riot act

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After reading "The Straight Dope" (specifically the second book thereof), I betook me to Google, and hence Wikipedia, to see the following:

"The wording that had to be read out to the assembled gathering was as follows:

'Our Sovereign Lord the King chargeth and commandeth all persons, being assembled, immediately to disperse themselves, and peaceably to depart to their habitations, or to their lawful business, upon the pains contained in the act made in the first year of King George, for preventing tumults and riotous assemblies. God Save the King!'"

Also from Wikipedia:

The act created a mechanism for certain local officials to make a proclamation ordering the dispersal of any group of more than twelve people who were "unlawfully, riotously, and tumultuously assembled together". If the group failed to disperse within one hour, then anyone remaining gathered was guilty of a felony without benefit of clergy, punishable by death.

The proclamation could be made in an incorporated town or city by the Mayor, Bailiff or "other head officer", or a Justice of the Peace. Elsewhere it could be made by a Justice of the Peace or the Sheriff or Under-Sheriff. It had to be read out to the gathering concerned, and had to follow precise wording detailed in the act; several convictions were overturned because parts of the proclamation had been omitted, in particular "God save the King".

The full text of the Riot Act of 1714 itself was a bit longer. Reading the whole thing to an unruly crowd might have had a rather soporific effect. Then again, they were used to listening to long blocks of text in those days.
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