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See also:LORD See also:GEORGE See also:GORDON (1751-1793)
, third and youngest son of Cosmo See also:George, See also:duke of See also:Gordon, was See also:born in See also:London on the 26th of See also:December 1751
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After completing his See also:education at See also:Eton, he entered the See also:navy, where he See also:rose to the See also:rank of See also:lieutenant in 1772, but See also:Lord See also:Sandwich, then at the See also:head of the See also:admiralty, would not promise him the command of a See also:ship, and he resigned his See also:commission shortly before the beginning of the See also:American See also:War
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In 1774 the See also:pocket See also:borough of Ludgershall was bought for him by See also:General See also:Fraser, whom he was opposing in See also:Inverness-See also:shire, in See also:order to bribe him not to contest the See also:county
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He was considered flighty, and was not looked upon as being of any importance
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In 1779 he organized, and made himself head of the See also:Protestant associations, formed to secure the See also:repeal of the See also:Catholic See also:Relief See also:Act of 1778
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On the 2nd of See also:June 178o he headed the See also:mob which marched in procession from St George's See also:Fields to the Houses of See also:Parliament in order to See also:present the See also:monster See also:petition against the acts
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After the mob reached See also:Westminster a terrific See also:riot ensued, which continued several days, during which the See also:city was virtually at their See also:mercy
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At first indeed they dispersed after threatening to make a forcible entry into the See also:House of See also:Commons, but reassembled soon afterwards and destroyed several See also:Roman Catholic chapels, pillaged the private dwellings of many Roman Catholics, set See also:fire to Newgate and See also:broke open all the other prisons, attacked the See also:Bank of See also:England and several other public buildings, and continued the See also:work of violence and conflagration until the interference of the military, by whom no fewer than 450 persons were killed and wounded before the riots were quelled
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For his See also:share in instigating the riots Lord Gordon was apprehended on a See also:charge of high See also:treason; but, mainly through the skilful and eloquent See also:defence of See also:Erskine, he was acquitted on the ground that he had no treasonable intentions
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His See also:life was henceforth full of crack-brained schemes, See also:political and See also:financial
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In 1786 he was excommunicated by the See also:archbishop of See also:Canterbury for refusing to See also:bear See also:witness in an ecclesiastical.suit; and in 1787 he was convicted of libelling the See also:queen of See also:France, the See also:French See also:ambassador and the See also:administration of See also:justice in England
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He was, however, permitted to withdraw from the See also:court without See also:bail, and made his See also:escape to See also: Everybody now discerns that to despatch a soldier of this temperament on a piece of business [the See also:mission to the See also:Sudan in 1884] that was not only difficult and dangerous, as See also:Sir E . See also:Baring said, but profoundly obscure, and needing vigilant sanity and self-See also:control, was little better than to See also:call in a wizard with his magic . Mr See also:Gladstone always professed perplexity in understanding why the violent end of the gallant See also:Cavagnari in See also:Afghanistan stirred the See also:world so little in comparison with the See also:fate of Gordon . The See also:answer is that Gordon seized the See also:imagination of England, and seized it on its higher See also:side . His See also:religion was See also:eccentric, but it was religion; the See also:Bible was the See also:rock on which he founded himself, both old See also:dispensation and new; he was known to hate forms, ceremonies and all the ' See also:solemn plausibilities'; his speech was See also:sharp, pithy, rapid and ironic; above all, he knew the ways of war and would not bear the See also:sword for nought." to five years' imprisonment in Newgate, where he lived at his ease, giving dinners and dances . As he could not obtain securities for his See also:good behaviour on the termination of his See also:term of imprisonment, he was not allowed to leave Newgate, and there he died of delirious See also:fever on the 1st of See also:November 1793 .. Some See also:time before his See also:apprehension he had become a convert to Judaism, and had undergone the initiatory rite . A serious defence of most of his eccentricities is undertaken in The Life of Lord George Gordon, with a Philosophical See also:Review of his Political Conduct, by See also:Robert See also:Watson, M.D . (London, 1795) . The best accounts of Lord George Gordon are to be found in the See also:Annual Registers from 178o to the See also:year of his See also:death . |
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