himself in favour of the protestant succession, and asserted that, as his principle was that of non-resistance in all cases, he could not by any word or act of his own endanger the government as by law established; as if his very declaration of the principle of non-resistance and passive obedience did not condemn in toto the revolution, the means by which the queen came to the throne, and encourage all those who were seeking to restore popery and the Stuarts as the rightful religion and rightful possessors of the throne, both of which had been, according to his doctrines, forced from their legitimate place by ungodly and un-Christian violence; and he concluded by calling on God and his holy angels to witness that he had never been guilty of the wicked, seditions, or malicious acts imputed to him in the impeachment.
At this daring apostrophe the countess of Sunderland, Marlborough's second daughter, and a lady of very different character to that of her mother—celebrated equally for her beauty and piety—was observed to be so shocked, knowing the appeal to God to be utterly false, and, therefore, impious, that she burst into tears Very different, however, was the conduct of the ladies and of the spectators in general. The queen herself was felt to be in favour of Dr. Sacheverel as the representative of high churchism and toryism, as the instrument of Harley and his faction, who was by this and a score of other means crushing the whig power. Her chaplains had been crowding about the prisoner and openly supporting him by their presence. Numbers of the court ladies testified their sympathy by the most palable signs; and the duchess of Hamilton made herself a most zealous partisan in asserting the doctor's innocence.
As the doctor went to and from the hall, his chair was thronged round by dense crowds, which attended him to his lodgings in the Temple, or thence to Westminster Hall. Numbers pressed forward to kiss his hand; they lifted their hats to him with the utmost reverence. The windows were crowded by ladies and gentlemen, who cheered him vociferously, and many flung down presents to him. The doctor returned the salutations by continual bows and smiles, and seemed wonderfully elated by his sudden consequence. His chairmen seemed to partake of his glory, and stepped on as proudly as if they had been carrying the queen. "This huzzaing," says Defoe, "made the doctor so popular, that the ladies began to talk of falling in love with him; but this was only a prelude to the high church affair. An essay was to be made on the mob, and the huzzaing of the rabble was to be artfully improved." Accordingly, after the trial the next day, February 28th, the mob assembled in dense masses—sweeps, link-boys, butchers, by a sturdy guard of whom the doctor was always escorted to and from the hall, collected in the city — and began to cry, "Down with the dissenters! high church for ever!" And they soon put their cries in practice by assaulting the dissenting chapels, and began to sack their interiors. The tory writers of the time pretend that the rioters did this of their own accord, as the mobs had destroyed the catholic chapels in 1688; but this was not the case. The proceedings of the mob were stimulated and directed by gentlemen, who followed them in hackney coaches, according to Cunningham, who is the only writer who has furnished us with full details of these outrages. He says there were other gentlemen in disguise mingling with the crowds, and inciting the rabble by distributing money amongst them. There was no legal proof of this, he says; "but, amongst others, there were some of her majesty's guards and watermen taken in the very act of rioting, so that the court itself was not free from suspicion."
The mob began their attack on the chapel of Mr. Burgess, a dissenting minister, near Lincoln's Inn Fields. They tore down all the benches, pews, and the pulpit itself, and carried them, with the cushions, bibles, sconces, &c., into Lincoln's Inn Fields, where they made a bonfire of them, shouting, "High Church and Sacheverel!" If they could have found the venerable old minister himself they vowed they would kill him; but he had fled to a friend's house, where he lay concealed. The rioters then proceeded to Mr. Earl's chapel in Long Acre; Mr. Bradbury's, in New Street, Shoe Lane; Mr.Tayler's, in Leather Lane; Mr. Wright's, in Blackfriars; Mr. Hamilton's, in Clerkenwell; all of which they ransacked in the same manner. In Clerkenwell they committed a blunder, which showed their ignorance of who really were dissenters and who not, for they saw the episcopal chapel of St. John's parish without a steeple, and, setting it down for a dissenting chapel, they pulled it down in their blind fury. They then directed their rage against the house of bishop Burnet which stood on the other side of St. John's Square, and attempted to demolish it. This they must have done under instructions from their disguised instigators, for Burnet was hated by the high church and tory party for the distinguished part which he had borne in the revolution, for his constant attachment to king William and his measures, and especially for his advocacy of toleration. They vowed they would put the low church bishop to death if they could catch him; but the respectable inhabitants vigorously interposed in defence of the bishop's house and life, and the mob were compelled to desist.
So long as the rioters were only burning and ruining the dissenting chapels, the court remained most calmly quiescent; but when the news came that they were beginning to attack "low church as by law established," there was a bustle and a fright at St. James's. This fright was wonderfully increased when Sunderland rushed into the presence of the queen and announced that the mob was on the march to pull down and rifle the Bank of England in honour of "high church and Dr. Sacheverel." At this news the queen turned deadly pale, and trembled. She bade Sunderland send instantly the horse and foot guards and disperse the rioters. Captain Horsey, the officer on duty at St. James's, was summoned into the royal presence, and Sunderland delivered to him the queen's order to disperse the mob, but to use discretion, and not to proceed to extremities. Horsey was one of the anti-Marlborough faction, and received the command in evident dudgeon. "Am I to preach to the mob, or am I to fight them?" he asked. "If you want preaching, please to send some one with me who is a better hand at holding forth than I am; if you want fighting, it is my trade, and I will do my best."
Sunderland could only reiterate the order to use discretion and avoid bloodshed, except in case of absolute necessity. Horsey found no difficulty in dispersing the rabble, who were more valiant against peaceable dissenters than against
