In 1795 150,000 people organised by the London Corresponding Society met at Islington. The cry was:
"In the midst of apparent plenty, why are we compelled to starve? … Parliamentary corruption like a foaming whirlpool, swallows the fruits of all our labours."
For the opening of parliament George III travelled in the royal state coach. The carriage was shaped like a thicket of golden palm fronds supporting the roof, and topped with cherubs representing England, Wales, Ireland and Scotland. The coach was accompanied by liveried footmen and conch blowing trumpeters and escorted by Royal Horse Guards with a platoon of halberdiers (pike carriers). Awaiting the king in Pal Mall was a crowd of around 200,000 people who pushed between the escorts and the carriage. They began to bang on the sides of the king's carriage and chanted 'Down with George!' A shot went through the window and out the other side. The king arrived at parliament in a furious mood and left in an undistinguished coach and horses. Word spread amongst the crowd that the king's coach was empty, so the crowd searched every coach leaving parliament. They found the king and stopped his coach smashing the windows and chanting, 'Down with George, we want bread!' The cavalry arrived, the horse guards actually, and saved the king just in time and perhaps, who knows, prevented Britain going the way of France and becoming a republic.
Parliament responded to the king's encounter with his, not so, loyal subjects by passing laws which provided the death penalty for those who incited people to hate the king. It also outlawed meetings of more than fifty people and so reformers were forced underground.
