Parliament was prorogued on the 12th of July. In his speech the prince regent expressed regret at the king’s continued indisposition; glanced at the subjects which had been considered during the session; and noticed the prospect of an abundant harvest, not only in this country, but on the continent, from which he anticipated an improvement in the commercial relations of this and other countries.
RIOTS AT MANCHESTER, ETC.
In the last report of the secret committee of the house of commons, mention was made of disturbances which had been experienced at Manchester. These disturbances appear to have been of an extraordinary description. A large body of men, calling themselves friends of parliamentary reform, and urged by the resolution of despair, determined to proceed to London to explain their distress to the regent in person. Each individual provided himself with a blanket and a small stock of provisions. On the day of their departure they met near St. Peter’s church; and such crowds assembled around them that the magistrates thought it expedient to call out the military. The principal instigators of the mob were arrested; but, nevertheless, a considerable number set out on their mission to London. More than five hundred proceeded as far as Macclesfield, where a troop of yeomanry was stationed to provide against contingencies. All, however, remained quiet; and this “Blanketeering Expedition” penetrated into Staffordshire, where it ended; the poor creatures who composed it being obliged to give it up from exhaustion and the want of sustenance. But these riots had at least one effect, it filled the prisons throughout the country with objects of suspicion or of crime. Many of these were as arbitrarily released by the authorities as they had been committed; but the more prominent leaders were either detained in custody, or sent, for greater security, to the metropolis. The trial of the prisoners in the Tower was commenced in the month of June; but Watson, the first tried, being acquitted by the jury, the other cases were abandoned. The prisoners captured in the riots which took place in the northern and midland counties were tried at Derby by a special commission, and twenty-three received sentence of death; three of them only, however, suffered the extreme penalty of the law. The last prosecution was that of a man named Hone, for some political parodies on the Litany and other parts of our church-service. He was tried for a blasphemous libel; but he was acquitted, chiefly on the ground that his parodies were political, and hence not blasphemous; and the public sympathized with the demagogue by raising a subscription, in order to reimburse him for his expenses, and to reward him for the trouble and fatigue which he had undergone in the prosecution. Hone seems to have profited by the lesson he had received; for he withdrew from the disgraceful career which he had commenced, and engaged in literary pursuits more worthy of a rational and thinking being, and of a good citizen of the world.
DEATH OF THE PRINCESS CHARLOTTE.
The close of this year was marked by an event that filled the nation with mourning; this was the death of the idolized hope of a free nation, the Princess Charlotte: she whose looks of health and gladdening smiles had been long hailed by the nation with heartfelt satisfaction by her future subjects, expired on the 6th of November, after giving birth to a still-born child. The indications of sorrow on this event becoming known were unusually general and sincere. The civic procession and entertainment on the Lord Mayor’s Day was abandoned; public entertainments were suspended; and on the 19th, the day of her interment, every shop was closed, and funeral sermons were preached in churches and chapels to large and attentive congregations. The day of her funeral was one of voluntary humiliation, and of sorrowful meditation on the instability of human happiness. Brief as were the days of this good princess, she had not lived in vain; her life was a bright illustration of piety and virtue. “Put not your trust in princes, nor in the son of man, in whom there is no help. His breath goeth forth, he returneth to the earth; in that very day his thoughts perish.”
CHAPTER XXXI.
GEORGE III. 1818—1820