- 
HISTORY OF EUROPE. 
the numerous assemblies, and associ- 
ations, that had been instituted in 
opposition to its. measures. It was 
not, on the other hand, denied, that 
the outrages, still adopted in most of 
the popular meetings, was an object. 
that called for suppression. ‘The 
warmest friends to the principles in- 
culcated by them, did not deny the 
impropriety of attacking the ruling 
powers with such acrimony of 
speech, and prognosticated, that, 
through want of moderation in their 
invectives, these meetings exposed 
themselves to certain dissolution, as 
the powerful adversaries they were 
continually provoking, would cer- 
tainly labour to silence them, and 
probably find the means of doing it. 
To the agitation occasioned by 
political disputes, another was, at 
this period, superadded, of a still 
more dangerous consequence. A 
scarcity prevailed throughout the 
kingdom, and was woefully felt by 
the poorer sort, several of whom 
perished for want. The means of 
procuring sustenance were narrowed 
from various causes; but the dis- 
contented attributed this evil to the 
war ; and the sufferers, through de- 
fect. of employment, were ready 
enough to believe those who repre- 
sented all the calamities that afilict- 
ed the nation, as proceeding chiefly, 
ifnot solely, from that cause. This 
prepared them for the commission 
of those excesses, to which men are 
80 prone, when they find themselves 
aggrieved, and imagine they are 
punishing the authors of their griev- 
ances, 
The state of the nation, from these 
Various circumstances, appeared so 
critical, ihat it wasjudged necessary 
to call parliament together at ao 
earlier period than usual. It met, 
accordingly, on the twenty-ninth of 
{9 
October, a day that will be long re- 
membered, on account of the events 
that attended it, and of the conse- 
quences that followed them, and 
of which they were the immediate 
cause. 
A report had been spread, that 
an immense multitude, of discon- 
tented people, had agreed to take 
this opportunity of manifesting their 
sentiments to the king in person. 
This, of course, excited the curiosity 
of the public, and the park was 
crowded in a manner unprecedente 
ed since the king’s accession to the 
throne. In his way to the house of 
lords, which lay through the park, 
his coach was snrrounded, on every 
side, by persons of all descriptions, 
demanding peace, and the dismission 
_of Mr. Pitt. Some voices were even 
heard exclaiming no king,and stones 
were thrown at the state-coach as 
it drew near to the Horse-guards. 
In passing through Palace-yard, one 
of the windows was broken, it was 
said, by a Wullet, discharged from 
an air-gun. ‘These outrages were 
repeated on the king’s return from 
the house, and he narrowly escaped 
the fury of the populace, in his way 
back from St. James’s Palace to 
Buckingham House. 
All reasonable people were deeply 
affected at this treatment of the 
king. They were duly sensible that 
it would produce effects highly dis- 
agreeable to the public, and, instead 
of answering the purposes proposed, 
by those who were so misled as to ap- 
prove of it, that, on the contrary, it 
would tend to strengthen the hands 
of ministers, by enabling them to 
bring forward such restrictive mea- 
sures, as would considerably abridge 
the freedom ot speech and action, 
hitherto enjoyed by the people at 
large. 
The 
