The English Riot Act of 1714 did not require a public official to recite the full text of the Act. [Cecil’s column http://www.straightdope.com/classics/a2_263a.html. However it did include the form of the dispersal order that an official needed to make. According to the Act, the official:
…Shall openly and with loud voice make or cause to be made proclamation in these words, or like in effect:
[INDENT]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.[/INDENT]
Since the Act allowed the proclamation to use words “like in effect”, I’m surprised a court would throw out a conviction on the grounds that the sherriff didn’t say, “God save the King,” but I guess they took that sort of stuff more seriously in 1714.
The full text of the Riot Act is at http://reactor-core.org/riot-act.html