But, though it was sometimes possible to prevent the depravity of the lower order of people, there were others, that moved in the sphere of gentlemen, who set the worst of examples to their inferiors. Such were those that had assembled on the evening of a Court drawing-room at the Royal Chocolate-house in St. James's-street; where disputes at hazard produced a quarrel, which became general throughout the room; and, as they fought with their swords, three gentlemen were mortally wounded; and the affray was at length ended by the interposition of the Royal-guards, who were compelled to knock the parties down with the butt-ends of their muskets indiscriminately, as intreaties and commands were of no avail. A footman of Colonel Cunningham's,
greatly attached to his master, rushed through the swords, seized, and literally carried him out by force without injury.
This horrid rencontre was the effect of sudden passion, roused by disappointment and avarice; there was nothing of depravity prepense, except the act of gaming. Weak as this palliative may be, the members of two other clubs had them not to plead for their infamous profligacy. The wretches who associated under the titles of the "Bold Bucks" and the "Hell-fires," are described in a paper of February 20, 1720, as deliberate abandoned villains. "The principles of the first are to come up to the flaming lust of their worthy patrons, from whom they take their denomination, by their examples; they attempt all females of their own species promiscuously—grandmothers and mothers, as well as daughters; even their own sisters fear their violence, and fly their privacies. Blind and bold Love is their motto, and their soul's faculties strictly terminated in a participation of entertainment and judgment with brutes."
"The Hell-fires, you may guess by the appellation, aim at a more transcendant malignity; deriding the forms of Religion as a trifle with them, by a natural progression from the form they turn to the substance; with Lucifer they fly at Divinity. The third person of the Trinity is what they peculiarly attack; by the following
specimen you may judge of their good will: i. e. their calling for a Holy Ghost-pye at the Tavern, in which, by the bye, you may still observe the propriety and justice of God's judgment on them, that blasts the advantages of their education, so as to make this shocking stupidity to be the poignancy of their wit, and the life they lead, the sublimity of their genius. Such is their disposition; the next things to be remarked are their education and usual place of conference. Their education then, after the care of tender parents, and their initiation into the liberal arts, is proposed to be finished in an academy; (do not mistake me) not a scholastic schismatical one, but a riding one; where obsceneness, curses, blasphemy, exclamations, with revolving regularity, meet each curvet of the more rational animal. Their usual place of conference in full council, is a diminutive Tavern not very far from thence; where the master and cook may perhaps in time hear something from a Magistrate for striking in with the rakes' blasphemous jests, and supplying them with cards and dice on Sundays."
As a further illustration of the manners of the times, the following paragraph is of importance: "On Wednesday night last, about twelve, there was such a great riot in Windmill-street, near the Haymarket, that near 100 gentlemen and others were all engaged at one time, some with swords, and others with sticks and canes, wherein
abundance were dangerously wounded; the watchmen that came to put an end to the affray were knocked down and barbarously used; at last the patrole of Horse-guards came, and finding them obdurate, rode through them cutting all the way with their swords; yet we hear of none that were killed upon the spot, though many, it is thought, cannot recover of their wounds. When they saw their own time, they gave over; and, upon summing up the matter, the quarrel began at first by two chairmen only[266:A]."
On the evening of May 28, Captain Fitzgerald and three young men his companions met a lady in the Strand, returning from St. James's, conveyed in a sedan-chair. They immediately endeavoured to force her out, but were opposed by the chairmen, upon which they drew their swords, and proceeded to demolish the vehicle. The noise brought a watchman to the spot, who instantly received a deadly wound through the back, and as instantly expired. This mighty son of Mars was secured; but the others fled from their foul deed, like true cowards.
It may be supposed that this laxity of manners influenced all ranks, when inroads upon the paths of decorum prevailed even in the Church. In order that this fact may not rest upon my mere assertion, I shall quote the concluding lines
of a letter to the Author of the London Journal, dated December 21, 1720, and signed "A. A. a lover of decency and order." He speaks of an impropriety, now become quite common, in the Stewards of the Sons of the Clergy permitting persons from the Theatres to perform in their annual celebration at St. Paul's; and then proceeds: "There are other things truly blameable to be observed, when the Te Deum or Anthem hath been performing, yes, when the parson hath been preaching, (viz.) persons eating, drinking wine, laughing and talking; a conduct much more becoming those who attend the performances of Drury-lane or the Haymarket, than the Temple of the Lord.