the document with them. It was very long, and filled several pages
closely written upon foolscap paper. As soon as I had read the first
resolution, I was satisfied in my own mind as to how I ought to act
with respect to this voluminous production; but when I had read to the
bottom of the first page I closed the book, and very seriously informed
my visitors that it evidently contained treasonable matter, and that
nothing more than the overt act of holding the meeting, to carry the
scheme into execution, was required to make all that were concerned in
it liable at least to be indicted for high treason. I certainly should
not, I told them, countenance any such measures as were proposed even in
the first page, and the project of marching in a body to Carlton House,
to demand and enforce an audience of the Prince Regent (which formed a
part of their design), was quite preposterous, as well as unjust and
unreasonable. As a private gentleman, I myself would not submit to be
intruded upon in such a manner, and it was very unreasonable to expect
that it could be endured by the Chief Magistrate of the country.
I found, in fact, that the whole affair was made up of Spencean
principles, relating to the holding of all the land in the kingdom as
one great farm belonging to the people, or something of that sort. I
told them my ideas upon the subject, which were, that the first thing
the people had to do, in order to recover their rights, was to obtain a
Reform of the Commons' House of Parliament. When once the people were
fairly and equally represented in that House, such propositions as were
contained in their memorial might then be discussed, but for one set of
people to dictate to any other what should be the law, I maintained to
be arbitrary and unjust. The Doctor very readily concurred with me, and
he asked my advice as to what was best to be done. I replied, that the
only course to be pursued was, to pass certain resolutions, pointing
out the distressed state of the country, and the absolute necessity of
Reform, to save the wreck of the constitution, and declaring that the
only Reform that would be of any avail must be upon the principles of
Annual Parliaments, Universal Suffrage, and Vote by Ballot. They
both at once agreed to the propriety of my suggestions, and requested
that I would prepare some resolutions, and an address to his Royal
Highness, which they also begged me to propose to the meeting, and they
would support them. I asked them if they did not expect the attendance
of any other of the public characters to whom they had written? To
this they replied, that I was the only person who had accepted the
invitation. The Doctor and Mr. Thistlewood promised to take care about
the hustings being erected in Spa-fields, and the former was to call on
me on Monday morning, to prepare and transcribe the resolutions and the
petition which were to be submitted to the meeting.
The Doctor came at the time appointed, and he copied the resolutions and
the petition which I had drawn up, which, with some few alterations and
additions, were the same as were agreed upon by Mr. Cobbett and myself
at Botley. Before we had finished these, a messenger arrived, to say
that an immense number of persons were assembled in the front of the
Merlin's Cave public-house, in Spa-fields, and that they were
impatient for our arrival. Upon this, the Doctor and myself got into a
hackney-coach, and drove immediately to the spot, which was covered
by much the largest concourse of people I had ever seen together in my
life. We were hailed with the most deafening shouts, and, with some
considerable difficulty, we were driven to the summit of the hill,
surrounded by the multitude. Upon inquiry where the hustings were, I
found that nothing had been done or thought of towards the erecting of
them. In this dilemma I mounted upon the top of the hackney-coach, and
was immediately followed by the Doctor and another person, which person,
without further ceremony, hoisted a tricoloured flag, _red, white,_
and _green!_ The bearer of this flag was no less a personage than the
notorious Mr. JOHN CASTLES, a gemman that I had never seen before. I
soon found that it was impossible to address such an immense multitude
from such a situation as that of the top of a coach, and as the wind
blew very sharp, our birth was a very disagreeable one. While we were
looking round for a better situation, we were hailed by some gentlemen
from the window of a house in the neighbouring row, and a young person,
whom I afterwards found to be Mr. William Clark, having made his way to
the coach, invited me to enter the house opposite, and to address the
multitude from the window; and, as the party who were assembled in
that room still kept beckoning me to join them, I readily assented. We
dismounted and followed Mr. Clark, who led us up stairs into the front
room of the Merlin's Cave public-house, which I afterwards found had
been taken by, and was partly occupied by, the Magistrates, accompanied
by a number of the officers of the police and the reporters of the
public press. The sashes were immediately removed from the window, and I
presented myself to the assembled multitude amidst universal shouts of
applause. I found myself surrounded by strangers, there being scarcely a
man in the room I had ever before seen, with the exception of Mr. Clark
and some of the reporters of the public press. I proposed that Mr. Clark
should take the chair, which proposal was seconded, and carried by
acclamation. I was the only person present who was known to the
multitude as a public man. I had often appeared before the people at
Palace-yard, and at the Guildhall of the city of London, and I was
instantly recognized by them. In fact, I believe that it had been
publicly placarded and advertised that I had accepted the invitation
to attend, which had been sent to me by the Committee, and I was,
therefore, expected. The Chairman having, in an appropriate speech,
briefly opened the meeting, I stood forward to move the resolutions,
which I prefaced by a speech of about an hour in length. I pointed out
the enormous sums paid by the public for what is called the Civil List,
amounting in the last year to 1,038,000£; and in the same year, on
account of deficiencies of the said Civil List, 584,713£ more; and for
the Civil List for Scotland, 126,613£ additional, making in the
whole, for the Civil List of that year, ONE MILLION SEVEN HUNDRED AND
FORTY-NINE THOUSAND THREE HUNDRED AND TWENTY-SIX POUNDS. I showed
that the expense of keeping up the army, including the ordnance, was
26,736,017£; that the additional allowance to the Royal Family that year
was 366,660£; that the secret service money was 153,443£; and that the
sum voted for the poor clergy of the Church of England was 100,000£.
I also read a list of some of the most profligate sinecurists and
pensioners, male and female, in which I included a sufficient sprinkling
of ladies and gentlemen belonging to both the great factions of Whigs
and Tories, taking as nearly as I could an equal number from each of
them. Among those whom I specified were the Marquis of Buckingham and
Lord Camden, the two Tellers of the Exchequer, whose sinecures at that
time were about thirty-five thousand a-year each; Lord Arden, the elder
brother of Perceval, thirty-eight thousand a-year; Lords Grenville and
Erskine, &c. &c. &c. Amongst the number of lady pensioners I noticed
Lady Auckland, Lady Louisa Paget, Mrs. Hunn, the mother of Mr. Canning,
&c. &c. I represented these persons as contributing to the distresses of
the country, by taking such large sums out of the taxes, without doing
any thing for it. I contended that the enormous weight of taxation alone
produced the misery under which the people were groaning, and that the
sole cause of such heavy impositions being placed upon the people, arose
from the corrupt state of the representation in the Commons' or people's
House of Parliament; and I laboured strenuously to convince them that
the high price of bread and meat did not originate with the bakers
and butchers, as was falsely asserted to be the case by the corrupt
conductors of the daily press. I demonstrated to them the folly of
wreaking their vengeance upon unoffending tradesmen, who were suffering
from the weight of taxes nearly as much as themselves; and I endeavoured
to convince them of the _superiority of mental over physical force_;
contending that it would be an act of injustice, as well as folly, to
resort to the latter while we had the power of exercising the former.
Above all things, I took the greatest pains to promote peace and good
order, as the only means by which they were likely to obtain any redress
for their grievances, or any alleviation of their miseries, and to
convince them that to commit acts of violence was to prove themselves
unworthy of relief. I concluded by reading and recommending to their
adoption the four following resolutions. These resolutions were received
with long continued shouts of approbation:
Resolved 1st, That the country is in a state of fearful
and unparalleled distress and misery; and that the principal
immediate cause of this calamity, which has fallen
upon all classes of persons, except that class which derive
their incomes from the Taxes, is, that enormous load
of taxation, which has taken, and which still takes, from
the Farmer, the Manufacturer, and the Tradesman, the
means of maintaining their families, and paying their
debts, and of affording, in the shape of wages, a sufficiency
to employ and support their Labourers and Journeymen.
Resolved 2d, That the causes of this intolerable burden,
are, 1st, the amount of a Debt contracted by Boroughmongers
for the purposes of carrying on a _long, unnecessary,
and unjust War_, the main objects of which
now appear to have been to _stifle_ Civil, Political, and Religious
Liberty, and to restore Despotism and Persecution;
2d, The maintenance of an Army in France, in order to
uphold the restored Despots and Priests in opposition to
the express wishes of the whole French Nation; 3d, The
keeping up of an enormous Standing Army in these Kingdoms,
with a view of overawing the People, and compelling
them to submit to War Taxes in time of Peace;
4th, A lavish and profligate expenditure of the Public
Money on innumerable men and women, who are the
holders of Sinecures, Pensions, Grants, and Emoluments
of various descriptions, without having ever performed
the smallest service to their Country.
Resolved 3d, That the _sole cause_ of these desolating
measures and practices, _is the want of the People being represented
in the Commons' House of Parliament_, and the
return of Members to that House by those base and corrupt
means, which were by the Members themselves
shamelessly confessed to be "as notorious as the sun at
noon-day."
Resolved 4th, That a Petition be presented to the
Prince Regent, beseeching him to take into his gracious
consideration the sufferings of this industrious, patient, and
starving People, praying that he will be pleased immediately
to cause the Parliament to be assembled, and to recommend
to them, in the most urgent manner, to reduce
the Army, to abolish all Sinecures and all Pensions, Grants,
and Emoluments not merited by Public Services; and to
apply the same to feed the "HUNGRY AND CLOTHE THE
NAKED," so that the unhappy and starving People may
be saved from desperation; and above all, to listen, before
it be _too late_, to those repeated prayers of the People, for
being restored to their undoubted right of enjoying the
benefit of Annual Parliaments chosen freely by the People.
Dr. Watson seconded these resolutions, and they were carried
unanimously, amidst the cheers of the multitude, without one dissenting
voice. I then read the following petition, which, after having been
seconded by the Doctor, was unanimously adopted by the greatest
concourse of people that had ever, within the memory of man, been known
to assemble for any political purpose.
_"To his Royal Highness the Prince Regent of the United
Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland._
"The Petition of the distressed Inhabitants of the Metropolis,
held in Spa-fields, the 15th day of November, 1816,
"HUMBLY SHOWETH--That this kingdom is in a state
of unparalleled distress and misery, and that the principal
immediate cause of this calamity, which has fallen upon
all classes of persons (except that class which derive their
incomes from the taxes), is that enormous load of taxation
which has taken, and which still takes, from the
farmer, the manufacturer, and the tradesman, the means
of maintaining their families, and of paying their debts,
and of affording, in the shape of wages, a sufficiency to employ
and support their labourers and journeymen.
"That the causes of this intolerable burden are--First,
The amount of a debt, contracted by Borough-mongers
and their agents, for the purpose of carrying on a long,
unnecessary, and unjust war, the object of which now appears
to have been to stifle civil, political, and religious
liberty, and to restore despotism and persecution. Second,
The maintenance of an English Protestant Army in France,
in order to uphold the restored Despots and Priesthood,
whom we have been taught to hold in abhorrence. Third,
The keeping up in these kingdoms of an enormous Standing
Army, with all its _colleges, barracks_, and _arsenals_,
with a view of overawing the people, and compelling
them to submit to War Taxes in time of Peace. Fourth,
A lavish and profligate expenditure of the public money
on innumerable men and women, who are holders of _sinecures,
pensions, grants_, and _emoluments_ of various descriptions,
without having ever performed the smallest
service to the country.
"That the _sole cause_ of these desolating measures and
practices is, _the want of the people being represented in
their own House of Parliament_, and the return of Members
to that House by those base and corrupt means,
which means were, by the Members themselves, shamelessly
confessed 'to be as notorious as the sun at noonday.'
"Upon the ground of these facts, the existence of which
must be familiar to the mind, and painful to the heart of your
Royal Highness, we earnestly beseech your Royal Highness
to take into your gracious consideration the sufferings of this
_industrious, patient, and starving people_; and we earnestly
pray,
"That your Royal Highness will be pleased to cause
the Parliament to be assembled immediately, and, as the
friend of your Royal Father's people, to urge the two
Houses to reduce the Army, to remove those barracks,
military colleges, and all those menacing parades so hateful
to our eyes and so hostile to that Constitution which
your Royal House were placed on the Throne to defend;
to abolish all sinecures and all _pensions, grants,_ and _emoluments_
not merited by public services, and to apply the
amount of the same to _feed the hungry and clothe the
naked;_ and, above all, to listen, before it be TOO LATE,
to those repeated prayers of the people for being restored
to their undoubted right of annually choosing their own
Representatives. In the mean time we implore your
Royal Highness to appropriate a _few hundred thousands_
of the enormous Civil List for the immediate relief of the
_numerous suffering, starving,_ and _dying_ people.
"And we shall ever pray, &c. &c."
The following resolutions were then proposed and carried
unanimously:Resolved 5th, That Sir Francis Burdett, Bart.
be requested to wait on the Prince Regent, and deliver this
Petition into his hands as soon as possible.
Resolved 6th, That Henry Hunt, Esq. be requested to
accompany Sir F. Burdett.
Resolved 7th, That Sir Francis Burdett, Bart. assisted
by Major Cartwright, be requested to prepare and bring
into Parliament, as soon as they meet, a Bill for a Reform
thereof, agreeable to the Constitution.
Resolved 8th, That this Meeting do adjourn to Monday
fortnight, then to assemble to hear the answer of
the Prince Regent, in Spa-fields, at One o'Clock precisely.
Resolved 9th, That this Meeting do re-assemble the
first day after the meeting of Parliament, in Palace-yard,
Westminster, at One o'clock, to petition Parliament for
a Reform thereof, agreeable to the Constitution.
Resolved 10th, That our fellow-countrymen of Bristol,
Liverpool, Manchester, Birmingham, Nottingham, Leicester,
Glasgow, Paisley, and of every City, Town, and
populous place in the United Kingdom, are hereby invited,
and requested by this Meeting to assemble and meet on
the _same day_, at the same hour, and for the SAME PURPOSE.
Resolved 11th, That the Thanks of the Meeting be given
to H. Hunt, Esq.
Resolved 12th, That the Thanks of the Meeting be given
to Mr. Dyall and Mr. Preston, and those Gentlemen who
called the Meeting.
Resolved 13th, That the Thanks of the Meeting be given
to the Chairman, William Clark, Esq.
The parties thanked having briefly returned the compliment, the meeting
was dissolved by the Chairman, who accompanied me into a coach, which
the multitude immediately took possession of, and drew amidst the most
unanimous cheers, to my inn, the Black Lion, Water-lane, where I had
appointed to meet a friend to dine. As soon as they had safely conveyed
us, they dispersed to their several homes, in the most peaceable manner.
Just as we were sitting down to dinner, four of us, Mr. Bryant, his son,
Mr. Clark, and myself, to our great surprise in marched Messrs. Watson,
Thistlewood, and three or four strangers, whom they introduced as Mr.
Watson, jun. Mr. Castles, Mr. Hooper, &c. who had followed us from the
meeting, with an intention, as they said, of dining with me. I was very
much disconcerted by this intrusion, and told them that I had private
business to settle, that I had no idea of dining in public, and that
dinner was only ordered for four. As, however, they did not appear to
take the hint (although it was a pretty broad one), Mr. Bryant ordered
more fish and some chops to be added to our dinner, and the table being
lengthened, down we all sat together. Mr. Bryant took the chair, at my
request.
Dinner being ended, Mr. Bryant drank the health of the King, which toast
passed round till it came to Mr. Castles, who, having filled a bumper,
substituted the following vulgar and sanguinary toast for that of the
King--"_May the last of Kings be strangled with the guts of the last
priest_;" a piece of brutality which had not even the miserable merit of
being original, he having copied it from one of the French anarchists.
This was a pretty specimen of the company that had intruded upon us! I
remonstrated against such blackguardism, and declared that I would not
remain in the room if there was any repetition of it. Mr. Castles,
nevertheless, soon began again in a similar strain, and having put forth
some most outrageous speech, as vulgar as it was seditious, both myself
and Mr. Bryant insisted upon the worthy gentleman leaving the room, or
holding his peace. He promised to do the latter, and he soon dropped
off, or appeared to drop off, into a very sound sleep. This was a
circumstance which struck me as being very suspicious, and therefore I
was particularly guarded in what I said, and in what was said by others.
At length two of the party, young Watson and Hooper, made a move to
retire, and I insisted upon it that they should take their friend
Castles with them; but he shammed so sound a sleep that it was with
difficulty he was got out of the room, and it was only effected by my
pulling the chair from under him; upon which he was in an instant as
wide awake as any man in the room. This convinced me that his sleep was
all a mere pretence. Soon after this the rest of the party left us, and
Mr. Bryant and myself remained to talk over the curious adventures of
the evening. We were both convinced that Castles was at any rate a great
villain, and I was determined in future not to be in a room where he
was.
On the next morning, Dr. Watson and Mr. Thistlewood came to apologise
for the ill-behaviour of their friend Castles, who they assured me was
at heart a very good fellow, but that he was overcome with liquor on
the preceding evening, and that he now wished very much to have an
opportunity of making an apology in person, for which purpose he was
waiting hard by. I, however, positively refused to see him, saying, that
I believed him to be a great scoundrel, and that I would on no account
suffer him to come into my room again; and I not only cautioned the
Doctor against him, but I believe I told him to take care, or Castles
would bring him to the gallows. In fact, I made up my mind that as long
as the Doctor and Mr. Thistlewood kept company with such a fellow, I
would have nothing to do with them in private, nor would ever see them
alone. The Doctor will recollect that, when they called on me in the
evening afterwards, to make some inquiry about the proceedings which
were to be adopted on the following meeting, intended to be held on the
2d of December, I declined to enter into any particulars, and did not
even ask them to take a seat, although Mr. Mitchell, a liveryman of the
city, was with me. I felt that I had been in very dangerous company,
and, though I would not neglect my public duty, I was determined that
I would not place myself in the power of such a man as Mr. Castles
appeared to me to be.
On the day of the meeting of the 15th of November, the _Courier_
newspaper roundly stated that HUNT had arrived at the meeting about
one o'clock, and, after having addressed the multitude in a most
inflammatory speech, had submitted to them a memorial to be presented to
the Prince Regent, full of _treasonable matter_; and the corrupt knave,
who conducts that paper, actually inserted one of the resolutions of the
memorial which Dr. Watson and Mr. Thistlewood had submitted to me, and
which I had rejected. The truth was, that the Government had previously
procured a copy of the said memorial, from a person of the name of
Dyall, one of the party who had called the meeting, and as this memorial
had been unanimously agreed to by the Committee, my Lord Sidmouth, the
Secretary of State, and his agents, made so certain that I should fall
into this _trap_, and propose it to the meeting, that their principal
organ, the editor of the _Courier_ newspaper, actually inserted a copy
of it in the paper, as having been proposed by me at the meeting. But
they soon found, to their sorrow, that old birds were not to be caught
with chaff; for that I had blasted their fondest hopes of bloodshed,
by proposing a petition to the Prince Regent, of a nature totally the
reverse of the said memorial; which petition was universally adopted
by the meeting; and that I had undertaken to present it to his Royal
Highness the Prince Regent, and had also promised to report the answer,
if I received any, at the next meeting, which was appointed to be held
on Monday, the 2d of December.
On the following day, not only the _Courier_ and the _Morning Post_,
but every paper published in the metropolis (with the exception of the
_Statesman,_ which was then conducted by Mr. Lovell), joined in pouring
forth a torrent of falsehood, misrepresentation, and abuse of me. I do
not know that I can give a more correct account of what took place in
London, more fairly represent the conduct of the public press upon this
occasion, than by giving an extract from Mr. Cobbett's Register, which
was published the ensuing week, as follows, headed "SPA-FIELDS MEETING:"
"Since my long acquaintance with the press, I do not
think that I have ever witnessed so much baseness of conduct
as this Meeting has given rise to. If Mr. Hunt had
been the most notorious pick-pocket; if he had been a
raggamuffin covered with a coat hired for the day; if he
had been a fellow who took up his lodgings in the brick-kilns
or in the niches on Westminster Bridge; and if he
had actually proposed to the Meeting to go directly and
plunder the silversmiths' shops and cut the throats of all
those who opposed them; if he had drank off a glass of
human blood by way of moistening his throat: monstrous
as this is, it is a real fact, that, if he had been and had
done all this, the London press could not have treated
him in a worse manner than it has. The _Statesman_ newspaper
is an exception; but, I believe, that it is almost
the only exception. Talk of _violence_ indeed! Was there
ever violence _like this_ heard of in this world before?
And, what is the monstrous _crime_ which has emboldened
these literary ruffians to make this savage assault, and
which induces them to suppose that they shall finally escape
with impunity? They, the vile wretches, are the
_real mob_. They attack in body; they know that _defence
is impossible_; they know, that a hundred times the fortune
of Mr. Hunt would not purchase enough of their columns
to contain an answer to their falsehoods. Is this
_manly_, is this _fairness_, is this _discussion_, is this _liberty of
the press_? Infamous cowards! They merit to be dragged
by a halter fastened round their necks, and whipped
through the streets. They talk of _decency_ and _decorum_
indeed! _They_ call people _blackguards_ and ruffians!
_They_ pretend to complain of _misrepresentation_ and _exaggeration_!
They! who set up one common howl of foul
abuse and viperous calumny.