In the course of this Wednes- | His large stores of spirits were day two separate attempts were made upon the Bank of England. Here, however, a party of soldiers had been providentially stationed; and the rioters were so far intimidated by the strength with which they beheld it guarded, that their attacks were but feeble and soon desisted from. They were led on to the first by a brewer's servant, on horseback, who had decorated his horse with the chains of Newgate. Elsewhere the mob met with more success. The King's Bench, the Fleet, the Marshalsea, and several other prisons, were forced open, and the prisoners released. The toll-gates on Blackfriars Bridge were attacked and plundered of the money they contained. All these, and some other buildings, were set on fire. As the night advanced the glare of | conflagration might be seen to fill the sky from many parts. "The sight was dreadful," writes Dr. Johnson; and the number of the separate fires, all blazing at the same time, is computed at thirtysix. Happily this summer night was perfectly calm and serene, since the slightest wind might have stirred the flames and reduced a great part of London to ashes. But the principal scene that night of conflagration, as of all tumult and horror, was Holborn. There the mob had burst open and set on fire the warehouse of Mr. Langdale, a Roman Catholic and a distiller, obnoxious to their attack from his religion, and still more so perhaps from his trade. poured forth in lavish profusion, and taken up by pailfuls; the kennel ran gin, and men, women, and children were seen upon their knees eagerly sucking up the liquor as it flowed. Many of these poor deluded wretches were stirred to the most frantic fury; many more sank down in helpless stupefaction, and, too drunk to move, perished in the flames which had been kindled by themselves. Up to nearly this time there had been disgraceful terror in the magistracy, and as as disgraceful torpor in the government. Some men thought mainly of their own escape; others seemed to have imagined that the rage of the people, like some impetuous flood, must quickly exhaust itself and pass by. Even at the outset there had been no lack of military aid; this was gradually increased by expresses sent in all directions; until by Wednesday the 7th there could be mustered even at the lowest computation 10,000 men ; besides which several large bodies of militia had been marched up in haste from the neighbouring counties. Yet still these numerous forces could be of no avail in restoring order so long as the scruple remained that they had no legal right till one hour after the Riot Act had been publicly read. In this dilemma the first to show energy and determination was the king. It was from him, rather than from any of his subjects, that came the measure of protection.so much needed and so long postponed. Till then, such had been the craven spirit of some men in authority, that, according to the Duke of Grafton, in his memoirs, even the Secretary of State's servants had worn in their hats, as a passport, the cockades of the rioters. No further relying upon others, his Majesty, from his own impulse, called a council on Wednesday the 7th, and, himself presiding, laid before the assembled ministers the difficulty respecting the Riot Act. The whole cabinet wavered, well remembering the excitement which had followed the letter of Lord Barrington in the riots of 1768, and the readiness at that time of juries to find verdicts against the officers and soldiers who had only done their duty. Happily for the peace, nay, even the existence of London, the Attorney-General Wedderburn was present as assessor. When the king turned to him for his opinion, Wedderburn answered boldly, that he was convinced the Riot Act did not bear the construction put upon it. In his judgment, neither the delay of an hour, nor any such formality, is by law required when the mob are engaged in a felony, as setting fire to a dwelling-house, and cannot be restrained by other means. The ministers, gathering firmness from Wedderburn, concurred; and the king then said that this had been clearly his own opinion, though he would not venture to express it beforehand; but that now, as supreme magistrate, he would see it carried out. "There shall be at all events," he added, 66 one magistrate in the kingdom who will do his duty." own. By the king's commands a proclamation was immediately drawn up, and issued that same afternoon, warning all householders to keep themselves, their servants, or apprentices, within doors, and announcing that the king's officers were now instructed to suppress the riots by an immediate exertion of their utmost force. Such instructions were sent accordingly from the adjutant-general's office: "In obedience to an order of the king in council, the military to act without waiting for directions from the civil magistrates." That evening, for the first time, the rioters found themselves confronted by a determination equal to their Bodies of militia or of regular troops were sent straight to any points where uproar and havoc most prevailed. Thus, for instance, the Northumberland militia, which had come that day by a forced march of twenty-five miles, were led at once by Colonel Holroyd into Holborn, amidst the thickest of the flames. A detachment of the Guards drove before them the plundering party which had taken possession of Blackfriars Bridge. Here several were killed by the musketry, while others were thrown, or in their panic threw themselves, over the parapet into the Thames. Wherever the mob would not disperse, the officers gave the word, and the soldiers fired without further hesitation. Only in some cases, where the riot ers had'succeeded in obtaining arms, was any firing attempted in return; nor could oaken sticks and iron bars withstand, for more than a few moments, the onset of disciplined troops. Then were some of the worst plunderers in their fall both punished and detected. One young chimney-sweeper, who was killed, was found to have forty guineas in his pocket. Appalling were the sights and sounds of that night; sleep banished from every eye; the streets thronged with people in wonder and affright; furniture hastily removed, in apprehension of the flames; the frantic yells of the drunken, and the doleful cries of the wounded, mingling with the measured tread of the soldiers' march, and the successive volleys of their musketry; and the whole scene illumined by the fitful glare of six-and-thirty conflagrations. These tumults, so culpably neglected at their outset, and grown to a height that threatened "to lay waste defenced cities into ruinous heaps," could not be quelled at length without a loss of life almost as grievous as themselves. According to the returns sent in to Lord Amherst as commander-in-chief, upwards of two hundred persons were shot dead in the streets; and two hundred and fifty were lying wounded in the hospitals, of whom seventy or eighty within a short time expired. Yet these returns were far from conveying a full statement of the numbers that perished. They took no account of the dead or dying whom their own associates in the fray carried off and concealed. They took no account of those victims to their own excesses, who, lying helpless beside the pailfuls or kennelfuls of gin, were smothered by the spreading flames, or overwhelmed by the falling houses. Dreadful as was the loss of life that night, it proved at least decisive. The conflagrations and the plunder were stopped; the incendiaries and the robbers were scared. On the morning of Thursday, the 8th of June, no trace was to be seen of the recent tumults beyond the smouldering ruins, the spots of blood upon the pavement, and the marks of shot upon the houses. No renewed attempt was made at riot, or even at gathering in the streets. The crowds, which had been "as the stars of heaven for multitude," waned like the stars before the day; and those who, on their first appearance, had wondered whence so many came, now expressed equal wonder where they could be gone. Parties of soldiers were encamped in convenient places, as in the Parks, the Museum Gardens, and Lincoln's Inn Fields, ready to act on any fresh emergency, had any such occurred. By their exertions a great number of disorderly persons concerned in the late riots were secured; several, it is said, being taken in the cells of Newgate attempting to rekindle the fire in those parts which had not been totally destroyed. Volunteer associations "for the defence of liberty and kewise formed, except at the Bank of England. y of those who But the general tranquillity soon had feared the restored the public'confidence; the porary absence shops were opened the next morners. Through- ing, the courts of law resumed hops continued their sittings, and the course of to Whitechapel, mercantile affairs returned to its was transacted, customary channel. THE MEETING OF THE STATES-GENERAL. (Thiers' History of the French Revolution.) A.D. 1789. On the 4th of May, the day before the opening, a solemn procession took place. The king, the three orders, all the dignitaries of the state, presented themselves at the church of Notre-Dame. The court had displayed extraordinary magnificence. The two higher orders were magnificently attired. Princes, dukes, and peers, gentlemen, prelates, were dressed in purple, and wore plumed hats. The deputies of the Commons, clad in simple black cloaks, came after, and in spite of their modest exterior, seemed strong in their numbers and in their confidence of the future. It was observed that the Duke of Orleans, stationed in the rear of the nobility, liked to remain behind and to mingle among the foremost members of the Commons. THE king alone, who had not | before the attack, the parties betasted a moment of repose since gan to measure each other with the commencement of his reign, their eyes. looked forward to the StatesGeneral as the end of his embarrassments. Jealous of his authority, rather for his children, to whom he hoped to leave this inheritance intact, than on his own behalf, he was not sorry to hand it over in part to the nation, and to transfer to it the difficulties of government; so he joyfully made the arrangements for this great meeting. A hall had been prepared in haste. The costumes of the members had even been settled, and a humiliating etiquette was imposed upon the tiers état. Men are no less jealous of their dignity than of their rights; by a just pride, the deputies were forbidden to submit to any disgraceful ceremonial. This fresh mistake of the court proceeded, like all the others, from the desire of maintaining at least the appearance, when the reality no longer existed. It was to cause a serious irritation at the moment when, This national solemnity, military and religious, these pious chants, these warlike instruments, moved all hearts profoundly. The |