and the agents of Government, in order to injure me in the opinion of
the public, not only vilified and abused and libelled me from day to
day, in the public newspapers, but they actually caused a placard to be
printed and posted all over the metropolis, which was headed "_Mr. Hunt
hissed out of the City of Bristol_," and contained all sorts of infamous
falsehoods and scurrilous abuse. It appeared from the newspapers that a
boy, of the name of Thomas Dugood, had been committed to prison, by a
Police Magistrate, for having pulled down one of these posting-bills. I
immediately set about an inquiry, to find out the poor boy, to endeavour
to relieve him from his imprisonment, and to gain him some redress for
the persecution which he had suffered. To discover where the boy was, I
went to the Police Office, and, after a great deal of shuffling, I was
directed to Coldbath-fields Prison, which, as I subsequently found, was
the wrong gaol, the boy having been committed to the New Prison. In the
mean time, however, finding that I was resolved to go to the bottom of
the business, they had released the boy. At length I found him out at
his lodgings, and learned from him that he had been confined for several
days among the vilest felons. I took him to the Police Office, to
identify the Magistrate that committed him, and there I caused the
police officer, Limbrick, to be placed at the bar, for robbing the boy
of his books and money at the time he was apprehended. The inquiry ended
in the said police officer returning the boy his books and money, and
confessing that he was ordered to attend the posting of the said bills,
and to protect them from being pulled down after they were posted. The
bills were printed at the office of the Hue and Cry, near Temple-bar,
and an agent of the Government paid the bill-sticker a large sum for the
posting of them in the night. Finding that I could get no redress for
the boy at the Police Office, I took him into the Court of King's Bench,
and appealed to the Judges. But Lord Ellenborough could do nothing
for him. By the stir which I made, however, the case got into all the
papers, and the conduct of the Government was completely exposed. I
then caused a petition from Dugood to be presented to the House by Lord
Folkestone, and another petition of my own, by Lord Cochrane. The Under
Secretary of State, Mr. Hiley Addington, promised that the conduct of
the Police Magistrate should be inquired into; but ultimately it
was ascertained that Lord Sidmouth had no power to interfere. The
Magistrate, Mr. Sellon, who had committed the boy, was not a Police
Magistrate, but a Magistrate of the county of Middlesex; therefore his
Lordship could not interfere, and the boy must, forsooth, proceed _at
law_ against the Magistrate. I shall here insert the petitions that were
presented to the House, which will place this transaction in a clear
point of view before my readers, and will show them to what meanness the
Government submitted, in order to injure my character with the public,
and to destroy the influence which they discovered that I had over the
people. This transaction will speak for itself without any further
comment of mine. "To the Honourable the Commons of the United Kingdom of
Great Britain and Ireland, in Parliament assembled.
"The Petition of Thomas Dugood, of the Parish of St. Paul,
Covent-Garden, in the City of Westminster,
"HUMBLY SHEWETH,
"That your petitioner is a parentless and friendless boy, seventeen
years of age, who, until lately seized by two Police Officers and sent
to prison by the police, obtained the honest means of living by the sale
of Religious and Moral Tracts, which he used to purchase of Mr. Collins,
of Paternoster-row.
"That your petitioner has, for more than four months last past, lodged,
and he still lodges, at the house of Keeran Shields, who lives at No.
13, Gee's-court, Oxford-street, and who is a carter to Mr. White, of
Mortimer-street, and who is also a watchman in Marybone parish.
"That your petitioner has never in his life lived as a vagrant, but has
always had a settled home, has always pursued an honest and visible
means of getting his living, has always been, and is ready to prove
that he always has been an industrious, a peaceable, sober, honest, and
orderly person.
"That, on the 10th of January, 1817, your petitioner, for having pulled
down a posting bill, entitled, "_Mr. Hunt hissed out of the City
of Bristol_," was committed by Mr. Sellon to the New Prison,
Clerkenwell, where he was kept on bread and water and compelled to lie on
the bare boards until the twenty-second of the same month, when he was
tied, with about fifty others, to a long rope, or cable, and marched to
Hicks's Hall, and there let loose.
"That your petitioner has often heard it said, that the law affords
protection to the poor as well as to the rich, and that, if unable to
obtain redress any where else, every subject of his Majesty has the road
of petition open to him; therefore your petitioner, being unable to
obtain redress in any other manner for the grievous wrongs done him by
the Magistrate of the police, most humbly implores your Honourable House
to afford him protection and redress, and to that end he prays your
Honourable House to permit him to prove at the bar of your Honourable
House all and several the allegations contained in this his most humble
petition.
"And your petitioner will ever pray.
"THOMAS DUGOOD.""To the Honourable the Commons of the United Kingdom
of Great Britain and Ireland, in Parliament assembled.
"The Petition of Henry Hunt, of Middleton Cottage,
in the County of Southampton,
"HUMBLY SHEWETH,
"That your petitioner, being ready to prove at the
bar of your Honourable House, that there has been carried
on a conspiracy against his character, and eventually
aimed at his life, by certain persons, receiving salaries out
of the public money, and acting in their public capacity,
and expending for this vile purpose a portion of the taxes;
and there being, as appears to him, no mode of his obtaining
a chance of security, other than those which may
be afforded him by Parliament, he humbly sues to your
Honourable House to yield him your protection.
"That your petitioner has always been a loyal and
faithful subject, and a sincere and zealous friend of his
country. That, at a time, during the first war against
France, when there were great apprehensions of invasion,
and when circular letters were sent round to farmers and
others to ascertain what sort and degree of aid each
would be willing to afford to the Government in case of
such emergency, your petitioner, who was then a farmer
in Wiltshire, did not, as others did, make an offer of a
small part of his moveable property, but that, really believing
his country to be in danger, he, in a letter to the
Lord Lieutenant, the Earl of Pembroke, freely offered his
all, consisting of several thousands of sheep, a large stock
of horned cattle, upwards of twenty horses, seven or
eight waggons and carts with able and active drivers, several
hundreds of quarters of corn and grain, and his
own person besides, all to be at the entire disposal of
the Lord Lieutenant; and this your petitioner did without
any reserved claim to compensation, it being a principle
deeply rooted in his heart, that all property, and even
life itself, ought to be considered as nothing, when put in
competition with the safety and honour of our country.
And your petitioner further begs leave to state to your
Honourable House, that, at a subsequent period, namely,
in the year 1803, when an invasion of the country was
again apprehended, and when it was proposed to call out
volunteers to serve within certain limits of their houses,
your petitioner called around him the people of the village
of Enford, in which he lived, and that all the men in
that parish (with the exception of three) capable of bearing
arms, amounting to more than two hundred in number,
immediately enrolled themselves, and offered to serve,
not only within the district, but in any part of the kingdom
where the enemy might land, or be expected to land,
and this offer was by your petitioner transmitted to Lord
Pembroke, who expressed to your petitioner his great satisfaction
at the said offer, and informed him, that he,
would make a point of communicating the same to his
Majesty's Ministers.
"That your petitioner, still actuated by a sincere desire
to see his country free and happy, and holding a high
character in the world, has lately been using his humble
endeavours to assist peaceably and legally in promoting
applications to Parliament for a Reform in your Honourable
House, that measure appearing to your petitioner to
be the only effectual remedy for the great and notorious
evils under which the country now groans, and for which
evils, as no one attempts to deny their existence, so no
one, as far as your petitioner has heard, has attempted to
suggest any _other_ remedy.
"That your petitioner, in pursuit of this constitutional,
and, as he hopes and believes, laudable object (an object
for which, if need be, he is resolved to risk his life against
unlawful violence) lately took part in a public meeting of
the City of Bristol, of which he is a freeholder; and that
though a large body of regular troops and of yeomanry
cavalry were placed in a menacing attitude near the place
of our meeting, the meeting was conducted and concluded
in the most peaceable and orderly manner, and the result
of it was a petition to your Honourable House, voluntarily
signed by upwards of twenty thousand men, which
petition has been presented to, and received by, your Honourable
House.
"That your petitioner, who had met with every demonstration
of public good-will and approbation in the
said city, was surprised to see in the public newspapers
an account of a boy having been sent to gaol by certain
Police Officers and Justices, for having pulled down a
posting-bill, which alleged your petitioner to have been
hissed out of the City of Bristol, and containing other
gross falsehoods and infamous calumnies on the character
of your petitioner, calculated to excite great hatred against
your petitioner, and to prepare the way for his ruin and
destruction.
"That your petitioner, who trusts that he has himself
always acted an open and manly part, and who has never
been so base as to make an attack upon any one, who had
not the fair means of defence, feeling indignant at this act
of partiality and oppression, came to London with a view
of investigating the matter, and this investigation having
taken place, he now alleges to your Honourable House,
that the aforesaid posting-bills, containing the infamous
calumnies aforesaid, were printed by _J. Downes_, who is
the printer to the Police; that the bill-sticker received
the bills from the said Downes, who paid him for sticking
them up; that the bill-sticker was told by the said
_Downes_, that there would be somebody _to watch him_ to
see that he stuck them up; that Police Officers were set
to watch to prevent the said bills from being pulled down;
that some of these Bills were carried to the Police-office at
Hatton Garden, and there kept by the officers, to be produced
in proof against persons who should be taken up for
pulling them down; that Thomas Dugood was seized,
sent to gaol, kept on bread and water, and made to lie
on the bare boards from the tenth to the twenty-second
of January, 1817, when he was taken out with about fifty
other persons, tied to a long rope or cable, and marched
to Hicks's Hall, where he was let loose, and that his
only offence was pulling down one of those bills; that
a copy of Dugood's commitment was refused to your petitioner;
that your petitioner was intentionally directed
to a wrong prison to see the boy Dugood; that the Magistrate,
William Marmaduke Sellon, who had committed
Dugood, denied repeatedly that he knew any thing of the
matter, and positively asserted that Dugood had been committed
by another Magistrate, a Mr. Turton, who Mr.
Sellon said, was at his house very ill, and not likely to
come to the office for some time.
"That your Honourable House is besought by your
petitioner, to bear in mind the recently exposed atrocious
conspiracies carried on by officers of the Police against
the lives of innocent men, and your petitioner is confident
that your Honourable House will, in these transactions,
see the clear proofs of a foul conspiracy against the
character and life of your petitioner, carried on by persons
in the public employ, appointed by the Crown, and removable
at its pleasure, and that this conspiracy has been
also carried on by means of public money.
"And, therefore, as the only mode of doing justice to
the petitioner and to the public in a case of such singular
atrocity, your petitioner prays your Honourable House
that he may be permitted to prove (as he is ready to do)
all and singular the aforesaid allegations at the Bar of
your Honourable House, and that if your Honourable
House shall find the allegations to be true, you will be
pleased to address his Royal Highness to cause the aforesaid
Magistrate to be dismissed from his office.
"And your petitioner shall ever pray.
"H. HUNT."
The day of the third Spafields meeting arrived, and I drove to town in
my tandem, and put up at the British Coffee-house livery-stables, in
Cockspur-street, where I had for several years before gone with my
horses. My trunk was, as usual, taken into a bedroom, where I meant to
change my dress previously to my going to the meeting. I had first to
walk into Fleet-street on business, and when I got there, I saw _nine
pieces of artillery_ drawn over Blackfriars-bridge, which proceeded
up Fleet-market towards Spafields, attended by a regular company of
artillery men from Woolwich. I had called on Major Cartwright as I drove
into town, and he informed me that he had heard, from good authority,
that a Cabinet Council had been held on Saturday, and that LORD
CASTLEREAGH _had proposed to disperse the intended meeting by military
force_, but that the other Cabinet Ministers had opposed this measure,
and that at length CASTLEREAGH retired, muttering vengeance, and adding
that he would take the responsibility upon himself. The Major spoke with
great earnestness and feeling, while, if I recollect right, I treated
his information rather lightly, saying, that if they killed me I hoped
the Major would write my epitaph. When, however, I saw the artillery
pass up Fleet-market, in a direction for Spafields, the place of
meeting, I began to think more seriously of the matter; but, as I was
about to do that which my conscience approved of, and as I knew that I
should not violate any law, I returned towards my inn, certainly in a
serious mood, yet determined to do my duty. Not one man that I knew in
the whole metropolis would or did accompany me. I called at Cobbett's
lodgings, in Catherine-street, and asked the young ones, rather
sarcastically, if they meant to attend the meeting? to which they
answered, that their father had left positive orders that they should
not go over the threshhold of the door that day. When I got to my inn,
in Cockspur-street, I ordered my servant to get my horses ready, and I
went to my bedroom to put on a clean shirt, but I was surprised to find
that my trunk had been removed. I rung the bell several times before any
one came; at length the _Boots_ appeared, instead of the chambermaid,
and I demanded the reason of my trunk being removed. He either knew or
pretended to know nothing of the matter, but said he would inquire.
After he had been absent for some time, I rung again, upon which a
stranger appeared, a person whom I had never seen before. He said he was
the master of the house, and he had ordered my trunk to be removed; to
which he added, that I should not sleep in his house, as it would drive
away his best customers. I told him I had slept there occasionally for
many years, and was always treated with civility; and drawing out my
purse, I said that as he was a stranger I would immediately pay him
whatever he might demand for the use of the room. He still, however,
persisted that I should leave his house. I demanded my trunk, and
declared I would dress there first; he swore I should not, and made an
effort to hustle me out of the room. I then told him to keep his hands
off, or I would thrash him; upon which he put himself into a boxing
attitude, and offered to fight me. He was a little insignificant
creature, and I was just upon the point of kicking him out of the room,
when I saw a fellow peeping round the corner of the door. It immediately
struck me that this was a trap to get me into a scrape, and I paused and
drew back in consequence. I told the little gentleman, who said his name
was Morley, that I would meet him and talk over the matter at any
other time; but, as I was at present engaged, I asked him as a _favour_
to let me have my trunk to dress, and I would leave his house in ten
minutes. It was agreed that we should meet at Mr. Jackson's rooms, some
day in the following week. Thither I went at the time appointed, with
perhaps the worst second in the world, Mr. Cobbett. When I got there
each told his story, and Jackson proposed that we should go into the
fields to settle the dispute, but this was not assented to by either Mr.
Morley or myself, and Mr. Cobbett was vehement against my having any
thing to do with my antagonist. The affair, therefore, terminated with
some smart words, without either of us offering to fight. This affair
was, however, blazoned forth in all the morning papers, which, in utter
defiance of truth, asserted that I had behaved ill to a man of the name
of Morley, who kept the British Coffee-house in Cockspur-street; that
we had met by appointment at Jackson's, and that I had refused to
fight him. Supposing that I had done so, I should, under all the
circumstances, have been perfectly justified; but it was no such thing,
the fellow never offered to fight me at any other time but in his own
house, where, if I had struck him, I am thoroughly convinced that a
police-officer was in attendance, to take me into custody for assaulting
a man in his own house; consequently, I should have been detained till
the time of the meeting in Spafields had passed; and it would have been
made a pretty handle of in the papers the next day, when the public
would have been told that, instead of my attending the meeting in
Spafields, I had been taken to Bow-street, and detained in custody, for
assaulting the landlord of the inn at which I had put up. All that I
shall add upon the subject is, that on no occasion in my life did I ever
turn my back upon _two_ such men as Mr. Morley.
At the time appointed I arrived at the meeting, which was much larger
than either of the former meetings. Resolutions were passed, and a
petition was unanimously agreed to, praying for Reform, &c. which
petition was placed the same evening in the hands of Lord Folkestone,
by Mr. Clarke, who had been for the third time our chairman; and which
petition was presented to the House of Commons the same night, by his
Lordship. I was accompanied by the people to Hyde-Park Corner, where I
took my leave of them, and returned to my house at Middleton Cottage;
the whole of these three meetings in Spafields having been held in the
most peaceable and orderly manner, without the least disturbance, or
one single breach of the peace having been committed by any person that
attended it, notwithstanding all the infamous falsehoods that were
published in the newspapers to the contrary. The truth is, that I
have seen ten times more disturbance, disorder, and tumult, at one
Common-Hall, in the city of London, where the Lord Mayor presided, than
there was at all these meetings put together.
While these things were going peaceably on out of doors, and petitions
were daily and numerously pouring in from all parts of the kingdom,
particularly from the North of England, and from Scotland, the two
Houses of Parliament were in their way not inactive. The committees that
were appointed made their report, and bills were immediately brought in
to suspend the Habeas-Corpus Act, and to prevent seditious meetings;
which bills were, with very faint opposition, agreed to. It ought not to
be forgotten, that on this occasion the Whigs took a most prominent part
against the people, and that they were quite as loud and as violent
against the Reformers as the Ministers were. To be sure the people had
committed one inexpiable crime. They had by their steady, peaceable, and
persevering conduct, frightened the Whig leader, Mr. Ponsonby, out
of his sinecure of 4,000_l_. per annum, which he held in consequence
of his having been Lord Chancellor of Ireland, during the Whig
administration, in the year 1807. The cunning Scotchman, Erskine, who
had been for the same short period Lord Chancellor of England, was also
pressed very hard to follow the example of his Irish friend; but Sawney
was of a more tenaciously grasping nature, and he _stuck to the ship_,
determined to partake of the plunder as long as she would swim. It was
for this that the Whigs wreaked their malice upon the Reformers, and
that Mr. Brougham and his confederates appeared to run a race every
night which should most abuse and calumniate them.
The plot being ripe, Watson, Thistlewood, Preston, and Hooper, were
committed to the Tower for high treason. On the other hand, meetings
were held in Westminster, and in the city of London, to petition against
the suspension of the Habeas Corpus Act. The following petition of mine
was also presented to the House of Lords, by Lord Holland. I was below
the bar at the time his Lordship presented it, immediately before Lord
Sidmouth rose to move the passing of the Seditious Meetings Bill, and I
shall never forget the look that his Lordship, the Secretary of State,
gave me; for I stood right in front of the bar, and within a few yards
of him.
"To the Lords Spiritual and Temporal of the United
Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, in Parliament
assembled.
"The Petition of Henry Hunt, of Middleton Cottage,
in the County of Southampton,
"HUMBLY SHEWETH,
"That your petitioner, who had the honour to be the
mover of the petitions at the recent meetings held in Spafields,
one of which petitions has been received by his
Royal Highness the Prince Regent, and two of which
petitions have been presented to, and received by, the
Honourable the House of Commons, has read, in the public
prints, a paper entitled a Report of the Secret Committee
of your Right Honourable House, and which Report
appears to your petitioner, as far as his humble
powers of disentanglement have enabled him to analyse
the same, to submit to your Right Honourable House, as
solemn truths, the following assertions; to wit:
"That the first public meeting in Spafields, which had
for its ostensible object a petition for relief and Reform,
was closely connected with, and formed part of, a
Conspiracy to produce an insurrection for the purpose
of overthrowing the Government.
"2. That Spafields was fixed upon as the place of assembling,
on account of its vicinity to the Bank and the
Tower; and that, for this same reason, _'care was taken_
to adjourn the meeting to the 2d of December, by
which time it was hoped that preparations for the surrection
would be fully matured.'
"3. That, at this second meeting, flags, banners, and all
the ensigns of insurrection, were displayed, and that,
finally, an insurrection was begun by _persons collected_
_in the Spafields_, and that notwithstanding the ultimate
object was then frustrated, _the same designs still continue
to be prosecuted with sanguine hopes of success_.
"4. That a large quantity of Pike-heads had been ordered
of one individual, and that 250 had actually been
made and paid for.
"5. That _Delegates from Hampden Clubs in the Country_
have met in London, and that they are _expected_ to
meet again in March.