arms on the continent, Lord Nelson defeated the French and Spanish
fleets, off Trafalgar, on the 21st of October. In this matchless
naval engagement, the English sailors under Nelson took and destroyed
twenty-four ships of the enemy; in which action the brave Admiral fell.
This splendid victory of Lord Nelson's roused for a time the drooping
spirits of the English Ministers, who had before been almost overwhelmed
by the news of the repeated and uninterrupted success of the French
troops over the Austrians; and as the Russian army had now joined them,
the enemies of the French boasted that the campaign would end in favour
of the allied armies of Austria and Russia. On the 31st of October,
however, the French defeated the Austrians once more on the Adige.
Sweden now joined the Austrians and Russians, and declared war against
France. On the 10th of November, the Austrians were again defeated
by the French at _Moelk_. On the 11th, Marshal Mortier defeated the
Russians; and on the 13th, the French army entered VIENNA. On the 16th,
the French defeated the Russians at Gunstersdorff; and on the 2d of
December, the memorable and decisive battle of _Austerlitz_ was fought,
where the combined armies of Austria and Russia were signally defeated,
and routed with immense loss. On the 6th of the same month, Austria
sued for an armistice, which was granted by Napoleon; and on the 26th,
Napoleon compelled her to sign a treaty of peace at Presburg; upon which
occasion he bestowed the title of King upon the Electors of Bavaria and
Wirtemburgh, the latter of whom was the husband of the Princess Royal of
England, and elevated her to the rank of Queen of Wirtemburgh. Thus did
our most powerful enemy raise one of the Royal Family of England from
the rank of a petty Electress to the rank of Queen; and, under all the
circumstances, this was a very remarkable event. On the 27th of the same
month Buonaparte caused his brother Joseph to be crowned King of Naples.
This wonderful man now had at his command all the crowned heads of
Europe. He made Kings and Queens with as much ease, and with as little
concern, as ginger bread dolls are made for a country fair. The proud,
haughty tyrant, the Emperor of Germany, was at his feet, and Alexander
trembled and obeyed his nod. The fortune of war was, during the
campaign, most propitious to Napoleon; he beat the enemy in every
quarter, and success attended every movement of his armies: to be sure,
his different corps were commanded by the most intelligent, brave, and
renowned generals in the universe; such as never before adorned any age
or country.
The death of Nelson, at the battle of Trafalgar, although it did not
detract from the brilliancy of the victory, was, nevertheless, a great
drawback upon the pleasure that the news would have otherwise afforded
to the country; for every individual laid aside, on this occasion, all
feelings of political hostility, forgot his errors and his crimes as a
politician and a man, and lamented the loss of the hero. No one will
ever dispute Nelson's cool, determined presence of mind, in the
midst of danger and the greatest difficulties; he possessed this
admirable quality in a super-eminent degree. His presence of mind, which
never deserted him in the midst of danger, is the sure indication of
real courage; and this merit will be freely conceded to Nelson, even by
those who abhorred his political subserviency.
Mr. Pitt severely felt the loss of the gallant admiral; and what with
the detection and exposure which was made by the 10th Report of the
Naval Commissioners, and the disgrace that was consequently brought not
only upon himself and his bosom friend Lord Melville, but upon the whole
of his administration; and what with the repeated and signal success of
Napoleon and the French armies in Germany, the health of the Heaven-born
Minister was so affected that he was obliged to go to Bath for his
recovery. I shall never forget my seeing him leave York House, with his
friend, about 10 o'clock in the morning on the very day that he received
the dispatches of the news of the battle of Austerlitz. He walked down
Melsom-street smiling and laughing with his friend, on their way to the
Pump-room. In the mean time the dispatches arrived express, and were
delivered to him there, as I learned afterwards. I met him again,
walking down Argyll-street, in his way home to his lodgings, in
Laura-place. I observed the alteration in his countenance, and remarked
to my friend, with whom I was walking, _"that some bad tidings had
arrived; that Mr. Pitt looked as if he had received his DEATH-BLOW."_ If
he had been shot through the body, the alteration in his countenance and
manner could not have been more evident; he could scarcely _reel along_
as he leaned upon the arm of his friend; his head hung down upon his
chest, and he looked more dead than alive. In ten minutes after this I
arrived at the Library. The mail had brought the papers, which confirmed
the news of the complete overthrow of the combined Russian and Austrian
armies at the battle of Austerlitz. Mr. Pitt returned to town, and I
believe that he never left his house afterwards. Such an accumulation of
difficulties and disasters was too much for his already shaken mind to
support, and his death, I believe, was caused thereby. He never held his
head fully up after the vote of the House, which declared his friend
Lord Melville to have been guilty of _"a gross violation of the law, and
a high breach of duty."_ He made every personal effort in his power, and
used his all-powerful interest to prevail upon a majority of his tools
in the House to agree to the amendment which he proposed to substitute,
in the stead of the above important and convincing declaration; namely,
he moved to leave out the words "_gross violation of the law, and a high
breach of duty_," and insert in lieu of them, the words "_contrary
to the "intention of the law_." But the Ministerial Members of that
Honourable House, corrupt as Pitt had made them, scouted his motion; his
own tools voted against him, and he and his friend Melville were left
in a minority upon his own dunghill. This was too much for his haughty,
stubborn spirit to bear. To be handed down to posterity, so deservedly
covered with the infamous charge of having connived at peculation; for
the _Heaven-born Minister_ to have been defeated, and convicted _of
having winked at the plundering of the people_, and betraying his
sovereign, who had confided to his hands the guardianship of their
treasure, was too much even for his impudent, overbearing spirit to
support; and he lingered out the remainder of his existence, and
descended to the grave a wretched example of bloated pride, and detected
mal-administration.
The public were greatly indebted to Mr. Whitbread for his exposure of
these delinquencies in Parliament; but they were much more indebted
to Mr. Cobbett, for his unwearied exertions, his able, clear, and
perspicuous expositions of the whole of the transactions, which
were published in his Weekly Political Register; which Register was
universally read, with the greatest avidity, from one end of the kingdom
to the other.
The Parliament was prorogued to the 21st of January, 1806, and meanwhile
no exertions were spared by the Opposition, or Whigs, to keep the public
feeling alive, as to the delinquency of Lord Melville, and to prepare
them for his impeachment at the next meeting of the Parliament. The
people of England had never thought for themselves, but had been
hitherto made the puppets of the two great contending factions of the
state, the Whigs and the Tories, alternately taking part sometimes with
one and sometimes with the other; and the great object of these factions
appeared to be always to join in keeping the people in a state of
ignorance, and that faction that could best dupe and deceive _John Gull_
was sure to be in place and power. The Pitt faction had succeeded in
this their amiable occupation for a great length of time. In the
years 1793 and 1794, they had so contrived to addle the brains of the
multitude that their heads had been wool-gathering ever since; their
vision had been then so mystified, and their brains had been so confused
by the mountebank tricks of Pitt and his associates, that nothing but
the pen of a Cobbett could bring them to their right senses again.
I was a constant reader of Cobbett's Register, and although, as I have
said, I had been rather disgusted with the man at my first interview
with him, yet I was quite enraptured with the beautiful productions
of his pen, dictated by his powerful mind. I was become a professed
politician; I had imbibed the sentiments of Lord Bolingbroke, that
"the Constitution of England is the business of every Englishman." I
therefore made politics my study, and I looked for Cobbett's Register
with as much anxiety as I had heretofore looked to the day and hour that
the fox-hounds were to meet; and if by any accident the post did not
bring the Weekly Register, I was just as much disappointed, and felt
as much mortified, as I had previously felt at being disappointed or
deprived of a good fox-chase. I beg it to be understood, however, that I
by no means had given up the sports of the field, which I enjoyed with
as great a zest as I ever did; but when I returned from the pleasures of
the chase, or retired from the field with my dogs and my gun, instead
of spending the remainder of my time in routs, balls, and plays, in
drinking or carousing with bacchanalian parties, I devoted my leisure
hours to reading and studying the history of my country, and the
characters of its former heroes and legislators, as compared with those
of that day. No man enjoyed more domestic happiness than I did; my home
was always rendered delightful by its inmates studying to make each
other comfortable; and thus, instead of its being a scene of strife and
quarrelling, as the homes of some of my friends were, it was quite
the reverse; let me be occupied abroad how or where I would, I always
returned to my home with pleasure; and the certainty of being received
with open arms and a sincere and gratifying welcome, always made me long
for that delight whenever I was absent.
The poor had felt considerable relief by the fall in the price of bread,
since the commencement of the year, when the quartern loaf was as high
as one shilling and four-pence half-penny; but it had now fallen to
ten-pence. The misery that had been entailed upon the poor during the
winter of 1804-5, in consequence of the enormous price of all sorts of
provisions, was most heart-rending and revolting to the feelings of
every one possessing a particle of humanity. I did every thing that
lay in my power to relieve the wants and sooth the sorrows of my poor
neighbours in the parish of Enford; I took care that my own servants
should not want any of the common necessaries of life, but numerous
little comforts, and hitherto esteemed necessaries, were, however
reluctantly, obliged to be dispensed with.
I saw with pain a sad falling off in the character of the labouring
poor; they were for the most part become paupers, while those who
still had the spirit, and the pride to keep from the parish book were
suffering the most cutting penury, and the greatest privations. I have
often witnessed the contending struggles of a poor but high-spirited
labourer, and seen him submitting to the most pinching want before his
honourable feelings would allow him to apply for parish relief;
himself, his wife and children, almost driven to a state bordering upon
starvation, before he could bring his mind to admit the degrading idea
of asking for parochial alms. Many and many is the half-crown that I
have slipped unobserved into the hand of such a man, to enable him the
better to overcome the hardships of winter; with the fond, but
futile hope, that the next harvest might enable him to surmount his
difficulties, and with the fruit of his honest labour procure bread to
stop the mouths of his half-starved wife and children. My means had
been greatly curtailed by the cursed brewery at Clifton, which was a
perpetual drain upon my purse; for all that I acquired by the good
management of my farms was devoured by the calls made from the brewery.
This rendered me less able to assist my poorer neighbours; but I have
the consolation to reflect, that I did my best.
A Bill, which has been lately before the House of Commons, to protect
dumb animals from the brutal treatment of more brutal man, reminds me of
an occurrence or two that happened to myself, and which, in justice to
my character, ought not to be omitted. As I was riding to my farm at
Widdington, one summer's day, with the Reverend William White, the
present Rector of Teffont, in Wiltshire, who was on a visit at my house
at Chisenbury, we perceived a brute, in the shape of a man, belabouring
with a large stick a poor ass, who had sunk down under the weight of his
load, a large heavy bag of ruddle. Exhausted by the heat of a meridian
sun, the poor beast lay prostrate upon the ground, totally deprived of
the power of rising with his burden upon his back. I sharply rode
up, and warmly remonstrated with the huge two-legged brute upon his
inhumanity, and offered to assist him in unloading the beast, to enable
him to rise, and to help him to reload the animal after he had risen.
This was rudely refused, and with an oath I was desired to mind my own
business; while the fellow continued, in a most unmerciful manner, to
beat the wretched unresisting beast upon a raw place on the upper end of
his tail. Exasperated at the fellow's brutality, I rode up to him, and
having seized his bludgeon, as he was brandishing it in the air about to
apply it once more to the already lacerated rump of the poor ass, with
an effort of strength I wrenched the bludgeon from the inhuman monster's
hand, and threw it with great violence sixty or seventy yards over the
hedge, into an adjoining corn-field. Gnashing his teeth with rage
at being deprived of his implement of torture, and determined to be
revenged for my interference, the ruffian immediately drew out a large
clasp knife from his pocket, and seizing the ass by the tail, and
exclaiming, "I will show you that I have a right to do what I please
with my own beast," he instantly cut off his tail within two inches of
his rump, and with savage ferocity he began kicking the wounded part
with all his might, with a pair of thick-topped shoes. This was too much
for me to witness, without making an effort to relieve the wretched
animal, and punish its brutal master. I sprung from my saddle, and
having consigned my horse to the care of my acquaintance, the parson, I
flew to rescue the poor beast from its inhuman tormentor. The ruffian
instantly turned to meet me, and having raised the clasp knife in a
menacing attitude, he swore, with the most blasphemous imprecations,
that he would plunge it into my heart, if I approached him another inch.
My friend, the parson, urged me to forbear; but, keeping my eye steadily
fixed upon that of the monster, while his hand was still raised with the
bloody knife suspended, I gave him, as quick as lightning, a blow from
my fist, which took the villain under the left ear, levelled him with
the earth, and made him bite the dust. The knife fell from his hand, and
I instantly seized it, and before the two-legged brute, who lay stunned
upon the ground, could rise, I cut the girth which bound the load upon
the back of the ass, and relieved him from his burden. The cowardly
ruffian still lay sprawling, fearing to rise, because he dreaded a
repetition of my chastisement, which I was most anxious to have given
him if he had stood upon his legs; but which I declined to do while he
was prostrate. The fellow now began to beg for mercy, and pretended to
be very sorry for his conduct. The parson now proposed to give him a
severe hiding for his villainous treatment of the poor beast; but as the
coward would not get off his breech, but remained seated upon the earth,
and declared that he would not get upon his legs while I remained, he
saved himself from a severe and well-merited drubbing. He very coolly
offered to sell me the mutilated beast, which I instantly purchased for
five shillings, to save him from again falling into the hands of his
cruel master. I had it sent home, and the greatest care possible was
taken of it. But with all my care and attention, the poor thing never
recovered from its ill-treatment; it lingered for four or five months
and died. This was the only ass I ever was master of in my life; in
fact, I always objected to the keeping of an ass, because I could not
bear to see the ill-treatment to which they are generally subject.
I could relate several similar instances, wherein I have placed myself
in the most imminent peril, urged on by an impetuous abhorrence of
tyranny, even when that tyranny is exercised towards a beast. One other
instance will, perhaps, induce the reader to think that my detestation
of cruelty has often led me not only into acts of indiscretion, but that
my rashness upon such occasions has been almost bordering upon criminal
enthusiasm. Coming down Newgate Street, one Monday afternoon, I saw a
considerable crowd of people surrounding a drover, who held a butcher's
knife in his hand, brandishing it in the air, and threatening any one
that might approach him. I inquired the cause of the fellow's conduct,
and his being thus surrounded by the enraged multitude. A beautiful
ox was pointed out to me on the other side of the street, which stood
trembling ready to drop down. To save himself trouble in driving the
beast, the ruffian, who had undertaken to conduct it to Whitechapel for
a butcher, had severed the _tendon Achilles_ with his sharp knife; a
practice which, I am informed, frequently occurs in London and which is
called hamstringing. The populace, men and women, appeared very much
enraged against this monster of a drover, and two constables, with their
staves, stood ready to seize him; but he kept them and the whole crowd
at bay, with the violent brandishing of his knife, and threatening
destruction to any one who attempted to meddle with him. Several efforts
were made to seize him, which he dexterously avoided. At length, I
rushed up to him, and felled him to the earth, with a tremendous and
well-directed blow with my fist under the ear. He was immediately seized
by the constables, and the knife was taken from him. But I was not to
get off quite so easy with him as I did with the ass-driver. The fellow,
being disarmed, instantly stripped in buff, and offered to fight the
man who had knocked him down. All eyes were fixed upon me, a perfect
stranger, and the general exclamation was,--"Have nothing to do with
him, Sir;" but, as the constables appeared to doubt whether they had
the power to hold him in custody, there being no law against a drover
maiming his beast, unless his master disapproved of it; and as I saw
the fellow was likely to escape without further punishment, I instantly
accepted his offer, and volunteered to punish him myself, urged on by
the pitiable appearance of the poor ox, a beautiful animal which had not
moved one inch the whole of this time. I therefore imprudently stripped,
and having consigned my clothes into the hands of a bye-stander, I set
to, and in _three rounds_ I beat my man blind; and having a fourth time
knocked him down, without receiving any injury myself, he declined to
meet me again. My clothes and watch were honestly returned; and, having
replaced them on my back, I departed, receiving the hearty thanks of the
surrounding multitude, without being recognised by any one. In fact, I
was not at all known in London at that time. I laughed heartily, as an
account of it was read the next morning, in the newspapers, while I was
at breakfast in the coffee-room, at the Black Lion, Water Lane; the
whole party joining in the praises of the man who had chastised the
brutal ruffian.
One more circumstance of this sort will, I should think, be quite enough
to convince the reader that I was always a determined foe to baseness
and cruelty. As I was sitting with some ladies on a hot summer's day, in
a front room of the Fountain Inn, at Portsmouth, with the window open,
looking into the High-Street, observing the passing crowd, it being a
fair day, we discovered an ill-looking fellow pilfering some articles
from the stall of a poor woman opposite. This transaction was also
observed by Admiral Montague, the Port Admiral, who was sitting in the
adjoining room of the inn, with a friend, amusing himself with observing
the passing scene. We hailed the poor woman, who detected the fellow
in the fact; but, having dropped the articles on the pavement, he
vociferously declared that he had never touched them. A crowd soon
collected, particularly of women, and demanded that he should be taken
into custody. He drew his knife, (always the ready resort of a coward)
and placing his back in a corner against the wall, he set them all at
defiance, and for a considerable length of time successfully resisted
every attempt to secure him. At last he was, to all appearance, getting
the better of his assailants, and by loudly asserting that she had most
wrongfully and maliciously accused him, he was absolutely endeavoring
to turn the tide of popular indignation against the poor woman who had
detected him. The fact was, that the terror excited by his violence
overcame the zeal of his accusers; and if it had not been kept up by
three or four women, he would not only have escaped with impunity,
but he would have turned the tables upon the poor woman whom he had
endeavoured to rob. These women, however, kept up an unceasing battery
with their tongues, which he at length began to put down by violence,
pushing them away with one hand, and threatening them with the upraised
knife in the other. This scene lasted nearly a quarter of an hour, and
although my fingers itched to punish the ruffian, yet I was restrained
by the entreaties of the ladies who were with me. At last he struck one
of the women a violent blow, and knocked her down. This drew upon him
the execration of the enraged multitude; but no one attempted either to
disarm or to seize him. A second blow, inflicted upon a decent looking
female, roused my indignation at the cowardice of the bye-standers,
and I hastily left the room, crossed the street, and having walked
deliberately up to him, pretending to inquire what was the matter,
before he was at all aware of my intentions, and just as he was about to
relate his story, I, with a well-directed blow, with my fist under the
ear, laid him sprawling upon the pavement; his knife was seized, and I
left him _unarmed to the care of the Portsmouth ladies_ that surrounded
him, who did not fail to punish him with their talons.
As I was passing over the street, on my return to the inn, Admiral
Montague, who had witnessed the whole affair, looked out of his window
and warmly gave me his personal thanks, for the summary justice which
I had inflicted upon the ruffian thief, who had kept the street in
an uproar for nearly half an hour. I went back to my party very well
satisfied with the exploit I had performed; although I felt so very
sensible of the danger I had incurred, that I promised my friends
faithfully that I would never again volunteer in such dangerous service.
About two hours afterwards, I very unexpectedly received a warrant from
Sir John Carter, the Mayor, to attend immediately at his office, to
appear to a charge of a violent assault, committed in the public street,
&c. &c. I took my hat and attended the Mayor's officer instantly,
without the slightest hesitation; but as the Admiral had left the inn I
had no witness with me. I, however, sent the waiter to bring the woman
who had been robbed, and one of those who had been assaulted by the
ruffian, to follow me to the house of the Mayor; but, almost as soon
as I had arrived there, and before the fellow had finished making his
charge, in walked the Port Admiral Montague, who having heard the
circumstance, came immediately to give evidence of the facts to which he
had been an eye-witness from the window of the inn. The gallant Admiral
related the circumstances, and passed a high eulogium upon my courage
and public spirit, in which he was cordially joined by his friend Sir
John Carter; and the fellow, who was a _pot-house_ keeper, from Ryde, in
the Isle of Wight, escaped with a very severe reprimand, the poor woman
having declined to prosecute him.