the election till the next morning, to give time for the workmen to
erect a proper hustings. The polling commenced under the most vindictive
and malignant feelings towards me on the part of the Rump; in
consequence of the disappointment and the defeat which they had
sustained, in not carrying the election of Mr. Hobhouse without
opposition; which opposition they very justly attributed to me alone.
I stood upon the hustings the avowed advocate of the Major, but at the
same time the openly avowed opponent of Mr. Hobhouse, because he was the
nominee of Sir Francis Burdett, whom I was determined to convince that
he was nothing without the support of the people, that people which I
contended he had deserted in 1816, when he refused to present their
Address and Petition to the Prince Regent, and when he declared himself
hostile to Universal Suffrage. The Baronet felt his situation to be such
that he must either retire for ever from politics, or make a desperate
effort to carry his point; he had set the die upon the election of Mr.
Hobhouse, and his failing to carry that election would be a death blow
to his popularity throughout England, and to his future influence in
Westminster. I thought the Baronet had deserted his post, by refusing
his aid and protection to the suffering people, in the years 1816 and
1817, and upon _public_ grounds alone was I determined publicly to bring
him to a sense of the relative situation in which he stood with the
people. Whether I was right, or whether I was wrong, is not the
question. I believed that he had neglected his public duty, and I took
this public occasion, even as it might be said upon his own dunghill, to
convince him of his error. I solemnly declare that I was actuated solely
by a sense of what I owed to the public, and that I never in my life
felt any private enmity towards Sir Francis; on the contrary, I always
entertained a personal regard for him. But no influence on earth could
induce me to abandon what I thought a public duty, to gratify any
private or personal considerations. I now met Sir Francis Burdett openly
upon his own ground, where he had been always idolized, in the midst of
his friends, and surrounded by his constituents. I did not go behind his
back to attack him, I met him face to face, and I boldly charged him
with having deserted the cause of the people. I was indeed urged on to
do this in a less courteous manner than I should otherwise have done, by
the cowardly and blackguard attacks which I was daily experiencing from
the dirty members of the Rump, by whom I was assailed with all the
malice, filth, and falsehood which that august body could rake together,
and fabricate against me. In fact, when I began to speak, I was baited
like a bull, by a set of as cowardly caitiffs as ever disgraced, by
their presence, the face of the earth; and, in addition to these,
towards the latter end of the election, ruffians and assassins were
regularly hired to attack me in a body.
The Baronet attended daily on the hustings, and he went round and
visited the committees, and addressed them at night; his purse-strings
were thrown open, and, in truth, if the Baronet's life had depended upon
the event, he could not have laboured harder or have done more to have
saved it, than he did to secure the election of Mr. Hobhouse;--but all
would not do! The gang composing the Rump also attended every evening,
with their hired myrmidons. As my only object was to expose them and
their corrupt system, so their only apparent object now appeared to be
to vilify and abuse me, and when, at length, the election of Mr. Lamb
seemed to be almost certain, they became desperate. I was not only
hissed and hooted, but I was pelted with sticks and stones by their
hired agents, and although the people appeared excessively indignant at
these outrages, they could not altogether prevent them. A little gang of
desperadoes was always placed to open on me as soon as I began to speak,
to endeavour to drown my voice in the most vulgar, brutal, and beastly
manner. Amongst this gang generally some of the reporters to the
Burdettite newspapers took up their station, and in such beastly abuse,
as I have alluded to, much too coarse and horrid to mention in print,
these worthies freely indulged. The commencement of their attack was,
"Hunt, where's your wife?" And then followed a volley of such beastly
and disgusting ribaldry as would have disgraced the most abandoned
inmates of the lowest brothel in the metropolis.
It had been frequently suggested to me that none but wretches of the
most profligate character could be guilty of such atrocious conduct, in
which opinion I fully concurred. One day, when I was about to address
the people at the close of the poll, this gang began their accustomed
attack, and vociferated the most revolting, obscene, and truly horrid
observations, relating to my wife; upon which I turned round and asked,
if it were possible for such language to proceed from the mouth of any
one who possessed the character of a man? And I added, that it did
appear to me more than probable, that no one would resort to such
cowardly, base, and horrid language, but some monster who was connected
with a gang like that of Vere-street notoriety. This silenced the
scoundrels for a moment, but at length some fellow among them took
this to _himself_, and demanded if I meant to accuse him of unnatural
propensities? I replied that I did not allude to any one individual,
but that it did seem clear to me that none but monsters of the worst
description could be guilty of such conduct as had been exhibited daily
before the hustings when I addressed the people.
This circumstance, which occurred exactly as I have stated it, was,
nevertheless, grossly perverted in a great number of the newspapers the
next day; they falsely asserting that I had accused a person of being
guilty of an unnatural crime, and pointed him out to the vengeance of
the multitude before the hustings; and this has frequently been repeated
and harped upon since by some scoundrels, who know the utter falsehood
of the accusation. It is, however, a very curious fact, which would
require but little trouble to prove, that one of the very men who
suffered last week at the Old Bailey, for this detestable crime, was a
constant attendant at the aforesaid Westminster election, amongst that
part of the crowd from whence the horrid insinuations with respect to my
wife were daily vociferated. So much for the dreadful cry out that
was made against me by the daily press, for having, as they falsely
asserted, accused a person wrongfully. I remember at the time of the
general election, in 1812, when Mr. Cobbett offered himself a candidate
for the county of Hants, a drunken, vulgar blackguard was abusing him in
a most beastly and insufferable manner, whereupon Mr. Cobbett seriously
informed the people that he was a maniac, and that his opponents had
suffered him to escape for the purpose of abusing him; and he made a
most feeling appeal to the people, and expostulated, in the most grave
and serious manner, upon the baseness and cruelty of suffering the poor
maniac to come amongst the crowd to expose himself without his keeper.
This appeal had the desired effect, for the drunken ruffian was led away
out of the crowd perforce, under the impression that he was actually
a madman, who had just escaped from his keeper; yet no one thought of
abusing Mr. Cobbett for this trick to get rid of an intoxicated beast,
who was unwarrantably abusing him.
I attended the hustings daily till the last day but one, when the
success of Mr. Lamb, and the defeat of the Baronet and Mr. Hobhouse,
were certain. Mr. Lamb was declared duly elected at the end of the
fifteenth day, to the great mortification of Sir Francis Burdett, and
the total discomfiture of the Rump; and the CAR which had been provided
for the chairing of Sir Francis's disciple, was laid by for another
occasion.
For this defeat of the Rump they have solely to thank me. I made them a
second time feel the power of courage, honesty and truth, when opposed
to fraud, trickery, and pretended patriotism; and this great lesson was
read to Sir Francis Burdett, that he was nothing without the support of
the people; that all his immense wealth, that all his great and profound
talent, and all his influence, were nothing in the scale of political
power without the people. The Baronet is, I believe, truly sensible that
my exertions have taught him this useful lesson, and, like a truly
great and good man, he bears me no malice for performing this painful
duty--for I have no hesitation in saying, that it was the most painful,
the most trying public duty that I ever performed in the whole course of
my life.
The numbers polled at this election were, for Lamb 4465, for Hobhouse
3861, for Major Cartwright 38:--so that Mr. Lamb polled 604 more
electors than Mr. Hobhouse. As for Major Cartwright, he had not the
slightest chance from the beginning. No real Reformer, no friend of
Universal Suffrage, can have the slightest chance to be returned for
Westminster, while that rotten borough continues in the hands of a
particular family, or while any considerable portion of the electors
suffer themselves to be led by the nose by a gang of the most
contemptible, as well as most corrupt, men under the face of the sun. As
a body of men, the electors of Westminster are, perhaps, as enlightened
and intelligent as any body of men in the universe; but the little
faction called the Rump, are as contemptible and as corrupt as their
brother electors are free and impartial. The great mass of the electors
do not take any trouble to inquire about these matters; they are
industrious tradesmen, every one of them having business of importance
of his own to attend to, and consequently when an election comes they
suffer themselves to be led by the nose by a little junto, who have no
more pretensions to patriotism than they have to talent and integrity,
of which it is plain that they are totally destitute. When I stood the
contest for Westminster, at the general election, and only obtained
eighty-four votes, it was urged against me how few friends and
supporters I had amongst the real electors of Westminster; it was
said that I had disgusted and displeased all parties; and Counsellor
Scarlett, one of the licenced libellers of the Court of King's Bench,
had the impudence to state this fact in the Court, as a proof in what
little estimation my character was held; and he added this unblushing,
bare-faced falsehood, that "wherever Sir Samuel Romilly offered himself,
there I went to oppose him, merely because he was a good man;" while,
on the contrary, he well knew that, had not Sir Francis Burdett and his
nominee been opposed by _me,_ Sir Samuel Romilly, far from being elected
for Westminster, would never have been even nominated for that city. But
what answer will these trading politicians give to the fact, that Major
Cartwright obtained only thirty-eight votes during a contested election
of fifteen days? I had made thousands of personal enemies, yet I
obtained eighty-four votes; while the Major, who never in his life made
a personal enemy, could only obtain thirty-eight votes, not half the
number that polled for me, although he was amongst all his friends,
where he had resided for many years, and where he was universally and
justly respected, both for his private and his public virtues. The fact
is, that of the Major's politics, as of mine, the honesty and sincerity
are hated and dreaded by the whole of the Rump faction, who would soon
be reduced to their native nothingness, if once a really independent man
were to be chosen for Westminster; I mean a man independent, as well of
Sir Francis Burdett, as of the Ministry and the Whigs. Till that time
arrives, the representation of Westminster will be upon a level with the
rottenest of rotten boroughs. We know Sir F. Burdett to be a profound
politician, a real and steady friend of Liberty, and a truly great man,
yet in the House of Commons he carries no more weight from his being the
Representative of the great city of Westminster, than he would do if he
were only the Representative of Old Sarum, or any other rotten borough.
Such is the abject state to which, by their dirty intrigues, the Rump
have reduced this once great and high-minded city, by the exertions of
which the whole kingdom was wont to be agitated! Mr. Hobhouse is an
active member of the Honourable House, but he dares not quit the
leading-strings of the worthy Baronet; and let me ask the honest part
of mankind to point out any one great political question which he has
brought before the House? What has he done for the people, or for
the cause of Liberty, since he has been elected? I am not speaking
personally; for I personally feel that Mr. Hobhouse did his best to
serve me, when I was in bondage in Ilchester gaol, for which I shall
always feel personally grateful; but still, looking at the question on
public grounds, I must ask what has he ever done in the House, such as
we might and should have formerly expected from one of the independent
Members of the city of Westminster? We know that he always votes with
the Whigs against the Ministers; but how is it, if he is in earnest,
that he has never created any great sensation throughout the country, by
some grand exposure of those Ministers, and of that system of which
his father, Sir Benjamin, forms so prominent a part? It has often
been asked, what can _one man_ do in the House? I think I can give a
silencing answer to such a time-serving question: What could _not one
man_ do in the way of exposure, if he were honestly disposed to do it? I
think, after the exposure that I made while I was locked up in a gaol, I
am entitled most triumphantly to make this answer.
In consequence of the death of the Princess Charlotte of Wales, the
Dukes of Clarence, Kent, Cumberland, and Cambridge disposed of their
mistresses, and got married, in order, as it would seem, to secure a
heir from the precious stock of the Guelps, to fill the British throne;
to accomplish which desirable purpose there appears to have been a hard
race, for on the 26th of March, in this year, 1819, the Duchess of
Cambridge brought forth a son--on the 27th the Duchess of Clarence was
delivered of a daughter--on the 24th of May the Duchess of Kent
was delivered of a daughter--and on the 5th of June the Duchess of
Cumberland was delivered of a son. So that this worthy family presented
John Gull with an increase to their burdens in one year of _four great
pauper babes_, to be rocked in the national cradle, and to be bred up
at the national expense. Oh, rare John! what a wonderfully happy fellow
thou must be! On the 29th of March, the conscientious guardians of our
rights and liberties, the faithful stewards of public property, the
worthy Members of the Honourable House of Commons, voted an allowance
of TEN THOUSAND POUNDS A YEAR to the Duke of York--for taking care
of his poor old mad father's person; and it is a very extraordinary fact
that, on the 12th of April, on one of his early visits to Windsor, to
enable him to _earn_ this large sum of money from John Gull, his Royal
Highness fell in one of the rooms of Windsor Palace, and BROKE HIS ARM.
All the old women in the nation, and many of the young ones also, swore
that this was a judgment upon him, for extorting such a sum from John
Gull's pocket, for such a purpose! On the 17th, Johnston, Bagguley,
and Drummond were tried, and, as a matter of course, found guilty of
sedition at the Chester assizes. On the 26th of May the House of Commons
passed a vote of thanks to Marquis Camden, for giving up the profits
of his sinecure place of _Teller of the Exchequer._ This was another
precious hoax upon John Gull; the fellow having been actually frightened
out of it in 1817, in consequence of the resolutions which were passed
at the great public meeting where I had the honour to preside; which
meeting was held in the city of Bath, where the Noble Marquis was
recorder. On the 1st of June there was a serious riot at Carlisle, by
the weavers out of employment. On the 19th there was a very numerous
public meeting held at Huntslet Moor, near Leeds; and about the same
time, and in the following weeks, very numerous meetings were held at
Glasgow, in Scotland, and other places all over the North of England,
petitioning for Annual Parliaments, Universal Suffrage, and Vote by
Ballot. On the 12th of July a great meeting was held at Newhall Hill,
near Birmingham, for Parliamentary Reform, at which Major Cartwright and
Mr. Wooler were present. It was said upwards of sixty thousand
persons attended, and unanimously elected Sir Charles Wolseley their
legislatorial attorney, and representative for Birmingham, with
directions that he should apply to the Speaker to take his seat. On the
13th twenty thousand Spanish troops at Cadiz, destined by Ferdinand
to fight against the cause of Liberty in South America, _mutinied and
deserted_. On the 15th Bills of Indictment were found, at Chester,
against Sir Charles Wolseley and the Rev. Joseph Harrison, for political
speeches made at a great public meeting for Reform, at Stockport; and
on the 31st the Gazette contained a proclamation against seditious
meetings, particularly denouncing the election of representatives or
legislatorial attorneys as illegal.
On the 21st a Reform meeting was held in Smithfield. This meeting was
called by some of the inhabitants of the Metropolis, and I was invited
to attend and take the chair. Dr. Watson and his friends were
particularly active in procuring this meeting, and when the committee
invited me to take the chair, I did not hesitate a moment to accept it,
though, at the same time, I made up my mind to be particularly careful
as to what resolutions were passed, &c. and by no means to be led into
the scheme of electing any legislatorial attorney, as they had done at
Birmingham, especially as this scheme had been denounced as illegal by
the proclamation in the Gazette the week before. When I came to London,
the night before the meeting, I was met by Dr. Watson and the committee,
and I desired to see what resolutions they had prepared to be submitted
to the meeting the next day. I found, however, that they had only a few
very vague and imperfect resolutions drawn up; but the Doctor produced a
letter from Joseph Johnson, the brush-maker, at Manchester, saying, that
it was the wish of the people of Manchester, that I should, at the
Smithfield Meeting, be elected the representative and legislatorial
attorney for the unrepresented people of the Metropolis, &c. He also
alluded to the great public meeting, which was to be held at Manchester
in the beginning of August, and stated, that it was the intention of the
people on that day to follow the example of the people of Birmingham and
the Metropolis. It was very easy to discover that the motive of Mr.
Johnson for advising the people of the Metropolis to elect me their
legislatorial attorney, was, that he might be elected for Manchester at
the ensuing meeting. On this proposition I at once put a negative, by
referring to the Gazette, and to the proclamation, adding, that it would
be worse than folly to run our heads against such a post; and I further
declared, that I saw no good that was to be derived from such a measure.
In this the committee at once concurred, and it was agreed, that every
intention of that sort should be abandoned, that other resolutions
should be drawn up, and that the same DECLARATION which had been passed
at the Meeting held in Palace-Yard, and at the Manchester Meeting, at
which I presided in the early part of that year, should be proposed to
the Smithfield Meeting. It was also decided, that certain conciliatory
resolutions, and an address to the Catholics of Ireland, should be
submitted to the meeting. Of these resolutions I highly approved.
The next morning, just before the time fixed for the meeting, Mr.
James Mills, late of Bristol, called at my lodgings with a string of
resolutions, which he wished to be submitted to the meeting. Dr. Watson,
I think, was present. These resolutions were read over in a hasty
manner, and as hastily adopted, to be made part of the proceedings of
the day. I own that this was acting very differently from my usual
cautious manner; but, as Mills gave us to understand that they had been
laid before Major Cartwright, and I believe he said had been approved
of by him, and as he led us also to believe that he would attend at the
meeting to move them, they were accordingly sent off to the _Observer_
office, to get slips set up, that they might be given to the different
reporters who attended the meeting.
Great military preparations were on this occasion made, under the
pretence of quelling some tremendous riot, or some apprehended
insurrection. The then Lord Mayor, John Atkins, was a corrupt and
devoted tool of the Government, and he made himself particularly
officious in this affair. Six thousand constables were sworn in the day
before, and in the city all was hurry and bustle; and all this was done
in order to work upon the fears of the timid and foolish part of the
community, to create a prejudice in their minds against the Radicals.
When the hour of meeting arrived, an immense multitude was collected,
which was computed to consist of not less than seventy or eighty
thousand persons. The Rev. Joseph Harrison, from Stockport, attended,
and either moved or seconded some of the resolutions; but Mr. Mills,
the author of them, never came near the place; or at any rate he never
showed himself upon the hustings. A warrant had been issued against
Harrison, by the Magistrates of Cheshire, with which the officers had
followed him up to town, and, having got it backed by the Lord Mayor,
he was apprehended upon the hustings by the city officers. This was
evidently done with the view to work upon the feelings of the multitude,
and to create an appearance of tumult, that the military might be called
in and let loose upon the people, with some apparent show of necessity.
Had not care been taken to frustrate it, this plot of the worthy John
Atkins would have succeeded; for some one cried out a rescue, and the
multitude was spontaneously pressing towards the officers for that
purpose; but here my natural presence of mind in emergencies was
exercised promptly and with full success. I came forward, and stated to
the people what had occurred, and I cautioned them not to be led away by
any such plot, to excite them to a breach of the peace; and I demanded
of them, in case of a warrant having been issued against me, that they
would let me go with the peace-officers quietly, for nothing would
delight our enemies so much as to work up the people to tumult and
disorder, that they might have a pretence for bloodshed. This had the
desired effect. Harrison was taken away peaceably, and the business of
the meeting proceeded with the greatest regularity, as if nothing had
occurred of a nature to disturb it. This was certainly one of the most
cold-blooded attempts to excite a riot that was ever made in this or
in any other country. But fortunately I had influence enough over the
people to frustrate this plot. The resolutions were passed, and the
declaration was carried unanimously, as well as the address to the
Catholics; the meeting was dissolved, and the people retired to their
homes in the most peaceable manner, after having conducted me, their
chairman, to my lodgings.
The slips, which had been printed at the _Observer_ office, had been
sent to me while I was on the hustings, and I delivered them to the
different reporters, who applied for them. Mr. Fitzpatrick, the reporter
of the _New Times_. was the only one who had the baseness treacherously
to betray this confidence, by voluntarily coming forward in the Court,
at York, to swear to the fact of my having furnished him with them upon
the hustings. Thus ended the great Smithfield Meeting, held on the 21st
of July, 1819.
On the 26th of the same month, at a Common Hall, the Livery of the City
of London passed a strong vote of censure upon their Lord Mayor, John
Atkins, "for his officious and intemperate conduct on the day of the
Smithfield Meeting."
I forgot to mention, in the proper place, that I had been invited to
attend and preside at a great public meeting, held at Manchester, in the
early part of this year; if I recollect right it was in January. This
meeting had been convened by public advertisement. I slept at Stockport
the night before, and was accompanied from that town to the place of
meeting by thousands of the people. When I arrived there, none of the
parties who had invited me to Manchester, Messrs. Johnson, Whitworth,
and Co. accompanied me upon the hustings; but they attended a public
dinner, which, in the evening, after the meeting, was provided at the
Spread Eagle Inn, Hanging Ditch, at which upwards of two hundred persons
sat down. I found a number of good men at Manchester, and amongst that
number I esteem my worthy friend Mr. Thomas Chapman, of Fannel-street,
one of the very best men and most honest advocates of Liberty in the
kingdom. I have ever found him the same man in principle, sincere and
bold in public, and kind, generous, and open-hearted in private. To know
during one's political life, and to possess the friendship of, two or
three such men as Mr. Chapman, is more than sufficient recompence for
the treachery, cowardice, and baseness of hundreds that one must as a
matter of course become acquainted with. Here I first saw Johnson, the
brush-maker; he had not the courage to accompany me upon the hustings,
although he was one of the most officious to invite me to preside at the
meeting. John Knight and Saxton were the men who attended me upon the
hustings, and addressed the people, &c. &c. I had never seen either of
them before. Mr. Wroe and Mr. Fitton, of Royton, also were upon the
hustings. I had seen the latter, as a delegate from Royton, at the
meeting of delegates called by Major Cartwright and the Hampden Club, in
the name of Sir Francis Burdett, in the year 1817.