A fanatic, Lord George Gordon, led a mob to Westminster and, as Dr.Johnson expressed it, "insulted" both Houses of Parliament.

The cowed ministry did nothing to check the disturbance.

The mob burned Newgate jail, released the prisoners from this and other prisons, and made a deliberate attempt to destroy London by fire.

Order was restored under the personal direction of the King, who, with all his faults, was no coward.

At the same time the Irish Parliament, under Protestant lead, was making a Declaration of Independence which, in 1782, England was obliged to admit by formal act of Parliament.