The House of Commons in 1808, by Thomas Rowlandson (1756–1827). In 1780, when the Gordon Riots broke out, the House still met as it had since 1549 in the then-disused St Stephen’s Chapel, destroyed by fire along with much of the rest of Westminster Palace in 1834. Most regarded the Papists Act (1778) as a liberal dismantling of religious prejudice, but for Gordon it was the reverse of liberal. He was not concerned with Christian theology — seven years later he became an Orthodox Jew — but with what he saw as the Pope’s political manipulation of European monarchs such as Louis XVI of France, which he did not wish to see replicated in England. Whether or not he was right about the Pope, history showed he was wrong about English Catholics.
Introduction
The ‘Gordon Riots’ of 1780 were a protest against the Papists Act (1778), which eased the ban on Roman Catholics in Government. Fearing the Pope would meddle in English politics as he apparently meddled all over Europe, Lord George Gordon MP led an unruly mob to the Commons with a petition for repeal. In Barnaby Rudge, Charles Dickens dramatised what unfolded on the stairs up to the Visitor’s Gallery.
‘I AM afraid,’ he [Lord George Gordon] said, this time, ‘that we have little reason, gentlemen, to hope for any redress from the proceedings of Parliament. But we must redress our own grievances, we must meet again, we must put our trust in Providence, and it will bless our endeavours.’*
This speech being a little more temperate than the last, was not so favourably received. When the noise and exasperation were at their height, he came back once more, and told them that the alarm had gone forth for many miles round; that when the King heard of their assembling together in that great body, he had no doubt, His Majesty would send down private orders to have their wishes complied with; and — with the manner of his speech as childish, irresolute, and uncertain as his matter — was proceeding in this strain, when two gentlemen suddenly appeared at the door where he stood, and pressing past him and coming a step or two lower down upon the stairs, confronted the people.
The boldness of this action quite took them by surprise.
* Lord George Gordon (1751-1793), third and youngest son of Cosmo George Gordon, 3rd Duke of Gordon. He entered Parliament in 1774 as MP for Ludgershall, and five years later founded the Protestant Association with the aim of repealing the Papists Act of 1778. For his part in the events of June 2nd, 1780, and the destruction of the ‘Gordon Riots’ that followed, Gordon himself was acquitted of treasonous intent. However, he remained a political loose cannon and in 1787 was charged with defamation for his salacious revelations about Louis’s queen, Marie Antoinette. Gordon was committed to Newgate Gaol, where he died, a model prisoner who was much-loved among the inmates for his generosity and his welcome to all, in 1793.
Précis
In his 1841 novel ‘Barnaby Rudge’, Charles Dickens dramatised the exchanges between Lord George Gordon and the angry mob he had brought there on June 2nd, 1780, to protest against Catholic emancipation. Gordon doubted they would get any sympathy from Parliament, and was just expressing a hope that George III would intervene when two men pushed in front of him. (60 / 60 words)
In his 1841 novel ‘Barnaby Rudge’, Charles Dickens dramatised the exchanges between Lord George Gordon and the angry mob he had brought there on June 2nd, 1780, to protest against Catholic emancipation. Gordon doubted they would get any sympathy from Parliament, and was just expressing a hope that George III would intervene when two men pushed in front of him.
Variations: 1.increase the length of this precis to exactly 65 words. 2.reduce the length of this precis to exactly 55 words. 3.introduce one of the following words into the precis: although, besides, if, must, ought, since, unless, until.
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