DISTURBANCES IN ENGLAND.

Britain, in the meanwhile, was altogether barren of events which might deserve a place in a general history. Commerce and manufacture flourished again, to such a degree of increase as had never been known in the island; but this advantage was attended with an irresistible tide of luxury and excess, which flowed through all degrees of the people, breaking down all the mounds of civil polity, and opening a way for license and immorality. The highways were infested with rapine and assassination; the cities teemed with the brutal votaries of lewdness, intemperance, and profligacy. The whole land was overspread with a succession of tumult, riot, and insurrection, excited in different parts of the kingdom by the erection of new turnpikes, which the legislature judged necessary for the convenience of inland carriage. In order to quell these disturbances, recourse was had to the military power; several individuals were slain, and some were executed as examples.