356 PROSECUTIONS OF RIOTERS FOR HIGH TREASON. [1710. queen. The evidence upon the trials of these men shows that they were principals in a riotous destruction, or attempted destruction, of meetinghouses. The Riot Act, by which such offences may be met as felony, without resorting to the law of constructive treason, was not in existence in 1710. It was passed in the first year of George I. Nevertheless, Blackstone holds that an insurrection, with an avowed design to pull down all enclosures, all brothels, and the like, is a levying of war; "the universality of the design making it a rebellion against the state, a usurpation of the powers of government, and an insolent invasion of the king's authority." The AttorneyGeneral upon these trials averred that it was a general design to pull down all the meeting-houses. Lord Campbell severely blames these prosecutions for high treason; and very justly says, no government would now direct such a prosecution to be instituted." In these trials all the judges agreed that the intention of the prisoners to pull down meeting-houses, and their partial destruction of several, was an overt act of levying war. This construction of the law, as we see, is still regarded as authority, and it has been cited in later cases. Lord Campbell, who has the happiness to live in times when law and common sense have more affinity, holds, that in these prosecutions for high treason, "the Whigs showed the infatuation or dementation under which they were labouring." The dementation appears rather to have been in the Whig lawyers than in the Whig statesmen, if we may judge from the marvellous case which they got up, for a jury to try the most solemn issue known to English law. Two of the silly rioters were convicted, and were sentenced to the horrible penalties of high treason. But neither of them was executed; which, says Mr. Hallam, "might probably be owing to an opinion, which every one but a lawyer must have entertained, that their offence did not amount to treason." We are glad thus to premise that Dammaree and Purchase were reprieved, and afterwards pardoned; for, in giving a sketch of these riots as a picture of society presenting some ludicrous aspects, it is well to know that no blood was shed by the fanatic multitude, and that no life was sacrificed to offended justice. It is Wednesday, the 1st of March, when one captain Edward Orrel, who seems to have been gifted with an almost preternatural curiosity to behold all that is going forward, first gazes upon the queen returning through the Park from Westminster Hall, and is then attracted by a man dispensing bills about a prize-fighting. "I thought," says he, "they had been the common papers that are dispersed about such prizes, but I found it was about a prize between Sacheverel and Hoadley."+ At Oliver's Coffee-house he hears that the mob are gone from the Temple to Mr. Burgess's meeting near Lincoln's-Inn-fields. "I will go up," cries the captain, "and see what is doing." There he saw pews pulled down, and a little man in the pulpit very busy in its destruction. In and out Orrel runs to watch how the work goes on; and the destructives take him, very naturally, for a spy. He flits about between Holborn and Lincoln's-Inn-fields; for in both places fires are lighted, and pews and pulpits are burning. In Lincoln's-Inn-fields, the fun *Vol. iv. p. 78. Kerr's edit. +We pick out this narrative wholly from the evidence upon the trials of Dammaree, Willis, and Purchase. "State Trials," vol. xv. col. 550 to col. 702. 1710.] TRIALS OF RIOTERS. 357 is fast and furious, Dammaree is there-the waterman, "in the queen's livery, and with his badge." The soldier immortalised by Goldsmith, who exclaims with a fervour of blasphemy, that our religion would be utterly undone if the French should come over, is but a feeble copy of the queen's pious waterman. The mob are in council. The cheers of Dammaree are heard above every other voice. "I'll lead you on, boys; huzza! High Church and Sacheverel! G- damn them all; we will have them all down." He pulls off his wig, and shouts, and superintends the burning of a bedstead, and is "mightily rejoiced." It would have been more than cruel to have hanged Dammaree; for he had capital witnesses in his defence, especially two young ladies, who had been at the fire in Lincoln's-Inn-fields. The fire was burnt to a coal when they were going home, and meeting with Dammaree, one of them exclaimed, "Lord bless me! here is one of the queen's watermen." "What have you to say to the queen's waterman ? " quoth he. Nothing, but God bless the queen, and her waterman too." "You are a 66 jolly girl, and I will kiss you," cries honest Dammaree. Queen Anne must certainly have read this evidence, when she very quickly promoted her orthodox servant to be the master of her own barge, after he had escaped the peril of the hurdle to Tyburn. If drunken Dammaree were not the exact type of a leader who "falsely, unlawfully, devilishly, and traitorously, did compass, imagine, and intend open war, insurrection and rebellion," what shall we say to Francis Willis, the doughty footman, levying war? He lives with a lady in Greville-street, who has a laudable curiosity to know how the bonfires are going on in Holborn and Hatton-garden; and she sends her man Frank to learn all about it. Frank stays out till midnight; and, if the witnesses are to be believed, makes good use of his time. He is the only traitor against whom the terms of the indictment apply, that the rebels were “armed and arrayed in a warlike manner, that is to say, with colours flying." Willis is the one standard-bearer. The Attorney-General asks a witness whether any colours were carried before the assembly of five or six hundred people ? "Yes, there was a curtain, and he that carried it cried, High Church standard! He stopped many coaches, and got money from them, and made them cry, High Church. He brought the curtain from Mr. Bradbury's meeting, in Fetter-lane." The transformation of this rag of Dissent into the banner of Orthodoxy was a feat of military genius that can scarcely be equalled. It was intuitive in simple Frank, who told his mistress, in excuse for his staying out so long, that "he never saw a mob in London before." The bold footman escaped, for the witnesses were puzzled between one captain of the bonfire-makers in green livery and red buttons, and another captain in blue livery and black buttons. George Purchase had been a soldier, and had seen service abroad, in the third troop of guards. He is now a sheriff's officer, and he begins his professional day on the first of March, by taking a man at nine o'clock in the morning. But Dr. Sacheverel stops all regular occupation; and so, when the bailiff has dined with a follower in Chancery-lane, they say, "Here is a sad noise and rout; no business is to be done; let us sit and smoke a pipe." After two hours of repose, Purchase adjourns to a brandy-shop in Long Acre; the drawer of which place of resort accounts for the deeds of the exguardsman, up to a late hour of the night: "My master gave him a business 358 TRIALS OF RIOTERS. [1710. to dun a gentleman; and then they went to the Horse-shoe tavern, and staid there till eight; then he came back again, and drank with us, and was very drunk." He is sent for, late as the hour is, to assist a brother-officer to execute a writ; but he is too fuddled "to go about business." The mob is up in Drury-lane, and the two friends go forth. The discreet brother-bailiff gets into a chair to go home; for, as he tells the court, "I am not a man that engage myself in mobs, for those of my employment generally suffer in mobs." Purchase has no fear of anything. He has lived with those who "swore terribly in Flanders." The guards have arrived about half-past eleven, at the arch in Lincoln's-Inn-fields. The mob are pulling down a meetinghouse in Drury-lane, and the captain of the guards gives orders to his men to disperse them. The bold bailiff is, "with his sword drawn, hallooing and flourishing his sword in the middle of the street, just by the kennel in Drurylane, and fronting the guards." Captain Orrel is the ubiquitous witness: "Says I to him, do you know what you do in opposing the guards? You oppose the queen's person. Says he, G- damn you, are you against Sacheverel? I am for High Church. I will be for High Church and Sacheverel. I will lose my life in the cause." Drunken Purchase then strikes at an officer with his sword, but his sword is beaten down, and he hides behind a bulk. That forbearance which has on most occasions of riot marked the behaviour of the British soldier to his fellow-citizens, was conspicuous on this occasion. The officer that was struck at merely said, "You are mad—you are distracted; go home to your lodgings." The jury found a special verdict that George Purchase, at the bonfire made by the mob in Drury-lane, of the seats and pulpit of the meeting-house, "came there, and with his sword drawn did then defend the said people, and did greatly encourage them to burn the materials of the said house." They also find him guilty as to his assault upon the captain of the guards. But they return no general verdict of guilty of high treason, leaving that to the determination of the Judges. They add "that the general cry of the people aforesaid, whilst they rifled the meetinghouses and burnt the materials of the same, was, universally, High Church and Sacheverel." This, then, was the expression of that public opinion, which Swift says convinced her majesty of the dispositions of her people in favour of the Church, and against the measures of those in her service. Vast exertions were made throughout the country to get up Addresses to the queen, "in which the absolute power of our princes was asserted, and all resistance was condemned, under the designation of anti-monarchical and republican principles." Defoe, in his "Review," asks a question, somewhat difficult of answer: "Would any man that had seen the temper of this people, in the time of the late king James, believe it possible, without a judicial infatuation, that the same people should re-assume their blindness, and rise up again for bondage?" The Parliament was prorogued on the 5th of April, with the expression of this sentiment by the queen: "I could heartily wish that men would study to be quiet, and do their own business, rather than busy themselves in reviving questions and disputes of a very high nature, and which must be with an ill-intention, since they can only tend to foment, but * Burnet, vol. v. p. 436. 1710.] PROGRESS OF SACHEVEREL THROUGH THE COUNTRY. 359 not to heal, our divisions and animosities." The symptoms of a great change were manifest, whatever was the official tone of the royal speech. Doctor Sacheverel, early in the summer, went upon what is called his progress. This puppet of faction had been rewarded by a presentation of a living in Wales, and his progress was ostensibly to take possession of his benefice. According to one set of authorities, "nobility, gentry, clergy, and people vied in their demonstrations of joy and exultation; cavalcades escorted him from town to town, and from village to village; the roads were lined, the hedges covered, with spectators; steeples were illuminated, and sumptuous feasts prepared in every quarter for the triumphant guest." There is another mode of viewing the same circumstances: "Wherever he went, his emissaries were sent before with his pictures; pompous entertainments were made for him, and a mixed multitude of country singers, fiddlers, priests and sextons, and a mob of all conditions, male and female, crowded together to meet and congratulate him; among whom, drunkenness, darkness, and a furious zeal for religion, extinguished all regard to modesty."+ So, even in the medals issued in commemoration of the great trial, there were two sets of opinion to be propitiated. The medal for the Tories had the head of The Doctor, with the inscription "H. Sach., D.D.," with the Reverse a Mitre, and the legend "Is firm to thee." The medal for the Whigs had the same head of Sacheverel, with the same legend on the Reverse, accompanying the head of the Pope. The duchess of Marlborough has left a characteristic description of Sacheverel, with which we may dismiss the man to the oblivion, as far as his own merits are concerned, which, sooner or later, is the fate of every charlatan: "He had a haughty insolent air, which his friends found occasion often to complain of; but it made his presence more graceful in public. His person was framed well for the purpose, and he dressed well. A good assurance, clean gloves, a white handkerchief well-managed, with other suitable accomplishments, moved the hearts of many at his appearance; and the solemnity of a trial added much to a pity and concern, which had nothing in reason or justice to support them. The weaker part of the ladies were more like mad or bewitched than like persons in their senses. Everybody knows that he was afterwards sent about several counties; where, with his usual grace, he received, as his due, the homage and adoration of + Cunningham, "History," vol. ii. p. 306. * Coxe, vol. v. p. 345. 360 SACHEVEREL'S CHARACTER. [1710. multitudes; never thinking that respect enough was paid to his great merit, using some of his friends insolently, and raising mobs against his enemies, and giving ample proof of how great meanness the bulk of mankind is capable, putting on the air of a saint upon a lewd, drunken, pampered man; dispersing his blessings to all bis worshippers, and his kisses to some; taking their good money as fast as it could be brought in; drinking their best wines, eating of their best provisions without reserve, and without temperance. And, what completed the farce, complaining in the midst of this scene of luxury and triumph, as the old fat monk did over a hot venison pasty, in his barbarous Latin, 'Heu, quanta patimus pro ecclesia!' Oh, what dreadful things do we undergo for the sake of the church!" |