The passage of the 1778 Catholic Relief Act in England, intended to increase the
secularism of the government, instead sparked the Gordon Riots, which Samuel
Johnson called a "time of terror" and "universal panic", and during which the
masses voiced their anti-Catholic sentiment in an uprising that brought London
to its knees. The Gordon Riots foreshadowed the French Revolution: they were
popular riots comprised of hordes of commoners who opened the jails, burned
entire blocks, and besieged the bank.
These riots loomed near enough in recent memory to terrify English citizens in
1787 when they observed the French Revolution. If the Gordon Riots were possible
in London, could there be a British version of the Réveillon Riots
1 that had marked the beginning of
the French Revolution? The English feared the French Revolution could spread to
England, and they were afraid of the growing number of Catholics (who fled France
to England as a result of the French Revolution). Maybe there were many French and
English spies? Although the elites of England relaxed their rhetoric slightly, the
lower- and middle-class majority remained wholly and fanatically anti-Catholic and
Francophobic.
Thus the Gordon Riots affected the Francophobic French Revolutionary environment
of Jane Austen, as fear of spies along with the fears due to Pitt's Terror created
an overall environment of fears.
1
The Réveillon riots
Click to see were worker-driven violence that
erupted in Paris in April 1789. A fortnight before the opening of the Estates-General,
a Paris wallpaper manufacturer named Jean-Baptiste Réveillon made a proposal
about bread: Since bread was the foundation of our national economy,
its distribution should be deregulated, permitting lower prices. That in turn would
allow lower wage costs, lower manufacturing prices and lead to brisk consumption.
This was misinterpreted by the angry Parisian populace that thought Réveillon
was advocating a lowering in wages (lower wages even if bread were not purchased).
This led to riots: a preview of the French Revolution.
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