Note 17 — VOLUME V. (continued 2)

Sir Francis Burdett (father of the present Lady Burdett Coutts) was Radical M.P. for Westminster. Perhaps the greatest event of his life was his committal to the Tower under the Speaker’s warrant for a libellous letter published in Cobbett’s Political Register of March 24, 1810, in which he questioned the power of the House of Commons to imprison delinquents. He at first resisted the execution of the warrant, and being a favourite with the mob, a street contest ensued between the military and the people, in which some lives were lost.