_Alderman Beckford._--Gifford (_Ben Jonson_, vol. vi. p. 481.) has the
following note:--
"The giants of Guildhall, thank heaven, yet defend their charge:
it only remains to wish that the citizens may take example by
the fate of Holmeby, and not expose them to an attack to which
they will assuredly be found unequal. It is not altogether owing
to their wisdom that this has not already taken place. For
twenty years they were chained to the car of a profligate
buffoon, who dragged them through every species of ignominy to
the verge of rebellion; and their hall is even yet disgraced
with the statue of a worthless negro-monger, in the act of
insulting their sovereign with a speech of which (factious and
brutal as he was) _he never uttered one syllable_." ... "By my
troth, captain, these are very bitter words."
But Gifford was _generally_ correct in his assertions; and twenty-two
years after _his_ note, I made the following one:--
"It is a curious fact, but a true one, that Beckford _did not
utter one syllable of this speech_. It was penned by Horne
Tooke, and by his art put on the records of the city and on
Beckford's statue, as he told me, Mr. Braithwaite, Mr. Seyers,
&c., at the Athenian Club.
"ISAAC REED.
"See the _Times_ Of July 23. 1838, p. 6."
The worshipful Company of Ironmongers have _relegated their_ statue from
their hall to a lower position: but it still disgraces the Guildhall,
and will continue to do so, as long as any factious demagogue is
permitted to have a place among its members.