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The History of England in Three Volumes, Vol.III. / From the Accession of George III. to the Twenty-Third Year of the Reign of Queen Victoria cover

The History of England in Three Volumes, Vol.III. / From the Accession of George III. to the Twenty-Third Year of the Reign of Queen Victoria

Chapter 293: MOTION ON THE EMPLOYMENT OF THE MILITARY IN THE LATE RIOTS.
By Edward Farr
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About This Book

The volume traces British political, parliamentary, and military developments from the accession of George III through the early nineteenth century, chronicling changes of ministry and cabinet, debates over colonial taxation and the American conflict, parliamentary controversies involving figures such as Wilkes and Warren Hastings, questions of Catholic relief and slave-trade abolition, and responses to the French Revolution and Napoleonic wars, including major naval and continental campaigns, the union with Ireland, and domestic legislation on finance, civil liberties, and parliamentary reform.

MOTION ON THE EMPLOYMENT OF THE MILITARY IN THE LATE RIOTS.

It must have been very clear to any unprejudiced mind, that the employment of the military in the suppression of the London riots of the preceding summer, so far from being premature, had not been resorted to in time to save the city from the ravages of a lawless mob. At this time, however, as in many preceding years, no stone was left unturned by opposition whereby there was the remotest chance of bringing ministers into public contempt. They were assailed at every point wherein they were considered vulnerable; and one attack was but the precursor of another. Mr. Brinsley Sheridan, who had made his first speech during last November, and had won golden opinions by his oratory on that occasion, moved three propositions: the first declaring that the military force could not justifiably be applied in dispersing tumultuous assemblies, without waiting for directions from civil magistrates, unless outrages had broken out with such violence as to overcome civil authority, and threaten the subversion of legal government; the second affirming that the unprecedented order to the military on the 7th of June last, afforded strong presumption of the defective state of the police; and the third for the appointment cf a committee to inquire into the conduct of the magistracy and civil power during the riots. Sheridan delivered a severe philippic against the administration, which was adorned with glowing periods, and abounded in bitter invectives; but after a long debate, in which the government were fully vindicated from all blame, all the motions were negatived. On this occasion, however, Sheridan obtained the reputation of a first-rate orator, which probably pleased him more than he would have been had his propositions received the sanction of the house.