, that he himself was several times struck
with a variety of missile articles. A paper had been stuck
up against the prison, which seemed the raving of some
_patriotic_ bedlamite, and in six lines, as stupid as they
were seditious, talked about Liberty being confined with Mr.
Wilkes, and desiring all good Englishmen to pay their daily
homage, at the place where those invaluable blessings were
lodged. This paper had been taken down by the Constables, a
circumstance which gave the _generous_ assertors of Freedom
incredible offence, and they roared out, 'the paper, the
paper, give us the paper.' Mr. Gillam answered, that if
any person there would claim the property of the paper, it
should be immediately restored, and gave it into Mr. Ponton's
hands, before the rioters, to keep till somebody should be
bold enough to make so particular a demand. This enraged
the populace still farther, and a Patriot in two dirty red
waistcoats, but without any coat, distinguished himself
in throwing stones at the Magistrates, and the Constables
received orders to apprehend him; in this service they
were assisted by Mr. Murray, the Ensign on duty, and five
or six grenadiers. The fellow fled, and was pursued by the
grenadiers; he escaped into a Cow-house, and shut the door
after him, but the soldiers continued their pursuit, and in
a little time the report of a musquet was heard; in a few
minutes after they returned, and Peter Mac Cloughlan, with an
air of great concern, and a tone of much distress, informed
Mr. Murray that his piece had gone off accidentally, and
that a man was killed--'Damn you,' replied Mr. Murray, 'Who
gave you orders to fire?' 'Nobody,' answered Mac Cloughlan;
'it went off entirely by accident.' This circumstance Mr.
Gillam deposed he took particular notice of, because the man
testified every natural sign of concern and humanity.
"The Cow-house has three doors or gates, one at each side,
and another at one of the ends. The fellow in the red
waistcoat got in at a side door, and is supposed to have
escaped the opposite way; just at this unfortunate crisis
young Mr. Allen, who was also in a red waistcoat, entered
at the door out of which the rioter had fled, so that when
the soldiers opened the door nearest to them, they found a
person in a red waistcoat, and this person was shot by Mac
Cloughlan, as he himself confessed; but whether by accident,
or design is not at all necessary to the present object of
enquiry; the enquiry now is, whether Mr. Allen was shot by
Maclane, or whether he was not.
"Mr. Gillam swears peremptorily that Maclane is not the man
who made the confession alluded to; and Corporal Neale,
with Serjeant Earle, Serjeant Steuart, and several private
men, who were that day in St. George's-fields, and some
of whom were likewise at the Cow-house, in pursuit of the
rioter, either declare, that they heard Mac Cloughlan's
own acknowledgment of the fact, or swear that Maclane did
not enter the Cow-house at all. One of the private men
particularly, James Hide, says he was in the Cow-house when
Mac Cloughlan's piece went off, and adds, that there was at
that time nobody in it but the deceased, Mac Cloughlan, and
himself.
"Many of the military witnesses swear that they can easily
tell, by looking at a musquet, if it has been newly
discharged; and they express themselves with certainty, that
Maclane's was not discharged at all on the 10th of May. To
this they add, that Mac Cloughlan, from an apprehension of
consequences, has deserted.
"The evidence for the prosecution, however, took notice,
that Maclane's musquet was particularly examined, and that
he was even ordered from the ranks, upon a presumption, as
they imagine, that the officers themselves were satisfied
he was the person by whom Mr. Allen had been killed. But
this circumstance is very well accounted for on the other
side; where several of the witnesses prove, that after the
_accidental_ discharge which Mac Cloughlan mentions of his
piece, and the unhappy consequence, Mr. Murray, the Ensign,
observing Maclane's musquet on a full cock, reproached him
with negligence, and took the piece out of his hand to look
at; Maclane mentioned in his excuse, that his flint was too
large, and that if he kept it upon a half cock, he should
lose all the priming from his pan.
"Some persons seeing the transaction, and hearing Maclane
reproached, concluded he was the person who had shot Mr.
Allen; and they pointed him out as a murderer; the officer,
therefore, thought it necessary, for the man's security,
to remove him from the ranks; but, finding him more liable
to danger then than when he was with the corps, he ordered
him to his former station.--However, as he was positively
sworn to, the military were forced to give him up,
notwithstanding their consciousness of his innocence; and Mr.
Gillam, as a Magistrate, was obliged to receive the charge,
notwithstanding he was so perfectly acquainted with Mac
Cloughlan's declaration.
"Such was the general scope of the evidence on this trial;
after which the Judge summed up the evidence, declined saying
much from himself, as the question did not turn upon any
difficult points; the Jury withdrew, and in about an hour
returned with a verdict of _Not Guilty_. Mr. Wilkes, who was
all the time at the Red Lion Inn, opposite the Court, was
taken to town the moment the prisoner was acquitted. He was
only examined a few minutes by the Grand Jury. He was brought
back on Tuesday night to the King's-bench Prison.
"The Grand Jury dismissed the bills against the officer and
the other soldiers.
"The above trial began about half an hour after seven in the
morning, and lasted near nine hours. The counsel for the
prosecution were, Mr. Serjeant Leigh, Mr. Lucas, Mr. Lade,
and Mr. Baker; those for the prisoner were, Mr. Hervey, Mr.
Cox, Mr. Bishop, and Mr. Robinson."
The lines alluded to in the trial were:
"Let * * * * * Judges, Ministers combine,
And here great Wilkes and _Liberty confine_;
Yet in each English heart secure their fame is,
In spite of crowded levies at St. J--s's.
Then, while in prison Envy dooms _their_ stay,
Here grateful Britons daily homage pay."
It is by no means necessary to trace the effects of the several balls
fired upon this occasion; it will be quite enough to add that the
innocent alone suffered.
To conclude the eventful story of poor Allen; his remains were
deposited in the church-yard of St. Mary Newington, Surrey, where
_political_ friends honoured his memory with a handsome, if not a
superb monument, thus inscribed:
North side:
"Sacred to the memory of
WILLIAM ALLEN,
An Englishman of unspotted life and amiable
disposition,
Who was inhumanly murdered near St. George's-fields,
the 10th day of May, 1768, by the Scottish
detachment from the army. His disconsolate
parents, inhabitants of this parish, caused this
tomb to be erected to an only son, lost to them
and to the world, in his 20th year, as a monument
of his virtues and their affection!"
South side:
"O disembody'd Soul! most rudely driven
From this low orb (our sinful seat) to Heaven;
While filial piety can please the ear,
Thy name will still occur, for ever dear:
This very spot, now humaniz'd, shall crave
From all a tear of pity on thy grave.
O flow'r of flow'rs! which we shall see no more, }
No kind returning Spring can thee restore: }
Thy loss thy hapless countrymen deplore." }
East side:
"O earth! cover not thou my blood. Job xvi. 18."
West side:
"Take away the wicked from before the King, and his throne
shall be established in righteousness. Prov. xxiii. 5."
The unwarrantable inferences of the above inscription, and the spirit
which dictated the exposure of it, removes the compassion that
posterity would otherwise have felt for the parents of the innocent
youth, whose situation was certainly not more pitiable than that of
the relatives of the other persons killed on the same day. If we had
a single doubt that the senior Allen became a tool of party after
perusing the epitaph, the petition which he put into the King's own
hands on the 5th of October will prove it beyond dispute. His cries for
vengeance proceeded not from a broken spirit; such would have forgiven
mankind long before _a year and three months_ had elapsed.
"To his MAJESTY.
"The humble Petition of William Allen, the disconsolate
father of William Allen, who was barbarously murdered on the
10th of May, 1768.
"Most gracious Sovereign,
"Your Petitioner thinks it his duty to lay before your
Majesty, with great humility, a short account of the
unprovoked and outrageous murder committed by a Scotch
officer, and three soldiers of the same regiment, upon
the innocent body of your Petitioner's only son: a youth
that, all who knew him are ready to attest, was perfectly
sober, temperate, humane, dutiful to his parents, and a
sincere lover and worshiper of his God. It was a murder of
so complicated a die, and attended by so many barbarous
and cruel circumstances, as can hardly be paralleled in
any former age, and is a disgrace to the present, which
was proved to a demonstration, before an honest impartial
Jury summoned by the Coroner, and the officer and soldiers
brought in guilty of _Wilful Murder_; yet, by the powerful
interposition of the great, and the artful and sinister means
of some of your Majesty's Justices, who ordered the soldiers
to fire, and suffered one of the murderers to make his
escape, and the others have been screened from the punishment
they so justly deserved; and, as your Petitioner has been
informed, some of them rewarded for committing this most
execrable crime.
"That if your most gracious Majesty, the father of your
people, would permit your unhappy Petitioner to lay the whole
state of his case before you, he is well persuaded your
Majesty's fatherly heart would sympathise with the still
bleeding agonies of the disconsolate parents of so amiable
a child, snatched from them by the hands of ruffians in the
bloom of youth and innocence; of a daughter who did not long
survive the untimely death of her beloved brother, and of a
most afflicted mother, who (though still alive) incessantly
moans and weeps over the cruel death of the best of children,
and cannot be comforted. Your Majesty can never be offended
with your most afflicted Petitioner for applying to your
Majesty for justice against the cruel murderers of his
beloved child, whose blood cries aloud for vengeance.
"Your Majesty's Petitioner has spent a very large sum of
money in the prosecution of the perpetrators of this horrid
crime; and though this prosecution was carried on in your
Majesty's name, yet it is a notorious fact, that your
Majesty's Counsel, Solicitor, and Agents for the Treasury,
were employed against me, appeared publicly at the Assizes,
and by all other arbitrary acts, rendered every effort
of your poor Petitioner vain and insignificant, to the
astonishment of all unbiassed hearers who attended that
trial. Your Petitioner, therefore, has no hopes of justice
but from your Majesty: he has, indeed, this consolation
left, that he proved by incontestable evidence that his son
was innocent, and that he was not in the fields that fatal
day, neither had he given the least offence to any person
whatsoever; that he was employed in his own business to the
very minute of his being killed adjoining his father's own
premises; that neither his natural temper, nor inoffensive
behaviour, ever tempted him to mix with ill-disposed persons
in any private or public disturbance of any kind, and was
so remarkably harmless and mild, that he hath in these
particulars hardly left his equal; for the truth of which
facts, your Petitioner appeals to all that knew him.
"It is humbly hoped, your Majesty will pardon the length
of this Petition, laid before you by the most disconsolate
father of a murdered child, who now, with tears in his eyes,
and a bleeding heart, lies prostrate at your Majesty's feet,
meekly and humbly imploring your compassion and justice,
equally due to the meanest of your subjects.
"Your Petitioner, therefore, most humbly beseeches your
Majesty, to take the premises into your royal consideration,
and to issue out your proclamation for apprehending the
perpetrators of this horrid crime, which may still be useful,
though it is a year and three months since the commission
of the fact, that they may be brought to a fair trial, when
your Petitioner will be ready to prove what he has asserted,
or in any other way or method that your Majesty in your
great wisdom and justice shall think most proper; and your
Petitioner shall for ever pray for the ease, happiness, and
prosperity of your Majesty's Royal person and posterity.
WILLIAM ALLEN."
Exclusive of the foregoing attempt to terminate the strange infatuation
of the people, a Proclamation was issued in the ensuing words:
"GEORGE R.
"Whereas it has been represented to us, that divers dissolute
and disorderly persons have of late frequently assembled
themselves together in a riotous and unlawful manner, to
the disturbance of the public peace; and particularly, that
large bodies of Seamen, consisting of several thousands,
have assembled tumultuously upon the river Thames, and,
under a pretence of the insufficiency of the wages allowed
by the merchants and others, have in the most daring manner
taken possession by violence of several outward-bound ships
ready to sail, and by unbending the sails, and striking the
yards and topmasts, have stopped them in the prosecution of
their voyages; and that these acts of violence have been
accompanied with threats of still greater outrages, which
have spread terror and alarm among those most likely to
be immediately affected thereby; and it has been further
represented to us, that some of the said dissolute and
disorderly persons have audaciously attempted to deter and
intimidate the civil Magistrates from doing their duty:
we, having taken the same into our serious consideration,
and being duly sensible of the mischievous consequences
that may ensue from the continuance or repetition of such
disorders, have thought fit, by and with the advice of
our Privy-council, to issue this our Royal Proclamation;
hereby strictly requiring and commanding the Lord Mayor, and
other the Justices of the peace of our City of London, and
also the Justices of the peace of our City and Liberties of
Westminster and Borough of Southwark; and of our Counties of
Middlesex, Surrey, Kent, and all other our peace-officers,
that they do severally use their utmost endeavours, by every
legal means in their power, effectually to prevent and
suppress all riots, tumults, and unlawful assemblies; and to
that end to put in due execution the laws and statutes now in
force for preventing, suppressing, and punishing the same;
and that all our loving subjects be aiding and assisting
therein. And we do further graciously declare, that the said
Magistrates, and all others acting in obedience to this our
command, may rely on our Royal protection and support in so
doing.
"Given at our Court at St. James's the 11th day of May, 1768,
in the eighth year of our reign."
Two days before the appearance of the King's Proclamation the Lord
Mayor had published others, which follow:
"_Mansion-house, London, May 9, 1768._
"Whereas information has been given to me that great
numbers of young persons, who appear to be apprentices
and journeymen, have assembled themselves together in
large bodies in different parts of this city and liberties
thereof, for several evenings last past, and behaved
themselves in such manner that, if continued, may greatly
endanger the peace of the said City: this is therefore to
caution all masters to use their best endeavours to prevent
their apprentices and servants from assembling themselves
together in the public streets, as whoever shall hereafter be
found offending in the manner aforesaid will be prosecuted
according to law: and for the better preserving the peace of
the said City and Liberties, the Freemen thereof are at this
juncture reminded of the two following clauses contained in
their oath of admission before the Chamberlain:
'You shall keep the King's peace in your own
person. You shall know no gatherings, conventicles,
or conspiracies made against the King's peace, but
you shall warn the Mayor thereof, or hinder it to
your power.'
"If a Freeman breaks through this oath he forfeits his
freedom; and if having one, two, three, or more apprentices,
and does not in a time of public disorder restrain him or
them from going abroad, and from encreasing the said public
disorder, he may be deemed and construed an accessary
thereto, and guilty of a breach of his oath.
"THOMAS HARLEY, _Mayor_."
* * * * *
"Whereas a paragraph appeared in the public papers the 5th
instant setting forth, 'That 790 quarters of wheat had been
laid up upwards of six months in two lighters below bridge,
and was become rotten and thrown overboard into the Thames:'
and as such paragraphs are frequently void of truth, and tend
only to inflame the minds of people, who at this time are
too much deluded and deceived by what they read in public
newspapers; I think it necessary to inform the publick of
the state of that matter from the best information I could
obtain; _viz._ the Lady Adleheit, John Segal Ken, took on
board at Bremen, the 17th day of December last, 70 last
of wheat in bags, being 1400 bags; the frost setting in
immediately she was detained by the ice there, and did not
arrive at the port of London till the 4th of April; and the
cargo by being so long on board, and by the damage the ship
sustained among the ice, proved in a most terrible condition,
and was disposed of in the following manner:
300 quarters at 40_s._ 6_d._
90 ditto 41
270 40
50 14
35 ditto in the lump at five guineas; 9 one-half thrown
overboard.
"THOMAS HARLEY, _Mayor_."