H I S T O R V O F E U R O V E. [211 



CHAP. XIV. 



Return from the A fairs of the Continent to those of Great Britain. — 

 Disturbances in the Prison of Cold- Bath- Fields. — Mobs and Riots on 

 .(Account of the exorbitant Price of Bread.— Naval ExpMts.—And 

 Expeditions to the Coast of France, Spain, and Africa.— Negociation 

 for Peace with France renewed. — Reduction of the Island of Malta, 

 under the Poiver of Great Britain. — And (fthc Dutch Mand of 

 Curai;ao. — ^n English Fleet, with Troops on board, menaces Cadiz. 

 — Affairs of Egypt.— West Indies.— East Indies.— A Storm brewing 

 in the North of Europe. — Summary Review of the Eighteenth Cen- 



• turtf. 



HAVING taken a summary re- 

 view of affairs on the theatre 

 of war, on the continent, we return 

 to those of Great Britain. 



Soon after the parliament had 

 been prorogued, apprehensions of 

 tumult and riot alarmed the affluent 

 and easy inhabitants of London. 

 On the fourteenth of August, the 

 prisoners in the house of correction, 

 in Cold-Bath-Fields, rendered im- 

 patientj* perhaps, by the friendly 

 visits of certain members of par- 

 liament, whose philanthropy, it was 

 observed, was directed chiefly to 

 men obnoxious to government, 

 and to objects, from which there 

 was the greatest reason to hope 

 for the reputation of benevolence, 

 exhibited specimens of turbulence, 

 and a desire of escaping from their 

 confinement. They refused to 

 submit, in the evening, to the 

 usual .shutting in of their cells ; 

 and when they were compelled to 



give 



way, on this point, they 

 uttered loud complaints of the 

 miseries to which they were sub- 

 jected. A multitude of people was 

 drawn to the walls of the prison ; 

 and it was apprehended that the 

 mob would attempt to release the 

 prisoners. At this crisis, thekeeper, 

 Aris, a rigorous and hard-hearted 

 man, sallied out, and procured th« 

 aid of some peace-officers, for the 

 defence of his post. The volun- 

 teers of ClerkenweU, St. Sepulchre, 

 and otheradjoining districts, repair- 

 ed, from their shops, to assist in 

 quelling "the disturbance; and peace 

 and order were at length restored. 

 The contagion of this example was 

 the more to be dreaded, that the 

 price of bread, from a bad season, 

 from the war, but, probably, above 

 all, from an overflow of money, 

 such as it was, had risen to an ex- 

 orbitant heigh t.t This evil was 

 perhaps occasioned also, in some 



• Spes additasuscltat iras. Virg. 



t The experiftiPnt, whether the high price of provisions is not, in part, to be 

 attributed to the influx of wealth and artificial currency, is, from the abundance of 

 the harvest of 1801, now on foot. September 21, 1801. j 



LP 2] 



