ASS 



ASS 



tlie title of the " Protetlant Affocation," and at length 

 lord Georire Gordon became their prefident. The objedt 

 of their aflbciation was to procure a i-epeal of the late aft in 

 favour of the papifts. The pei-fons who attended thefe 

 meetings were, many of them, honcft and well-intentioned 

 people, who had a jufl averfion to popery, but who did not 

 duly confider that, an intolerant fpirit was at kail as cenfur- 

 able in a proteftant as in a papift. In a little while, how- 

 ever, their number, confiding of perfons in the lower ranks 

 <jf life, became very confiderable. A petition to parliament 

 was framed, for a repeal of the late act, and the utmott pains 

 were employed to procure fubfcriptions to it. The number 

 of fubfcribers is faid to have amounted to 120,000 perfons. 

 In order to give weight to their petition, it was determined 

 that it (hould be attended by great numbers of the petitioners 

 in perfon; and a public advertifement was ilTued for that 

 purpofe, figned by lord George Gordon. Accordingly 

 it is fuppofcd that at leaft 50,000 perfons afTembled on the 

 fecond of June in St. George's Fields, and proceeded in 

 great order to the houfe of commons, where their petition 

 was prefented by their prefidtnt. Several members of both 

 houfes of parliament were grofsly infulted and ill-treated by 

 the populace, and in the evening a mob aflembled which 

 demoliflied two Romifh chapels. The metropolis, for feve- 

 ral fubfequent days, became an unexampled fcene of alarm, 

 terror, and dcvaftation ; and for fome time the magiftrates 

 in general manifefted little aftivity. At length, when the 

 rioters were making a formidable attack upon all property, 

 and eveiy man's perfoual fccurity w^as endangered, the 

 military interpofed, and, after confiderable exertions, reftored 

 the capital of the kingdom to order and tranquillity, after 

 a devallation that had continued for fix days, and not with- 

 out the lofs of many lives. The number of perfons killed 

 and wounded by the military in the fupprcflion of thefe 

 riots, is faid to have amounted to 458 perfons. It would 

 be unjuft, however, to impute to the proteftant afTociation, 

 as the firft agents in this bufinefs thought proper to llyle 

 themftlves, the whole of the mifcliief that enfued, or to 

 fuppofe that they forefaw the calamities to which they 

 gave occafion. Yet it muft be allowed, that thefe unhappy 

 fcenes owed their origin to their bigotry and delnfion ; and 

 that the members of that affociation manifefled a fpirit the 

 very reverfe of that which dittinguilhes real and enlightened 

 proteftants, and very difgraceful to the national charafter. 

 It has been faid, that no member of the proteftant affocia- 

 tion was executed or tried for any fliare in the riots ; and it 

 is mod; probable, that thofe who engaged in this difaflrous 

 bufinefs from religious bigotry, would have the difcrction to 

 retire before the lall excefTts, and before the intervention of 

 the mihtary. Several of the rioters were afterwards appre- 

 hended, tried, and executed. Lord George Gordon was 

 committed to the Tower on the tenth of June, arraigned on 

 the twenty-fifth of January, 1 781; and on the fifth of 

 February, tried under a charge of conftruclive trcafon, and 

 acquitted. 



ASSOILE, in our Ancient Laiv-BooLs, fignifies to ab- 

 folve, deliver, or fet free from an excommunication. See 

 Absolution. ^- * 



ASSOKO, in Geography, a town of Africa, the capital of 

 Iflini, in an idand of the fame name, formed by the river 

 Ifiini; which is the ordinary refidence of the king and his 

 attendants. 



ASSOM. See AssEM. 



ASSONANCE, in Rhetoric and Poetry, a term ufed 

 where the words of a phrafe, or verfe, have the fame found 

 or termination, and yet make no proper rhyme. 



Thefe arc ufually vicious in Englifli: the Romans forae- 



times ufed them with elegancy: " Militem comparavnt, 

 exercitum ordinavit, aciem luftravit." 



The Latins call xx. Jimiliter definens ; and the Greeks c/xoic- 



Tr,X;U70v. 



ASSONANT Rhymes, is a term particularly applied 

 to a kind of verfes common among the Spaniards, where a 

 reiemblance cf found ferves inftead of a natural rhyme. 



Thus libera, cubterta, tierra, mefa, may anfwcr each other 

 in a kind of affonant rhyme, becaufe thev have each an e 

 in the penidtimate fvUable, and an a in the lall. 



ASSONGSONG, in Geography. See IJland of As- 



SUMPTION. 



ASSONIA, in Botany, a genus of plants, fo named in 

 honour of Ignatius de Aflb, a Spaiiifn botanift. Lin. gen. 

 Schreb. n. 1 123. Cavanill. Did. 3. p. 120. Dombcva, ib. 

 p. 121. Clafs, monadelphia dodecandria. Nat. Ord. cohim- 

 iiifera. Malvacere, }uK. Gen. Char. Ca/. perianth double; 

 outer three-leaved, unilateral, deciduous; inner one-leafed, 

 five-parted ; parts lanceolate, acute, reflex. Cor. petals five, 

 ronndifli, narrowed at the bafe, fpreading, withering, affixed 

 to the pitcher of the ftamens. Stam. filaments fifteen, fili- 

 form, upright, fhorter than the corolla, conjoined at the bafe 

 in the form of a pitcher; anthers oblong, fubfagittate, ercfl; 

 five linear-lanceolate, fomewhat ered, coloured, petal-formed 

 ftraps between the ftamens, proceeding from the pitcher. 

 Pift. germ roundilh, five-furrowed; ftyle fim.ple, longer than 

 the ftamens, permanent ; ftigmas five, recurved. Pei-. cap- 

 fule fubglobofe, or turbinate, five-celled; cells feparable, 

 bivalve. Seeds, folitary or in pairs, fubovats. Obf. aflonia 

 cav. with the outer perianth one-leafed, three-toothed, and. 

 with five ftyles, does not feem feparable from Dombeya cav. 

 with the outer perianth three-leaved, and a fingle ftyle, any- 

 more than the hibifcus tiliaceus from the other hibifci; or 

 the one ftyled fidas, from the reft ; efpecially as Dombeya 

 ovate cav. has the ftyle divided almoft to the bafe. We 

 have therefore followed Schreber and Martyn in uniting- 

 Dombeya with aftbuia. 



Species, i. A. populnea. Cavan. Difl". 120. t. 42 f. i. 

 " Leaves cordate, ovate-acuminate; floweng corymbed." 

 A fmall tree refembling hibifcus populneus. The French 

 call it bois de fenteur bleu ou galeux, becaufe the wood is 

 fweet-fcented, and blue in the centre, and when old it be- 

 comes very hard. Leaves alternately fcattered, large, entire, 

 and hang obliquely; outer calyx fo fmall as fcarcely to be 

 obferved ; petals fmall, oblong, obliquely fickle-fhaped, firft 

 white, afterwards ferruginous. A native of the ille of 

 Bourbon, in hilly v?oods. 2. A.pa/mata, Dombeya palraata, 

 Cavan. 1. c. " Leaves cordate, palmate, fmoothiih, lobes 

 feven, acute, ferrate-crenate; flowers corymbed." Stem 

 arboreous; leaves alternate, on long footttalks; lobes oblong- 

 ac\uninate; ftipules lanceolate, tomentofe, deciduous; flowers 

 !n folitary peduncles, at the ends of the branches, tomentofe; 

 corolla an inch and a half wide, changing from white to a 

 fnlphur colour, and laftly ferruginous. A native of the ifle 

 of Bourbon, where it is called by the natives mahot-tantan. 

 3. A. aciitanguLi. Cavan. 1. c. " Leaves cordate, roundifli, 

 three-cufped, crenate ; flowers racemed." Stem arboreous; 

 leaves alternate, of the length of the footftalks, feven-nerved, 

 and commonly with an angular tooth between the bafe and 

 lateral divifions; racemes folitary, axillary; calyxes extremely, 

 tomentofe; corolla as that of the A. palmata (2), but veined 

 and coriaceous; fruit pear-fhaped. A native of the ifle of 

 Bourbon. 4. A angukita, Dombeya angulata. Cavan. 1. c. 

 " Leaves cordate, roundilh, angular at top, ferrate-toothed 

 tomentofe; umbels numerous; common peduncles Ihorter 

 than the petiole." Arboreous; blanches tomentofe; leaves 

 with three angles at the tip, feven-nerved; ilipules embracing 



the 



