Introduction and Purpose
The Riot Act was introduced during a time of civil disturbance in Great Britain, such as the Sacheverell riots. The preamble makes reference to "many rebellious riots and tumults have been in divers parts of this kingdom", adding that those involved "presum so to do, for that the punishments provided by the laws now in being are not adequate to such heinous offences".
Read more about this topic: Riot Act
Famous quotes containing the words introduction and/or purpose:
“For the introduction of a new kind of music must be shunned as imperiling the whole state; since styles of music are never disturbed without affecting the most important political institutions.”
—Plato (c. 427–347 B.C.)
“I envy neither the heart nor the head of any legislator who has been born to an inheritance of privileges, who has behind him ages of education, dominion, civilization, and Christianity, if he stands opposed to the passage of a national education bill, whose purpose is to secure education to the children of those who were born under the shadow of institutions which made it a crime to read.”
—Frances Ellen Watkins Harper (1825–1911)