Ossian Collection > Scottish eccentrics

6 SCOTTISH ECCENTRICS
knows everything, and weighs everything maturely, and
then is inflexible — this puts old stagers off their game —
how it will end we are all in the dark." But by 1788, when
the hapless Lord George was lodged in Newgate prison,
the King too "was in a state of mental alienation", and
Bonnie Prince Charlie (Charles III), whose brain had long
been decaying, had begun that same year with a paralytic
stroke which disabled half his body, and died shortly
afterwards .
This is to anticipate, however. Destiny was suddenly
to declare itself for Lord George in a direction of which
his antecedents had as yet vouchsafed no hint. Sir George
Savile introduced a bill into Parliament in the session of
1778 for the relief of the Roman Catholics of England
from some of the penalties to which they were subject
under the test laws. In the following session it was pro-
posed to extend the operation of similar measures to Scot-
land. This produced a crop of riots in Scotland, particularly
in Edinburgh, where the mob destroyed some Popish
chapels. The Scottish opposition spread to England. Pro-
testant societies were speedily organised in both countries
to demand the repeal of Savile's Act. The indifference
with which the majority of the Scottish ministers treated
the matter in the General Assembly of 1778, when the
idea of a motion against the measure was coldly negatived,
added fuel to the flame. The membership of the Protestant
societies grew rapidly; inflammatory literature was dis-
tributed; large sums of money were contributed to carry
on the campaign, and the English and Scottish societies
arranged to work together for the common cause. Finally,
in November 1779, Lord George accepted the Presidency
of the whole movement.
The agitation came to a head on 2nd July 1780 when,
on going to the House of Commons to present a "petition
against the concessions to the Roman Catholics signed by
44,000 Protestants," Lord George was attended by an
enormous crowd, stated in one quarter, no doubt by a
considerable over-estimate, to number 100,000 persons.