ABSTRACT
During the past two decades historians have devoted much attention both to the crowd as a socio-cultural phenomenon and a political force. This chapter combines both concerns: study of the working of the Riot Act in 18th century England, by focusing on the use of penal law against crowds rather than single offenders, brings into particularly sharp relief the contradictions of a legal system which depended heavily on the support of the general public both for law-enforcement and for the efficacious operation of the practice of ‘exemplary’ public execution of selected offenders. The Riot Act is particularly suitable for a case study of the implementation of penal law during the 18th century. The 1715 Riot Act is an early example of the general tendency towards increasing the severity of the penal code typical of the criminal legislation of the 18th century.
