wholly unexpected; for when I left the Guildhall I had overheard some
of those who appeared to take the lead, and to have influence over the
populace, solemnly declare their determination to have an election, even
if it were at the expense of the life of Mr. Bathurst, against whom they
vowed vengeance in such a tone and manner that I thought it proper to
warn his friends; and, accordingly, before I left the town, I penetrated
on horseback through the crowd in Broad-street, and with considerable
pains and risk gained access to the White Lion, amidst the conflicts
of the populace and the constables, or, more correctly speaking,
bludgeon-men, employed by the White Lion club. The blood was streaming
from their broken pates, and amongst the number of the wounded Mr. Peter
Clisshold, the attorney, stood conspicuous, with his head laid
open, his skull bare, and the blood flowing in streams down upon the
pavement, as he stood under the archway of the White Lion gate. (He
will recollect it if he should read this.) I desired to see some of the
Committee, who came to me immediately. I communicated to them what I had
overheard, and I strongly recommended, on the score of policy, that they
should not attempt to chair their friend Mr. Bathurst, for, if they did,
it was my decided opinion that some serious mischief would happen. They,
however, informed me that they had determined at all hazards to have Mr.
Bathurst chaired immediately; and, I shall never forget the exulting
manner in which Mr. Clisshold declared that they had five hundred
bludgeon-men sworn in as constables, and, as they would act in concert
and in a body, they were more than a match for five thousand of the mob.
I replied that I had done my duty, in communicating that which came
accidentally to my knowledge, and if they had not prudence enough to
benefit by the information, it was their business and not mine. I then
retired through the immense multitude, mounted on my beautiful grey
horse, Model, the populace making way for and cheering me as I passed.
As I have before stated, I no sooner arrived at home, and was seated at
my dinner, than a message was brought, requesting my interference with
the populace, who were demolishing the house into which Mr. Bragge
Bathurst had retreated, after he had been handled so unceremoniously by
the enraged people. If I had done by them as I know they would have done
by me, I should have taken my dinner very quietly, and left the fury of
the multitude to be quelled by those who had created it. But, actuated
by the sublime precept, "do as you would that others should do unto
you," I ordered my horse to be instantly re-saddled and brought to the
door; and having mounted him I was in High-street, the scene of action,
in a few minutes. There I found the people assembled, in immense
numbers. Having broken in the windows and window frames of the house in
which the hapless member, Mr. Bathurst, had concealed himself, they only
waited for a cessation of throwing brick-bats and stones to rush into
the house; which, if they had once done, his forfeited life would have
been the inevitable price of the temerity of his friends.
The moment I galloped up there was a partial suspension of hostilities,
and the multitude received me with three cheers. No time was to be lost;
one moment's indecision would have been the death-signal of the Right
Honourable Bragge Bathurst. I did not hesitate an instant; but, taking
off my hat, I addressed them in a tone of expostulation, condemning
their folly; and I then declared that I had a measure of much greater
importance to communicate to them than that of wreaking their vengeance
upon Mr. Bathurst, and if they would follow me, I would instantly, upon
reaching Brandon Hill, communicate it to them. This was said by me with
so much confidence, that they instantly assented to my proposition by
three cheers. "Come, follow me, then, my Lads," I firmly rejoined, as
I wheeled my horse round, and the whole crowd, consisting of many
thousands, instantly began to move after me up High-street, down
Clare-street, over the draw-bridge, through College Green, and upon
Brandon Hill, over the high gate of which I leaped my horse. As soon as
I got upon the center of the gravel walk that leads across the hill, I
halted and began to address them. My only object was, to draw them
from the victim of their intended vengeance. But having, by a bold and
decisive effort, effected this purpose, I had now a painful and rather a
dangerous duty to perform, that of satisfying the enraged multitude
that I had not duped them. I therefore boldly censured their hasty and
indiscreet conduct, in proceeding to such a violent measure as that of
seeking the life of one who was merely the agent of a corrupt system.
This was received with partial murmurs; but I, nevertheless, continued
successfully to combat the indiscreet violence of the most sanguine,
and, I soon found that, by dint of reason and argument, I had prevailed
upon the great majority to agree with me. I then took occasion to dilate
upon the consequences that must have followed the taking the life of
a fellow creature, without the intervention of judge or jury. I was
instantly answered, that their opponents had _taken the lives of a great
many_, without judge or jury, some years before, when the Herefordshire
militia, with Lord Bateman as their Colonel, had fired upon the
inhabitants during the disturbances on Bristol bridge. I was obliged
to admit the truth of this, and urge the folly of following so bad and
murderous an example. I then informed them who I was, and told them that
I would pledge myself to come forward, on the very next election, and
give those who had votes an opportunity of exercising their franchises
for a Candidate who would not betray and desert them, as Sir John Jarvis
had that day done. This proposition was received with cheers. I also
told them I would immediately form some plan, to enable the freemen
to take up their freedom, by means of a voluntary weekly subscription
amongst themselves; which plan should be carried into execution without
delay. And as they had done me the kindness of patiently listening to,
and acting upon, my recommendation to give up the desperate project
which they had formed, I begged to offer them a drink of my genuine
beer, not as a bribe, but as an earnest of my intention to carry my
promise into execution.
Pointing now to my brewery at Jacob's Well, at the bottom of the hill, I
said, once more, with confidence, "follow me, my Lads!" Till this time
I was not even known by name to one in twenty of the multitude. This
proposition was received with applause, and they followed me to the door
of my brewery, where I ordered three hogsheads of strong beer to be
rolled out and divided amongst them. This, together with my promise of
future attention to their rights of election, restored them to good
humor; and, upon my addressing them again, they promised to return to
their homes as soon as they had finished their beer, which they did,
almost to a man, without even the slightest disturbance taking place
afterwards that night. I had no sooner drawn the people from the house
in which Mr. Bathurst was concealed, than he took the opportunity of
escaping out of the city, in a return post-chaise, to Bath. Thus did
I save the life of a man whose partizans would have put me to death,
without the slightest remorse, if they had had it in their power.
Many liberal-minded persons, of all parties, applauded my conduct and
presence of mind; but I was informed that one of the leaders of the
White Lion club said, when he was told of the means that I had used to
draw the people from their premeditated victim, that he only wished the
mob had broken into my cellar, and turned into the streets all my beer,
amounting at that time nearly to three thousand barrels; and this was
the only thanks I ever received from any of the faction, from that day
to this. As for Mr. Bathurst, he never had the manliness nor the
candour to acknowledge the service in any way. But the Right Honourable
Gentleman possibly may have thought of the circumstance when he was
sitting as one of the Privy Council, who advised the thanks that
were given, in the name of the King, to the Manchester Yeomanry and
Magistrates! What must have been the feelings of this Right Honourable
Privy Councillor when, as one of that immaculate body, he advised the
prosecution against me for attending the Manchester meeting; and advised
it, that a sort of blind might be obtained for the deeds that had been
committed by the military bravoes on that day! What must have been the
feelings of this gentleman, if the recollection that I had saved his
life came across his mind, at the time when in all probability he was
one of the same Cabinet who _advised_ the _length_ of the _imprisonment_
that the Judges of the Court of King's Bench should impose upon me! Ah,
Mr. Bragge Bathurst! what will be your feelings when you read this?
When your life was in jeopardy, the power of saving that life was
accidentally placed in my hands; I hesitated not to save that life, at
the imminent risk of my own; and how grateful has been the return! But,
Mr. Bathurst, I am a million times happier a man in my dungeon than you
are in a palace. It was reserved for Mr. Bragge Bathurst, as Chancellor
of the Duchy of Lancaster, to reward _Parson Hay_ for his deeds on the
16th of August 1819, at Manchester; to reward him with the living of
Rochdale, with, it is said, _two thousand five hundred pounds a year!_
But I am a much happier man in my dungeon than Parson Hay, or his
relation, Mr. Bragge Bathurst, is; though the one is the Rector of
Rochdale, and the other Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster, with all
its revenue and patronage.
The news soon after this reached Bristol, that Sir Francis Burdett
had been returned at the head of the poll for Westminster, by a large
majority. This gave new life and spirits to the friends of liberty all
over the kingdom, and no one participated more warmly than I did in the
general joy which this news created, for I was one of the Baronet's
most enthusiastic admirers. I immediately proposed a public dinner in
Bristol, to celebrate the joyful event; but I could get no one to join
me. There were several who said that if the dinner took place they
would attend it, but they would not take upon themselves any of the
responsibility of ordering such a dinner, nor of the risk and expense
attending the getting of it up. There was, for one, a Mr. Lee, a
surgeon, who was very ready to join in the dinner to commemorate the
Westminster victory, but he shrank from bearing any part of the onus
of setting it on foot, either in purse or in person. But, having once
proposed a measure, I was not to be foiled in that way. I therefore,
after some considerable difficulty in finding any one to take the
order for a dinner for such a purpose, took the whole expense and
responsibility upon myself, by ordering dinner for a hundred persons, at
the large room in the Trout Tavern, Stokes' Croft.
The dinner was now advertised and placarded, myself to be in the chair.
In the mean time, every effort was used to run down the dinner, and to
intimidate persons from attending it; and on the morning of the day that
was appointed for our meeting, the walls of the city were placarded with
the following _notice_, from authority--"DANGER to be apprehended from
the proposed dinner to be held this day at the Trout Tavern," &c. &c.
The word DANGER was printed in letters six inches long. The soldiers
were ordered to be upon duty, and every species of threat and
intimidation was resorted to, in order to deter people from attending
the much-dreaded dinner. Nevertheless, in spite of all this, a hundred
persons sat down together, not ten of whom had ever seen each other's
faces before. I took the head of the principal table, and Mr. Lee that
of the other. We spent a most gratifying day, in the greatest harmony,
and parted with the same good humor; every one being pleased with his
entertainment, which had proved "the feast of reason and the flow of
soul;" in the fullest sense of that phrase. The authorities used every
laudable endeavour to make a disturbance, and create that danger which
they pretended to apprehend; and the time-serving despicable editors of
the Bristol Newspapers joined in the cry. Nay, some of them bellowed
aloud and declared that this dinner meeting, to celebrate the triumph of
the electors of Westminster over the two corrupt factions, the Whigs and
Tories, was the forerunner of a revolution; and they insinuated that I,
who was the promoter of this dinner, was the instigator of the riots
which occurred on the day of the election, and that the fellows who met
to dine were the very same who assembled and threatened the life of
their amiable and patriotic member, Mr. Bragge Bathurst.
These falsehoods did not, however, either prevent or disturb our dinner.
The infamous hand-bill did indeed produce what its manufacturers called
a mob, for the people assembled in the street, opposite the Trout
Tavern, in great numbers: but upon their being addressed by me, and
cautioned not to suffer themselves to be caught in the trap laid for
them by their enemies, but to retire peaceably to their homes, they gave
us three cheers and dispersed immediately. It was very fortunate that
they did so, for it was ascertained that the tender-hearted authorities
were so excessively anxious to preserve the peace which they had
sworn to keep, that they had called out the military, in order to
disperse, at the point of the bayonet, that multitude which they had
themselves collected together by their ridiculous and evil-disposed
hand-bill of "Danger, &c." My timely advice and admonition to the people
had, however, deprived them of their prey, and thus the sacrifice of
human blood was prevented; for when the troops marched by, with bayonets
fixed, there were not ten persons more than usual in the streets.
This was a great disappointment to those who had got up the precious
hand-bill of "Danger to be apprehended;" and, because I had the prudence
to foresee and to frustrate this brutal and sanguinary scheme of the
authorities, I was set down as a most dangerous fellow, and an enemy to
the Government.
I might now, in fact, be considered to have fairly entered the field of
politics; for I was completely identified with this meeting and dinner,
at which we passed several spirited resolutions, approving the conduct
of the electors of Westminster, and strongly urging the freemen of
Bristol to follow their example. Votes of thanks were passed to Joseph
Clayton Jennings, Esq., and to the Westminster Committee, and a
congratulatory address was voted to Sir Francis Burdett, which I, as
chairman of the meeting, was desired to communicate to him. This I
did immediately, which, for the first time, gave me an opportunity of
opening a correspondence with the Baronet. The votes and resolutions, as
well as the toasts drank, and the speeches delivered, were published; I
forget now whether by Mr. Lee or myself, but I rather think by him, as
he had been in the habit of publishing a great deal before on the local
politics of Bristol.
I received a very polite answer from Sir Francis Burdett, who professed
to be highly flattered with the compliment we had paid him at Bristol. I
likewise received an answer from Mr. Jennings, and the chairman of the
Westminster Committee, expressing great pleasure at this mark of
the union of sentiment existing between the people of Bristol and
Westminster. On the other hand, I sent copies of our proceedings to Mr.
Cobbett, who lived at that time at Botley, expressing a wish, if he
approved of them, that he would insert them in his Political Register;
he, however, neither inserted them nor gave me any answer, but, as it
since appears, he wrote the famous letter to his friend Wright, who was
a sort of hanger-on at the Westminster committee, which letter, at the
last general election for Westminster, was read upon the hustings by
one Cleary, an attorney's clerk, or rather a pettyfogging writer to an
attorney in Dublin, who had left his native country for the same cause
that had prompted many others of his countrymen to leave it before him.
This person was hired by the committee of Sir Francis Burdett to do this
dirty office, to shew that Mr. Cobbett entertained a different
opinion of me in the year 1808, before he knew me, from that which he
entertained of me in the year 1818, after he had known me and had acted
with me for so many years.
What induced Mr. Cobbett to write this letter, or what were his motives,
are best known to himself. But, the contents of the letter were as
false, as the stile and language were gross, and the sentiments it
contained illiberal and unmanly. Mr. Cobbett had at that time spoken to
me but once; and as I was never in the habit of flattering any one, or
disguising my opinions, I can easily conceive that he had, from this
first interview, formed personally as unfavourable an opinion of me as
I had of him. But he knew nothing of me or my connections. All that he
could have known of me was, that I was a zealous advocate of that
cause which he then professed to espouse. Therefore, what were his
motives for writing this letter must remain with himself. However, Mr.
Jennings, and the gentlemen who then composed the Westminster committee,
treated his advice with that contempt which such a malignant and unmanly
act deserved; for they opened a communication with me immediately. As
to the letter, however, it was of such a nature, that they thought it
advisable to lay it by, to be produced upon some future occasion, and
that occasion was the one which I have named. Now I must intreat
the reader to give me credit when I say, that I never suffered the
production of this letter to operate upon me, so as to shake the private
friendship I had with Mr. Cobbett. What he wrote of me, or whatever
opinion he entertained of me, ten years back, and previously to his
knowing any thing of me, however unjust that opinion might have been,
however coarsely or illiberally that opinion might have been expressed,
and however basely that circumstance might, after a lapse of ten or
eleven years, have been used by a contemptible hired agent of Sir
Francis Burdett, upon the public hustings at an election, I never
suffered it for one moment to have the slightest influence upon my
public or private conduct towards Mr. Cobbett. But what I was grieved
and hurt at, was, that Mr. Cobbett should have made me his dupe, by
writing home to me from America, to assure me, that the letter read by
Cleary upon the hustings at Westminster was a _forgery_; and not only
sending me a copy of the New York paper, wherein he had declared this
letter to be a forgery, but _authorizing_ ME, nay, _urging_ ME to
pronounce it to be a forgery, which, _upon the faith of his word_, I
did, at a meeting at the Crown and Anchor, where Cleary produced the
letter. At this treatment I was hurt; I had good reason to be offended;
but I never complained of it. The shyness and the dispute which has
arisen between Mr. Cobbett and myself has arisen from a very different
cause. But, for my own part, I am happy that this shyness did not happen
while Mr. Cobbett was in prison, but while Henry Hunt is incarcerated
in his dungeon. Although I cannot accuse myself of having ever done any
thing to merit this conduct from Mr. Cobbett, yet I shall never cease
to lament it, as an injury to that cause in which we had so long drawn
together. But, as is generally the case in such differences between
friends, there may be faults on both sides; and I am not so presumptuous
as to believe that I am exempt from error. It is a lamentable truth,
however, that the strongest mind is not always proof against the
insinuations of _false friends, of go-betweens,_ and the _eternal
workings, and worryings, and sly malignant hints, of the low pride and
cunning of those who are always at a person's elbow._ The reader must
excuse this digression; it is, in fact, no more than I owed to the
subject, and an early explanation which is due to those who honour me by
reading these Memoirs.
The infamous conduct of the authorities at Bristol did not deter me from
keeping the promise which I made to the people on the day of election.
I immediately formed a society, and arranged a plan of weekly
subscriptions, to enable those who were entitled to their freedoms to
pay their fee to the chamberlain of the city, without being, as they had
always hitherto been, dependent upon the bounty of the candidates when.
the election was about to begin. Each entitled freeman, who enrolled his
name, and paid a subscription of 3_d._ per week, had, in his turn, his
freedom taken up, and his fees, amounting to about 2_l_. 8_s_. paid out
of the fund.
One would have thought this a most legitimate and praiseworthy
association. What could be more proper than a subscription, weekly,
amongst the entitled freemen, to raise a sum to take up their freedoms;
to accumulate that sum by a weekly subscription which they could not
at once command out of their own pockets, and the want of which had
heretofore in a great measure placed them in the power of those who
would only advance the money for them to obtain a promise of their votes
at the election? To assist in accomplishing so desirable an object as
this, any one who did not understand the principles upon which those
elections are carried on by corporations, would have thought a most
praiseworthy act. But in Bristol it was esteemed a great crime; and
all sorts of threats and intimidations were offered to those who stood
forward as the friends of constitutional liberty, and who attempted to
aid the young freemen in procuring their copies to become entitled to
exercise their franchises at the elections. Our society was denounced
as seditious, revolutionary, and treasonable, by the corrupt
newspapermongers of that city; at the head of whom stood a man of the
name of GUTCH, who was the editor of the paper called Felix Farley's
Bristol Journal. This was as corrupt and time-serving a political knave
as ever lived. This gentleman belonged to the White Lion club; and for
hire he weekly vomited forth all sorts of lies and calumnies against
those who met weekly at the _Lamb and Lark_, in Thomas Street, under the
pretence, as this loyal Government scribe said, of subscribing to take
up freedoms; but whose real object this hireling declared to be, to
overturn the Government, by subverting the constitution of the country.
This was the organ, the trumpeter of the White Lion club; the Pitt
faction; the thick and thin supporters of the ministers. Then there
was another corrupt political knave, of the name of John Mills, who
published a paper, which, if I recollect right, was called the Bristol
Gazette. He was equally a thick and thin supporter of the other faction,
the Whigs; he was their time-serving dirty tool; no falsehood, no
absurdity, however palpable, so that it served his masters, the Whig
faction, was too gross for his depraved appetite. This _gentleman_,
also, was equally lavish of his abuse against me, for having dared
to interfere with a privilege which exclusively belonged to the two
factions; any innovation upon which was considered as high treason of
the greatest magnitude.
At this time a gentleman of the name of LEE, a surgeon, and a very
clever fellow, lashed the cheats of both factions by frequent cheap
publications; the severity of which made the rogues twist and writhe as
snails and grubs do, when quick lime is sprinkled upon them. With this
Mr. Lee I of course became acquainted, from the time of the Trout Tavern
dinner. For some time we went on very well together but, by-and-bye, we
quarrelled and came to an open rupture. This quarrel was excited
and fermented by talebearers and go-betweens; and at length Mr. Lee
commenced a paper war, directing all his talent against my views and
objects. I replied: and a most vindictive political warfare raged for
a while, in which we were both most magnanimously bespattered with the
filth of our own creating. I was very young at this time, and where I
failed in argument, I of course made up for it in abuse. In reality,
there was very little argument on either side; and in default of it,
downright abuse was resorted to, to the great amusement of the two
contending factions. He at length retired from politics altogether, and
very soon afterwards left Bristol, to reside in London, and kept his
terms, I believe, in the Temple, where he now practises as a barrister.
But I, however, stood my ground, and continued to support and cultivate
an union, by subscribing to and attending the meetings at the _Lamb and
Lark_. In fact, I took a lease of that house for the purpose; several
publicans having been threatened with the loss of their licences, if
they gave us the accommodation of a room, once a week, in the way of
their business. The moral Magistrates of Bristol, some of whom were
brewers and distillers, encouraged every species of drunkenness, and
connived at every species of debauchery, so that their pockets were
filled, and the customs and the excise were benefited; but they were
alarmed and shocked at the monstrous crime of the freemen meeting once a
week to subscribe their pence, to procure their freedoms, independent of
every political faction.