"What is here taken notice of, as it is fact, so it is abominable, and ought to be exposed; the doing of which may tend to reform such irregularities for the future, and keep those disorders from the House of God, which cannot admit of a justification unless by those who may think the same liberties may be taken in places set apart for devotion, as are in the Synagogue of Satan."
The progress of the shocking Clubs already noticed became so alarming, that the King found it necessary to issue his proclamation for their suppression, in April 1721, which establishes their existence beyond all dispute.
"At the Court of St. James's, the 28th day of April 1721.
Present, the King's most excellent Majesty in Council.
"His Majesty having received information which gives great reason to suspect that there have been lately, and still are, in and about the Cities of London and Westminster, certain scandalous Clubs or Societies of young persons, who meet together, and in the most impious and blasphemous manner insult the most sacred principles of our Holy Religion, affront Almighty God himself, and corrupt the minds and morals of one another; and being resolved to make use of all the authority committed to him by Almighty God to punish such enormous offenders, and to crush such shocking impieties, before they increase, and draw down the vengeance of God upon this nation: His Majesty has thought fit to command the Lord Chancellor, and his Lordship is hereby required, to call together his Majesty's Justices of the Peace of Middlesex and Westminster, and strictly to enjoin them in the most effectual manner, that they and every of them do make the most diligent and careful inquiry and search for the discovery of any thing of this and the like sort, tending in any wise to the corruption of the principles and manners of men, and to lay before his Lordship such discoveries as from time to time may be made, to the end that
all proper methods may be taken for the utter suppression of all such detestable practices. His Lordship is further directed to urge them to the due execution of their office, in detecting and prosecuting with vigour all profaneness, immorality, and debauchery, as they value the blessing of Almighty God, as they regard the happiness of their country, which cannot subsist if things sacred and virtuous are trampled upon; and, as they tender his Majesty's favour, to which they cannot recommend themselves more effectually than by shewing the utmost zeal upon so important an occasion; to which end his Lordship is to acquaint them, that as his Majesty, for himself, has nothing more at heart than to regard the honour of God so impiously struck at, and is determined to shew all marks of displeasure and discouragement to any who may lie even under the suspicion of such practices; so he shall always account it the greatest and substantial service they can do to his Majesty or his government, to exert themselves in discovering any who are guilty of such impieties, that they may be openly prosecuted and punished with the utmost severity and most public ignominy which the laws of the land can inflict.
"Edward Southwell."
"His Majesty has been pleased to give orders to the principal officers of his Household, to make strict and diligent enquiry whether any of his Majesty's servants are guilty of the horrid
impieties mentioned in the Order of Council inserted above, and to make their report to his Majesty."
The dreadful consequences of this attempt to set aside all virtue and all religion were conspicuously observable, even at the moment, in the sudden deaths of four members of these dreadful clubs; not that I mean to insinuate the Almighty interfered by miracles to shew his displeasure; on the contrary, the event was produced by natural causes inherent in each diabolical act. The hurry of the spirits, occasioned by ardent liquors and the terrors of conscience, were sufficient; Nature shrunk from the contest; and he that drank a toast too shocking to repeat fainted under the recollection; and she that had assumed the character of the Mother of Christ fell a victim to the keen horrors of remembrance in her lucid moments of repentance. It was said, that one of the clubs met at Somerset-house, where they celebrated their infamous orgies to the sound of musick during the hours of Divine service, which will account for the concluding paragraph of the Proclamation. The number of Justices who attended the Lord Chancellor's summons exceeded 100; they received his most strenuous recommendation to exert themselves in the execution of the order, but I find no recorded effects of its operation.