execution, this Duke D'Enghien had as fair a trial, a much fairer jury,
with an unanimous verdict of guilty upon _all_ the charges, and a much
more equitable, and ten times more just sentence, than I received from
the immaculate Court of King's Bench. _Hulin_ was much more justified,
by the law of France, in passing this sentence upon D'Enghien, than
_Bailey_ was in passing a sentence upon me of _Two Years and Six Months_
incarceration in this infamous jail. It is very true that _Bailey_ was
only the mouth-piece of the court, and I am ready to admit that, though
he passed the sentence upon me, yet, he was so far from concurring in
it, that he actually wrote down "not one hour," as the whole of his
share of the punishment that he thought I ought to receive. There was,
however, the _pure_ and _venerable judge_----, as he was denominated
by the amiable _Castlereagh_ alias _Londonderry_, when my Petition was
rejected by the Honourable House on the 15th instant, May, 1821, the
day when Sir Francis Burdett brought forward his long-promised,
long-delayed, frequently put-off motion, upon the Manchester massacre.
Oh! the _venerable Judge!_ I thank you kindly for that, my Lord--I will
always follow so good and worthy an example as that of your Lordship;
in future he shall always be designated by me as the _venerable Judge!
Jeffries_ was indeed also a _venerable Judge_, and Jeffries came to an
end the most appropriate for such a _venerable Judge_. Talk of _Hulin_
indeed! he was a paragon of justice, humanity and mercy, compared with
my Lord _Shift-names' venerable emblem of purity_. I think it was Mr.
Horne Tooke that used to say, that it was as difficult to know who and
what our nobility were, as it was to know a pickpocket or a highwayman,
the former changed their names as frequently as the latter; and really
the remark is a perfectly correct one! The famous Mr. Drake, the
notorious English plenipotentiary at the court of Munich, was at
the head of this conspiracy, while holding the situation of English
Ambassador to the Elector of Bavaria. Ten of his original letters were
seized by the police of the Republic, and in the report of Regnier, the
Chief Justice, the following extracts from Mr. Drake's letters were
introduced. In addressing one of his correspondents, an active
conspirator, as he thought, who had undertaken to assassinate the First
Consul, but who was nothing more or less than an agent of the French
Police, he writes with a brutal fury worthy of the part he plays. The
letter is dated Munich, December 9, 1803. "It is," says he, "of very
little consequence _by whom the Beast is brought to the ground_; it is
sufficient that you are all ready to join in the chace." There was also
another of these precious diplomatic agents of the British Government,
a person of the name of _Spencer Smith_, Minister from England at
Stutgard, acting as a conspirator against the person of the First Consul
and the Republic of France, who was wise enough to employ a Frenchman,
named Pericaud, as his confidential secretary. In one of his letters
Drake uses the following language: "_You should_," says he, "_offer the
soldiers a small increase of pay beyond what they receive of the present
Government_." In the report of the Grand Judge, he speaks of Mr. Drake
as follows:--"an English Minister such as Mr. Drake, cannot be punished
by obloquy--this can only mortify men who feel the price of virtue, and
know that of honour." He adds, "Men who preach up assassination and
foment domestic troubles, the agents of corruption, the missionaries
of revolt against all established governments, are the enemies of all
states and all governments. The law of nations does not exist for
them." In the second interview of Mr. Rosey with Mr. Drake, when he was
devising the plan for destroying Buonaparte, Mr. Rosey says, he, Drake,
spoke as follows, when speaking of the fall of Napoleon: "Profit, when
the occasion shall offer, by the trouble in which the rest of his
partizans will be plunged. _Destroy them without pity; pity is not the
virtue of a politician_." In fact it appears very evident, that the plan
was to assassinate the First Consul, and thereby to produce a fresh
revolution in France.
Soon after this, Captain Wright, who landed Georges, Pichegru, and their
accomplices, on the coast at Dieppe, was taken in a corvette by
the French gun-boats, and was sent off to Paris in the diligence,
accompanied by the Gendarmerie. This Captain Wright, after very urgent
negociations through the Spanish Minister at Paris, was ordered to be
given up to the English by Talleyrand; the French Government having
refused to exchange him as a prisoner of war on any terms. Having been
engaged in this plot to assassinate Buonaparte, he was treated as a spy,
and might have been tried by the law of France and executed as such. The
French Government, however, thought it a sufficient disgrace to him as a
man of honour, to refuse to exchange him, but to give him up as a boon
to the Spanish Ambassador. Wright, it is said by his keepers, cut his
throat in the prison; but the English hireling newspaper editors made a
great clamour against Buonaparte, to persuade John Gull that he had been
murdered in prison; though it would be difficult to find any good reason
for this, when he might have been tried and executed by the law of
France, upon the same principle that D'Enghien was convicted.
Mr. Cobbett, who had now become celebrated for his political works,
particularly his Weekly Political Register, had about this time began to
write very freely in the cause of Liberty. Being a most powerful writer,
he had attacked with great success the tyrannical measures of the Irish
Government, and he was, therefore, prosecuted for a libel upon the Earl
of Hardwicke, Lord Redesdale, Mr. Justice Osbourn, and Mr. Marsden. The
trial came on before Lord Ellenborough and a Middlesex special jury,
and he was found guilty, of course. He also had an action for damages
brought against him by Mr. Plunkett, Solicitor-General of Ireland; and
this action being also tried by a Middlesex special jury, he had, of
course, a verdict against him, with £500 damages.
Mr. Pitt was now again in power, and he endeavoured to make the public
believe that he had assented to the wishes of the nation, by an union
with Mr. Fox, whom he professed to have recommended to his Majesty
to appoint one of the cabinet. This was one of Mr. Pitt's artful and
hypocritical shuffles; he contrived that the King should object to the
admission of Mr. Fox; while at the same time he managed so as to make
the nation think that he studied their wishes by recommending Mr. Fox to
the King; and thus he fixed upon his Majesty the odium of disregarding
the prayers of the people, and objecting to Mr. Fox from merely personal
motives.
I was living at Clifton at this period, and during the summer I visited
Cheltenham with my family. At the latter place I frequently met Mr. Fox,
who was drinking the celebrated waters, for his health, which had become
greatly impaired in consequence of his attending so incessantly to his
parliamentary duties. He was accompanied by Mrs. Armstead, the lady whom
he afterwards married, and to which lady the people of England have had
the honour to pay twelve hundred pounds a-year, ever since the death of
Mr. Fox. Mrs. Armstead appeared to be a very delightful woman, with whom
this great statesman and senator evidently lived in a state of the most
perfect domestic harmony. They were almost always together, seldom if
ever were they seen separate--at the pump-room in the morning; at the
library and reading-room at noon, when the papers came in; at the
theatre, or at private parties, in the evening; Mr. Fox and Mrs.
Armstead were always to be seen together. The Duke of Bedford was then
recently married to his present Duchess. Mr. Fox and his lady were
frequently of the Duke's party; in fact, they were as one family.
Cheltenham was then very full of gay company; amongst whom a great deal
of dissipation and intrigue were going on. It was frequently made a
subject of remark, that Mr. Fox and Mr. Hunt appeared to enjoy more real
happiness, more domestic felicity, than any of the married persons at
Cheltenham, with the exception of the Duke and Duchess of Bedford, who
lived a retired domestic life at that time; and, from what I have heard,
have continued to do so ever since.
I remember sitting in the library with Mr. Fox, on the morning when
the news arrived by the post, that Sir Francis Burdett was elected the
representative for the county of Middlesex, by a majority of ONE. Mr.
Fox was greatly elated with this momentary success of the Baronet; but
he expressed his doubts upon the final issue of an inquiry before a
Committee of the House of Commons. This famous contest for Middlesex had
caused considerable anxiety throughout the country, and a party of us,
amongst whom was Mr. Fox, used to assemble daily on the arrival of the
post at the library, to hear the state of the poll. This election had
been carried on fifteen days with unabating enthusiasm. Sir Francis
Burdett was backed by all the men and women of the county possessing
liberal principles; he had besides an immensely long purse, the contents
of which were lavished upon his partizans with an unsparing hand.
_Ninety-four thousand pounds_ was the price of the two elections, which
came out of his own pocket; besides all the gratuitous assistance that
he received from his friends and partizans. Mr. Mainwaring was the
treasurer of the county; his father was the chairman of the County
Quarter Sessions. The father had been rendered by a committee of the
House incapable of sitting in that Parliament, he having been convicted
of treating during the previous election. The son, therefore, a mere
clerk to the magistrates, was set up against Sir Francis; this son being
a man without the slightest pretensions to a seat in Parliament for a
rotten borough, and much less for the county of Middlesex, either as a
man of fortune, a man of rank, or a man of talent. In fact, it was a
ministerial contest against Sir Francis Burdett; most of the partizans
of Mr. Mainwaring declaring, at the time, that they voted _against Sir
Francis_, and not for Mainwaring. I was one of those who thought that
this was a great triumph in the cause of liberty, and I was therefore
excessively rejoiced that Sir Francis Burdett should have been
successful against all the magistracy, and all the ministerial
aristocracy of the metropolitan county. But now, when I look back, and
read the speeches of the Honourable Baronet, I only feel surprised that
I could have been such a dupe as to expect that any real benefit would
ever arise to the people from his exertions. All his promises,
all his protestations, I now perceive to have been general; there was
nothing in them specific and tangible. The great cry raised against Sir
F. Burdett's principles at that time was, that he had been the associate
of the traitors _Despard_ and _O'Connor_. This was most infamous, and
was resented by every upright and honest freeholder in the county. The
Baronet was evidently the most popular candidate; but what gave the
greatest _eclat_ to his election was the lavish expenditure of his cash
to bribe the electors. Henry Clifford was his counsel, and he himself
was a host.
The newspapers of the next day, however, brought us an account which
blasted all the sanguine hopes that we had entertained the day before.
At the final end of the scrutiny the Sheriff declared the numbers on the
poll to be the same as they were the day before, at three o'clock, and
these were the numbers by which he ought to decide the election. They
were as follow: for Mr. Mainwaring, 2828--for Sir Francis Burdett,
2823--and Mr. Mainwaring was of course declared duly elected by a
majority of five votes. Thus ended this great political contest,
in which so much money was spent, and of which _drunkenness, riot,
bribery_, and _perjury_, were the most prominent characteristics. On the
29th of October, one of the most atrocious acts of tyranny, robbery, and
lawless plunder, took place, which ever disgraced the character of any
nation, namely, the British navy captured three Spanish frigates, with
upwards of _three millions_ of dollars on board. This unparalleled act
of aggression was committed upon the property of Spain, a nation with
whom England was at peace, and this plunder was what is called _Droits
of the Admiralty_, which is claimed by the crown; so that, when the
crown chooses to become a robber upon the high seas, and plunders a
state to enrich itself, the people of England are called upon to spill
their best blood in defending an act which, if committed in common life,
would entitle the robber to a halter.
Soon after this, by way of retaliation, Buonaparte caused Sir George
Rumbold, a British Minister, to be seized at Hamburgh, by a detachment
of French soldiers, who carried him off to France. The law of nations
was, in fact, set at naught by all the Belligerent Powers; in most cases
the weakest went to the wall. The English Ministers violated every known
and heretofore received principle of the law of nations. Buonaparte
always took care to retaliate in the most prompt and decisive manner;
and thus the subjects of both powers were at once rendered the sport
and the victims of their tyrannical rulers. There was no safety in
neutral territories, nor any safeguard in the hitherto acknowledged
law of nations. The conspiracy formed by the English Ministers to
assassinate Napoleon was detected, and all their agents, who were
concerned in so hellish a plot, were exposed and denounced by every
civilized state in Europe. Moreau was banished to America; Pichegru
strangled himself in prison; Georges and D'Enghien were executed; Drake
had a narrow escape with his life; Captain Wright cut his own throat
in a French prison; and thus the whole conspiracy was as completely
frustrated, and its agents as completely punished, as were the agents
of the Cato-street conspiracy: both of them were got up by the same
parties, and the only difference was, that the former was ten times more
atrocious than the latter.
The King and the Prince of Wales, who had been long at variance, had a
meeting on the 12th of November, 1804, when a reconciliation took place
between them. Every body now expected to hear that the Prince's Debts
were soon to be paid off. About this time there were great discussions
relative to who had the legal care and education of the Princess
Charlotte of Wales; and while in London the English Ministers and the
Opposition were squabbling about this mighty concern, the coronation of
Napoleon by the Pope, took place in Paris, where he was crowned Emperor
of France.
I trust that my introducing these events, as they occurred, will not be
deemed superfluous by the reader. I do it, because it is my intention,
as it has been all along, to give a brief history of the political
occurrences of my own time, and within my own recollection. It is, I
think, not unadvisable to put upon record some of the transactions of
the English Ministers for the last twenty years, and dispassionately
place them in their true light. At the period when these things were
done the public mind was in a state of heat and effervescence --it
was in such a fever of political delusion and delirium, that what was
written and published at the time, particularly by the diurnal press of
the day, instead of enlightening, was calculated only to mislead and
deceive the people. Far from recording fairly what was passing in the
world of politics, the principal object of the great mass of public
writers, and more especially of the conductors of public newspapers, was
to _disguise and conceal the truth_; they were all in the pay, or under
the influence, of the two great political factions, the Ins and the
Outs, the Tories and the Whigs, both interested in keeping the people
in the dark. They were both struggling for nothing but place and
power; their great end and aim were the same. The watch-word which,
notwithstanding their ostensible difference in principles, was common to
them, was this--"keep the people in ignorance, or neither of our parties
will be able to plunder them." Therefore, though to the superficial
observer, they appeared inveterately hostile to each other, yet I
repeat, that they had the same object in view, and this was proved
beyond all the possibility of doubt when the Whigs came into power. For
twenty long years had Mr. Fox and his party been inveighing against the
measures of Mr. Pitt; yet, the moment Mr. Fox and his friends came into
place, they not only adopted all the measures of Mr. Pitt, but they even
followed up the most obnoxious of those measures towards the people with
an unfeeling and arbitrary severity. This being the case, I shall take
leave, as I go along, to represent public events in their true colours,
in such as they must strike every rational, dispassionate, and
unprejudiced mind.
At this period invasion was still the general topic; it was in every
person's mouth, and nothing else was either thought of or talked of. It
was the subject of every one's almost hourly inquiry, both in London and
the country, even in the most remote parts. Mr. Cobbett well described
it at the time, "a state malady; appearing by fits and starts; sometimes
assuming one character, and sometimes another. At last, however, it
seems to have settled into a sort of hemorrhage, the patients in
Downing-street expectorating pale or red, according to the state of
their disease. For some weeks past it has been remarkably vivid; whether
proceeding from the heat of the dog-days, or from the quarrellings and
fightings, and riotings amongst their volunteers, it would be hard to
say, but certain it is, that the symptoms have been of a very alarming
complexion for nearly a month."
Notwithstanding all the terror which was felt, the fact is, that
Buonaparte never seriously intended to invade England; but he knew that
the gun-boats at Boulogne kept this country in a continual state of
tremor, and put it to an enormous expense; it was evidently the policy
of France to let us alone, provided that she could keep us in a state
of agitation and ferment. It is very curious to observe how well this
answered the purpose of Pitt as well as of Napoleon. Mr. Pitt had, in
the first instance, to raise the spirit of the country, or rather to
delude John Gull, created a false and unfounded alarm of invasion by
Buonaparte, long before the latter ever dreamed of it, and the trick
succeeded to a miracle. Pitt knew that he could not get such immense
sums from the pockets of the people, unless he could work upon their
fears; and this gave rise to the bugbear of invasion. John, as was
expected, took fright, and the whole country was in consequence thrown
into a violent ferment. Volunteer corps and voluntary subscriptions were
every where the order of the day; John opened his purse-strings widely,
and patiently suffered the rapacious and cunning Minister to dip his
griping fist into the treasure as deeply as he thought proper. Napoleon,
who had some of the most intelligent men in the world about him,
soon discovered the state malady of poor John Gull, and he and his
councillors lost not a moment to set about prescribing a dose, which
they were sure would increase the nervous fever that had taken
possession of the whole country. Their prescription was a very simple
one, it merely consisted in ordering gun-boats at Boulogne. Napoleon
played Pitt's own game off to such a tune as he did not expect. Pitt
created the alarm to raise taxes; Napoleon fell into the scheme, in
order to continue the call for taxes upon the pockets of Gull, and to
exhaust the resources, and waste the wealth of the country, which at
that time appeared to some people to be absolutely inexhaustible. This
Boulogne flotilla was therefore a mere playing upon the fears of the
people of England, but it was a most ruinous war upon the national
finances.
This was the time when the people of England were made drunk, and indeed
mad, by the deleterious potions that were administered by Pitt and his
colleagues, in the shape of Acts of Parliament, for raising volunteer
corps, catamaran schemes, car projects for conveying troops, &c. &c.
with every other species of folly and profligacy. The taxes raised this
year were little short of SIXTY MILLIONS.--In February the quartern loaf
was _eight-pence_; by December it had risen to _one shilling and four
pence halfpenny_. Those were rare times for the farmers and the
yeomanry; and they did not forget to make their poor neighbours feel
their power. This rise in the price of corn was caused by the CORN BILL,
which was carried through the House of Commons for the purpose; but its
operation was arrested in the House of Lords, till the 15th of November.
Mr. Cobbett was still one of the great advocates for war, and he wrote
some very able but very mischievous papers, to prove that war did not
operate to raise the price of bread, and that for the last fifty years
bread had been cheaper in war than in peace. This he did for the purpose
of discountenancing and reprobating the cry that had been raised of
"_Peace and a large loaf_." Mr. Cobbett's Register at this time became a
very popular work, and the great talent displayed by the author caused
it to be universally read. I, for one, became one of his constant
readers and zealous admirers, although I did not agree with many of his
doctrines. Notwithstanding the great talent he displayed, and the
knowledge in matters of political economy which it was very evident that
he possessed, I could never be convinced that war in any way either
promoted the freedom or happiness of the people, much less that it ever
produced cheap bread, or contributed to the comfort of the poor. I must,
however, do Mr. Cobbett the justice to say, that he condemned the Corn
Bill, and, in glowing language, boldly and ably pointed out the folly as
well as the injustice of Corn Bills, to raise the price of grain. I did
not know Mr. Cobbett at that time, but I own that I longed to become
acquainted with so celebrated a public writer, who had afforded me so
much pleasure in the perusal of his literary works. It will be but doing
common justice to him, as well as to myself, to observe here, that I
have never failed to read it from that day up to the present hour; and
that I have received more pleasure in reading his works, and have
derived more information from him, ten times ten-fold, in subjects of
political economy, than I ever derived from all the other authors I ever
read besides. Mr. Cobbett, at that time, censured in strong terms the
volunteer system, and ridiculed their pranks and squabbles with the most
cutting irony; for he was at that time the mighty champion of a standing
army. Mr. Cobbett had been a soldier, and a zealous, active, and
intelligent soldier; therefore, as such, it was not only excusable in
him to be an advocate for that system, with which he was so well
acquainted, and whose power he so well knew, but his predilection was
quite natural. He, however, then little thought what a monster he was
nourishing, in the shape of a standing army. Sir Robert Wilson also was
bred a soldier; and he also published a pamphlet, addressed to Mr. Pitt,
under the title of "An Inquiry into the present State of the Military
Force of the British Empire, with a view to its re-organization." This
pamphlet was in favour of a regular army, in preference to the
volunteers. In fact, the whole nation was mad; and as drunk with fear
now, as they had been in the commencement of the war with France with
folly and boasting. We long since began to feel the baneful effects of
that war, and we are now tasting its bitter fruits, with all their
appalling evils. We have now a standing army in good earnest; and now
that army is kept up, in the sixth year of peace, to compel John Gull to
pull out of his pocket the last shilling, to pay the interest of that
debt, which, in his drunken, insane folly, he suffered his rulers, to
borrow, in order, as they first told him, to humble the power of the
French Jacobins; a debt which was greatly enhanced to humble Napoleon;
and, lastly, it was brought to its climax to restore the Bourbons. The
people of England were drunk, wickedly drunk, when they went to war to
destroy the principles of liberty in France; for, be it remembered, to
their shame, that the people sanctioned this war--they were duped and
deceived, it is true, but it was certainly a popular war with the great
mass of the people of England.
Being now arrived at the summit of power, Napoleon became more than
usually anxious to secure that power. It was his interest, as it had
long been his object, to be at peace with England; and in order to
secure this desirable object, he wrote a letter to the king of England,
with his own hand, offering the fairest terms, and expressing a sincere
desire to put an end to the spilling of human blood, and to see the two
nations at peace with each other. Common courtesy, and the rules of good
breeding, entitled him to an answer. But, instead of this, the Secretary
of State merely informed the French Minister, that the King, by treaty,
was obliged to act in concert with his allies. As soon as this slight
was offered to the Emperor of France, preparations were immediately
renewed for invading England. Mr. Pitt finds that his difficulties have
increased since his former administration; he therefore makes an effort
to strengthen the Government by an union with the Addingtons, and the
late Prime Minister is raised to the peerage, by the title of Viscount
Sidmouth.
On the 24th of January, 1805, war was declared by England against Spain.
In fact, it was absolutely necessary to declare war against Spain, or
restore the three frigates and the three million dollars of which we had
robbed them; and not choosing to be honest, and do an act of justice to
that nation, war was inevitable. I have this moment found a copy of
the letter addressed by Napoleon to the King of England, which I will
insert, that the rising generation may be able to judge for themselves
of the characters and dispositions of the two monarchs, George the Third
and Napoleon the First. The letter is as follows:--
"SIR AND BROTHER, _January_ 2, 1805.