Passage de London: A Biography de Peter Ackroyd, où il est question d'émeutes s'étant déroulées vers la fin du 18ème siècle:
"It is as if the very restriction of the city encouraged the sudden appetite for wildness and license; the restraints imposed by a mercantile culture, ruinous in its effects upon many who comprised the crowd, encouraged rapid volatility of rage and exhilaration. There were also too many people forced into too small a space, and this massive over-crowding in narrow streets engendered strange fevers and excitements."