confidence alfo is, that he will at all times "deliver your feet from falling," that you may walk before God in the light of the living." May the richeft bleffings of Providence and grace be your portion and inheritance! And may the Divine Goodness never forfake your Noble family and relations, whofe tender fympathy and affection have been fo anxiously employed, to foften your diftrefs, and extricate you from danger! Let not any further fervice we can do be unacceptable to your Lordship: and permit us to affure you, that nothing hall be wanting on our part, to alleviate your fufferings, or lighten your burden. By order of the Committee, JOSHUA BANGS, Secretary. Lyons Inn, Feb. 17. 1781."

I

Lord George Gordon's Anfwer.
GENTLEMEN,

Have the livelieft fenfe of the divine mercy, by which I enjoy the happinefs of meeting you again, in fuch agreeable circumstances. Nothing can efface from my mind the obligations I owe you for your steady friendship, and the laborious fervice you fo cheartully went through for my fake, when, by my fituation in prifon, I was unable to do any

thing for my own fafety and protection. I am also exceeding fenfible of the humanity and zeal of all those who any way co-operated with your exertions in my behalf.

I have great reafon to be thankful to God for the fupport he afforded me during my long confinement, and that he did not forfake me in the moft awful moment of my life.

Whatever the neceffities of a profecution, fuch as I have undergone, may have required from the conductors of it, I perfunde myfelf, that no one who knows me can fufpect I had any concern in thofe execrable doings with which it has been attempted to connect me. None can regret or abhor them more than I do. Had not the court very harshly denied me the opportunity I trufted to, and which I was informed could not be refufed me, to say a word for my life, I fhould, before that upright and manly jury in whofe hands it was, have called the great God to witness, that I was as innocent as any of themselves of those difgraceful outrages; which from my very heart I deteft, and the idea of which fhocks my principles as well as my feel.

ings. Whoever were the authors or promoters of fuch infernal plots, I rejoice exceedingly, that the Proteftant Affociations are pure from the stain.

I highly value the favourable opinion you fo obligingly entertain of me; and the engaging manner in which you take fuch an intereft in my welfare, is an additional tie upon me to pursue fuch a conduct as may not forfeit the esteem of any good man.

Accept, Gentlemen, of my warmest thanks for your affectionate congratulations. The good wishes you express for my family and relations, to whofe tender fympathy I am fo much indebted, you may believe gives me particular pleasure.

There needs nothing more than my own experience to give me the fulleft confidence in your generous good-will. I feel the weight of gratitude you lay upon me: and if any thing I have done, or fuffered, can be a pledge for my future life, I hope you will never have caufe to withdraw your regard, or repent of your kindness.

G. GORDON.

Welbeck-street, Feb. 17. 1781.

To Lord GEORGE GORDON.
My LORD,

While your Lordship lay under an

accufation of the most serious nature, this letter would have been improper. Now that you have obtained an acquittal, I may take the liberty of addreffing you. In the moment of exultation, you will not feel deeply hurt by the cautions of an anonymous individual; and it will not, perhaps, be a very ungrateful task to retrace that conduct which a verdict of your country has, in fome measure, exculpated, which your Lordship's followers, I am told, are proud to juftify. I mean not, however, invidiously to recal your paft actions, except where they naturally lead me to fear, and difpofe me to warn the future.

Do me the juftice to believe, that I ! have no perfonal animofity against you as 1 a man. On the contrary, I know the eftimable parts of your private character, and feel a fatisfaction in the effects of your acquittal on your friends and Noble relations. I plead, my Lord, for the public! that public, which, in times like the prefent, every honeft man is bound to guard, whether its danger arife from the violence of foreign, or the

no-lefs dangerous attacks of domestic enemies. In their effects, it fignifies little whether thefe enemies intend the mifchiefs which they caufe; nay, delufion is often more fatal than defign; attempts apparently hurtful to the community, can be fupported only by the villanous and the proflagate; exertions of deluded patriotism gain a footing under honourable names, and make profelytes among the well-meaning ignorant, and the honeftly zealous.

The propenfity to be deceived is unhappily too common among the people. Of this your Lordship's influence over a confiderable body of them is a pretty ftrong inftance. When we review your public life, it immediately strikes us with furprise, that you should have been chofen for the station from which all your importance is derived, to wit, the head of the Proteftant people. From your family, however Noble and illuftrious, Proteftantifm (had Protestantism been converfant in genealogy) would not readily have looked for a patron; and Religion, did not her devotions abstract her from a knowledge of the world, would fcarcely have fled for an afylum to Lord George

Gordon.

Your Lordship will give me leave to recal to your memory the beginning of that career which has turned out fo confpicuous at last. Linked with oppofition in political principles, you laid hold of the difcontents which a few zealous and rigid Proteftants expreffed against the Roman Catholic bill, as an engine of attack against the minifter in the Houfe of Commons. This attracted the notice of thofe affociations which the fears of fome ignorant and the defigns of fome turbulent men had formed in various parts of the kingdom; you felt the pleasures of that power and importance which this conferred; and affumed a character, for which, above all others perhaps, nature and education had unfitted you. Political hypocrify is generally confidered as venial. You did not, I dare fay, accufe yourself of difhonefty, while you prefided at meetings which had for their object that religion which you ridiculed in private, and that form of it which, from its precifenefs, was the most diametrically oppofite to your natural gaiety of temper and levity of difpofition. I will do you the justice to believe, that you deceived thofe good people without any ferious intention, and forefaw at that time nothing further than the opportunity of

a little vexation to a minister. You had not then the smallest idea of the confpi cuous ftation in which thofe meetings were to place yourself, or the giant mifchief they were to bring upon the pu blic.

In fome future ftages of your conduct, your Lordship muft forgive me if I entertain doubts of the innocence of your intentions. It required, methinks, lefs forefight than your Lordship's penetration will claim, to fufpect the probable confequence of fuch a number of men as your fummons had convocated in St George's fields going to the House of Commons with their petition. But, even allowing that it was not your original plan that fuch proceffion fhould take place, that it was contrary to your de fire that the petitioners actually marched to Weftminster, I will try your Lordship by your conduct there after their arrival.

You faw the shameful outrages they had begun to commit; you faw the freedom and the dignity of parliament attacked and infulted in the most daring man

ner :

When infolence and barbarism triumph'd, And fwept away diftinction; low were laid The reverend crozier, and the holy mitre.

You will tell us, it was not your mob who did this; that you had preached peace in the morning, and had no concern in the riots of the afternoon. But let me afk you, my Lord, did you betray no marks of triumph and exultation at a fcene the moft degrading to a Britifh Houfe of Commons that can be well imagined? When intreated to disperse thofe rioters, which they repeatedly declared you alone could do, did you use the power, which I will not fay you u furped, but which they certainly owned, to free the Houfe from that difgrace and infult it was fuffering? On the contrary, did you not state matters to them in fuch a manner as muft inevitably induce them to maintain the poft they had occupied? This conduct, my Lord, I will not call treafon, for your jury have faid it was not; it was certainly fomething criminal againft the public, whofe peace thofe rioters were wounding in the moft effential part. Crimes against the public, however, do not always ftrike us; the widenefs of the injury prevents the diftinctness of it to our view; and this may fometimes be pleaded as an apology for him who commits them. But your Lordship gave us another crite

rion

rion to judge you by, which comes more home to the feelings of the individual. You marked out particular victims to that ruffian force which had befieged the parliament:" The member for Briftol is now fpeaking," &c. The atrocity of this fpeech needs not a comment; the feelings of the most uninftructed will pronounce, that if Mr Burke had fallen, it was murder. Yet you boaft, iny Lord, of the purity of your intentions !

Some of thofe who with well to your family have ftated an apology for all this. They fay, in the words of the Prince of Denmark,

It was not Hamlet, 'twas his madness did it. And fober men, who cannot easily conceive fuch excentricity as your Lordthip's, are apt to admit the plea. But while fuch men are lamenting the mifchiefs of your disorder, your followers are extolling the wifdom and fpirit of your conduct; with these you poffefs the authority of reafon, while with thofe you are allowed the excufe of infanity. But the public, my Lord, muft not fuffer by either; it has a right to protect itself from the criminal machinations of the one, or the blind effects of the other.

One might imagine, my Lord, that experience muft now have taught you caution. If the purity of your intentions had been fuch as you reprefent it, your concern for the unhappy confequences of your actions would have been in proportion. You could not, furely, form an idea for your defence, that did not recal to your memory the fhocking fcene, of which that defence could only ftate you as the innocent cause. You muft have felt, one would naturally fuppofe, the keenest anguish at the remembrance of those calamities which the fatal month of June witneffed. Were you, my Lord, an unconcerned fpectator of the horrors of that night, when London was wraped in flames, quenched only in the blood of those wretches who had raised them? Did you feel nothing from the perufal of that miserable lift, whom the actions of that night had doomed to the gallows [42.417.]? - You must have felt, my Lord; but the feeling had left no lafting or falutary impreffion; elfe your behaviour at your trial had not exhibited a mixture of gaiety and infult. From that behaviour, what are we to augur for the future? What expectations can we form from him whofe actions have

no guard in prudence, no cenfor in confcience?

Such men the law must restrain by fear, and correct by punishment. You have complained, my Lord, both by yourself and your counfel, of the cruelty of the proceedings against you; you would perfuade us of the malice and wickedness of thofe whom the crown has intrufted with the profecution of crimes against the state. Where was this complaint of rigour, when Juftice was obliged to bare her fword against thofe infatuated men whom your caufe had (however innocently) led to deftruction? The public called for vengeance on their heads, and it was executed. Did it never look, do you imagine, to him who had let loofe this havock by his folly, or foftered it by his guilt? Inquiry was furely due to the wrongs of the community; if rank or station is to shelter from fuch inquiry, there is an end of that liberty for which your advocates declaim; of that equal juftice to which it is the pride of every Britain to feel himself intitled. But the truth is, my Lord, that this is not the æra of perfecution, at least from government; the right of perfecution has been confined to the people; your Lordship, and your partifans, can easily recollect the moft remarkable inftances of its exertion.

The mildness, indeed the relaxation, of government, is what we have most to complain of. On that were founded those difturbances which it was your Lord. fhip's misfortune to fet a-foot; and from that they grew to the enormous height of tumult and devastation, which good men ftill fhudder to recollect. But hope not, my Lord, for a fimilar opportunity of confequence to yourself, or disturbance to your country. The fears, if not the virtue, of your fellow-citizens, will call for an immediate check of fuch at

tempts hereafter. Be advised then, my Lord, and tempt not again that danger from which you have juft been extricated. Be contented with felicitating your felf on the escape; or, if your admirers will ftyle it a victory, enjoy it in filence. You have already facrificed enough to the fuffrages of a mob, or 1 refentment againft a minifter. I fill think too well of you to believe, that your own confcience, when you have leisure to hear it impartially, will applaud your conduct : and as to that fame which ignorance or bigotry may now beflow, truft me, my Lord, it will be difgrace with posterity. Lond. Chron. Feb. 24.

THE CROWN is of pure gold, enriched with many precious ftones, diamonds, pearls, and curious enamel. lings, It is composed of a broad circle or fillet which goes round the head, adorned with twenty-two large precious ftones. Above the great circle there is a fmall one, formed with twenty points, adorned with the like number of diamonds and fapphires alternately; and the points are topped with great pearls. The upper circle is elevated or heightened with ten croffes florée, each adorned in the centre with a great diamond, betwixt four great pearls, placed in the crofs one and one; and thefe croffes florée are interchanged with ten high fleurs de lis, all alternately with the great pearls below, which top the points of the fecond small circle. From the upper circle proceed four arches adorned with enamelled figures, which meet and clofe at the top, furmounted with a mond of gold, enamelled blue femée, or powdered with stars croffed and enamelled, with a large cross patée, adorned in the extremities with great pearls, and cantoned with other four in the angles. The tiar or bonnet of the crown was of pur. ple velvet; but in 1685 it got a cap of crimson velvet, adorned with four plates of gold, and on each of them a great pearl, and the bonnet is turned up with ermine. Upon the lowest circle, immediately above the ermine, there are eight fmall holes, two and two, on the four quarters of the crown, which were for lacing or tying thereto diamonds or precious ftones. The crown is nine inches broad in diameter, twenty-feven inches about, and in height, from the under circle to the top of the cross patée, fix inches and a half.

The SCEPTRE. Its ftem or ftalk, which is filver double overgilt, is two feet long,

of a hexagon form, with three buttons or knots. Betwixt the firft button and the fecond is the handle, of an hexagon form, furling in the middle, and plain. Betwixt the second button and the third there are three fides engraven. From the third button to the capital, the three fides under the ftatues are plain; and on the other three are antic engravings. Upon the top of the ftalk is an antic capital of leaves imboffed, the abacus whereof arifes round the prolonged ftem, furrounded with three ftatues, Between every two ftatues arifes a rullion in form of a dolphin. Above these rullions and ftatues ftands another hexagon button, with oak leaves under every corner; and above it a cryftal globe. The whole fceptre is in length thirty-four inches.

The SWORD is in length five feet. The handle and pommel are of filver overgilt, in length fifteen inches. The pommel is round, and somewhat flat on the two fides. The traverfe or cross of the fword, which is of filver overgilt, is in length feventeen inches and a half : its form is like two dolphins, their heads joining, and their tails ending in acorns. The fhell is hanging down towards the point of the fword, formed like an efcalop flourished, or rather like a green oak leaf. On the blade of the sword are indented with gold thefe letters, JuLIUs II. P. The scabbard is of crimfon velvet, covered with filver, gilded, and wrought in philagram work into branches of the oak-tree leaves and acorns.

[For a more particular description of the regalia of Scotland, the manner of depofiting them in the caftle of Edinburgh, March 26. 1707, and the inftrument taken on that occafion, fee Scots Magazine for 1758, vol. 20, p. 298.]

THE Sword and Helmet are of feel; and they have acquired a clear blackish co lour from age. The Sword is a two-handed one, and the handle is covered with black leather Both the Sword and the Helmet were prefented, by King Robert's fon, King David Bruce, to his coufin Sir Robert Bruce of Clackmannan; and they have been preferved in Clackmannan caftle, by the defcendents of this Sir Robert, with the greatest veneration, till the prefent time. There are feveral old long fwords preferved in different parts of the country, fome of too enormous a length to have ever been of ufe in fighting; each of which has inferibed on it the name of an ancient Scottish hero as its

original proprietor. But none can claim a greater hero for its ancient proprietor than this fword justly does; nor is the hiftory of them fo much to be depended on: for tho there be no written documents to inftruct this fword and helmet's having been prefented, as above mentioned, to Sir Robert Bruce; yet the above account has the fanction of the universal tradition of the family, and of the country around; many of whom go once ayear to Clackmannan caftle to fee thefe cu riofities; as do alfo many other perfons; all of whom are treated with the greatest civility.- King Robert was crowned, at Scone, March 27. 1306, and he died June 7. 1329