and was so much looked up to and respected, not only by me, but by all
those who took a lead in the general cause of public liberty, that his
word had hitherto been A LAW in these matters; in fact, he had not only
gone with us, but he had run before us, and all our difficulty was, to
keep up to his mark, for he was always complaining of the apathy of the
people, and declaring that they did not deserve liberty, unless they
would exert themselves, and join him in demanding it; and he was
everlastingly urging us, who laboured under him for the cause (Major
Cartwright, Mr. Cobbett, myself, and others), to excite and rouse the
people into action, to support his exertions in the House. But when, in
1816, Mr. Cobbett and Major Cartwright had, by their writings, and I and
others had by our speeches and resolutions, passed at public meetings,
roused the people into a sense of their public duty, to petition the
Parliament for their individual, collective, and _universal_ rights,
behold the Baronet stopped short, and turning sharp round, declared that
he would not go with us; and that he would only support the right of
liberty for householders, leaving all the rest of the community in a
state of abject slavery and bondage! Up to this period--till this
fatal decision, with the exception of one or two little obliquities of
conduct, Sir F. Burdett had enjoyed the confidence, and received the
support of every wise, good, and disinterested man in the nation;
because every one believed that he was sincere in his protestations for
the universal freedom of mankind. But, now, for the first time,
his supporters dwindled into a faction of _shopkeepers_ and
_housekeepers_--a little selfish crew, who were anxious to enjoy liberty
themselves, and who were elated at the thoughts of becoming a sort of
privileged class, above and distinct from the great body of the
people. From this cause arose a new faction, under the denomination of
BURDETTITES.
It will be recollected, that, at this period, not one of the Whigs came
up to this mark even of _householders_. A few of the most liberal of the
Whigs, viewing with alarm the rising spirit of the people, thought they
must do something--that they must make some show of approach towards
a more liberal system; they, therefore, joined the city cock, Mr.
Waithman, and held a meeting at the Free- Masons' Tavern, where they
manfully declared their readiness to support a Reform, upon the
principle of _triennial_, instead of _septennial_ Parliaments; but not
one word of any alteration in the suffrage;--not one of this faction was
then bold or honest enough to support the Burdettite faction, even in
their humbug of householder suffrage; and the consequence was, that the
Burdettites, or little shopkeeper faction, made a great parade about
how much further they were disposed to go than the Waithmanite, or Whig
faction.
At a great meeting of delegates, from all parts of the kingdom, and
particularly from the North, and from Scotland, held at the Crown and
Anchor, to settle the sort of Reform that should be adopted by the
people, Major Cartwright and Mr. Cobbett proposed _to limit the suffrage
to householders_, for two reasons-- first, upon the plea now exploded,
of the _impracticability_ of every man enjoying freedom or universal
suffrage; and secondly, for the purpose of joining and still clinging
to Sir Francis Burdett, without whose name and co-operation, it was
contended that no plan of reform could be carried into effect. I,
however, stood boldly up for the great and just principle of universal
suffrage, and moved, as an amendment to the motion made by Mr. Cobbett,
that instead of _householder suffrage_, universal suffrage should be
substituted. After a long and animated debate, my amendment was carried
by a vote of sixty; three hands only being held up against it. For
this uncompromising, for this determined support of the principles of
universal suffrage, in opposition to the _householder_ plan of Sir
Francis Burdett, I have ever since been pursued by the vindictive
hostility, both openly and covertly, not only of the Baronet's Rump
Committee, but of the whole of the Burdett faction, who have, in
conjunction with the base and hypocritical Whig faction, been ten times
more virulent against me, than even the Tory or Government faction. It
may be said, that this is a singular and long digression, and that I am
forestalling my history. It is very true; but I deem it necessary to
repeat and reiterate the foregoing circumstances, so that a great number
of honest and truly excellent Reformers may be able clearly to
account for some part of my conduct, which may hitherto have appeared
inexplicable. Thousands of very worthy friends of liberty, must have
been puzzled and staggered by the violent attacks and calumnies that
have been levelled at me, in those public prints that have been
generally understood to be the staunch supporters of the principles
of freedom; but if they will look back, and narrowly examine into the
objects and views of these public prints, they will find that they have
been merely the vehicles, by which the Burdettite faction have directed
their envenomed shafts against me. Thousands of very sincere and honest
friends of liberty have been and are puzzled, to understand how it is,
that I have met with such cowardly and unmanly opposition at the _Rump
Westminster Dinners_, at the Crown and Anchor; and thousands of equally
worthy and honourable men, are disposed to question my pretensions to
public favour, upon the ground of the beastly and factious opposition
which I have some time experienced from the Whig Waithmanites, at the
Common Halls, in the City of London. But as I go along, I will undertake
to show the cause of that opposition, and expose the motives of that
little city faction, as clear as day-light. Nothing can, indeed, be more
plain than this fact, which is, that these factions, one and all, are
opposed to the principles of universal Liberty. They have all of them
their little, petty, selfish objects to obtain, and in the pursuit of
them, they know their greatest obstacle to be, that they cannot any
longer make the people their dupes and tools; and they know too, that no
man has been so zealously and so perseveringly instrumental as I have
been, to keep the people steady in one common pursuit--that of obtaining
something for themselves--that of struggling for the interest of the
whole community; and they know and feel that nothing could ever warp
me from my duty to the public; that I could never be bamboozled nor
muzzled, nor silenced, nor bribed, by any one of these factions; and
this, this it is that has roused against me their rage and their
hostility; and in proportion as I have exposed their sophistry so has
their malignity increased. Finding that they could neither answer nor
controvert my principles, nor put me down, they have been base enough
to resort to slander, and to the most wanton and barefaced falsehoods,
which they have trumped up to blacken me. The separation from my wife
was a subject that they never failed to urge against me, after having
tortured it into a thousand aggravated shapes; not one of which
was true. If, however, I would but have joined any one of these
factions--would have followed the example of Sir Francis Burdett, and
deserted the great mass of the people, by going over to, and joining
even the _shopkeeper_ or _householder_ faction, I might have deserted
my wife, and left her to starve, with impunity. I might have been as
profligate as any of my calumniators--might have been as debauched as
a Prince, or as abandoned as some of these Justice Parsons, and yet I
might have passed for one of the most pious and virtuous characters in
the kingdom, particularly if I had put on a little demure sanctified
hypocrisy. I believe there is no other man in the world, besides myself,
but who would have been overwhelmed and driven from the field of
politics, by the incessant attacks--by the premeditated and infamous
slanders that have been poured out against me. And it is certainly a
fact--it is quite true, that nothing on earth could have enabled me to
keep my ground, but the purity of my intentions, and the conviction of
my heart, that the holy cause for which I have been contending, is just
and equitable; nor would any thing on earth induce me to persevere, but
the solemn conviction that it is the law of God and Nature, that man
should enjoy civil and religious freedom, and that no law of God or
Nature ever condemned a human being to be either a religious or a
political slave.
But now to return to my narrative. After this great change in my
domestic affairs, I made full as great a change in my course of life. I
immediately abolished all the accustomed carousals and feasts that I had
been in the habit of giving at Chisenbury-house. I continued the society
of a few select friends, but I cast off the busy, fluttering, flattering
throng--the fawning, cringing crew--that had been used to crowd my
table. I took a house in Bath, and spent the following winter in
comparative retirement, in which I was blessed with the society of two
or three rational and intelligent friends.
This being a period of peace, there was very little political news
afloat. The circumstance that most excited public attention at this
time, was the visit of Mr. Fox to Paris, where he was received by the
First Consul with every mark of regard and respect. Gracious God! that
Mr. Fox could but have lived to have known that this illustrious man
should first become Emperor of France, and now be imprisoned on a barren
rock, that the English Government should be his gaoler, and that they
should cut him off from all communication with the world, and prohibit
him from the society of his wife and child! If Mr. Fox could but have
lived to have known this, or could have anticipated any such event, he
would with his manly eloquence have roused the dastard apathy of the
people of England into a just sense of this disgrace, and the national
dishonour, as becoming parties to so cowardly and unjust a measure.
The hireling ministerial press of the metropolis was now using the
most inflammatory language against the First Consul of France, for
the purpose, if possible, of creating a new war; and they were daily
spreading the most monstrous and barefaced falsehoods against him, to
stimulate the fears and the prejudices of John Bull, by representing him
as a tyrant and a monster, who had been, and who would be, guilty of all
sorts of cruelties and atrocities, and whose aim it still was, to subdue
and conquer England, that he might make us all _slaves_ and beasts of
burden. Thus were the credulous people of England duped by the paid
ministerial agents of government, while Napoleon was most anxious to
remain at peace, and particularly at peace with England, that he might
consolidate his own power upon the Continent, and protect the people of
France against the inroads and tyranny of the despots that surrounded
them. The infamous and dastardly conduct of the English ministerial
writers drew down the execration of the whole civilized world, and the
Moniteur, the official newspaper of the French government, announced the
indignation and resentment of the First Consul at the conduct of the
Court of London, for encouraging and sanctioning such brutal libels. It
declared that "every line printed by the English ministerial journalists
_is a line of blood_." The reader, who does not recollect the infamous
conduct of the ministerial scribes of that day, will find but little
difficulty in believing this assertion to be true, when they reflect
upon the atrocious and cowardly language of the ministerial hirelings
of the present day, and read the obscure balderdash and blood-thirsty
principles published in the _Dull Post_, the _Mock Times_, and the
_Lying Courier_.
Before I go any further, it is proper for me to remind the reader that
it ought never to be forgotten, by the people of England, that Napoleon
had been acknowledged by the English government, as the legitimate ruler
of France, that very Napoleon whom they now keep a prisoner upon a
barren rock at Saint Helena, contrary to every principle of justice and
humanity, and in violation of all law, and particularly in violation of
the law of nations, notwithstanding Mr. Brougham's priggish assertions
to the contrary.
Notwithstanding the jealousy of the English government, and the cowardly
slanders of the English ministerial writers, Napoleon assumed great
power in France, which the French people were induced to concede to him,
that he might be the better able to contend against the intrigues and
treachery of the British ministers: he placed himself at the head of
the christian church; he caused a new constitution to be adopted in
Switzerland; he compelled the Barbary powers to make peace; he
was courted by Prussia; he entered into an agreement, called the
_Concordat_, with the Pope; he granted an amnesty to the emigrants,
which created him a host of friends; and ultimately, in the course of
this year, the French government appointed him Consul for life, and the
new constitution which he had proposed was approved throughout France.
Ambassadors were exchanged between the two powers, England and France,
but the administration of England was jealous, suspicious, and in fact
never cordially cemented the peace, into which they had been compelled,
from circumstances, to enter. On their part, as it will be seen
hereafter, it was nothing more or less _than a hollow deceitful truce_.
On the nineteenth of November, this year, (1802), Colonel Despard and
nine other persons were apprehended, on a charge of high treason; and,
after many examinations before the privy council, they were ultimately
committed to prison, on the twenty-ninth of the same month, to take
their trials for high treason. This plot, as it was called, caused a
very considerable sensation throughout the country. It was stated to
have been entered into not only to dethrone, but to kill the King, as he
was going from his Palace to the Parliament House, through the Park, by
blowing him and his attendants to atoms, by firing the long piece of
ordnance at them when they came near the Horse Guards; and it was
asserted that Colonel Despard had formed and entered into this
conspiracy, to shoot the King and overturn the government, with the said
piece of ordnance, in consequence of the ministers refusing to attend
to, and liquidate, some claims that he had upon the government. The
ministers contrived to create a considerable alarm throughout the whole
empire, amongst the credulous, and such as were easily terrified by the
explosion of this ridiculous _pop-gun plot_.
The ministers, however, were obliged to repeal the income tax, as a
bribe to the landed interest, upon whom it was considered to fall
particularly heavy, although the removal of it was looked upon as a
boon to every one who paid it. This was a _peace_ offering, such as
our present ministers appear determined not to bestow upon us,
notwithstanding we are now in the sixth year of peace. This year there
was a loan of twenty-three millions raised. The taxes were enormous,
that of the poor rates alone having amounted to five millions. The
average price of the quartern loaf, during the twelve months, was one
shilling. The prime minister was the Right Honourable Harry Addington,
now Lord Sidmouth; Mr. Perceval was Attorney, and Mr. Manners Sutton was
the Solicitor-general; the Chief Justice Lord Kenyon, having received
his sentence, and been condemned to be banished to another world, by the
Judge of judges, Mr. Law was created Lord Ellenborough, and appointed
Chief Justice of the King's Bench.
On the third of January, 1803, a special commission was issued under the
Great Seal, to inquire of certain high treasons committed within the
county of Surrey; and on the twenty-first of January, it was opened
at the Sessions House at Newington--present on the bench, Lord
Ellenborough, Sir Alexander Thompson, Sir Simon Le Blanc, and Sir Alan
Chambre. The grand jury were sworn, composed of Lord Leslie, foreman,
Lord William Russel, Sir Thomas Turton, and others, and after a long
speech from the newly made Chief Justice, which, by the bye, was quite
unnecessary, the said grand jury returned a true bill against Edward
Marcus Despard and twelve others; throwing out the bills that were
preferred against SOME OTHERS who were known to have been deeply
implicated with Colonel Despard. The Court then adjourned to the fifth
of February, after having, at the request of the prisoner Despard,
assigned Mr. SERGEANT BEST and Mr. GURNEY as his counsel.
On Saturday, the fifth of February, 1803, the court met, pursuant
to adjournment, at the Sessions House at Newington, the same Judges
presiding as before. Edward Marcus Despard and twelve others were placed
at the bar, and severally pleaded not guilty. On Monday, the seventh of
February, the Court met again at nine o'clock in the morning--present,
Ellenborough, Thompson, Le Blanc, and Chambre, as before. There were
nine counsel employed by the crown, as follow: Attorney and Solicitor
General, Perceval and Manners Sutton, Sergeant Shepherd, Plumer, Garrow,
Common Sergeant, Wood, Fielding, and Abbott. Counsel for Colonel
Despard, Mr. SERGEANT BEST and Mr. GURNEY. The prisoner being placed
at the bar, the following jury were sworn, _Grant Allan, William Dent,
William Davidson, Gabriel Copland, William Coxson, John Farmer, John
Collinson, James Webber, Gilbert Handyside, John Hamer, Peter Dubree,_
and _John Field_. I am sure the reader will agree with me, that nothing
can be more desirable than to record the names of all the parties
concerned in such melancholy and bloody transactions, that they may
be handed down to posterity for the use and information of the rising
generation, that they may be enabled the better to judge of the motives
and management of the prosecutors, and the degree of guilt or innocence
of the accused. What a subject for the reflecting mind, to watch the
rise and progress of those concerned in the various transactions of
this sort, which have occurred during our own time, and within our own
memory. As my opinion is, that Colonel Despard fell a sacrifice to the
intrigues and the spy plots of the ministers of that day, and their
detestable agents, that the verdict was obtained against him by perjury,
and that he was in no degree guilty of the charges that were preferred
against him, it will be most interesting to watch the progress of those
concerned in his prosecution and trial, and to mark their end.
Upon the trial of Colonel Despard a number of witnesses swore the most
outrageous things against him, but the two principal witnesses were
two soldiers; one of these men, it is said, left England immediately
afterwards, and was never again heard of by any one in this country; the
other, as I was informed by Mr. Clifford, confessed upon his death bed,
that he had been bribed to swear against the Colonel, that what he had
sworn was false, and that he had been instructed what to say, and he
did so, for doing which he received a considerable sum. These were
two fellows of the most abandoned character, as came out upon their
cross-examination, (SUCH AS IT WAS), but the evidence for the
prosecution was so inconsistent, and so ridiculously improbable, that
one is astounded at the thought, how it was possible for any twelve
men in the kingdom, indiscriminately and fairly chosen, to have said
_guilty_ upon such testimony, and that principally upon the testimony of
accomplices. But, what was more extraordinary than all the rest, was,
that, although there was a ROOM FULL of witnesses for the prisoner, many
of them most respectable, who were ready and willing to disprove a great
deal that the witnesses for the prosecution had sworn, and to prove that
several of the principal witnesses were not worthy to be believed upon
their oath, yet, to the astonishment of the Court, to the grief and
sorrow of the prisoner's friends and relations, to the wonder of the
whole country, _the counsel for the prisoner never called one of these
witnesses._ Gracious God! the bare recollection of this circumstance
freezes one's blood with horror! I have received a letter from a friend
of the colonel, to say, that when they found the counsel were only
calling a few witnesses to character, they, the colonel's friends and
relations, wrote him a note, imploring him to demand that these most
important witnesses should be called and examined. But he returned this
fatal answer, "I have trusted my case in the hands of my counsel, and in
them I place implicit confidence; I shall therefore not interfere with
them." Oh fatal confidence!
It is not for me to accuse the counsel of having betrayed and sold their
client; but it is my firm and unalterable opinion, that, had these
witnesses who were in attendance been called for the prisoner, no jury
would ever have pronounced the word--guilty. Thank God! I made up my
mind long, long ago, never to trust my life or my liberty in the hands
of a counsel! I have not the least doubt, not the shadow of a doubt upon
my mind, that, if the government could have been sure that I would
have trusted my defence in the hands of a counsel, if they could have
indulged in a well-grounded hope, that I would have committed my case
to the keeping of the worthy _Counsellor Scarlett_, but that they
would have tried and convicted me and my friends of high treason, for
attending the peaceable meeting at Manchester; for which, as it was,
they could not even get me convicted of a conspiracy, though they had
packed a tractable Yorkshire Whig jury. But if they could have got me
to place a brief in the hands of the worthy and able WHIG SCARLETT, I
should have been tried for high treason, and the evidence of _Hulton,
Entwistle_, and _Andrew_, would have been so beautifully managed, that
I am quite sure a packed Yorkshire Whig jury, with the Halls, the
Chaytors, the Hultons, the Chadwicks, and the Oddys, at their head,
would, under the dexterous management of the worthy hermaphrodite
politician, Mr. Scarlett, have, and upon the self-same evidence, found
me guilty either of high treason, or of sheep stealing, whichever
might have best suited the purpose of the prosecutors. Under such
circumstances, had I left my life in the hands of Mr. Scarlett,
notwithstanding I should have subpoenaed, and had in attendance, _one
hundred and fifty witnesses_, to contradict all the perjury sworn by
the aforesaid _trio_, I should not have been surprised if Mr. Scarlett,
instead of calling them, had contented himself with calling, perhaps,
Parson Hay and Mr. Nadin to my character, under the pretence that,
twenty years before, they had known me a very loyal man in the Everly or
Marlborough troop of yeomanry cavalry.