‘Wilkes and Liberty’

Abstract

The eighteenth century long ago lost its image of order and powdered wigs. The extraordinary propaganda exercise begun by the Augustan classicists and reinforced in the popular mind for the next 200 years disguised a long century of disturbance and social disaffection. Without adequate local organizations or a national voice the common people regularly took to the streets and lanes to make their protests; without a local police force or real magisterial power the authorities called out the troops. The riot became both an expression of discontent for the lower orders (the mobile, or mob) and a valuable safety valve for those above. The riot was the final political resort of unenfranchised groups once recourse to law or to parliamentary petition failed. It also provided a means whereby those in power got the common people to fight their political battles in the London streets.*