lapse of time, a statement was made in the _Taunton Courier_, that, when
I had gone round the country to collect names for a requisition to call
a county meeting, Mr. Dean had taken me in and treated me with the
greatest hospitality, and that I had rewarded him by swindling him out
of a _flock of fine sheep_, for which I had never paid him. When the
reader reflects upon this wanton and atrocious slander, which was
malignantly propagated by the venal and corrupt editor of a country
paper, I am sure, although the vehicle through which the slander was
conveyed, was in itself obscure and contemptible, I shall be excused
for giving the particulars of this transaction; however tedious and
uninteresting it may appear to those at a distance, where the venom was
never propagated, it is, in truth, due to myself and to my friends in
this county, who read the calumny, to have the matter clearly explained;
although, to every man of common sense, it must have been very evident,
when the scandal was first promulgated, that it was a gross and palpable
falsehood; because, if I had owed Mr. Dean's executors, or any other
person, a sum of money amounting to forty or fifty pounds, it was the
most easy thing upon earth to have compelled me to pay it. O, it was a
wicked, a mean and a malignant falsehood, which would never have been
put afloat, or believed by any body, against any other man but myself,
who at that time was the universal topic of abuse in the whole of the
venal ministerial and opposition press of the country, in consequence
of my having resisted oppression and tyranny, and roused the spirit of
liberal feeling and patriotic exertion among some of the electors of
Bristol, where I had maintained, single-handed, two contested elections
for that city, in opposition to all the contending factions. The
newspaper editors of each faction had disseminated the vilest calumnies
against me, in revenge for those struggles which I had made to oppose
the rotten borough system in that city; and this venal, dirty,
contemptible, hireling knave of the _Taunton Courier_, selected this
as a proper time to add his lie to the million of lies that were then
circulated against me.
But I shall now speak more fully of the circumstances which led to my
being a candidate for Bristol, in June, 1812. Ever since the previous
general election, when the electors had been humbugged by Sir John
Jervis, and had attempted to wreak their vengeance upon Mr. Bragge
Bathurst, I had, at various times, publicly declared my intention
to offer myself as a candidate for that city. On that occasion, Mr.
Bathurst experienced such an unfavourable reception, that it was
generally understood he did not mean to offer himself as a candidate for
the city, at the approaching general election; and as Colonel Baillie,
the Whig Member, did not relish the idea of standing such a contest
as it was generally expected I should create, he also intimated his
intention to resign; Mr. Edward Protheroe, therefore, offered himself as
a Whig Member, in his place. The Whigs were very well satisfied with the
pretensions of Mr. Protheroe, as being a citizen of Bristol; and he, as
the Whig Member, and Mr. Richard Hart Davis, as the Tory Member,
would have been returned, without any opposition whatever, by the two
factions, had it not been for the threatened interference of myself, who
was avowedly a candidate that would excite a great popular feeling.
This consideration induced some of what is called the liberal or Foxite
Whigs to think of looking out for a more popular Whig Candidate than Mr.
Protheroe, for the purpose of taking away the votes from _me_. After
several meetings had been held upon the subject, it was determined upon,
by a little faction, to invite Sir Samuel Romilly to become a candidate.
I am quite confident, in my own mind, that if it had not been for the
opposition which it was certain would be made by me, there would not
have been any opposition at all. Mr. Bragge Bathurst and Colonel
Baillie, or Mr. Protheroe, would have been returned without the
slightest effort to prevent it. My avowed intention of being a
candidate, however, first made the White Lion Cock, Bragge Bathurst,
turn tail and declare off, and next induced Colonel Baillie to decline.
The one of these was the Tory and the other the Whig candidate for
the representation of the city of Bristol, which, in consequence of a
compromise entered into by the two factions, had always been divided
between them; and therefore one Whig and one Tory Member had always been
returned; and so it would have continued without any change, had it not
been for me. Mr. Davis and Mr. Protheroe would have been returned as
quiet as mice, without a word being said by any body against it. But, as
I had become a candidate, a little gang of intriguers at length made up
their minds to put Sir Samuel Romilly forward; not, I believe, with the
slightest expectation that they could carry his election, but under the
firm conviction that he would very largely divide the popularity with
me.
Thus it was that Sir Samuel Romilly was made the cat's-paw of this
faction, for the purpose of destroying all chances of my becoming the
Representative of Bristol. As soon as they had announced their intention
to support Sir Samuel Romilly, they, the Whigs, took the greatest pains
to circulate the report and create the impression that I was offering
myself as a candidate for Bristol merely to oppose the "_amiable Sir
Samuel Romilly;_" these corrupt, factious knaves, always taking care to
keep out of view, that this gentleman was already a Member of Parliament
for the Duke of Norfolk's rotten-borough of Arundel, which seat he was
sure to retain as long as he lived, if he chose to do so. But it was
necessary, for their sinister purposes, to bring upon the scene this
gentleman, who bore an excellent character, and who, amongst the Whigs,
was considered as a prodigy of perfection.
Notwithstanding that Sir Samuel Romilly was set up against me, instead
of my being set up against him, I having constantly, for four years
before Sir Samuel's name was ever mentioned, avowed my intention of
becoming a candidate, yet, as soon as a meeting had been called at the
Crown and Anchor, in London, and a sum of eight thousand pounds had been
subscribed by the Whigs to support him, I publicly offered to resign my
pretensions, and to give my whole support to the knight of the gown and
wig, if he would only pledge himself to espouse the cause of Reform in
the House of Commons. This offer was, however, declined, or at least
treated with silent neglect; but the venal press did not cease railing
against me for opposing Sir Samuel Romilly.
A day was appointed for Sir Samuel to make his public entry into
Bristol, and a public dinner was got up on the occasion, to which he
was invited. The day fixed on was the second of April, 1812, which was
considered to be a period immediately preceding the expected general
election. Great preparations were made to receive the lawyer in grand
stile, and every thing was attempted to create effect. A number of
persons went out to meet him on horseback, and I made a point of being
present, to see how the thing went off, and to hear what would be said
by Mr. Tierney, who, it was reported, was to introduce Sir Samuel to the
citizens of Bristol. It was given out that he would alight at the Bush
Tavern, opposite the Exchange, and that he would address the people from
the window of his committee-room, facing which window I placed myself,
to see and to hear all that could be heard or seen. At length, after he
had been waited for, for about an hour (which, by-the-bye, is considered
genteel), the worthy lawyer arrived, seated in an open barouche, with
Mr. Michael Castle on one side, and _Alderman Noble_ on the other! It
was but a sorry cavalcade; and although there was some cheering amongst
his partizans, yet he met altogether with a very cold reception. But
when Sir Samuel was led up to the window, and it was discovered that it
was Alderman Noble who accompanied him, there was one general burst of
disapprobation--groans, hissing, and hooting, and cries of "No Noble! no
six and eightpence! no bloody bridge! no murderers!" &c. &c. Poor Sir
Samuel was astonished; he had been made to believe that he would be
received with the greatest applause and indeed enthusiasm; but these
discordant sounds quite disconcerted him, and when he began to speak,
instead of his being listened to, the cries and the groans were
redoubled. Alderman Noble put forth his hand to command silence; this
was received with the most violent and indignant execrations and
hootings, mingled with cries of "No Noble! no six and eightpence! no
bloody bridge!" Nothing could have been so unfortunate for Sir Samuel
Romilly, as to be accompanied by Alderman Noble, who, a few years
before, had rendered himself deservedly detested, by his having ordered
the military, the Herefordshire Militia, with Lord Bateman as their
Colonel, to fire upon the people, at a riot which took place relative
to the tolls of Bristol Bridge; upon which occasion eleven or twelve
persons were killed. So obnoxious was this man, that he had been obliged
to quit Bristol for some years, and he took this opportunity to return
under the wing of Sir Samuel Romilly; but his appearance roused the
most angry feeling amongst the people, and this feeling was so
preponderating, that Sir Samuel attempted to address the multitude for
about twenty minutes, without one word being distinguishable.
I have already mentioned the report that Sir Samuel would be introduced
by Mr. Tierney, the late popular Member for the borough of Southwark,
but, subsequently to his holding a place under the Whigs, the Member for
the rotten-boroughs of Appleby, in Westmoreland, and Bandon-bridge, in
Ireland. Even this would have done Sir Samuel no service. Before the
Whigs had been in place, and Mr. Tierney, like the rest of them, had
been tried and found wanting, it might have answered very well for him
to have introduced a popular candidate to the city of Bristol; for at
that period he professed himself to be not only the champion, but the
child of Liberty. At the time when he branded with so much spirit
and eloquence the income-tax of Pitt, and declared in his place
in Parliament that this income-tax was such an odious and such an
unconstitutional measure "that the people of England would be justified
in taking up arms to resist the collection of it;" at that time, when
Mr. Tierney so strenuously and brilliantly opposed all the ruinous
measures of Pitt; at that time, if he had proposed to go to Bristol, he
might have been received with approbation by the people, and his name
might have added to the popularity of any man. But, since Mr. Tierney
had been in office with the Whigs, since he had become a splendid
pensioned apostate from his former opinions, since he had been kicked
out of the borough of Southwark for his apostacy, since he had, while
in the Whig Administration, advocated and supported an additional
income-tax, and voted for almost all those measures, when in place,
which he had opposed when out of place; since these things had occurred,
the name of Mr. Tierney was calculated to injure the popularity of any
man to whom he linked himself. This of itself, this announcement that
Mr. Tierney was to attend Sir Samuel Romilly, was enough to damn his
popularity with every real friend of Liberty in that city. But, when he
appeared side by side with Alderman Noble, all hopes of his ever being
popular in Bristol were at an end! I never in my life, on any public
occasion, saw a man received worse by the populace than Sir Samuel
Romilly was.
It was asserted, and the assertion has been often repeated, that I was
instrumental to this unfavourable reception of Sir Samuel Romilly; but
this is totally false; none of my friends knew of my being, or of my
intending to be, at Bristol on that day. I had gone into the city
privately, and had walked up to the Exchange from my inn, the Talbot,
without exciting the attention of any one; and, to tell the truth, no
man was more sorry than I was, that such a man should have been treated
so unfairly as he was by his party; that he should, in the first place,
have been so ill advised, as to have had his name coupled with that
of Mr. Tierney, and then, that he should be accompanied by the most
unpopular and most odious man in the whole city, and one who, since
he had been driven from the city, had become a placeman under the
Government. These were the sole causes of Sir Samuel Romilly being
received with such demonstrations of disgust and disapprobation. To be
sure, all the friends of Liberty in the city of Bristol, who had any
pretensions to a knowledge of what was going on, must have very clearly
seen that Sir Samuel Romilly had been invited to attend, and to become a
candidate for Bristol, mainly for the purpose of dividing the popularity
with me; and my friends were, doubtless, prepared to scrutinise his
speech with rather a sceptical feeling; but not one of my friends would
on this account have interrupted him, or have done any thing to prevent
him from being heard; on the contrary, there was a general disposition
amongst my friends to support him in conjunction with myself.
Those Whigs who supported Sir Samuel Romilly appeared to be
thunderstruck at his reception, and for a long time they did not appear
to be aware of the cause of it. As there was not one of them who had any
influence over the minds of the people, there was no attempt made to
rescue Sir Samuel from this very unpleasant situation, and at length
he retired from the window sadly disconcerted, and his party were
dreadfully chagrined. Sir Samuel had literally been hissed, hooted, and
groaned from the window, at a time when I expected every one would
have been anxious to hear him, and to listen to him with the greatest
attention. I am sure, for myself, that I was greatly disappointed. There
might have been ten thousand persons present, which was no very great
number for such an occasion;. but I think I may safely say, that
there was not one in a hundred that knew or expected that I would be
there.
As there was now a pause, and as no one from Sir Samuel Romilly's room
attempted to come forward, I mounted upon one of the copper pedestals
which stands in the front of the Exchange, and I was instantly hailed
with shouts from all those who knew me, which, at that time, could
not have been more than half the persons present. My name was rapidly
communicated from one to the other, and before I could begin to address
them, they gave three cheers for Mr. Hunt, which was proposed by some
one present. The moment I began to speak, the most profound silence
reigned around; and in a speech of an hour and forty minutes I was
interrupted only by the applause of my hearers, and by the anxiety
which they expressed that I should put on my hat, as it rained. This
inconvenience was soon obviated, by a gentleman being elevated with an
umbrella, which he held over my head till I had concluded. During this
address I avowed myself the warm advocate for Radical Reform, and
declared myself the staunch friend of Sir Francis Burdett, and the
principles which he professed. I went through a history of the
proceedings of the Whig Administration, and recounted the sinecures,
pensions, and unmerited places held by the Grenvilles, and other
Boroughmongers of that faction; but when I came to speak of the conduct
of the Law Officers of the Crown under that administration, during the
continuance of which Sir Samuel Romilly was one of those officers, when
I touched on their having drawn up the famous Acts of Parliament passed
by the Whig Ministry, during the reign of _one year, one month, one
week,_ and _one day;_ when I came to speak of _this_, the windows of
the room in which Sir Samuel Romilly and his friends were, in the Bush
Tavern, opposite where I stood, were pettishly shut down by some one.
The moment that the people saw this, they exclaimed, "Look! look! they
are ashamed to hear the truth, and they have shut the windows to prevent
its coming amongst them." This shutting the windows the populace took
as an insult offered to them, and they vociferously demanded that they
should be re-opened; and their demand was made in such an unequivocal
and peremptory manner, that the gentry, after some slight hesitation,
complied with the wishes of the multitude. I continued to address the
people for nearly an hour after this time, although at the outskirts of
the crowd in Clarestreet there was a waiter with Sir Samuel Romilly's
colours in his hat, who announced that the dinner was waiting; in
consequence of which, several attempts were made in vain by some persons
in the Bush, to force their way out of that house through the dense
crowd, that not only occupied the whole of the front of the tavern, but
extended for a very considerable distance above and below, even up
to Broad-street and down to Small-street, so that it was absolutely
impossible for any one to pass while I was addressing the people.
This was most galling to Sir Samuel Romilly's friends, who, from this
circumstance, were actually prisoners in the Bush nearly an hour and
a half after the dinner had been ready at the Assembly Rooms in
King-street, where the party were going to dine; but, if their lives had
been at stake not a man of them could have got out till I had finished
my speech; for the crowd had considerably increased since I had begun.
After having exhausted my strength, I retired amidst the most deafening
shouts of approbation; the whole of the immense populace accompanied me
to my inn, and left Sir Samuel and his friends a clear course to proceed
to their dinner.
I never said any thing against the gown and wig knight. On the contrary,
I thought him a much better man for a Member of Parliament than
Mr. Protheroe, who had declared himself a candidate also in the Whig
interest, to represent the city, in the place of Colonel Baillie, who
intended to resign at the general election. I had, ever since the former
election, offered myself as a candidate, whenever there should be a
vacancy, without any reference to either of the factions; but Mr.
Protheroe and Sir Samuel Romilly came forward avowedly to fill the seat
of Colonel Baillie; neither of these gentlemen professing any desire
to interfere with the White Lion candidate, Mr. Bragge Bathurst, the
factions being too civil to each other to interfere with their separate
interests. If I had not offered myself as a candidate, Mr. Bragge
Bathurst would have been elected by the White Lion interest, without any
opposition.
The Whigs were excessively annoyed by the inauspicious manner in which
Sir Samuel was greeted, and not less so by the exposure which I made of
their politics and principles. The editor of the _Morning Chronicle_,
and other papers in London, gave, however, a flaming account of the
public entry of Sir Samuel Romilly into Bristol: they said that he was
hailed with the greatest enthusiasm, and they published a speech which
he had delivered to the people at the Bush Tavern window, and which they
unblushingly affirmed to have been received with the greatest applause;
but they forgot to say one word about a speech of nearly two hours,
which I delivered. They published the account of a speech of a quarter
of an hour, not one word of which was heard, while the speech that was
heard and attentively listened to, they never noticed at all! This was
so glaringly unfair and partial, that Mr. Cobbett wrote a very long and
able paper upon the subject, exposing and chastising the Whigs for their
duplicity and deception, and, at the same time, he did not fail to
represent the conduct of Mr. Perry in its true colours.
A dissolution of Parliament had been anticipated for some time; but an
occurrence now took place that caused a sudden and unexpected vacancy
for the city of Bristol. Mr. Bragge Bathurst was appointed to the
lucrative office of _Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster_, one of the
most valuable places in the gift of the Sovereign, or rather of his
Ministers. It was announced that he had accepted this office, that he
had in consequence vacated his seat, and that a new writ was issued for
the election of a Member for the city of Bristol; to which was added,
that Mr. Hart Davis, the then Member for Colchester, had accepted the
stewardship of the Chiltern Hundreds, for the purpose of becoming a
candidate upon the White Lion, or Blue Club, alias the Ministerial
interest in Bristol. This was all promulgated in the same paper, and it
stated that the election would be held forthwith, as Mr. Davis would be
elected without any opposition, the friends of Sir Samuel Romilly and
Mr. Protheroe having no intention to interfere with the election of that
gentleman.
The writ for electing a Member for Bristol, in the room of Bragge
Bathurst, was moved for in the House of Commons, on Tuesday evening,
the 24th of June: and at the same time a writ for electing a Member for
Colchester, in the room of Richard Hart Davis, was moved for. I never
heard a word of this till Thursday afternoon at four o'clock, when the
postman brought me my Wednesday's paper, just as I was sitting down to
dinner at Rowfant, in Sussex. After dinner I read the account, and I
made up my mind to start for that city the next morning. I rode to town
on Friday, took my place in the Bath mail, and reached Bath at ten
o'clock on Saturday morning. Some of the people of Bristol had arrived
in Bath in expectation of meeting me, and one of them immediately
returned to Bristol to announce my intention of being in that city the
same evening. At the appointed hour, which was five o'clock, I arrived
at Totterdown, where I was met by an immense multitude, who took my
horses from the carriage, and drew me into the city and through the
principal streets, till they arrived at the front of the Exchange, which
they had fixed upon as the theatre of my public orations, in consequence
of my having accidentally mounted one of the pedestals on the memorable
day of Sir Samuel Romilly's public entry into Bristol. I left the
carriage, remounted the pedestal, and addressed at least twenty thousand
of the inhabitants, who had accompanied me thither with the most
deafening shouts. I never had seen such enthusiasm in my life. I briefly
animadverted upon the trick which was intended to have been played off
upon them by the worthy leaders of both the factions in that city, who
had united for the purpose of stealing a march upon the electors, a
trick which I had no doubt my opportune arrival would frustrate; and
pledged myself to be at the Guildhall in due time on Monday morning, on
which day the election was fixed to be held.
Mr. Davis, who was a banker, of Bristol, had made his public entry
in the morning of the same day, attended by his friends, amidst very
evident marks of disapprobation from the assembled multitude. So sure,
however, was this gentleman of his success, and so little had his
friends anticipated any opposition, that they had actually got every
thing prepared for _chairing_ him, and had ordered the dinner, which was
to celebrate the event, to be ready immediately after the election had
closed on Monday; as they calculated that the election would be nothing
more than a mere matter of form, which would occupy them for only a very
few hours. But my arrival, and the enthusiastic reception which I had
received, made some of his partizans begin to fear that the victory
would not be so easily gained, or the contest so speedily terminated,
as they had at first sanguinely hoped. Still the old electioneering
managers calculated upon carrying their point by one of their _old
tricks_, or by a "_ruse de guerre;_" but in this, as the sequel will
shew, they _reckoned without their host_. Before I got into the mail in
London, I purchased _Disney's_ Abridgment of Election Law, a part of
which I read before it grew dark, and the remainder I finished in the
morning before we arrived in Bath. Although this publication is the
least to be relied upon of any, yet it furnished me with sufficient law
upon the subject, not only to set completely their intended projects at
defiance, but also to enable me to keep open the poll for fifteen days,
the whole time that the law allows.