chain of _rencontres_ of a similar nature, which occurred to me in
my youthful days; but as I have, I think, given quite sufficient to
delineate the decisive character of the author at that period, I
shall proceed, with other matters; only just observing by the way, that
a frequent recurrence of such events obtained for me the name of a _very
violent_ young man, though, nineteen times out of twenty my violence was
exercised in the cause of humanity; or in protecting and defending the
weak and helpless, against the aggressions of the rich and powerful.
Returning from London, in the Ba--- mail, on a very severe frosty
moonlight night, as we were passing Cranford-bridge, the coachman got
one of the hind wheels firmly locked and entangled in that of a heavy
brewer's dray, which gave us a most violent shock and nearly overturned
the coach. A plentiful share of the slang abuse, usually arising upon
such occasions, passed between the coachman and guard of the mail and
the driver and attendant of the dray. The wheel of the coach appeared
to be so firmly entangled in that of the dray, that it required a
considerable exertion to release it; and the guard was entreating the
passengers to assist him. But an Irish officer of dragoons, who was
sitting by my side, very coolly answered, that as coachee had got into
the scrape he might get out of it again and be d--d. For once in my life
I was determined to follow such a selfish example; but, just as I had
made up my mind to sit still and enjoy my own ease and comfort, the
Irishman, who was looking out of one of the windows of the coach on the
opposite side to that where the dray stood, exclaimed "by Jasus there is
a fellow fallen from off his horse into the water, and is drowning." The
moon shone almost as bright as day, and, as this happened within half a
dozen yards of the coach window, it was perfectly visible to the Irish
officer, who still sat perfectly cool, and as unconcerned as possible;
observing, as he leant back in the coach, "the fellow is actually gone
to the bottom, and I saw the last of him as he sunk." Till now I really
thought the gentleman had merely witnessed the ducking of some one who
had fallen into the pond; but this last observation induced me to
call loudly to the guard to open the door; and, quite forgetting my
determination to follow the officer's doctrine and example, "to take
things coolly and let every one look to himself," I sprang out of the
coach to the edge of the water, where a hat floating thereon was the
only visible proof that any one was in the water. The Irishman, however,
who still sat snug in the coach, and who never budged an inch, affirmed
with an oath that the man had sunk exactly under where the hat was
floating. The life of a fellow creature being at stake, cold,
calculating prudence was instantly banished from my ardent mind; and,
without waiting another moment, I plunged into the water, which I found
was beyond my depth, and having swam to the spot, which was only a few
yards, I came instantly in contact with the body, which I seized and
dragged to the water edge, and, with some difficulty, assisted by the
guard, he was hoisted out of the pond. The Irishman had lustily, but
perhaps very prudently, ordered the coachman, at his peril, not to leave
his horses, although a passenger on the box had the reins in his hand.
By this time assistance came from the inn (I think the Crown), kept at
that time by a person of the name of Goddard. Amongst the number of
those who flocked to witness this distressing scene was a young man, who
exclaimed, in a frantic agony of voice and gesture, "_it is my father!_"
and he instantly seized the apparently drowned man by the heels, and
held him upright, with his head upon the ground, his feet in the air,
as he said, to let _the water run out of him_; an old, vulgar, and long
exploded practice, which has proved in almost every instance fatal. I
expostulated, but in vain; I pitied the agonised feelings of the youth,
while I struggled to release his father by force from the fatal posture
in which he had, although with the best intention, unguardedly and
obstinately placed him. He, however, resisted my efforts with personal
violence, in spite of the expostulations of the guard. Seeing that I
was likely to have my humane intentions frustrated by the young man's
obstinacy, and, as no time was to be lost, I resorted to my usual
_knock-down argument_, and levelled the _son_ with the earth, to save
the life of the _father_. This I did so effectually that he was totally
incapable of resistance; and, with the aid of the guard, I bore off the
drowned man upon my shoulders to the inn, about a hundred yards distant.
Dripping wet, and covered with mud, I assisted to strip him before the
kitchen fire, and instantly proceeded to use the means recommended by
the Humane Society, (and by which means I had once restored to animation
a female who had attempted to drown herself). By chafing the body with
warm cloths, rubbing in brandy about the heart, applying bottles
filled with hot water to his feet, &c. in which the guard manfully and
zealously assisted the whole time, declaring that the coach should wait
as long for me as I liked, in a very few minutes my labour and exertion
was rewarded with symptoms of returning animation, by the twitching
of one leg; upon which a fresh hot bottle was applied to his foot; we
redoubled our exertion, and in another minute he opened his eyes and
became sick. I now left him to the care of his son, the guard, and
others, to continue the rubbing, while I went with the landlord and
changed my clothes, having remained twenty minutes in the same state in
which I had left the water, which being very muddy, I had spoiled at
least ten pounds worth of wearing apparel. The landlord, however,
furnished me with what I had not got in my trunk.
When I returned down stairs, I perceived my patient, who I was informed
was an old post-boy, sitting in the settle of the tap-room, quite
recovered; and when I was pointed out to him by his master, as his
deliverer from a watery grave, the fellow attacked me in the most
violent and abusive manner, and called down horrid imprecations upon
my head for having saved him from that end which I now found he had
courted, by throwing himself off the horse's back, with the intention of
destroying himself. I was so exasperated with the fellow's ingratitude
that it was with difficulty the landlord and the guard restrained me
from inflicting upon him summary chastisement for his insolence; but the
conviction of his insanity soon weighed still more powerfully with
me to ensure my forbearance than any thing the landlord or the guard
could have urged for his protection. At this moment my fellow passenger,
who had never before appeared, but who had taken the advantage of this
delay to get a comfortable cup of coffee, in a warm parlour, walked in,
and began to moralize with me upon the folly "of _troubling myself with
other people's business_;" and, as he did this with a very grave face,
it had the desired effect, and I really began to meditate and to
calculate which of the two, he or I, was the most extraordinary being;
and I was almost disposed to concede to him the palm of being the most
rational, a fact of which he appeared thoroughly to be convinced, and in
which opinion he was strongly confirmed, after I got into the mail, and
related to him the adventure of my having nearly lost my life, a few
years before, in saving a female from being drowned in a deep river, on
a Monday, who contrived to put an end to her existence and find a
watery grave on the following Thursday, in a ditch which contained only
eighteen inches of water. We travelled as far as Marlborough together,
where we parted; he proceeded to Bath in the mail, and I to my home at
Chisenbury, in my curricle. Parliament met on the 21st of January, and
on the TWENTY-THIRD DAY OF JANUARY,1806, the Heaven-born Minister,
WILLIAM PITT, DIED, at his house at Putney. This man had, for nearly a
quarter of a century, reigned triumphant over the people of England with
the most despotic and arbitrary sway, by the means of a corrupt majority
of a set of boroughmongers, who called themselves and their agents the
House of Commons; thus pretending to be the representatives of the
people of England, while, in fact, they might as well have been said to
represent the people of Algiers as the people of England, a majority of
them being returned by _one hundred and fifty-four_ individuals. I may,
I believe, venture to give my opinion of the House of Commons, such as
it was constituted in the days and reign of Pitt. The banishment act
would, of course, preclude me from speaking of the present House of
Commons with the same sincerity and freedom; therefore, whether there be
any resemblance in the present House of Commons to that of the House
as it was constituted in the reign of Pitt, I must leave for the
determination of those who have paid attention to their proceedings.
On the death of Mr. Pitt, the then House of Commons immediately voted
that his debts should be paid by JOHN GULL, and that he should have a
public funeral, at JOHN'S expense! This was all perfectly in character,
for it was voted before the _Talents_ or _Whigs_ came into place and
power. A ministry, a new ministry, was now made up of most heterogeneous
materials; it consisted of men differing as widely from each other as
any of the factions could differ; _Fox_ and _Grenville united_, and, to
crown the whole, Lord _Sidmouth_ made one of the cabinet. Mr. Fox, who
had been the determined opponent, the violent contemner, of all the
measures of Mr. Pitt, formed an union with Lord Grenville, who had been
the constant supporter of the very worst measures of Mr. Pitt! As for
Lord Sidmouth, all the Addingtons appeared determined to have a "finger
in the pie!" let who would be in office, the Addingtons appeared
determined to have a share of the plunder, by joining them. Such
opposite characters, such vinegar and oil politicians, were not likely
to amalgamate so as to produce any good for the people; they might,
indeed, combine to share the profits of place, but they were sure never
to agree in any measure that was likely to promote the freedom
and happiness of the people. This, however, was called a Whig
administration; and it will not be unuseful to record the names of those
personages who composed this Whig administration. They were as follow,
which I beg my readers to peruse attentively:--
Right Rev. Dr. C. Manners Sutton, Archbishop of Canterbury.
Thomas Lord Erskine, Lord High Chancellor.
Dr. William Markham, Archbishop of York.
Earl Fitzwilliam, Lord President of the Council.
Viscount Sidmouth, Lord Privy Seal.
William Lord Grenville, First Lord of the Treasury.
Lord Henry Petty, Chancellor of the Exchequer.
Earl Spencer, Viscount Howick,
and Right Honorable William
Windham, Secretaries of State.
Right Hon. Thomas Grenville, First Lord of the Admiralty.
Sir David Dundas, Commander in Chief.
Right Hon. Charles Abbot, Speaker of the House of Commons.
Right Hon. Sir William Grant, Master of the Rolls.
Edward Lord Ellenborough, Chief Justice of the Court of King's
Bench.
Sir Arthur Pigott, Attorney General.
Sir Samuel Romilly, Solicitor General.
Right Hon. Sir William Scott, Judge of the Admiralty.
Right Hon. Richard Brindley
Sheridan, Treasurer of the Navy.
Earl Temple and Lord John
Townsend, Paymasters of the Army.
Francis Earl of Moira, Master General of the Ordnance.
Right Hon. Richard Fitzpatrick, Secretary at War.
John Duke of Bedford, Lord Lieutenant of Ireland.
Here, my friends, you have a pretty correct list of the Whig
administration, or "All the Talents," as they were facetiously and
ironically called, or rather nicknamed, who were called to office upon
the death of Mr. PITT, a man of brilliant talents, and irresistible
eloquence; but a man who turned these great gifts of the Supreme
Being to the destruction of human liberty, and who directed his powerful
genius, and the great facilities that were given him by his having the
direction of the resources of this laborious and enterprising nation at
his command, to the very worst of purposes, to the annihilation of the
rights and liberties of his countrymen. Some of the poisonous effects
of the Pitt system the nation has long been tasting, but the cup of
bitterness and misery that it has produced is now filled to the brim,
and its baleful contents are beginning to act fully on this once
prosperous nation, and to blast and wither in the bud the very prospects
of its once happy people. Mr. Pitt, in his younger days, before his
ambition got the better of his principles, had been a reformer; but when
he once got into place and power, he became the greatest apostate that
ever existed; and, true apostate like, he endeavoured to hang his former
associates and companions in that cause which he had so basely abandoned
and betrayed. If there ever lived one man more deserving the execration
of the whole human race than another, _Mr. Pitt was that man_. He
corrupted the very source of justice, by bribing and packing the
pretended representatives of the people; but it required the Whigs, the
base Whigs, to put a stamp upon the system which Pitt created, to make
it a perpetual bar and an everlasting curse to the nation.
The Whigs were at this time become popular with the nation at large, and
possessed the confidence of the thinking and honourable portion of the
people. The friends of rational liberty looked to them with, what was
believed to be, a well-grounded hope, for some relief--some relaxation
from the horrors of that accursed system which Mr. Fox and his friends
had so ably and so zealously opposed for nearly twenty years; that
system which they had invariably condemned and exposed, as the greatest
curse that could befal a nation; and for having persisted in which
infamous, impolitic, and ruinous course so long, they had predicted the
downfall of this country.
I own that I was one of Mr. Fox's most enthusiastic admirers. I was
too young and inexperienced a politician, to doubt for a moment the
sincerity of his professions; I had for many many years watched his
ardent and eloquent opposition to the measures of Mr. Pitt, and my whole
heart and soul had gone hand in hand with him. I own I indulged the most
confident hope that he would now realize all his former professions.
Now that he was in place, and had a large majority of those who called
themselves the representatives of the people at his command; _now that
he had the power to do good_, I, for one, expected that he would tread
in the "stern path of duty," and set about restoring those rights and
liberties of the people, the loss of which he had so pathetically, and
for so many years, expatiated on, and deplored. But, alas! my fond
hopes were soon blasted; the expectations of the whole nation were soon
disappointed. The very FIRST act of the Whig ministry was a death-blow
to the fondly-cherished hopes of every patriotic mind in the kingdom.
Lord Grenville held the sinecure office of Auditor of the Exchequer,
with a salary of _four thousand pounds a year_; but being appointed
_First Lord of the Treasury_, with a salary of _six thousand pounds
a year_, it was expected, of course, on every account, that he would
resign his former office of Auditor of the Exchequer, it appearing
too great a farce to give a man 4,000_l._ a year to audit his _own
accounts_; and, besides the barefaced absurdity of the thing, it was
evidently illegal. In spite of this, these new ministers, dead to every
sense and feeling of shame, brought in a bill, and it was passed a law,
solely for the purpose of enabling Lord Grenville to hold, at one and
the same time, these two offices, which were so palpably incompatible
with each other; namely, _First Lord of the Treasury_, and _Auditor of
the Exchequer_. This shook the faith of every honest man in the country.
I own that I was thunder-struck, particularly as Mr. Fox brought the
bill into the House of Commons himself, and maintained it with his usual
ability, and appeared quite as much in earnest and as eloquent in a _bad
cause_ as he had heretofore been in a _good one_. A vote, as I have
already mentioned, had passed the House to pay Mr. Pitt's debts, before
these ministers had actually taken their places; and now another vote
was passed by them, to erect, at the public expense, a monument to his
memory, upon the score of his _public services_! and this vote was
passed, recollect, by the very same men who had declared, for the last
twenty years, that the measures of Mr. Pitt were destructive to the
nation, burthensome and oppressive to the people, and subversive of
their dearest rights and liberties. But Mr. Fox _was now in place_! the
case was now completely altered!!
Mr. Fox's friends now began to doubt his sincerity, and recalled to
their recollection the former professions of Mr. Pitt. In a speech,
delivered in his place, in the House of Commons, on the 26th of May,
1797, Mr. Fox had, in the following words, reminded Mr. Pitt of his
former professions: " My opinion (said Mr. Fox) is, that the best plan
of representation is that which shall bring into activity the greatest
number of independent voters. That Government alone is strong that has
the hearts of the people; and will any man contend, that we should not
be more likely to add strength to the state if we were to extend the
basis of popular representation? In 1785, the Right Honourable Gentleman
(Mr. Pitt) pronounced the awful prophecy, _'without a parliamentary
reform the nation will be plunged into new wars; without a parliamentary
reform you cannot be safe against bad ministers, nor can even good
ministers be of use to you.'_ Such was his prediction, and it has
come upon us. Good God! what a fate is that of the Right Honourable
Gentleman, and in what a state of whimsical contradiction does he now
stand!" This was the sarcastical language of Mr. Fox, in 1797, when
speaking of the apostacy of Mr. Pitt; but which might have been very
fairly retorted upon himself in 1806.
At the moment when I am writing this, at half past one o'clock on
Thursday, the nineteenth day of July, 1821, I hear about thirty of the
poor half-starved populace of Northover giving _three cheers_ in honour
of His Majesty's Coronation, or rather in honour of a dinner and some
beer, which, I understand, is given to them by Mr. Tuson, the attorney
of the place. The system that has made him _rich_ has made his
neighbours _poor_, and he very properly spews his generosity and his
loyalty, by giving his poor neighbours a dinner upon this occasion.
Poor, deluded, debased wretches! I envy not your feelings; a few months
since you were amongst the first voluntarily to address the Queen upon
her escape from the fangs of her persecutors, and you voluntarily
illuminated your houses upon the occasion. But now your pinching wants,
the cravings of your half-starved carcases, give a sort of involuntary
action to your lungs, and, in spite of yourselves, your _bellies_ cry
"_God save King George the Fourth_;" and the sound issues from your
mouths, in hopes of having the space which the wind occupies in your
stomachs replaced with _beef_, _pudding_, and _beer_. But this is one of
the dog-days!--God save King George the Fourth, they cry; huzza, again,
again, and again! All that I chuse to say is, that it is two years ago,
the twenty-first of next month, that Lord Sidmouth addressed a letter to
the Manchester Magistrates, which expressed, by command of His Majesty,
"THE GREAT SATISFACTION HIS MAJESTY _derived from their prompt,
decisive and efficient measures for the preservation of the public
tranquillity_." God preserve His Majesty from having any occasion to
thank the magistrates again _for the perpetration of such horrid crime_.
I trust the occasion will be an excuse for this digression. Let us now
return to the period of 1806. The new ministry began to act so decided
a part, that they no longer kept the nation in any suspence as to what
course they would pursue. They not only trod in Mr. Pitt's steps, by
adopting all his measures, but they greatly outdid him in insulting
the feelings of the people. As their THIRD act, they appointed _Lord
Ellenborough_ the Chief Justice of the King's Bench, (a political Judge)
"one of the cabinet." This was a most unconstitutional measure, and
calculated to render the ministry justly unpopular. The FOURTH step they
took was to raise the INCOME TAX from _six-and-a-quarter_ to _ten per
cent_. The FIFTH thing they did was, to exempt all the _King's funded
property_ from the operation of that tax, while they left that of the
_widow_ and _orphan_, even down to the miserable pittance of _fifty
pounds_ a year, subject to all its inquisitorial powers. Their SIXTH
measure was, to raise the incomes of all the younger branches of the
Royal Family, from _twelve_ to _eighteen thousand_ a year. Their SEVENTH
measure was, to bring a bill into the House, to make all _private
breweries liable to the excise laws_; thus daringly meditating the
violation of an Englishman's boast, _"that his house is his castle."_
But, most fortunately for the country, the Whig ministry were, in this
one instance, left in a disgraceful minority by their own tools, the
mock representatives of the people. Their EIGHTH measure was, to
continue the French war, expressly for Hanover; Mr. Fox unblushingly
declaring, that "Hanover ought to be as dear to us as Hampshire;"
although the act of settlement expressly declares it to be a breach of
the compact between the king and the people, to go to war on account of
any of the king's foreign possessions. Their NINTH measure was, to draw
up a bill, which they left in their office, making it, in Ireland,
transportation for any person or persons to be seen out of their houses,
in any of the prescribed districts, between sun-set in the evening and
sun-rise in the morning; and this was to be carried into effect without
the sanction of a jury, and merely by the fiat of two magistrates!
TENTH, and lastly, they abandoned the cause of the Catholics, in order
to save and keep their places, when they found that the King made that
abandonment a _sine qua non_: they had always, for many many years, when
in opposition, supported the Catholic claims for emancipation, and had
pledged themselves that, whenever they had the power, they would carry
that measure into effect; and, as soon as they thought that they were
firmly seated in the saddle of state, and their feet well fixed in the
stirrups, they brought that measure forward in Parliament, having first
gained the execration of every independent man in the united kingdom,
for having acted in the way which I have above described.