While the American war was in progress, England had not been entirely quiet at home.  A prominent Whig leader in Parliament had moved the repeal of some of the most severe laws against the Roman Catholics.[3] The greater part of these measures had been enacted under William III, “when England was in mortal terror” of the restoration of James II (S491).  The Solicitor-General said, in seconding the motion for repeal, that these lwas were “a disgrace to humanity.”  Parliament agreed with him in this matter.  Because these unjust acts were stricken from the Statute Book, Lord George Gordon, a half-crazed fanatic,[1] who was in Parliament, led an attack upon the government (1780).

[3] The worst of these laws was that which punished a priest who should celebrate mass, with imprisonment for life.  See Taswell-Langmead’s “English Constitutional History,” p.627, and compare J.F.  Bright’s “History of England,” III, 1087. [1] Gordon seems to have been of unsound mind.  He used to attack both political parties with such fury that it was jocosely said there were “three parties in Parliament—­the ministry, the opposition, and Lord George Gordon.”

For six days London was at the mercy of a furious mob of 50,000 people, who set fire to Catholic chapels, pillaged many dwellings, and committed every species of outrage.  Newgate prison was broken into, the prisoners were released, and the prison was burned.  No one was safe from attack who did not wear a blue cockade to show that he was a Protestant, and no man’s house was secure unless he chalked “No Popery” on the door in conspicuous letters.  In fact, one individual, in order to make doubly sure, wrote over the entrance to his residence:  “No Religion Whatever.”  Before the riot was subdued a large amount of property had been destroyed and many lives sacrificed.

555.  Impeachment of Warren Hastings (1788).

Six years after the American Revolution came to an end Warren Hastings, Governor-General of India, was impeached for corrupt and cruel government in that distant province.  He was tried before the House of Lords, gathered in Westminster Hall.  On the side of Hastings was the powerful East India Company, ruling over a territory many times larger than the whole of Great Britain.  Against him were arrayed the three ablest and most eloquent men in England,—­Burke, Fox, and Sheridan.

“Raising his voice until the oak ceiling resounded, Burke exclaimed at the close of his fourth great speech, `I impeach Warren Hastings of high crimes and misdemeanors.  I impeach him in the name of the Commons of Great Britain, whose trust he has betrayed.  I impeach him in the name of the English nation, whose ancient honor he has sullied.  I impeach him in the name of the people of India, whose rights he has trodden under foot, and whose country he has turned into a desert.  Lastly, in the name of human nature itself, in the name of both sexes, in the name of every age, in the name of every rank, I impeach the common enemy and oppressor of all!’”