at Rowfant House, in the county of Sussex, near East Grinstead, about
thirty miles from London. This gave me an opportunity of frequently
visiting my friend Mr. Cobbett, in Newgate. While he was in the King's
Bench, and before he was called up for judgment, he expected that he
should be sentenced to some distant county gaol, and in case it had been
so, I had promised him that, wherever it was, I would come and take
lodgings in the town, and visit him for a week or a fortnight at a time,
several times during his imprisonment. This, however, was rendered
unnecessary, by his imprisonment being in London. Nothing could have
been more convenient for his business, as a public writer, than his
being in London; and I have no hesitation in saying, that the punishment
of six months' imprisonment in this Bastile is a much greater punishment
than that of two years in Newgate. In fact, it was not more than it
would have been to have sentenced him to be imprisoned in any house in
Ludgate-hill. All persons had free access to him, from eight o'clock in
the morning till ten at night, and he had as good apartments as he could
have had in any house in London, and quite as good accommodation as he
could have had at any private lodgings. Still it was imprisonment; but,
when compared with my situation, it was no imprisonment at all. He had
his family staying with him night and day, the very same as he would
have had at a private lodging. Indeed, I have paid _five guineas_ a week
for lodgings in London which were worse in every respect. There was
nothing about his residence that had the appearance of a prison but the
name. Mr. Newman was a worthy and a benevolent man, quite the reverse
of what prison keepers are in general, and every thing was done for Mr.
Cobbett's accommodation and for that of his family and friends.
In February, Mr. Peter Finnerty received the judgment of the Court of
King's Bench, for a libel upon Lord Castlereagh. There never was a man
who stood upon the floor of the Court for judgment who made a more able
or a more brave defence than he did; he did not retract one sentence,
one syllable of the original publication, but, on the contrary, he
produced affidavits to prove the truth of every word that he had
published about Lord Castlereagh's cruelty to the people of Ireland,
when he was in power, at the Castle of Dublin. The Attorney-General, Sir
Vicary Gibbs, as well as Lord Ellenborough, were almost frantic with
rage at the boldness and the perseverance with which he proclaimed the
truth of his statements, as to the conduct of Lord Castlereagh. He was
sentenced, by old Judge Grose, to be imprisoned in his Majesty's gaol
of Lincoln for eighteen calendar months, and to give security for his
keeping the peace far five years from that time. When he first went to
Lincoln he was treated very harshly; upon which he caused a petition to
be presented to the House of Commons, complaining of the treatment which
he received from _the Gaoler and some of the Visiting Magistrates_. This
brought the High Sheriff to the gaol, and Mr. Finnerty was partially
relieved from the privations of which he had complained. He, however,
afterwards caused a petition of one of the debtors to be presented to
the House, by Sir Samuel Romilly, which ultimately led to a COMMISSION
being sent down, to inquire into the truth of the matters contained in
these petitions. As these proceedings were very similar to those which
have recently taken place in this gaol, I will, at the proper time, give
a more ample detail of them; particularly as Mr. Drakard, the editor of
the _Stamford News_, was at this time also a prisoner in Lincoln Castle.
He was confined thereby a sentence of the Court of King's Bench, for a
libel upon the army, he having been tried and found guilty at the Spring
Assizes at Lincoln, in consequence of an article on the _fogging of
soldiers_, which article appeared in his excellent paper. On the 25th of
May, he was brought up to receive judgment, and was sentenced to
be imprisoned in his Majesty's gaol of Lincoln, and to pay a fine of
200_l_. As there were two such men of talent as Mr. Finnerty and Mr.
Drakard confined in Lincoln Castle at the time that a commission was
sent down to inquire into its abuses, and the misconduct of the Gaoler
Merewether, and the Parson Justice _Doctor Illingworth_, the public of
course expected that some important exposures would be made, and that
very important benefits would result from the inquiry; but we shall see,
by and by, that, from some cause or other, although Mr. Finnerty and
Mr. Drakard were much better treated, yet that the commission and the
inquiry ended together in mere _smoke_.
On the nineteenth of March, dollars were made current at five shillings
and sixpence each; and on the twentieth of March in this year, 1811,
the Empress Maria Louisa of France was brought to bed of a son, who was
immediately created King of Rome. On the ninth of May, the first stone
of Vauxhall Bridge was laid; and on the eleventh of October, the first
stone of the Strand bridge was laid: this last is the bridge which is
now foolishly called by some silly people, Waterloo bridge. A similar
circumstance occurred when Blackfriars bridge was built; some foolish
people wished to change its name to Chatham bridge, as a compliment
to Lord Chatham; and it was so called by many silly people for some
time: but at length good sense overcame vanity, and it reverted back
to its original and proper name of Blackfriars bridge, in spite of
Chatham-place, &c. &c. So, I have no doubt, the good sense of the
people will ultimately overcome their folly, and that it will be again
universally denominated by its original and proper name, the STRAND
BRIDGE.
On the fourth of June, the King's birth-day, the usual public rejoicings
were suspended, in consequence of his severe illness, although our
most gracious Regent, soon after he attained that dignity, had given a
_fete_ in February, at Carlton-House, where at least two thousand
persons were present. On the ninth of June, Christophe, a man of
_colour_, was proclaimed and crowned King of St. Domingo, or Hayti. At
the time, it was supposed to bring the kingly office into some degree of
ridicule, to have a black man solemnly going through the mockery of a
coronation; although it is a fact, that it was a very splendid, as well
as a very popular coronation.
It was in this year, that Mr. now Sir Charles Wolseley, first publicly
declared his sentiments as to political matters; at least, it was the
first time I ever noticed them. In a letter which he addressed to the
Freeholders of the county of Stafford, he makes this honest, open, and
manly declaration: "The principles upon which a person ought to be sent
to serve in Parliament, are, to keep the prerogatives of the crown
unimpaired; to secure the liberties of the people; to oppose in every
shape the system of Pitt's administration; and to obtain a RADICAL
REFORM in the representation of the people in Parliament. These are my
principles." These principles has Sir Charles Wolseley honestly acted
up to ever since; and to this may be attributed the reason that we
have never had the benefit of the worthy Baronet's patriotic and able
exertions in the senate as a Member of Parliament. He has always been
a staunch Radical Reformer, and he never disguised his sentiments;
therefore it is, that he has never been taken by the hand and placed
in the House by any of the great Borough Lords of either of the two
factions of Whigs and Tories; and from principle he has alike declined
to become a slave and a tool to the Boroughmongers, or to purchase one
of their seats.
In consequence of the failure of a Bank at Salisbury, of the firm of
_Bowles, Ogden, and _Wyndham_, immense distress was caused throughout
the county of Wilts; almost all the country people having a great
portion of their property in the notes of this Bank. It was on this
occasion that Mr. Cobbett wrote those famous letters, which he called
"Paper against Gold," addressed to the tradesmen and farmers in and near
Salisbury, being an examination of the report of the Bullion Committee.
These celebrated letters formed a clear and comprehensive exposition of
the Paper System; they developed the whole juggle of Stock Jobbing, the
Sinking Fund, and the National Debt, and the operation of taxes upon
the industry and happiness of the people. These letters, which are now
published in a small volume, prove, beyond all doubt, the clear and
comprehensive mind of this inimitable writer, and the work will live in
after-ages as a monument of his superior talent and knowledge in these
heretofore intricate and mysterious matters, which were rendered still
more intricate and incomprehensible by the very means which such men as
Mr. Horner, the chairman of the Bullion Committee, used to elucidate
them. Had Mr. Cobbett never written another line but what is contained
in this work, his name, as an author, in matters of English finance,
would have gone down to posterity hand-in-hand with that of our immortal
countryman, Mr. Paine. Perhaps Mr. Cobbett would never have written
this valuable work, if he had not been imprisoned in Newgate by the
tyrannical proceedings of the Boroughmongers, assisted by a packed
special jury, always the best ally of tyranny and tyrants, because it
enables them to carry on a most nefarious despotism, and inflict death,
loss of liberty, and torture upon its victims, under the assumed forms
of law and justice; the very worst species of tyranny, and the most
horrible of all despotisms.
Sir Samuel Romilly brought some Bills into the House of Commons, which
were passed, respecting the criminal laws. Lord Holland, in the House
of Lords, and Lord Folkestone, in the House of Commons, made motions to
restrain _ex-officio_ informations, which were at this time extended to
a most alarming pitch by Attorney-General Vicary Gibbs; but ministerial
influence prevailed, and the laudable endeavours of the two peers were
rendered of no avail, as the motions were lost in both Houses. These
proceedings excited universal interest, and the constant _ex-officio_
informations filed by Sir Vicary Gibbs against almost every liberal
writer of the day, drew down upon him almost universal execration. A
Bill was now passed to allow the Ministers to make an interchange of the
militia between England and Ireland. The Prince Regent also restored the
Duke of York to the office of Commander in Chief. This excited general
dissatisfaction, and a debate upon the subject arose in the House of
Commons; but upon a division the Ministers carried it with a very high
hand, and an overwhelming majority, there being only _forty-seven_ of
the faithful and disinterested Representatives of the people who voted
against the measure. Motions were likewise made in both Houses, to
discountenance the doctrine of assassination which had been lately
preached up by various righteous Ministerial Members, aiming at the life
of Napoleon; but these motions also were lost, as Ministers declined to
give them their support. Lord Stanhope about this time brought in a Bill
to make Bank-notes be received as equal in value with coin, under a
penalty; and after a long debate in both Houses, this profound Bill
passed.
The Catholics in Ireland manifested symptoms of great discontent and
dissatisfaction at their claims being so long neglected. The fact was,
that the wretched peasantry of Ireland were in the most abject state
of want, and as they had been kept in the most complete ignorance, and
deprived of all the common forms of law and justice, they were gradually
sinking into a state of barbarism; the consequence of which was, that
we frequently heard of instances of aggravated ferocity, such as seldom
disgrace any people but the most uncultivated savages. Deprive civilized
man of the protection of the law--only once suffer a body of people to
be convinced that there is neither law nor justice within their reach,
and you drive them to desperation; in which state they throw off all
controul over their passions, and they become remorseless, cruel, and
vindictive. I am quite sure that it is this state of feeling amongst the
lower Irish that has created White Boys, Peep-of-day Boys, Ribbon Men,
and all the various classes of incendiaries and desperadoes of which we
hear so much from Ireland. I do not believe, nor did I ever believe,
that Catholic emancipation would restore the people of Ireland either
to happiness or prosperity: no, the same malady that reigns in England
reigns in a two-fold degree in Ireland--they are overwhelmed with
taxation, oppression, and injustice; these dreadful evils have goaded
them into madness, and till they are removed and the people are treated
with kindness and humanity, and above all, till justice is fairly
administered amongst them, the Government of England will in vain
endeavour to subdue the spirit of insubordination either by the bayonet
or the halter. The only remedy there as well as in England consists
in giving the people free and equal means of choosing their own
representatives, to make wise, just, and liberal laws for them in
Parliament.
I lament to find that the poor of England are fast approaching to the
same frightful state as the natives of unhappy Ireland. The poor and the
oppressed come to me here from all quarters, within a circle of twenty
miles, and when they have told me their pitiable tales, and I advise
them to go and repeat it to a "_Magistrate_," alas! almost without an
exception, they exclaim, "_there is no justice for the poor!_" If they
could have obtained any redress from a Magistrate, I should not have
been consulted. In fact, most of their complaints arise from their
inability to get any justice done them by the Magistrates. I would hold
out a friendly warning to these Magistrates, to beware how they strain
that cord too tight; for, if it should once break, if the people should
in general, or any great portion of them, should come to the conclusion,
that there is not justice for the poor, that they exist at the arbitrary
will of their task-masters, that, in short, they are not under the
protection of the laws, melancholy would be the consequences; such
indeed as cannot be contemplated without horror. Who is there that can
say what an awful retribution might be exacted! When once such a spirit
breaks forth, no one can calculate upon the time at which it will be
appeased. I frequently shudder at the terrific consequences which must
and would ensue. It was this absence of justice which drove the French
to a revolution. It was a similar contempt of justice that caused the
Americans to revolt, and most happily rescued that fine country from
the worst of despotism. The taxing of the industry, the skill, and the
talent of a people, without allowing them to have any share in the
election of those who impose those taxes--in a word, taxation without
representation is the very acme of tyranny and despotism. It was this
species of tyranny that produced the glorious revolutions of South
America, of Spain, and of Portugal, and which has emancipated the
inhabitants of those beautiful countries from slavery both of body and
mind.
At Lady-day I quitted my residence at Bath, and went with my family to
reside at Rowfant House, in Sussex, which, as I have before said, is
situated thirty miles from London, half way between the two roads
leading from the metropolis to Lewes and Brighton, and about the same
distance from those two places. It is at the eastern extremity of what
is called the Weald of Sussex. Nothing can be more delightful than this
country is in the spring, summer, and autumn; it is then luxuriant and
picturesque in the extreme; nothing can then surpass the beauty of the
surrounding scenery, and the richness of the foliage which clothe the
majestic oak and beech-trees; of the latter there are many, very many,
of the largest and finest in the kingdom. The mansion is situated in the
centre of a park, or park-like pastures, and has two fronts, one to the
south and the other to the west, each looking over the most beautiful,
picturesque, and romantic country that I ever saw, alternately
presenting to the eye wood, water, and pasture fields, interspersed with
the majestic oak, the lofty beech, the trembling birch, the lime, the
ash, and every other species of beautiful forest tree. There were nearly
five hundred acres of woodland upon this estate, and it was well stocked
with game and fish of every description; but the whole country was
congenial for the breed of pheasants. On some parts of the manor there
was black game, and in the season woodcocks, snipes, and other wild
fowl; in fact, all these frequently breed in that part of the country.
This part of Sussex, although it is only thirty miles from London, is as
completely out of the world as the most remote mountains of Wales, or
the Highlands of Scotland, and the inhabitants were quite as uninformed
and in as perfect a state of nature as the natives in the wilds of
America. I had no idea that any portion of the people of England could
be so completely buried in ignorance, and display such a total absence
of all knowledge, with the exception of hedging, ditching, cutting wood,
converting it into charcoal, making and eating hard dumplings, and
smuggling brandy, Hollands, tea, tobacco, French manufactures of all
sorts and descriptions.
This estate had for ages been in the possession of the family of the
Bethunes, and the farmers had also been so long in the occupation of
their farms, for little or no rent, that they very justly considered
themselves as having a much greater interest in the soil than the
proprietor had. This place had been put up to the hammer, and sold
to the trustees of a lunatic. I had taken it on a lease; the manor,
mansion, farms, lands, and the manorial rights. Mr. James, the
land-agent, in Old Boswell-court, bad the letting of it, under the
direction of John Foster, Esq. the head of the firm of Foster, Cooke,
and Frere, of Lincoln's Inn, who was the acting trustee for the lunatic.
On application to Mr. James, I soon found that he must have a _certain
price_ for the estate, which, if I would consent to give, _I might make
my own terms_. Of course, I took care to insert such clauses in the
lease, as would convey the property entirely to my custody, upon the
payment of a certain rent. I introduced one clause which I was ashamed
to carry into execution, when I found that it would injure the property
to an enormous extent, without affording to myself a corresponding
benefit. I stipulated to be at liberty to grub up and to cultivate all
the hedge-rows, and about three hundred acres of wood and coppice land.
This the parties readily covenanted to allow me to do; but when I came
to examine these woods, I found that, in availing myself of my right, I
should destroy not less than _sixty thousand beautiful and thriving oak
trees and saplings_. As the whole of the land on which these trees grew
was a light sandy loom on the top, and a deep strata of yellow clay
under, which was a soil by no means advantageous to cultivate, but
peculiarly congenial to the growth of oak timber, I made my calculations
of what _I_ might gain, and what would be the loss to the proprietors
of the estate, by grubbing up the woods, and destroying sixty thousand
thriving oak trees and saplings. My gains would have been but small, but
the injury to the estate would have been incalculable. This I candidly
laid before the trustees of the property, and at once proposed to forego
any advantage that I might have derived, and to suffer the woods
to remain, with the timber growing thereon, for the benefit of the
proprietor, provided the parties would make me a corresponding deduction
in the rent. My proposition was so reasonable, that I had not the
slightest doubt but it would be eagerly accepted. Mr. Foster, who was a
very keen, sensible, clever, intelligent man, I saw at once, perceived
the destruction that it would be to the estate; but yet it was evident
that the object in granting one such a lease was to make up a certain
annual rent, equivalent to the interest of the money which had been
expended in the purchase of the estates. He saw the dilemma in which
they were placed, and I plainly perceived that the idea of reducing the
rent upon which they had calculated was out of the question, that it was
not to be entertained by the trustees for a moment.
This being the case, I returned from London, and proceeded in the
cultivation of the farm. I very early made up my mind not hastily to do
such a serious and irretrievable injury as I was authorized to do to the
estate, and I therefore directed my attention to other objects. I had
sent off a servant to meet half way the little drove of sheep which I
had purchased of Mr. Dean; the whole distance being one hundred and
fifty miles. He had been gone ten days, and I impatiently waited his
arrival, but I had as yet heard no tidings of him, although he ought
to have been back several days before. At length, when twelve days had
elapsed, information was brought me that he had arrived with the sheep
upon Copthorn Common, but that he could not get them any further, in
consequence of their being all very lame and unable to walk. I took my
horse and rode to the spot, about the distance of two miles from my
house. When I came there, I found every sheep of them dead lame, with
the most confirmed and inveterate FOOT ROT. The poor fellow, ADAMS, who
had been so long delayed upon the road, was completely exhausted with
the labour, fatigue, and harassing exertion which he had endured in
accomplishing his task. I think he had actually left three or four of
them thirty or forty miles behind, and many of the others he declared
that he had carried, one at a time, more than half the way upon his
shoulders. Upon my expostulating with him, as to his having consented to
receive them in such a state; he replied, that the drover, who brought
them from Mr. Dean, declared that he would not drive them back to have
them; that he left them in the care of my servant the moment that they
met, and then, without the least ceremony, took French leave, apparently
delighted to get quit of his troublesome charge. When I saw the
deplorable state in which they were (for upon closer examination I found
that many of their hoofs were rotted off their feet), I demanded with
some warmth of my servant, why he had not left them with some farmer
upon the road, till they could have been recovered or cured. "Lord bless
you, Sir," replied the man, "I tried at more than fifty places, but
nobody would take them in at any price, as they all said they would not
have them at a gift, and that they should not tread a hoof upon any of
their lands on any account, as the _foot rot_ was highly _infectious_."
This was another serious evil, for I had purchased two hundred more
sheep, and if they went upon the same land, I was sure of infecting my
whole flock. However, on the next day when they could be got home, I
placed them in some of my best meadows, and set about attempting a cure.
In the meantime, I wrote to Mr. Dean, to inform him of the deplorable
state in which they had arrived. In his reply he candidly acknowledged
that they had suffered from this disease, but he declared he thought
they had been quite free from it before he sent them off; adding that,
if he had had the slightest idea of the state in which they were at the
time his servant left them, they should not, on any account, have been
forwarded to me. He begged that I would not return them, but that I
would employ some one to endeavour to cure them; and, if that could not
be accomplished, I must, he said, kill them, and give them to the dogs,
or do any thing with them I pleased. In fact, I did employ a person, who
pretended he could cure them, to come and dress them, which he did once
a week for nearly a twelve-month, and at length he gave them up as
incurable.
Instead of my ever making one halfpenny of these sheep, the plague, the
trouble, and the loss that I sustained by them was not so little as
sixty pounds; besides, their having given the disease to my flock of two
hundred, the remainder of which, after losing sixty of them, I sold at
seven shillings per head less than I gave for them. So that by this
untoward affair I was, on the whole, at least one hundred pounds out
of pocket, to say nothing of all my trouble and anxiety. If I had been
served so by any one but a friend, such as Mr. Dean; I should certainly
have commenced an action against him for serious damages. Far from
Mr. Dean ever applying to me to pay him any thing for the sheep, he
frequently expressed his sorrow that I should have been so harassed and
perplexed with them as I had been. I had devoted one of my best fields
to their use, and at the end of two years, when I left the farm, there
were seven of them remaining still in the same state, as they never were
or ever could be cured. At length, some time after the decease of Mr.
Dean, I received, from the executors of Mr. Dean, an application for
the payment of these sheep. I replied, that Mr. Dean had long since
cancelled that debt, but, on the other hand, there was a very
considerable balance due to me, if I chose to persist in it, from the
circumstances above stated.