acted in opposition to the opinions of Sir F. Burdett; but, as I was
thoroughly convinced of the mischievous intention of the supporters
of the measure, as well as of the fatal result that must follow its
adoption, I persevered in my opposition to it with all my power. I was
not contented with having attended the Common Hall, as a Liveryman of
the city of London, to protest against the Bill; I was not satisfied
with having blown up the cabal at Warminster, and compelled the parties
to sneak off with their resolutions and petitions, to pass them and
get them signed in holes and corners; but I personally procured a
requisition to be signed by the freeholders of the county of Wilts, and
presented it to the High Sheriff for the county, my old school-fellow,
William Wyndham, Esq. of Dinton, who was then residing at Marshwood,
near that place, while his house was building at Dinton. The Sheriff was
just upon the point of going out of office, and said the day was fixed
for him to meet the new Sheriff, at Salisbury, for the purpose of the
latter being sworn in. He, however, undertook to transmit my requisition
to him, and recommended that he should give notice of the meeting in
the first Salisbury paper after he had entered into his Sheriffalty.
I ascertained that a Mr. GEORGE EYRE, the _King's printer_, of the
house of _Strahan and Eyre_, printers in London, was to be the new
Sheriff, and, not choosing to trust to this mushroom gentleman, I
appointed to meet Mr. Wyndham at Salisbury, with the requisition, that
I might see the old and new Sheriff together; telling him, at the
same time, that I was determined not to be shuffled out of the county
meeting, for, in case the new Sheriff did not choose to call it, I
should go to the expense of calling it myself; and in the propriety
of doing so Mr. Wyndham concurred with me. (My elder readers will
recollect, and it is necessary to inform my young friends, that there
was no law at that period to prevent my calling the county together, to
consult upon the propriety of petitioning the Parliament; at least as
many of them as chose to assemble for that purpose.)
I had drawn up a requisition, and procured a number of respectable
signatures, and if the Sheriff, by refusing to call the meeting, had
dared to neglect his duty and abuse the high trust reposed in him by his
office, it was only necessary to advertise the requisition, and call the
meeting in the name of the requisitionists. When the day arrived I was
punctual to my appointment, and met the two Sheriffs at the office of
their Deputy, Mr. Attorney Tinney, who would as soon have seen the
devil as me; but, as he knew that I was not to be put off with any
of his usual quibbling tricks, upon demanding an interview with his
principals, I was admitted forthwith. I found this Mr. George Eyre just
such a Jack-in-office as I should have expected a King's printer, or a
King's lacquey, or a King's hairdresser to be; as unlike Mr. Wyndham,
both in appearance and manner, as a sneaking upstart could be unlike a
respectable country gentleman. The latter was unassuming, free, easy,
and gentleman-like, willing and anxious to do his duty in such a way
as was at once consistent with the character of his high office, and
accommodating to the requisitionists; whilst the former was jealous of
his authority, and appeared only to consider how he could get over the
_task_ which he had neither the courage to decline, nor the address to
manage with common urbanity. The day, however, was at length fixed, but
at the greatest possible distance of time, evidently for the purpose of
frustrating the object of those who signed the requisition, as in all
probability the Bill would be passed the House of Commons before the day
of meeting, or at least before the petition could be presented. In fact,
both the Sheriff and his hopeful Deputy declared with a sneer, that the
necessity of holding the meeting might possibly be set aside, by the
House of Commons passing the Bill. Old birds, however, are not to be
caught with chaff, and therefore the requisition was drawn too general
to allow of practising a trick of this sort; it said not a word about
the House of Commons; it merely requested that a county meeting might be
called, to consider the propriety of petitioning PARLIAMENT against the
proposed Corn Bill; and I sarcastically observed to these wiseacres,
that it depended upon the feeling of the meeting, when we were
assembled, which branch of the Parliament we should petition, whether
King, Lords, or Commons, and it would be quite time enough to consider
that point when we _were_ assembled. It always required considerable
address and presence of mind to keep the upper hand of these legal
quirk-dealers, these impudent under-strappers, whose whole trade
consists in trick and chicane; but I do not recollect ever having been
outwitted by any one of them as to the proceedings of a public meeting.
In the interval between the presenting of the requisition and the coming
together of the meeting, there were great riots in London, each night
that the measure was discussed in the House of Commons; great multitudes
had assembled about the House in a menacing manner; the military were
called in, and the Bill was passed while the House was guarded with an
armed military force with bayonets fixed. Many of the Members of the
Honourable House were hooted and hustled as they passed into the doors;
and Mr. Garrow, the then Attorney-General, had rather a narrow escape.
It is said that he was surrounded, and the mob were just upon the point
of claping a halter round his neck, supposing him to be one of the
obnoxious individuals who had been pressing the Bill through the House
with the most indecent haste, when some one in the crowd sung out with
a loud voice that it was Garrow, the Attorney-General, who had not
prosecuted any one for a political libel since he had been in office;
upon which they gave him three cheers and let him pass.
The day for the meeting at length came. When we arrived at Salisbury,
where the meeting was called, the news was brought down that the Bill
had passed the House of Commons the night before; but we were not thrown
off our guard by this event, as we had in some measure anticipated it.
It was, however, necessary to draw up fresh resolutions, and a petition
to the Lords instead of the Commons, which Mr. Cobbett and myself
had scarcely time to half accomplish before a messenger entered out of
breath, to say that the Sheriff and his party were gone to the Hall,
whither they had proceeded the moment the clock struck twelve, instead
of waiting, as usual, till it was _one_; the county meetings having
always been called at twelve, under an understanding that _one_ was the
hour at which business was to be commenced. In another minute or two a
second messenger hurried to us, to say that the Sheriff had opened the
proceedings, and the meeting would be instantly closed if we did not
proceed to the spot with all possible expedition. In consequence of
this, Mr. Cobbett and myself packed up our half-finished resolutions and
hastened to the scene of action, yet still conceiving it impossible that
any thing assuming the character of a gentleman could be guilty of such
a mean, pitiful, and underhanded trick as that which we were told would
be played. Scarcely, however, had we reached the door of the Hall, when
we met Mr. Sheriff, Mr. Deputy, and a pretty little knot of sycophants
and dependants, coming out; and Tinney informed us, that, as no one had
come forward when the requisition was read, the Sheriff had dissolved
the meeting. We expostulated against such an ungentlemanly like trick,
but our expostulations would have been in vain if the tricksters had
happened to have got without the door of the Hall; but, fortunately,
we got into the entrance passage, and met them face to face, where our
arguments were supported by such an overwhelming power in the rear, that
they were quite irresistible. The fact was, there happened to be _no
back door_, and with a _little gentle force_ we conveyed, or rather
wriggled, these worthy men in office back again, step by step, and inch
by inch, till the worthy Sheriff once more took the chair, amidst the
deafening shouts of the largest county meeting that I ever witnessed. To
tell the truth, they found it impossible to get out of the Hall, and at
length, after having made as many shifts and feints and shuffles as an
old fox would to avoid the well-trained, true-bred pack, and finding
that we neither yielded to coaxing, bullying, nor wheedling, they
ultimately made a virtue of necessity, and the high-bred High Sheriff
turned-to very kindly, and once more opened the proceedings of the
meeting, by reading the requisition. I then moved an adjournment into
the open air, and two carpenters' benches (the very best temporary
hustings) being at hand, the business went on and passed off in a most
regular and satisfactory manner. After I had moved and Mr. Cobbett had
seconded the resolutions, and a petition to the House of Lords, praying
that they would protect us from the rapacity of the Commons, and not
pass the Corn Bill, and after an amendment had been proposed by the
Reverend Mr. Hill, supported by Mr. Gourley, our resolutions and
petition, which also prayed for a Reform of the House of Commons, a
reduction of all useless places, and an abolition of all unmerited
pensions and sinecure places, were carried unanimously, or at least with
only a few, very few dissenting voices. Sheets of parchment and pens and
ink were provided, and the people began to sign their names instantly.
Mr. Cobbett returned to his home, while I sent messengers or went myself
into every town in the county, and collected signatures, which amounted,
at the end of four days, to TWENTY-ONE THOUSAND, and were forwarded with
the petition to Lord Stanhope, who presented it on the second reading of
the Bill in the House of Lords. I reckoned that it cost me upwards of
fifty pounds, out of my own pocket, to accomplish this county meeting
and petition; no one soul but myself having contributed a single
sixpence towards the expense.
About the time that the populace in London were committing great
excesses, by breaking the windows of those Members of Parliament who
took a prominent part in favour of the Corn Bill, Lord Cochrane, who was
confined in the King's Bench prison, in consequence of a verdict given,
or at least _procured_, against him, for the part it was pretended he
had in the Stock Exchange hoax, made his escape from that prison, a
circumstance which caused a very considerable sensation throughout the
metropolis and the country; for it was rumoured that his Lordship had
made his escape with the intention of placing him self at the head of
the London rioters, who had by this time increased in numbers and daring
resistance to the authorities. In descending by a rope from the top of
the wall, his Lordship fell from a very considerable height, and injured
himself severely, so much so, that he was for a great length of
time unable to raise himself from the earth. His Lordship remained
undiscovered for some weeks, and then appeared in his place in
Parliament, where he was discovered sitting upon one of the benches of
the House of Commons, and from thence he was taken by the civil power,
and delivered once more into the custody of the Marshal of the King's
Bench prison. Let the reader bear in mind what I have already mentioned,
that the Parliament of England was obliged to be aided by the military;
that Westminster Hall and both Houses of Parliament were encircled by
troops, and all the avenues leading thereto were guarded by soldiers
with their bayonets fixed, and that thus this law, this infamous Corn
Bill, to enhance and keep up the price of bread, the staff of life, was
passed under the protection of a military force, in defiance of the
prayers, the petitions, and the remonstrances of a great majority of the
people of England; a fact which clearly demonstrated that the House
of Commons, where the Bill originated, were so far from being the
representatives of the people, that they acted in direct hostility to
them, and had no feeling in common with them, but were more like a band
of venal, corrupt, profligate, dishonest, and merciless oppressors.
The landed gentry in other parts had now began to shew a disposition
to shake off the income tax, called the property tax, which was an
arbitrary and inquisitorial war tax, and ought to have been abolished as
soon as peace was proclaimed. As, however, the Ministers were evidently
not in the least disposed to give up fourteen millions a-year, which
this horrid imposition produced, many meetings were held and petitions
agreed to, praying for its being abolished. Amongst the number a
requisition was signed and presented to the Sheriff of Somerset, George
Edward Allen, Esq. of Bathhampton, requesting him to call a public
meeting to take the subject into consideration, and he immediately
advertised a meeting of the freeholders and inhabitants of the county,
to be held at Wells. At the head of this requisition was Mr. Hanning,
of Dillington. I saw the advertisement in the public papers, and as it
appeared that the parties calling the meeting only intended to petition
for a partial repeal of the tax, as far as it affected themselves, while
they left the most odious and obnoxious half of it untouched, I mean
that part which affected the small annuitant and fundholder, the widow
and the orphan, whose income was under one hundred pounds a-year, I
directly made up my mind to attend the meeting. As a preliminary step,
therefore, I wrote a letter to the freeholders and inhabitants of the
county, calling upon them to come to the meeting, and to support me in
the endeavour to frustrate such a partial proceeding. In case of their
being disposed to petition the Parliament, I urged them to support me in
petitioning for an absolute repeal of the _whole tax_. This letter was
published in one or two of the county newspapers, and I also printed and
caused to be circulated five hundred copies of it in hand-bills.
When the day came, I had to drive from Middleton Cottage in the morning,
a distance of fifty miles, and I reached Wells a little after one
o'clock, the meeting having been advertised to commence at that hour.
The news flew through the city like wildfire, and as I drove through the
streets in my tandem I was hailed by the acclamations of the people. I
had not been five minutes in the inn, before I received a polite message
from the High Sheriff, Mr. Allen, to say that he had delayed opening the
meeting till my arrival, and he would not go to the hustings till I
was ready to attend. Here was a contrast to the conduct of the paltry
upstart of the county of Wilts! As soon as the clock struck one Mr.
Allen was urged, by Mr. Perpetual Under-Sheriff and his associates, some
of the attending Magistrates, to proceed to the hustings, and to
open the proceedings forthwith. With this suggestion he, however,
peremptorily refused to comply, saying, "as Mr. Hunt has published
a letter in the public newspapers, to say that he should attend the
meeting, and propose some amendment to the petition which is meant to be
submitted to the meeting by those who signed the requisition, I have
not the slightest doubt but he will keep his word; and as he lives at a
great distance, I should not be doing my duty conscientiously if I did
not wait half an hour, to make allowance for the difference of clocks,
or any accidental delay that may have arisen in so long a journey."
As he had anticipated, I arrived within ten minutes of the time; and in
answer to his polite message I returned another, thanking him for
his attention, and promising not to detain him five minutes. In the
meanwhile I had a message from Mr. Hanning and the other gentlemen
who signed the requisition, to say that, previous to our going to the
hustings, they wished to consult with me upon the propriety of the
resolutions, &c. that they meant to submit to the meeting. My answer
was, "give my compliments to the gentlemen, and say that I am at the
Swan, where I shall be happy to confer with them if they wish it." In
three minutes, before I could scarcely wash my hands and face after my
journey, they entered my room. They began by saying that they had seen
my letter in the public papers, and as they by no means wished to act
hostilely to me, or to create any division at the meeting, they had no
objection to adopt my resolutions and petition, which prayed for the
total repeal of the Property Tax, instead of those which they had drawn
up, which only went to the partial repeal of it. I saw by this that they
had fully ascertained what was the real public feeling, and that they
were not willing to brave it at the meeting. I begged to see their
resolutions and petition, adding, that I by no means wished to take it
out of their hands; and to skew them that I wished to meet them upon
liberal terms, I proposed the embodying one of my resolutions among
theirs, and a corresponding clause in their petion. As these additions
fully recognised the principle for which I contended, I was desirous to
skew the requisitionists that I did not wish to take any advantage of
the popularity that I possessed, and I therefore agreed that Mr. Hanning
should propose his resolutions and petition, thus altered and amended,
and that I would then give him my hearty concurrence and support.
My proposition being readily accepted, and hailed as an emblem of union,
we proceeded to the hustings together, and every thing went off with
the greatest unanimity and cordiality amongst all the parties, with the
exception of a discussion that took place upon a bye resolution, which I
proposed, of a vote of thanks to the Ministers, for having concluded a
"peace with the Americans, the only remaining free Government in the
universe." I meant this resolution to answer a double purpose; first, by
thanking the Ministers, I gave the Whigs a kick; and second, it was
a compliment due to the Americans, for having bravely repelled a
tyrannical invader. It was a Whig meeting, at least it was called by the
Whigs, and therefore every exertion was made to prevent the passing of
this resolution. Old Sir John Cox Hippisley palavered, and whined, and
begged and prayed, for an hour, and endeavoured to wheedle and coax
me to withdraw my motion for the sake of unanimity. Upon all public
matters, however, I was ever inflexible, and I was therefore prepared at
all times to do my duty without looking to the right or to the left, and
I consequently insisted upon having the motion put to the meeting. On a
division it was lost by only a very small majority.
In the month of January, 1815, a treaty was concluded between the Allied
Powers at Vienna, to maintain the treaty of Paris. In the Congress,
by which this treaty was settled, the Ministers of some of the Allied
Powers seriously proposed to seize Napoleon at Elba, to carry him off by
force from that island, and to convey him to St. Helena; and this base
scheme was to be executed in violation of the solemn compact entered
into with him; a compact granting to him the island of Elba in full
sovereignty! But it is quite clear that there are no treaties, however
solemn; no engagements, however binding; no obligations, however sacred,
that tyrants will not violate, and laugh to scorn, when it suits their
purpose so to do.
The treaty of Vienna was entered into upon the 25th of January, and it
is supposed, and I believe pretty well understood, that this diabolical
plot against the life and liberty of Napoleon was privately communicated
to him, by some friend that he had amongst the diplomatists of the
Allied Sovereigns. Napoleon, therefore, took the resolution of leaving
Elba as soon as possible, and returning to France, to endeavour to
reconquer that crown which had been forced from him by the very same
despots whom he had more than once restored to liberty and power after
he had subdued them.
Having deliberately made up his mind to risk the attempt, Napoleon
promptly carried it into execution. He set sail from Elba on the 26th of
February, with about one thousand brave followers, in four vessels. An
English frigate pretended to chase them, but he landed his little force
at Frejus, in France, on the 1_st of March_, 1815, and he was soon
joined by various bodies of the army, who flew to the ranks of their old
commander, who had bravely led them into a thousand battles, and with
whom they had participated in a thousand victories over the enemies
of their country. Though at the outset his force was not more than a
thousand strong, he marched boldly forward in a direct line for Paris,
and his numbers continued to swell as he advanced. France was in a state
of the greatest agitation, and of hopes and fears for his safety and his
success. He arrived at Gasson the 5th, the next day he crossed the Upper
Alps, passed on through Grenoble, reached Burgoin on the 10th, and on
the 11th he entered the City of Lyons, the second city of the French
empire, where he was received with every demonstration of respect and
attachment. The army and the people vied with each other which should
evince the greatest enthusiasm; from Lyons he issued a Proclamation,
annulling all that had been done in his absence. On the following day he
marched on, and reached Autun; on the 16th he entered Auxerre; on the
17th he halted at Fontainbleau; and made his entrance into Paris in
triumph on the TWENTIETH OF MARCH. There he was hailed with enthusiastic
delight; and, amidst the deafening acclamations of the Parisians, he
entered the Palace of the Thuilleries, from whence Louis the Desired had
fled but a few hours before, with the utmost precipitation and dismay.
Napoleon could have arrested his flight, and brought him back as a
prisoner without the least difficulty, but he was too brave even to
tread upon so fallen a creature. At a subsequent period the Duke
d'Angouleme also fell into the hands of one of his Generals, but the
moment Napoleon heard of it, he ordered him to be set at liberty to go
where he pleased. But, as it turned out afterwards, this proved a fatal
lenity. On the day that Napoleon entered Paris, the following notices
were placarded by the people on the walls of the Thuilleries and the
neighbourhood. "A Palace to be let well furnished, except kitchen
utensils, which have been carried away by the late proprietor." "A large
fat hog to be sold for one Napoleon," &c. &c. These things evidently
shewed with what feelings of utter contempt the Bourbons were regarded
by the Parisians. Napoleon, as I have already stated, was informed that
Louis had only quitted Paris a few hours previously, and that it would
be very easy to overtake him and his cavalcade, and bring them back
prisoners to Paris; but this he positively forbade, adding, that he had
no wish to touch a hair of his head. Thus was Napoleon placed upon the
throne of France, restored to all his former power of sovereignty in
that country without one life being lost, one single shot being fired.
If ever there was a legitimate monarch, Napoleon was now that man; for
he was voluntarily elected and placed upon the throne by the united
voice of the whole people. The cause of the Bourbons became so
desperate, that not the slightest hope remained for them, except what
could arise from resorting to the aid of foreign arms to restore
the King to the throne from which he had fled with the greatest
precipitancy, without having made the slightest resistance. In fact the
whole people were by this time completely sick of the Bourbons. The
Despots of Europe, meanwhile, were in the greatest alarm, but they soon
entered into a league to make war upon France to restore the old tyranny
of the Bourbons, and they instantly began to prepare to carry their
project into effect. Buonaparte offered peace to the combination of
Sovereigns, but he did not neglect to prepare his troops for any
emergency that might happen.
When the news arrived in England that Napoleon had quitted Elba, and
landed at Provence, in France, it was with the greatest difficulty that
John Gull could be made to believe that it was true, till the daily
accounts arrived of his steady march towards Paris. As he approached
that capital the most intense interest was excited, not only in France
and England, but all over the civilised world. In England nothing else
was talked of or thought of. I own I never before felt so much anxiety;
and the desire to see the newspapers, which furnished an account of the
daily progress which he made, became every hour more and more acute. At
length, the official intelligence arrived, that Napoleon had entered
Paris, and that he was peaceably restored to the throne amidst the
shouts and applause of the whole French nation. I had been from home
upon business the whole day, and I had heard of this happy event, and
when I returned in the evening I was much gratified to find that my
family had anticipated my wishes, had procured candles, and were
preparing to ILLUMINATE MY HOUSE. I had said, in the beginning of March,
when the information reached England, that Napoleon had landed in
France, that I would illuminate my house if ever he reached Paris alive.
Although some doubts were expressed at the time by my family, as to the
prudence of such a course, yet, as I declared my determination to do so
when the time arrived, there was no hesitating, no desire to baulk
my intentions, or to disappoint my wishes, which, having been once
seriously expressed, were quite sure to be accomplished in my family; so
that, if I had not returned home that night, my house would nevertheless
have been illuminated. The candles were all fixed, and every pane of
glass could boast a light. The moment it was dark, MIDDLETON COTTAGE WAS
ILLUMINATED from top to bottom. This was the only occasion, this was the
first time in my life, that ever any house of mine had been illuminated.