London in the eighteenth century / by Sir Walter Besant.

  • Besant, Walter, 1836-1901.
Date:
1902
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: London in the eighteenth century / by Sir Walter Besant. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    70/738 (page 46)
    Corn Exchange. On September 15, about 1000 persons assembled and began to hiss and hoot the cornfactors and the mealmen. Some they hustled and some they pelted with mud. One they rolled in the kennel, and when he took shelter in a house they broke the windows. The Lord Mayor went in person, accompanied by one of the Sheriffs and an Alderman, to address the people and persuade them to disperse. In this laudable attempt he was only partially successful. A court of Aldermen was held, in which it was pointed out that violence only defeated its own object; that if prices could not go down, no dealers in corn would have orderly access to the Exchange. A royal proclamation against these riots was issued on the follow¬ ing day, which dealt with this as well as many other riots all over the country. The proclamation produced no effect in London, while tumults and riots against corn- dealers, butchers, bakers, cheesemongers, and all dealers in provisions continued for several days longer. The mob was kept down by the efforts of the City Volunteers. At the same time the Common Council thought the condition of the poor so serious that they addressed a petition to the King on the subject. The King received the address graciously, and informed the Mayor that he had already convened the Parliament. Meetings were held by the freeholders of Middlesex on the same subject. They were unanimous in protesting that the principal cause of the scarcity and the high prices was the war, and that their representatives should be instructed to vote against its continuance whenever they found it possible. Among the many addresses presented by the City to the King is one which should not be passed over, on the Union of Great Britain and Ireland. Their sentiments are as follows :— “We, your Majesty’s most dutiful and loyal subjects, the Lord Mayor, Aldermen, and Commons, of the City of London, in Common Council assembled, approach the throne with the liveliest sentiments of congratulation on the very important event of the legislative union of your Majesty’s kingdoms of Great Britain and Ireland. Unshaken as we are in our firm allegiance to the best of kings, we contemplate with peculiar satisfaction every circumstance which, in its design or operation, can tend to the security and honour of your Majesty’s crown, and thereby to the declared first object of your Majesty’s heart, the welfare and prosperity of your people. The accomplishment of this great measure, founded in wisdom, and demonstrative of that paternal regard which your Majesty has ever evinced for every class of your subjects, the union of the two kingdoms, particularly affords, at this momentous crisis of public affairs, the gratifying prospect of consolidating the joint interest, energy, and resources of the empire, and of confirming, by a mutual participation of the peculiar blessings of each, the prosperity and happiness of both kingdoms.” The eighteenth century closed upon London more dismally than can be well understood. A tedious and exhausting war abroad ; the trade of the country carried on by the protection of convoys ; French privateers swarming in the Channel ; bankruptcies everywhere ; and, to crown all, a succession of cold and rainy summers causing a failure of the harvest, and wheat running up to more than ^7 a quarter. The distress, indeed, was very terrible. A placard was put up on the Monument