From 1776 till 1780, the inhabitants of London enjoyed a degree of tranquillity they must have long panted for. Temporary disturbances of the peace through sudden resentment, and the riots arising from inebriation, are too common for recital, and are seldom heard of beyond the parish in which they occur; but the effervescence of June 1780 spread like a torrent through every avenue of the Metropolis, and convulsed every quarter of the Kingdom. That one man should accomplish such an effect, and that his weapon should have been _intolerance only_, where tolerance is one of the gems which distinguish England from all Europe, is most astonishing. Our Legislature, acting upon the long-approved system of religious benevolence, would have erased from the Statute-books those restrictions which were calculated to repress a _powerful_ enemy, and which had become useless through the lapse of time and the cessation of hostility; yet, _Protestants_ objected, and acted the part of tyrants and bigots marshalled by a _madman_. When an incendiary seizes upon a real grievance, or upon the presumed violation of any favourite point with the publick, let the peaceable Citizen beware how he listens to his _interested_ declamations; let him remember that his _passions may be excited_ by inflammatory insinuations; in short, let him remember the sophistry of Lord George Gordon; the errors of his predecessors, the cries of No Popery, the burning of part of London, the triumph of thieves, the exaction of money--realized in the horrors of 1780! Had the multitude collected by the harangues of the miserable man alluded to possessed individually a grain of sense or reflection, they must have disbelieved his monstrous charge, that the Legislature intended to encourage or introduce the Roman Catholic religion, or, as he termed it, Popery. The very idea is so ridiculous that I should be ashamed to attempt to disprove it. Under every disadvantage which might reasonably have been supposed to exist against the probability of raising so extensive a whirlwind of civil commotion, the adventurous chief commenced his operations by legally opposing the projected measures; but, fired by the homage paid to him, Lord George Gordon conceived the vast design of leading the whole community to the doors of Parliament with a Petition in their van unexampled in the number of its signatures. This he accomplished; but, observe the result: the _petitioners_ became _dictators_; the friends of _toleration_ were insulted, and barely escaped with their lives from a lawless mob (for to such had the petitioners degenerated); the voice of the _leader_ was drowned in yells of _No Popery_; and the deluded Citizen fled to his home, resigning his country to its fate, and trembling with apprehension lest his late friends should involve _him_ in the ruin he contributed to promote.