that the Spafields petition bad been presented to the Prince Regent,
who had graciously ordered FOUR THOUSAND POUNDS to be paid to the
Spitalfields soup committee; which sum was to be taken from the Droits
of the Admiralty. In consequence of this grant from his Royal Highness,
the soup committee met, and called a public meeting in the city, for the
purpose of promoting the subscriptions, and devising the best means of
relieving the distress which now was admitted universally to prevail
amongst the labouring classes in the metropolis; so that it was quite
evident that our Spafields meeting had produced infinite good, that
in all probability it had been the means of saving the lives of
thousands, and relieving the distresses of tens of thousands. Mr.
Fowell Buxton attended this meeting, and, after having described the
unparalleled distress and misery of the people, he made a most animated
and feeling appeal to the humanity of the public, to come forward to
relieve them. This and all the other meetings that followed, and all
the subscriptions that were raised, may very justly be ascribed to the
meeting at Spafields; for till that meeting took place, the general
overwhelming distress was little known, and less regarded, by the
opulent and powerful, who alone had the means of relieving it.
Notwithstanding this was undeniably the fact, yet the whole public press
of the metropolis, with very few exceptions, was daily employed in
spreading the most atrocious falsehoods and calumnies against me, for
having attended that meeting. I was represented as a traitor, and one
who wished to overturn the sacred institutions of the country, and
to produce revolution, confusion, and bloodshed. The _Times_, the
_Chronicle_, the _Morning Post_, and the _Courier_, held me up to public
execration, and even pointed me out for destruction. The editor of the
_Times_, who was then the notorious Dr. Slop, alias Dr. Stoddart,
the present proprietor of the _New Times_, urged my assassination
over and over again. As, however, no one would kill me in reality, he
determined at least to kill me in print. Accordingly along article was
inserted in the paper, announcing, in the gravest manner, the death of
Hunt. It stated that I bad got drunk, at Mr. Thompson's gin-shop on
Holborn-hill, and had fallen into one of the areas of the new buildings
at Waterloo-place, opposite Carlton-House, where I was found dead. A few
days afterwards, it was declared that they were misinformed as to my
death, but that I was taken in a melancholy state of insanity to Bedlam;
and the writer gave an account of the incoherent conversation which I
had held with Major Cartwright, Mr. Cobbett, and Sir Francis Burdett,
who had been to visit me. These accounts were given in such a serious
manner, the details were so minute, and they had altogether so much
the appearance of truth, that many of my friends and relations in the
country were exceedingly alarmed, not having any idea that the editor
of a respectable newspaper would have the impudence to put forth such
barefaced falsehoods. There was also generally one scoundrel or other
who gratified his malignity by writing to my family some dreadful
story of my death, or of some serious injury which I had received.
On the Saturday previous to the 2d of December I drove again to London,
and as I was sitting, in the evening of that day, in the room at the
Black Lion, Water Lane, Dr. Watson and Mr. Thistlewood called to consult
me upon what I meant to propose on the following Monday. I declined,
however, to have any conversation with them upon the subject. I should,
I told them, be there at the time appointed (one o'clock), on the
ensuing Monday; but that I was going out of town on the next morning,
and should return on the following day in time for the meeting. On
Sunday morning I left London with my servant, and drove to a friend's,
at Wanstead, in Essex, where I passed the day and slept, on purpose to
be out of the way of the party which I had before met at Spafields; as,
after what I had seen and heard when Mr. Castles was present, I was
determined to avoid having any communication with any of them, unless it
was in public.
About twelve o'clock I started from Wanstead in my tandem, and, as I
was driving down Cheapside at a pretty smart pace, I met a considerable
crowd going towards the Mansion-House; and, just after I passed Bow-
Church, I saw Mr. John Castles amongst those who appeared to be going
in a contrary direction from that which led to Spafields. He beckoned
me, and I drew up to the pavement to inquire the cause of what appeared
to me rather extraordinary. Before, however, I could put the question
to Mr. Castles, he inquired where I was going? to which I replied, "to
Spafields, to be sure." "Oh," said he, "the meeting has been broken up
these two hours nearly; young Watson has got possession of the Tower,
and we are all going thither; turn your horses' heads and come with us."
I gave him a look that appeared to strike him dumb, and laying my whip
upon my wheel-horse, I passed rapidly on, exclaiming "what a ------
scoundrel!" I looked at the clock of Bow-Church, and saw that it
wanted a quarter of an hour to one. I drove on at a smart pace towards
Spafields, and observed to my servant, that I had no doubt in my own
mind that Castles, the villain whom we had met, was an agent of the
Government, a spy; and the suspicions which I entertained of him when I
first met him, were now fully confirmed.
When we reached Spafields, the throng was very great, much larger than
even at the first meeting of the 15th of November. By the kindness of
the multitude I was enabled to drive up to the door of the Merlin's
Cave, in the front of which the people were assembled. My servant
returned with my tandem, with orders to have my horse Bob, which I drove
as leader, ready in the evening with a saddle and bridle on, that I
might ride him home to my Inn from the meeting. The cheers of the
congregated tens of thousands were almost insupportable; I never heard
such before. I made my way into the Merlin's Cave with difficulty, as it
was again taken possession of by the police. When I entered the room,
I found very few persons there except the newspaper reporters, and the
police magistrates with their officers, and none of those that had taken
any part at the previous meeting but Mr. William Clark, who was again
appointed to take the chair. Watson, Thistlewood, Preston, and all that
party were absent, but I had no knowledge of the cause, any farther
than the intimation which I had received from the very worthy Mr. John
Castles, not one word of which did I believe to be true.
After having addressed the people, I moved a string of resolutions,
the first of which inculcated the necessity of peaceable conduct, and
denounced as the greatest enemies of Reform all those who should commit
any act of violence, or any breach whatever of the peace. Another
resolution was, to agree to petition the House of Commons for a Reform
in the representation of the people, upon the principle of universal
suffrage, annual parliaments, and vote by ballot. The resolutions being
seconded by Mr. Haydon of Welbeck-street, were all passed, and the
petition which I proposed was unanimously agreed to, and was, as will
hereafter be seen, signed by _twenty-four thousand_ of the suffering
unrepresented people, and which was presented to the Honourable House by
Lord Cochrane.
Towards the latter end of the meeting information was brought to me
that, in the course of the day, there had been some serious riots in the
city; I therefore immediately cautioned all those who had attended our
meeting to avoid mixing themselves up in any way with those illegal and
foolish proceedings. I told them that I should ride home to my hotel
upon my favourite horse BOB, and, as I knew they would attend me, I
earnestly entreated them that, as soon as they had protected me to my
abode, they would each of them peaceably and quietly return home, and
not give the enemies of Reform an opportunity of attributing disorderly
conduct to any part of the meeting. This advice they promised me they
would attend to. I then mounted my horse, and almost the whole assembly
accompanied me to my inn. As we passed in the front of the House of
Correction, in Cold Bath Fields, I observed great numbers of constables
and police officers assembled, armed with their staves of office, &c.
&c., as if for the purpose of protecting that building from the fury of
the populace. But there was not the slightest occasion for this, as the
people did not evince the least disposition to do any harm to any one;
and, notwithstanding the immense pressure of the crowd, I do not believe
that there was a single pane of glass broken.
When we arrived at the Black Lion in Water-lane, I stood up in my
stirrups, and demanded of the people if they would grant me _one
favour?_ A thousand voices exclaimed "Yes, Sir, any thing that you
wish." I then requested them to disperse immediately, and return to
their homes. They answered, "We will, we will!" I alighted and went into
my inn, and in a very few minutes afterwards the whole of this immense
multitude had dispersed, and were on their way homeward, without doing
any mischief.
It was now for the first time that I heard any thing of the riots which
had taken place in the city. A second edition of the _Courier_ gave a
most exaggerated account of them, misrepresenting every thing, and
heading the statements "_Spafelds Meeting_;" when the truth was, that so
far from any of the persons who attended the Spafields meeting having
had any hand in the riots, they actually knew nothing of the matter,
till they heard it from their neighbours, after they had returned home
from the meeting. The fact was this: Watson and Thistlewood found that
I would not have any thing to do with their wild schemes, whatever they
might be; they therefore assembled in Spafields about eleven o'clock in
the morning, more than an hour before the persons who meant to attend
the meeting began to meet together; they mounted the waggon, and
addressed the few individuals that surrounded them, perhaps at the
time two or three hundred; the elder Watson harangued them upon the
advantages of the Spencean plan, and young Watson, urged on by Castles,
having briefly addressed them, jumped from the waggon, and called upon
those who wished to be led on to victory to follow him; the villain
Castles taking care to leave a few bullets, wrapped up in an old
stocking, so exposed in the waggon, that those who remained could not
avoid seeing them. The whole of what occurred was reported by Mr.
Spectacle Dowling, a confidential reporter of the Sunday _Observer_,
who swore to the particulars afterwards with an astonishing degree of
minuteness, although other reporters who were present declared, that not
one-tenth of what was said could be heard.
About forty persons followed young Watson, accompanied by his friend
Castles; and Mr. Dowling the reporter followed this little squad of
desperadoes, no doubt for the purpose of giving a faithful detail of
what passed, although he was sent by Mr. Clement, of the _Observer_, to
report the proceedings of the meeting to be held in Spafields at one
o'clock. It appears that having been reinforced by a party of distressed
sailors and others, who were returning from the Old-Bailey, where they
had been to witness the hanging of some criminals, these gentry
attacked and began to plunder the shop of Mr. Beckwith, a gun-smith, in
Skinner-street. It is said that young Watson was seized there by a man
of the name of Platt, and that, in order to save himself, he fired a
pistol loaded with powder and wadding only, which wounded the said Platt
in the groin. Young Watson was, however, seized and taken up stairs
into a back room, and the front doors of the shop and the windows were
closed. During the confusion Platt escaped over a back wall of the
premises, and as young Watson was left in the house a prisoner at large,
he walked into a front room, opened a window that looked into the
street, and waved his handkerchief to the multitude, to make an effort
to relieve him. This they immediately attended to: a sailor volunteered
his services, and being hoisted up by the people, he threw himself
through the fan-light over the front door, which he soon opened, and
Watson was released without any resistance. They then seized some of the
guns, and pushed forward towards the Exchange, firing in the air as they
passed along Newgate-street and Cheapside. They entered the Exchange;
upon which the doors were closed upon them, and Alderman Wood, who was a
second time Lord Mayor, and Sir James Shaw, seized a sailor or two, one
of whom proved to be Cashman, who was then bearing the tricoloured flag.
The rest of the party, headed by Watson, marched off to the Tower,
where, as it was afterwards sworn, Thistlewood demanded of the soldiers
upon duty on the parapets to surrender the Tower to them. Some of the
party broke into a gunsmith's shop in the Minories, and carried off
several of his guns, some finished and others not finished. By this
time, however, a half-dozen of horse soldiers made their appearance upon
Tower-hill, upon which the authors of this mighty insurrection all fled
with the greatest precipitancy, helter skelter, the devil take the
hindermost, without the soldiers having made a charge, raised an arm, or
even approached near to them.
So much for this disgraceful and contemptible riot, during the whole of
which not one life was lost, and, with the exception of Platt, not one
person was even wounded or hurt. While these things were going on, it
has been seen that Castles had contrived to way-lay me, in Cheapside, on
my road from Wanstead towards Spafields; and, as I have before observed,
kindly invited me to accompany him to the Tower, which he said young
Watson had got possession of for more than an hour before.
In the evening the elder Watson and Thistlewood were taken near
Paddington or Islington, as they were endeavouring to make their escape
into the country. The worthy Mr. John Castles no doubt surrendered
himself, and soon after Preston and Hooper were apprehended, and they
were all five committed to prison. I believe a reward of 750_l_. was
offered for the apprehension of the chief conspirator, young Watson.
The next day the London papers were crammed full of the most wonderful
accounts of this most wonderful plot and insurrection; attributing
the whole of it to ME, and to the Spaflelds meeting. The London press
had raised such an outcry as never was heard of before; and if ten
thousand of the inhabitants of the city had been massacred, there could
not have been greater consternation produced throughout the whole
country; which consternation was sedulously kept up by the most
abominable falsehoods promulgated by almost the whole of the country
provincial newspapers. As a faithful account of the whole transaction
was published at the time by Mr. Cobbett, in his Register of the 13th of
December, in a letter which he addressed to me on the subject, and as it
contains matter worthy to be recorded in my Memoirs, I shall insert it
verbatim.
"_A Letter to Henry Hunt, Esq. of Middleton Cottage, near Andover, on
the London Plots._
"London, 13th Dec. 1816.
"Sir--The summer before last, when you came over to Botley and found
me transplanting Swedish turnips amidst dust, and under a sun which
scorched the leaves till they resembled fried parsley, you remember how
I was fretting and stewing; how many times in an hour I was looking out
for a south-western cloud; how I watched the mercury in the glass, and
rapped the glass with my knuckles to try to move it in my favour. But
great as my anxiety then was, and ludicrous as were my movements, ten
thousand times greater has been that of Corruption's Press for the
coming of a PLOT, and ten thousand times more ludicrous its movements in
order to hasten the accomplish ment of its wishes! You remember how my
wife laughed at me, when, in the evening, some boys having thrown a
handful or two of sand over the wall, that made a sort of dropping on
the leaves of the laurels, I took it for the beginning of a _shower_,
and pulled off my hat and held up my hand to see whether more was not
coming, though there was nothing to be seen in the sky but the stars
shining as bright as silver. Just such has been the conduct of
Corruption's sons upon hearing of the _discovery_ of Mr. Watson's and
Mr. Preston's _papers_.' They sigh for a PLOT. Oh, how they sigh! They
are working and slaving and fretting and stewing; they are sweating all
over; they are absolutely pining and dying for a Plot!
"In these their wishes it is hard to say which character is most
prominent, the _fool_ or the _knave;_ for, if by any means, they were
to make out the real existence of a Plot for the destruction of the
Government, would such proof tend to the _credit_ of that Government
in the eyes of the world at large, or in those of the people of this
kingdom? Would it tend to make the world believe that the Government is
good, and is beloved by the people? Would it tend to lessen the mass of
misery that is now in existence? Would it tend to enable the Landlords
and Farmers to pay the interest of the Debt? And, if it would have
no such tendency, what good could arise to the Government from the
producing of even undeniable proof of the existence of a Plot of any
sort, however extensive?
"But, as clearly appears from all their publications, the main hope of
Corruption's sons has been to trace a Plot to YOU! In order to effect
this, they have stuck at no thing that villainy could suggest. They have
asserted _as admitted facts_ hundreds of falsehoods. As a specimen
of these, the _Times, Sun, Courier_, and others have stated '_on
authority_,' that you and I were in _close consultation_, on the Sunday
before the riots, _with Lord Cochrane, in the King's Bench Prison_. You
know that you were at _Wanstead, in Essex_, all that day; and I know
that I was at _Peckham, in Surrey_, never having seen you on that day,
and not until the succeeding Tuesday. The wretched man who conducts
the Sun newspaper asserted, that I came up for the express purpose of
organizing the Plot; and that, having prepared every thing, I _set of to
Botley_ the night before it broke out.--_Here_ I have been in London,
however, without having stirred out of it one minute from that time
to this. I could mention a hundred other falsehoods which the sons of
Corruption have sent forth with equal boldness, with equal impudence,
and with equal baseness. But, the _Times_ newspaper, always preeminent
in infamy, asserted, that '_Young Cobbett_' was one of the persons who
_spent the evening_ with you after your return from the Spa-fields
Meeting on the Monday. The object of this falsehood was to alarm his
_mother_ and _sisters_ for his safety, seeing that that statement was
accompanied with other falsehoods calculated to excite a fear that all
who were with you that evening would be _implicated in some state
crime!_ It is for the Courier, the Sun, the Post, and some others to be
guilty of premeditated falsehoods, but it is only, I believe, for
Walter, the Proprietor of the Times, and the instigator to the killing
of the brave Marshal Ney, to be guilty of such baseness as _this_.
"However, even these falsehoods will tend to good. There are yet many
very worthy people, who have believed in the statement of these sons of
Corruption; who, judging too much from their own hearts and minds, have
not been able to work themselves into a belief, that other men could
be so totally void of all sense of moral feeling as coolly to put upon
paper, in the most serious and solid manner, and to send forth as
acknowledged truths, that which they know to be utterly false. To such
worthy persons it seems to be a libel on human nature to suppose, that
such black-hearted villainy can be in existence. They cannot conceive
how a man can dare walk the streets, or how he can look even his
acquaintances or his own family in the face, after being guilty of such
shameful conduct. They now see, however, that this really is the case;
and, though there are some who will still, from corrupt motives,
_affect_ to believe in the statements of these corrupt men, there will,
I hope, be found a great many to say, that they have been deceived, and
that they will be deceived no longer.
"The unfortunate men, whom want and ruin have driven to deeds of
desperation, are not, with all their temptations, more desperate in
their way than are the sons of Corruption in theirs, without any
temptation at all. The numerous and ponderous facts, the clear and
forcible arguments, by which they have been assailed, leave them no
means of _defence_.--They have been driven to the wall, beaten, subdued.
They dare not show themselves, in the field of dispute. They, therefore,
resort to false accusations; and, unable to find any thing upon which to
put a false construction, they have, at last, thrown aside all attempts
to discover the means of misrepresentation, and have had recourse to
open, unblushing, to sheer _invented falsehoods_. That love of _fair
play_, for which all orders of Englishmen in all ages have been so
famed, finds no place in the bosoms of these degenerate men.--They enter
the ring with seeming bravery, but being, round after round, knocked
down and crippled, they use, like a Dutchman, their remaining strength
to draw out a _snigarsnee_ to run into our bowels. Let us, however, by a
steady and cool perseverance in the cause of our country's freedom
and happiness, endeavour to break the arm that wields this hateful
instrument of malignity and cowardice.
"You, conscious of your honourable motives, and listening only to your
courage, have always been deaf to the intreaties of those who cautioned
you against the danger of spies and false-witnesses. But, do you think
that the wretches who could be base enough to publish falsehoods such as
I have enumerated above: who could coolly represent you as having been
sent first to gaol and then to Bedlam; and who, in order to deter me
from my duty, could exhibit my son as being in danger of his life, and
thereby cause alarm in his mother and sisters: do you think that men
so lost to all sense of shame, and so devoted to every thing that is
corrupt; do you think they would hesitate one moment to bribe villains
to swear falsely against you or against me or against any man, whom they
thought it their interest to destroy? Nay, do you think that they would
hesitate one single half moment to be guilty, for such a purpose, of the
blackest perjury themselves? Be you assured, that there is nothing of
which such men are not capable; intimidation, promises, bribes, perjury,
any thing such men are capable of recommending to others, or of doing
themselves. Your country life, your sober habits, your dislike of
feastings and carousings; these are great securities; but, while you
follow the impulses of your public-spirit and your valour, I hope you
will always bear in mind, that there are such things as _false-swearing_
in the world, and that a defeated coward has never been known to be
otherwise than inexorably cruel. The proprietor of the Morning Post, in
his paper of last Monday, says, that Cobbett and Hunt ought at least to
lose their lives; and the author of the Antigallican has, I am told,
put the drawing of a gallows in his Paper, with a _rope_ ready for use,
having _my name_ on it, or very near it.--And, you may be well assured,
that, if the _false oaths_ of these men could do the job, those oaths
would be very much at our service. Therefore, though I am quite sure,
that these menaces will not deter you from doing any thing, which you
would have done if the menaces had never been made; yet, as being proofs
of the shameless, the remorseless, the desperate villainy of these
tools, their present conduct ought to impress on your mind the necessity
of being on your guard, so far, at least, as not _unnecessarily_ to
expose yourself to the consequences of _false-swearing_. These men and
their associates call the younger Mr. Watson (whom they, without proof,
charge with shooting Mr. Platt) an _assassin_, though they themselves
state, that the shot arose from the seizure of Watson by Platt, and that
the former, like a wild enthusiast as he appears to have been, expressed
his sorrow on the instant, and actually went to work to save the life of
the wounded man. Nobody justifies, or attempts to justify, the shooter;
but, if he were an _assassin_, what are these men who, while they keep
their _names hidden_, are endeavouring to produce persecution and ruin
and death in every direction? The man who shot Mr. Platt, though highly
criminal, is not a thousandth part so criminal as these men, who to
premeditated bloody-mindedness add a degree of cowardice such as was
never before heard of.