To surround anything, however monstrous or ridiculous, with an airof mystery, is to invest it with a secret charm, and power ofattraction which to the crowd is irresistible. False priests,false prophets, false doctors, false patriots, false prodigies ofevery kind, veiling their proceedings in mystery, have alwaysaddressed themselves at an immense advantage to the popularcredulity, and have been, perhaps, more indebted to that resourcein gaining and keeping for a time the upper hand of Truth andCommon Sense, than to any half-dozen items in the whole catalogueof imposture. Curiosity is, and has been from the creation of theworld, a master-passion. To awaken it, to gratify it by slightdegrees, and yet leave something always in suspense, is toestablish the surest hold that can be had, in wrong, on theunthinking portion of mankind.
If a man had stood on London Bridge, calling till he was hoarse,upon the passers-by, to join with Lord George Gordon, although foran object which no man understood, and which in that very incidenthad a charm of its own,--the probability is, that he might haveinfluenced a score of people in a month. If all zealousProtestants had been publicly urged to join an association for theavowed purpose of singing a hymn or two occasionally, and hearingsome indifferent speeches made, and ultimately of petitioningParliament not to pass an act for abolishing the penal laws againstRoman Catholic priests, the penalty of perpetual imprisonmentdenounced against those who educated children in that persuasion,and the disqualification of all members of the Romish church toinherit real property in the United Kingdom by right of purchase ordescent,--matters so far removed from the business and bosoms ofthe mass, might perhaps have called together a hundred people. Butwhen vague rumours got abroad, that in this Protestant associationa secret power was mustering against the government for undefinedand mighty purposes; when the air was filled with whispers of aconfederacy among the Popish powers to degrade and enslave England,establish an inquisition in London, and turn the pens of Smithfieldmarket into stakes and cauldrons; when terrors and alarms which noman understood were perpetually broached, both in and out ofParliament, by one enthusiast who did not understand himself, andbygone bugbears which had lain quietly in their graves forcenturies, were raised again to haunt the ignorant and credulous;when all this was done, as it were, in the dark, and secretinvitations to join the Great Protestant Association in defence ofreligion, life, and liberty, were dropped in the public ways,thrust under the house-doors, tossed in at windows, and pressedinto the hands of those who trod the streets by night; when theyglared from every wall, and shone on every post and pillar, so thatstocks and stones appeared infected with the common fear, urgingall men to join together blindfold in resistance of they knew notwhat, they knew not why;--then the mania spread indeed, and thebody, still increasing every day, grew forty thousand strong.
So said, at least, in this month of March, 1780, Lord GeorgeGordon, the Association"s president. Whether it was the fact orotherwise, few men knew or cared to ascertain. It had never madeany public demonstration; had scarcely ever been heard of, savethrough him; had never been seen; and was supposed by many to bethe mere creature of his disordered brain. He was accustomed totalk largely about numbers of men--stimulated, as it was inferred,by certain successful disturbances, arising out of the samesubject, which had occurred in Scotland in the previous year; waslooked upon as a cracked-brained member of the lower house, whoattacked all parties and sided with none, and was very littleregarded. It was known that there was discontent abroad--therealways is; he had been accustomed to address the people by placard,speech, and pamphlet, upon other questions; nothing had come, inEngland, of his past exertions, and nothing was apprehended fromhis present. Just as he has come upon the reader, he had come,from time to time, upon the public, and been forgotten in a day; assuddenly as he appears in these pages, after a blank of five longyears, did he and his proceedings begin to force themselves, aboutthis period, upon the notice of thousands of people, who hadmingled in active life during the whole interval, and who, withoutbeing deaf or blind to passing events, had scarcely ever thought ofhim before.
"My lord," said Gashford in his ear, as he drew the curtains of hisbed betimes; "my lord!"
"Yes--who"s that? What is it?"
"The clock has struck nine," returned the secretary, with meeklyfolded hands. "You have slept well? I hope you have slept well?
If my prayers are heard, you are refreshed indeed."
"To say the truth, I have slept so soundly," said Lord George,rubbing his eyes and looking round the room, "that I don"t rememberquite--what place is this?"
"My lord!" cried Gashford, with a smile.
"Oh!" returned his superior. "Yes. You"re not a Jew then?"
"A Jew!" exclaimed the pious secretary, recoiling.
"I dreamed that we were Jews, Gashford. You and I--both of us-Jewswith long beards."
"Heaven forbid, my lord! We might as well be Papists."
"I suppose we might," returned the other, very quickly. "Eh? Youreally think so, Gashford?"
"Surely I do," the secretary cried, with looks of great surprise.
"Humph!" he muttered. "Yes, that seems reasonable."
"I hope my lord--" the secretary began.
"Hope!" he echoed, interrupting him. "Why do you say, you hope?
There"s no harm in thinking of such things."
"Not in dreams," returned the Secretary.
"In dreams! No, nor waking either."
--""Called, and chosen, and faithful,"" said Gashford, taking upLord George"s watch which lay upon a chair, and seeming to read theinscription on the seal, abstractedly.
It was the slightest action possible, not obtruded on his notice,and apparently the result of a moment"s absence of mind, not worthremark. But as the words were uttered, Lord George, who had beengoing on impetuously, stopped short, reddened, and was silent.