When I returned to Sans Souci Cottage, I enjoyed the sports of the field with quite as much glee as ever, and with a zest not in the slightest degree abated by my sentence of three months' imprisonment. At the end of the season I made the hares' scuts which I had preserved, amounting to two hundred and fifty, into a handsome pillow, which I had covered with satin, and sent it to my opponent, Michael Hicks Beach, as a mark of the contempt in which I held him, and as a trophy of the sport which I had enjoyed during the season. This was taken, as I meant it should be, in great dudgeon, and he complained of it very bitterly to some of my friends. My sporting was now confined to my gun. I had, in a great measure, given up hunting, for two reasons; first, because I had gone into Leicestershire, and resided at Melton Mowbray one season, for the purpose of enjoying fox-hunting in the highest perfection, by alternately joining the Duke of Rutland's and the Quarndon pack of fox- hounds. Those hounds were hunted in such a masterly style, and the whole business was conducted in such a superior manner, that I never afterwards could bring myself to relish fox-hunting in Hampshire or Wiltshire. In truth, it was not like the same sort of sport, fox-hunting in Leicestershire being so very superior. I really saw more fine runs in one week, with the Duke of Rutland's pack, and the Quarndon pack, which latter pack was then kept by Lord Foley, than I ever saw with a West- country pack in one year. The next reason for my giving up hunting was, that, in consequence of my weight, it was become too expensive, as it required a horse of from two to three hundred pounds value to carry me up to the head of the hounds, where I always rode as long as I followed hunting.

I still resided in Bath in the winter, and at Sans Souci Cottage, in Wiltshire, in the summer and autumn. One evening, Mr. Fisher, who had the management of the White Lion Inn, at Bath, which he conducted for Mr. George Arnold, called at my house, and sent in a message, to say that he wished to speak to me in private. I desired him to walk in, as I did not wish to be entrusted with any secrets but what might be known to my family, who were sitting with me. At length he informed me, that the French General, Lefebvre, who had been a prisoner in England, had been staying some days at the White Lion, waiting for a remittance from London, to take him thither on his road to France, to which country he was returning, either by an exchange of prisoners, or on account of some arrangement between the two Governments; that he had been disappointed of his expected remittance, and that he had not enough cash to pay his bill and his coach hire to London, whither he was most anxious to go; and, therefore, he had proposed to leave a beautiful miniature of Napoleon, for which that distinguished character had sat, and of which he had made a present to the General, after some battle in which he had fought bravely under the eye of the Emperor. Fisher had declined to take the miniature in lieu of, or at least in pawn for, the bill; and the General, in the greatest distress, and anxious to return to France, in obedience to the call of the Emperor, urged him to try and raise a sum upon it. Mr. Fisher told him that he did not know any one in Bath who would give any thing for it, unless Mr. Hunt would, who was an avowed admirer of Napoleon, although he believed him to be no connoisseur in paintings. At the pressing request of the General, Mr. Fisher said he had brought the miniature to shew me, and out he pulled it from his pocket. It was contained in a small morocco case, about four inches by three; but when it was opened it presented to the eye one of the most beautiful specimens of miniature painting 1 ever saw. I asked Fisher what was the amount of the bill? He replied, some shillings under ten pounds. I desired him to return, and say, that if the General would part with the miniature for that sum, I would advance the money; but that I would purchase it if I had any thing to do with it, and not make an advance upon it as a loan to be repaid. Mr. Fisher soon returned to say, that, although the General lamented very much to part with the miniature, which was the gift of his sovereign, yet, that necessity had no law, and that I might have it by paying the bill; which I immediately did, and received the miniature.

Some months afterwards, Madame Lucien Buonaparte arrived at Bath, in her road to the residence of Lucien Buonaparte, at Ludlow, in Shropshire, and she stopped at the White Lion for the night. In making her inquiries of Mr. Fisher about General Lefebvre, when he was in Bath, the circumstance of his having been obliged to part with the miniature of Napoleon was mentioned. She instantly said, that she recollected the circumstance of her brother having sat for the miniature, and presenting it to Lefebvre, with a lock of his hair; and, mentioning the name of the artist, expressed a great desire to obtain a sight of the picture, if the gentleman was in Bath. A polite note was accordingly written to the lady to whom, at the time when I purchased the miniature, Mr. Fisher had seen me present it; and she was requested to permit Madame Buonaparte to see it. The lady immediately sent it to the inn by her maid, who was introduced into the room to Madame Lucien, who instantly exclaimed, that it was one of the very best likenesses of Napoleon that was ever painted, and that it recalled him to her recollection more than any thing she had ever seen since she had left Paris. This likeness was taken immediately after he was made First Consul, and it is admitted by all the Frenchmen that it was ever shewn to, to be a very beautiful and correct likeness of him, as he was at that time. She wished the servant to ascertain whether the lady would put a price upon it, but she was promptly answered, that her mistress had instructed her to say, that no price should purchase it. After having caressed and shed tears over it, Madame Lucien returned it to the servant, begging the lady to accept her grateful thanks for having allowed her to see it. I shall have hereafter to relate what passed at an interview which I had with the General, who came to England at the time of the peace, to endeavour to reclaim the picture.

About this time a fire broke out at Auxonne, in France, in which town twenty-one English prisoners of war were confined, who exerted themselves vigorously to extinguish the flames. On this coming to the ear of Napoleon, he instantly ordered them to be paid six months pay, and gave them passports to return home to England. I mention this circumstance as a proof of the liberal and noble mind of the brave and persecuted Napoleon; particularly when contrasted with the mean and dastardly conduct of those in power in this country. On a similar occasion, when the fire took place in this gaol, the other day, [Footnote: Alluding to the partial conflagration of Ilchester Gaol, Thursday, November 15th, 1821.] twenty-five of the prisoners, with myself, exerted ourselves, as was represented by the keeper to the Magistrates, in the most exemplary and praiseworthy manner; but our rulers do not know how to perform a generous and liberal act, they do not possess a particle of that noble and magnanimous character, which animated the gallant Napoleon.

The latter end of the year 1810 was remarkable for the greatest failures in commercial speculation. Many Gazettes contained the names of fifty bankrupts, and for many weeks following no Gazette appeared with less than thirty, which was four times the average of former periods. The cause of so much misery, mischief, and distress, was very fairly and justly attributed to the impediments which the laws presented to arrangements between debtors and creditors, impediments evidently intended to benefit the harpies of the law. It is a remarkable fact that there were just TWO THOUSAND bankrupts this year; supposing the Lord Chancellor's fees to amount only to the moderate average of twenty pounds upon each bankruptcy, he must have cleared that year FORTY THOUSAND POUNDS from bankrupts; which money must have come out of the pockets of the poor creditors. A further blow was given to commerce by an order, which, on the 27th of October, was promulgated in France, for burning all British goods found in that country; which was rigidly carried into effect.

On account of the King's illness, the Lord Mayor of London was requested to continue in office another year. The coffin of the bloody-minded villain, Judge Jeffries, was discovered in a vault, in the church of St. Mary, Aldermanbury. On the 27th of November nineteen journeymen printers of the Times newspaper were sentenced to be imprisoned for a conspiracy to raise their wages.

The average price of wheat this year was ninety-five shillings per quarter, and the price of the quartern loaf averaged at ONE SHILLING and FIVEPENCE.

I now became tired of living an inactive life out of business, and therefore took a large estate at Rowfont, near East Grinstead, in Sussex, consisting of a good mansion, a thousand acres of land, and the manorial rights of the whole parish of Worth, extending over upwards of twenty thousand acres; upon which I was to enter at Lady-day, 1811. This year, when the Parliament met, the Regency question was discussed with great warmth in both Houses. In hopes of the King's recovery several adjournments took place; but all these expectations proved futile, and, at length, Mr. Perceval brought in a bill, by which the Prince had the same restrictions imposed upon him as in 1789; and the person of the King was to be entrusted to the Queen, with a council.

These proposals were accepted by the Prince and by the Queen. As soon as the act passed, the Prince acted as Regent, and the Parliament was formally opened by a commission under the Great Seal. To the surprise and astonishment of every body, and to the great mortification and disappointment of the Whigs, the same ministers remained in office. The fact was, that when the Whigs were last in office they fell into complete disrepute with the people, and the public feeling was so much against them, that the Prince Regent found that he should not be backed by the people in making any change in favour of the junto faction. He, therefore, had the prudence and the policy to continue the old set, notwithstanding that set had always treated him with great suspicion, and never let slip an opportunity of offering him the greatest indignities and insults.

The city of London now petitioned the House of Commons for Reform. I was frequently in London to visit my friend Mr. Cobbett, in Newgate; and the party which I used to meet there was Sir Francis Burdett, Col. Wardle, Major Cartwright, and Mr. Worthington; we used to spend the evening and remain in the prison, or rather in Mr. Newman's, the keeper's house, till ten o'clock. The great question of Parliamentary Reform was, on these occasions, fully and freely discussed; and it was lamented by Sir Francis Burdett that there were not some county meetings called, for the purpose of petitioning the House for Reform. I suggested that it was in vain to petition the corrupt knaves in the House to reform themselves, but that, as the Prince Regent was entering upon his regal office, I thought it would be a good opportunity to address him on that subject, and to call upon him for the abolition of all useless sinecures and unmerited pensions. Sir Francis very much approved of the idea, and asked if it were not possible to get a county meeting in Somersetshire, where I was then residing, and where I had an estate, as had also his brother, Jones Burdett. I replied, that if it were set about in earnest, there was not a doubt but a meeting might be procured; and I agreed to get this done immediately upon my return to Bath; Sir Francis at the same time promising that his brother should attend the meeting, if I could get the Sheriff to call one.

As soon as I got back to Bath, I put an advertisement into one of the papers, requesting the freeholders to attend a preliminary meeting, to sign a requisition to the Sheriff, for the purpose of calling a county meeting, to address the Prince Regent, upon his accepting that office. A considerable number of freeholders who were in Bath attended, and signed the requisition that I had drawn up, and at the head of which I had set my name. About twenty or thirty names were subscribed, and the next morning I waited upon Mr. Gore Langton, one of the then Members for the county, to ask his opinion, and to give him an opportunity of signing his name, if he chose; I candidly and explicitly informed him, that the purpose was to take, as the ground-work of the address, a Reform in Parliament, and the abolition of useless sinecures and unmerited pensions. He politely thanked me for the call, said that it would be indiscreet in him, as the Member for the county, to sign his name to the requisition, but added, that he perfectly approved of the object of the meeting, and in case the Sheriff should call it, he would make a point of attending it, and of supporting the address to the Regent, which it was my intention to propose; the heads of which I read to him, and which he highly approved. I told him that I designed to drive round to the principal towns of the county, to procure signatures from all parts, that the Sheriff might not have any opportunity of refusing to call the meeting. Of this plan he also very much approved.

I took a friend with me in my tandem, and drove to Bristol, where we procured only one name. From thence we went to Wells, Glastonbury, Bridgwater, Taunton, Wellington, and returned by Chard, Yeovil, Ilchester, Shepton Mallet, and Frome, to Bath. We were out, I think, five days, and obtained the signatures of upwards of four hundred freeholders, men of all parties, as the requisition was drawn in very general terms, to take the sense of a county meeting upon the propriety of presenting a dutiful and loyal address to His Royal Highness the Prince of Wales, upon his accepting the high office of Regent of the United Kingdom, &c. On my arriving at Ilchester, I called first upon Mr. Tuson, the attorney, as the most respectable person in the town; and upon reading over the requisition, he immediately signed it, and requested that, if I went to Yeovil, I would call on Mr. Goodford, which I promised to do. I obtained a number of names amongst the freeholders of Ilchester, many of whom, I found, were clients of the worthy attorney. My having obtained such a name as his, was a sure passport to success amongst his neighbours. The fact was, that the attorneys pretty generally took the bait; to promote the presenting a dutiful and loyal address to the new Regent, met with their general concurrence.

We went on to Yeovil, and called on Squire Goodford, as Mr. Tuson had requested. The Squire was a young man, and upon seeing Mr. Tuson's name, he gave us his without hesitation; and having got the Squire's name, of course we got the name of almost every free holder in the town upon whom we called. At some places we certainly received a rebuff; but, generally speaking, we were received with great politeness, attention, and civility. At Taunton we met with a very hearty welcome, and got a great number of signatures. Dr. Blake, Mr. Buncomb, and Mr. Dummet, will not fail to recollect it, and that they promised to attend the county meeting and support an address for Reform.

Whether the word Reform was in the requisition, I forget; but I well know that, to all those who inquired or wished to be informed of the object of the meeting, I never disguised my intention of making that a leading feature of the address. Indeed, it spoke for itself. It was a requisition to the Sheriff to call a meeting of the freeholders and inhabitants of the county, to take into consideration the propriety of addressing his Royal Highness the Prince Regent. Nothing could be clearer or fairer. First, it was to call a meeting; second, when the meeting was assembled, it was to take into its consideration the propriety of presenting a dutiful and loyal address to the individual who was just invested with the office of Chief Magistrate; and third, if that proposition should be agreed to, why then to discuss and to settle what should be the nature of that address. We invited all parties to sign it, without distinction or exception; and, as almost every man in the county was a stranger to us, we met with some very curious adventures, of which the two following may be taken as a specimen. In the small manufacturing town of Chard, we called first upon an attorney, I think of the name of Clark, who, upon reading over the requisition, signed it, and without making any comment. He then drew out his purse, and placed a guinea upon the paper, saying that he begged to accompany his name with that subscription towards defraying the unavoidable expense. I politely declined to take it, declaring that we only solicited signatures, but did not require any subscription. He, however, would not be denied, adding, that our travelling round the country must be attended with considerable expense, and, as it ought not to fall upon one or two individuals, he should feel hurt if we did not suffer him to pay his share of it. I was about to expostulate, when my companion gave me a smart twitch by the elbow, and taking up the guinea, he observed that the gentleman was quite right, and he was much obliged to him. This gentleman, although a perfect stranger, offered us refreshment, &c. and pointed out to us where to call upon other freeholders. As soon as we got into the street, my companion began to expostulate with me, telling me that it was the height of folly not to make every one who signed his name subscribe something, as Mr. Clark had done, towards defraying our expenses. I replied, that I would not suffer him to ask for any thing from any one; that if any offered to subscribe, well and good; but if it were known or suspected that we were calling for money, we should not only lose many signatures, but should in many instances be considered as very unwelcome visitors, and probably even be treated as downright intruders My companion, who was a narrow-minded politician, and of a penurious disposition, followed me in, grumbling, to the next house that we called at, which was a tradesman's, who, I recollect, sold salt. I accosted this tradesman in the usual way, by informing him of our business, requesting him to read the requisition, and desiring to know if he had any objection to sign it. "Sir," said he, "I do not wish to read the requisition; I have no objection to sign it, if you are quite sure that it will not cost me any thing. You are very welcome to my name as a freeholder, to assist in calling a county meeting. God knows we want something done badly enough; but, if it is ever to cost me a sixpence, I will not touch it." Giving my friend, who was staring with his mouth open, a very significant look, I assured the gentleman that it would never cost him a farthing; upon receiving which assurance be very deliberately took his pen from the desk, and as deliberately dipped it in the ink, and then, having taken the paper in his left hand, and laid it upon the counter, he looked me once more full in the face, and demanded, "are you quite sure, Sir, if I sign my name, that I shall not be obliged to attend the county meeting, when it is called?" I told him that we should be happy with his company if he chose to come to the meeting, but that it would be left entirely to his own option, whether he would do so or not. "Sir," said he, "I do not think you would deceive me," and he then signed his name.

To give an account of the various incidents which occurred, in this perambulation of the county of Somerset, would be an interesting and diverting history of itself. I had, indeed, told my companion, at starting, that, if he kept his eyes and his ears open, our journey would afford him an opportunity of studying human nature, and witnessing its various shades and colours, possibly in much greater perfection than he had ever before experienced, and my prediction was verified. I suppose that we did not call upon less than five hundred freeholders; in fact, we procured nearly that number of signatures, and to me this was a most interesting and entertaining expedition. I had no self-interested object in view; I was, or at least I believed I was, performing an important public duty, and my only aim was to procure a county meeting—and for what, it will be asked? My answer is, for the sole purpose of inducing my brother freeholders and fellow-countrymen of Somersetshire to look into their own affairs, instead of trusting to those persons who were duping and plundering them.

In the neighbourhood of Chard we called upon Mr. Dean, a large manufacturer of woollen-cloth, who had been a customer of mine to a very large amount, he having purchased of me at one deal between eight and nine thousand fleeces of valuable South-down wool, at half-a-crown a pound; which, I recollect, averaged about six shillings a fleece; so that the whole sum was about two thousand five hundred pounds. The wool was to have been paid for, as is usual, upon delivery. But when Mr. Forsey, who was the partner of Mr. Dean, came to weigh the wool, he unexpectedly requested, on the part of Mr. Dean, with whom I had had previous dealings, that I would give them two or three months' credit, by taking their bills, at that date, for the amount. As in former transactions I had found Mr. Dean a very honourable man, I readily consented to grant the favour, though, as a farmer, the custom was always to be paid for every thing in ready money. The reader must excuse this apparent digression, or rather this descending to minute particulars in this transaction with Mr. Dean, which will be hereafter accounted for. I find it, indeed, necessary to be very particular in explaining my transactions with Mr. Dean, in consequence of an infamous calumny, which, subsequently to my leaving the country, and going to reside in Sussex, was published in the Taunton Courier, relative to what took place when I was, upon this occasion, at Mr. Dean's. I shall prove the editor of this contemptible paper to be an unprincipled, cold- blooded libeller, destitute of every manly and honourable feeling; a wretch, who, from the basest and most mercenary motives, to raise his obscure paper into notice, and to promote its sale, could disgrace the name of man, by propagating the most notorious and unfounded falsehood against the private character of a public man.

When we arrived at Mr. Dean's, we were received with the most hearty welcome. He lived in very great stile, and he did every thing to shew his sense of my liberal and generous conduct towards him. The fact of the case was, that a request was made for more time to pay for the wool; and, as I was not in want of the money, the further time was given; and when, at the end of six months, I did receive the debt, I declined to charge any interest for it. Mr. Dean and his family appeared to feel great pleasure in paying me every attention, in return for what he openly declared to be most handsome and liberal conduct on any part. He admitted that mine was the finest and best lot of English wool that he had ever purchased; that it turned out remarkably well, and fully answered the sample. When I sold off my valuable stock of sheep at Chisenbury farm, Mr. Dean sent up and purchased twenty lambs, that he might possess some of my stock of pure South-downs; and he afterwards much regretted that he had been prevailed upon to cross them with the Spanish Merino breed, which, he said, had entirely defeated his original object. He took me into his field, to show me the sort which the cross had produced, and said, that he very much wished to dispose of them, as they were more plague than profit to him: in fact, he offered to make me a present of them; which offer I declined to accept; but I told him, as I had now taken a farm in Sussex, if he would send them half way, I would purchase them at their value. I believe there were about twenty- six ewes and an old Spanish ram; and, as far as I can recollect, I was to give him thirty shillings each for them, which was a fair price, as times went, they being only small two-teeth ewes.

The requisition being signed by upwards of four hundred freeholders, I wrote to the Sheriff, Mr. Horner, of Wells, to know when I should wait upon him with it. He replied, that, as he was just going out of office, and as the new Sheriff, Mr. Smith Leigh, would be sworn in at Bath, on a day named in his letter, he begged that I would attend there on that day, that it might be presented to the new Sheriff, when I could know his pleasure upon the subject. At the appointed time I accordingly attended, and the Sheriff, Mr. Leigh, named Monday, the — day of March, for the county meeting to be held at Wells.

Although I had taken an estate in Sussex, I had not yet given up my house in Bath, where I was then residing. On the Sunday previous to the day fixed upon for the meeting, Mr. Jones Burdett dined with me at Bath, and while we were at dinner, Mr. Power, an eminent reporter of the Morning Chronicle, came in. He travelled down, as I understood, at the request of Sir Francis Burdett and Mr. Cobbett, to report the proceedings of the meeting. After dinner, the resolutions and the address being agreed upon, we started for Wells, where we slept that night, to be in time for the meeting, which was to be held at twelve o'clock on the following day. We now learned that there had been a very great stir made in the county, by the gentry and magistrates, of both the Whig and Tory faction. Many of them had canvassed their tenants and the freeholders of their neighbourhood, to attend the meeting, to vote against the proposition of Mr. Hunt, without knowing themselves, or attempting to explain to others, what Mr. Hunt was going to propose. Sir John Cox Hippisley, an old Whig Member of Parliament, was very active; and he employed one James Mills, who was a sort of a steward or understrapper to Lady Waldegrave, to canvas all their tenants and the surrounding neighbourhood, for the purpose of bringing in farmers and others to hold up their hands against "HUNT." Many, who inquired what they were to oppose, were told by this worthy, that they were to hiss, hoot, and make a noise, when Hunt spoke, and to hold up their hands against any thing that he brought forward. I recollect Mr. Power coming, in the morning, to the door of my bed-room, to inform me of the character and disposition of the farmers and yeomanry who were assembled, many of whom he had heard express themselves in a very indignant manner against this Mr. Hunt, who was going to do something which the squires had ordered them to prevent.

There was a fine meeting, of not less than four or five thousand persons; and, as soon as the Sheriff had opened the proceedings, by having the requisition read, signed, as he said, by Henry Hunt, and four or five hundred other persons, I stepped forward and began to address the meeting. A howl was set up directly, before they heard one word that I had to say, by the said Mills, and a gang of slaves whom he had collected off the Mendip Hills; a set of fellows as ignorant of all political matters as they were illiterate and besotted. The parsons joined the howl; and of the black cormorants there was a plentiful sprinkling, as a number of them herd together at Wells, in consequence of there being a cathedral, and the residence of a bishop, in that city. At that time, however, I had a most powerful voice, and in spite of the beastly howling of these mongrel curs, I made myself heard. I told them, that the time would come, when they would wish that they had patiently listened to my advice, and followed my recommendation. I told them then, that the only remedy to escape ruin and distress would be, for the landlords to lower their rents, the parsons to reduce their tithes, and then resolutely join the people in demanding a Reform of the Commons' House of Parliament, which alone would produce a real diminution of taxation. O, how the brutish farmers, who had come into Wells that day at the command of their landlords, did bellow and roar to put me down, and endeavour to prevent my being heard! O, how many of them have come to me since I have been in this Bastile, to confess their folly and lament that they had not taken my advice: how many scores of them have been sent to this gaol for debt, since that time, ruined by the very system of taxation that they bellowed for that day! After I had concluded my address, which was delivered amidst continued contention and uproar, a great majority wishing to hear me, and occasionally the bellowers attempted to listen, and for a moment ceased their senseless clamour: having heard one sentence, they appeared very anxious to hear what was to follow; but the agent of old Sir John Cox Hippisley, James Mills, the steward of Lady Waldegrave, under whom they appeared to act, and whose voice or signal they obeyed as regularly as a pack of well- trained hounds obey the voice of the huntsman; this worthy, backed by some half-score of parsons, kept their curs in constant full cry to the end; when I proposed an address to the Prince Regent, expressive of the state of the country, and calling his Royal Highness's attention to that devastating system which would ultimately bring the farmer and the tradesman to that ruin and distress which had already fallen upon the industrious labourer and mechanic; praying for an abolition of all useless and expensive sinecure places and unmerited pensions, a reduction of the army, economy in the public expenditure, and a reform in the notorious abuses which were openly practised in the election of the Members of the Commons' House of Parliament. This address, which was pretty well heard, was received with applause by a considerable majority of the meeting; and it was seconded by Mr. Jones Burdett, in a very good speech, which he delivered upon the occasion. Mr. Horner, the late high sheriff, and a staunch ministerialist, came forward to propose an amendment, which, after some little hacking and hammering, he read. It was a mere time-serving piece of fulsome adulation to the Prince Regent, totally unworthy the character of a meeting of freemen, and such as no sensible Englishman would have offered to the Prince, without expecting to be kicked by his Royal Highness, for its time-serving, barefaced, unmeaning flattery. Sir John Cox Hippisley, who had not then ratted, a regular Whig, seconded this amendment, in a speech which I am sure many of those who were present will never forget; it was full of sophistry end cant; and the old cunning fox whined and coaxed his hearers in the most supplicating manner, to support the old magistrates of the county, who, he said, had always been the best friends the farmers ever had, or ever would have; and a great deal more of such trash. He implored them not to listen to the advice of strangers, who wished to withdraw them from that steady loyalty for which the yeomanry of the county of Somerset had so long been remarkable: he assured them, that the good old times would come round again, and that, if they would only wait with patience, all the difficulties and distresses which were partially felt in the country would be removed, and plenty and prosperity would be restored. He admitted that a Reform in Parliament was necessary, but he contended that that was not a proper time to obtain it, neither was Mr. Hunt a proper person to obtain it for them.— Sir John Cox Hippisley, who was a needy briefless lawyer, had married a widow lady of the name of Cox, who was possessed of a good fat dower, consisting of some very fine estates, which were left her by her late husband, a gentleman of character and fortune, one of the old aristocratical families of this county, and who, I believe, had been one of its representatives in Parliament. Her present lucky husband, Sir John, prospered much better as a country magistrate, and a Member of Parliament for the borough of Sudbury, than he did at the bar. The worthy baronet will be long remembered in Parliament for the endless speeches which he made there, and the thin benches which, as a natural consequence, he always produced. I have been told by some of the members, that when Sir John Cox Hippisley rose in the House, it was a signal for the other members to retire to take their dinners, or to converse upon other subjects; for, if they remained in the House, the baronet's voice was so melodious, that it was sure to send them all to sleep.

At the meeting of which I am now giving an account, the worthy baronet chattered for nearly an hour; and when he had concluded, Sir Thomas Acland came forward with a very confident air. As Sir Thomas had been taking notes all the time that I was speaking, and had frequently made what he intended for very significant gestures, we all expected that be would attempt something like an answer to my arguments, to show that the address which I had proposed was either improper or unnecessary. He began with, "Gentlemen"—but Sir Thomas, being a very young man, could never get out that which it appeared he wished to say; and, after repeating "Gentlemen," and hesitating for some time, he, in a most ludicrously affected manner, exclaimed, "England, with all thy faults, I love thee still!" and with this quotation he was so exceedingly delighted, or was so unable to find any thing else to say, that after having, cuckoo-like, to the great amusement of his audience, repeated it at least half a dozen times, he retired without uttering another sentence. We have heard since, that Sir Thomas is become an orator, he having made several brilliant speeches in Parliament. It may be so; but his debut at Wells was most laughable. Mr. Goodford, one of the Ilchester Bastile Visiting Magistrates, next came forward, to disclaim any participation in calling the meeting: he had, he said, certainly signed the requisition, but he did not know the object of it. He was succeeded by a Mr. Stephen, a clergyman, a brother to the Master in Chancery, who also supported the amendment, and declaimed against Mr. Waithman and all the Reformers; but particularly, by insinuation, against myself, who had agitated the peaceable county of Somerset. This gentleman certainly spoke very eloquently, but he proved himself to be a determined supporter of the most profligate system, or (to use the proper phrase) a true thick and thin Government man. Mr. Power, the gentleman who came to report, now stepped forward, and, in a short but animated reply to the parson's attack upon Mr. Waithman, who was absent, most successfully repelled his insinuations against the reformers.

When I went round the county to get the requisition signed, I met with hundreds of not merely Reformers, but absolute heroes in the cause, who promised to come to the meeting, and to support my address. But, alas! when the day of battle came, these blustering blades were all vanished; in fact, I saw but two or three of those who had so strongly pledged themselves to attend, and they looked as shy as possible; and instead of coming upon the hustings to support me, they were afraid of being seen to speak to me—so subservient and so toad-eating were they to the Magistracy, when they came into contact with them. Upon the right of the hustings, where I stood, there were only about half a dozen, and five of them came with me. Mr. Waddington attempted to address the meeting; but, as he was seen coming to the hustings in company with me, the jolterheads would not hear him; and the other person who had attended me round the county being very illiterate, so much so, indeed, as to be incapable of speaking three words of English, or uttering a sentence without betraying his ignorance, we did not think it proper to expose him. I, therefore, shortly replied to the artful addresses of Sir John Cox Hippisley, and Parson Stephen. When the Sheriff put it to the vote, by a show of hats, whether the amendment should be adopted or not, it was most evident to me, and I believe to all who were upon the hustings, that the majority was against the amendment. The Sheriff, however, declared the show of hats to be so equal, that he could not decide which party had the majority; upon which the old fox suggested to the Sheriff, to divide the meeting to the right and to the left. This was no sooner said than, as if by previous consent, about forty constables made a wide passage down the middle, which they cleared with their staves, while the Magistrates and Parsons, with the most scrutinising eyes, marked all those that passed over from their side to support my address. This very unfair conduct produced the desired effect; hundreds, who had held up their hats in the crowd for my motion, were so intimidated by this movement, that they did not venture to expose themselves to the rancour of the Magistrates and Parsons; and the majority was now evidently for the amendment, although, in spite of the stratagem which had been used, the majority was so small, that our opponents clearly, by their looks, betrayed their conviction that they had sustained a defeat.

I should be doing a great injustice to my own feelings if I were to omit to mention one gentleman, of the county of Somerset, who came forward in the most manly and independent manner, to give me his support, although he had neither signed the requisition, nor promised to support me; but it was very evident that he acted from principle, and from the purest motives of patriotism and love of country. This was Mr. JOHN PRANKERD, an attorney, of Langport. He came manfully upon the hustings, and, without any disguise, he had the courage and the honesty to act like an Englishman and a freeman, by following the conscientious dictates of a noble heart, and speaking his mind, in spite of Magisterial dictation and overbearing tyranny. To the honour of the county of Somerset be it told, that there was one gentleman in it who, by joining our little party upon the hustings, had the honesty and the courage openly to brave the fury of the tyrannical junto of Magistrates and Parsons, who had assembled upon this occasion; but to its shame be it said, he was the only man who did so. There were thousands who mixed in the crowd, a majority who held up their hats to support my address, they had sense and honesty enough to think right, but, when a division and a scouting took place, they had not the courage to face the eye of their oppressors. I never saw Mr. Prankerd but once afterwards (and then I met him by accident in London), till I came to this Bastile. But I had no sooner become a captive in that county which I had ten years before roused into holding a public county meeting, than Mr. Prankerd hastened to my prison-house, and tendered to me his aid, his friendship, and his generous and patriotic assistance; fortunately, he only lives about ten miles from this place, and he was the second friend who called to cheer and to alleviate the horrors of my captivity, by the kindest assurances that he would do every thing in his power to make me comfortable while I remained here. It is with the most unqualified gratitude that I now bear witness that he has fulfilled his promise to the very letter. Nothing could have surpassed his active friendship for me upon all occasions. It is one of the many obligations which I owe to him, that he introduced to me his amiable relatives at Milbourn Port, Mr. and Mrs. Parsons, and Miss Newton, who have also, by their unremitting kindness, greatly contributed to my comfort and happiness. In fact, the generous attentions of Mr. Prankerd, and these his worthy kindred, have been unceasing since I came here; and they have eminently contributed to lighten the pressure of that burden with which the Boroughmongers vainly hoped to overwhelm me.

I must also do justice to the conduct of Mr. Jones Burdett at this meeting. I know that every art was employed, every exertion was made by his neighbours, the magistrates, to seduce him over to join the Whigs against me; and when these artful knaves found they could not succeed in this, they then endeavoured to get him to stand neuter, and at all events not to support my address. But Mr. Jones Burdett had given his promise, and all their arts could not succeed to make him break that promise. It would have been very base in him if he had done so; but I have been acquainted with thousands who would have yielded to such entreaties.

When we left the hustings, I returned to my inn, the Swan, where a large party of freeholders was to dine. The multitude accompanied me thither, testifying their approbation with the loudest shouts; while the gentry, composed of both factions, who had opposed me, sneaked off to their homes ashamed to look at each other.

The next day I wrote the following address to the freeholders, which was published in a county paper, as well as in the nineteenth volume of Cobbett's Register:

TO THE INDEPENDENT FREEHOLDERS AND INHABITANTS OF SOMERSETSHIRE.

GENTLEMEN—I cannot refrain from offering you my congratulation on the effect of the first public meeting ever called in this county. Notwithstanding our opponents obtained a small majority against the address which I had the honour to propose to you on that day, yet I am clearly convinced that you gained a more complete victory (in the full admission of the truth of all the leading parts of that address by every one of those gentlemen who spoke against its adoption), than you would have gained by a mere majority of numbers without this unqualified admission of those facts. The address pointed out, clearly and explicitly, the distressing situation of the country; and it stated that the cause of all these distresses arose from a want of a fair and free representation of the people in Parliament. These facts were explicitly acknowledged by Sir John Cox Hippisley, who appeared to be the principal orator of both the parties, that united against the people on that day, who said he was sorry to bear witness to the truth of my statement; that "there was at this time a million and a half of paupers in England, subsisting on parish allowance, which was two pounds of bread per head per week less than the allowance to felons confined in our gaols." His only answer (if it might be called an answer) was, that there were 30 millions of paupers in France! He admitted that the cause of all the afflictions and misfortunes of this once free and happy nation, arose from the state of the representation, and said, that he lead always voted for that Reform which was the object of our address; but that he found this to be an improper time to accomplish it. On his being asked to name the proper time, he declined to make any answer. Now, as all the gentlemen who spoke upon this subject completely agreed with Sir John, I contend it was a great victory obtained over the enemies of Reform; for had we produced such an address, and supported it in the same language of truth, three years back, instead of having all our points admitted to be true, only that it was an improper time to enforce them; instead of this, all the facts would have been impudently denied, and the mildest appellations we should have been branded with would have been jacobins and levellers. These three facts were clearly ascertained and allowed by all parties, on that day; first, that it was proper the freeholders and inhabitants of the county of Somerset should assemble in county meeting, for they all congratulated you upon your meeting; second, that the country was in an awful and distressing situation; third, that it was highly necessary there should be a Parliamentary Reform, only this was not the proper time for it; and that you, the freeholders and inhabitants of the county, were not the proper men to effect it. Pray, who are the proper men to effect it? Are Sir John Cox Hippisley, Sir Thomas Acland, Colonel Horner, the Rev. Mr. Trevillian, and Justice Goodford, likely men to bring about a Parliamentary Reform? Do you believe, Gentlemen, that they will ever call you together and tell you now is the time for Reform? You saw and heard them all on Monday last; and if, after this, you still believe that they are the sort of men likely to procure you an equal and fair representation in Parliament; if you wait for these leading men, as they have been called, in your county, to bring about a Reform, you deserve not even the chance of ever obtaining it. What could you discover in these Gentlemen to make you believe that they will ever attempt to tender you any relief from the load of taxes under which you groan? Did they promise you any such thing? Did they give you any reason to believe that they wish to have your opinion again? Although they have been called your leading men, did they ever assemble you in county meeting? Will they ever do it? No, believe me, never. They heard too much of your sentiments that day ever to wish to try the experiment again. That day the united influence of all the leading men, of all the Magistrates, of all the men of large landed property, the coalition of both parties, the Ins and the Outs, and all their mighty influence actively exerted for the last three weeks against you; and what has been the result? Why truth, unaccompanied by any influence, prevailed. Although you divided in a minority, in the proportion of three to two, yet truth prevailed; and be assured there is now a firm foundation laid for establishing the future independence of the county of Somerset.

I am, Gentlemen,

Your sincere humble servant,

HENRY HUNT.

Bath., March 6th, 1811.

To this letter Mr. Horner replied, which gave Mr. Cobbett an opportunity of criticising the proceedings of the meeting, and of giving Sir John Cox Hippisley a severe and well-merited castigation, for the inconsistent and hypocritical conduct of the Whigs in uniting with the Tories against the people. These two factions, Whigs and Tories, had been for many years accusing each other of ruining the country; but, as soon as the people began to think and act for themselves, and to take measures for correcting the evil, they both joined, and exclaimed, "We are a very happy people! We are very well off! Look at France! Look at other countries!" This was the language of Sir John Cox Hippisley.

One unequivocally good effect was produced by this meeting. The mask was torn from the faces of a hypocritical tribe. The Whigs had never so openly exposed themselves before. All county meetings had, indeed, been heretofore called; but they had been called by one or other of the two factions; generally by the faction out of place, who wanted to make use of the people to enable them to get into place, by turning out their opponents. Therefore, though they were always pitted against each other, yet both factions were equally anxious to impose upon, and keep the people in the darkest ignorance. I considered it as a great victory to have compelled these two factions to unite, and show themselves in their true colours in the face of the whole country. From that moment these factions were so well understood that they have not been able to deceive any body. The Courier said, that the Reformers had received a "Rebuke" in Somersetshire; upon which Mr. Cobbett expressed himself as follows: "Rebuke, indeed! as if it was a defeat, as if it was not a complete victory to have compelled the two factions to unite, to exert all their influence, of a public as well as of a private nature, and to come barefacedly forward against the people, against Reform, against every thing that menaced Corruption! As if this was doing nothing! As if this was a defeat! All the magistrates, all the hierarchy, all the squirarchy of the county were assembled, with some few exceptions. There were, perhaps, not less than two hundred constables. Why all this? Was it doing nothing to get all the people together? Was it doing nothing to compel them to expose their union to the people? Was it doing nothing to make them exhibit themselves thus, and to knock up for ever all the humbug of party in the county?" Mr. Cobbett thought this a victory of sufficient importance to fill eight pages of his Register with these sort of comments upon the good effects likely to be produced by it.

I have been the more diffuse in detailing the particulars of this meeting; because, when the reader shall have perused an account of two subsequent public meetings, which I attended in this county (at both of which the propositions that I supported were carried by overwhelming majorities); when he shall have coupled them with the great public meeting that I was instrumental in calling at Bath, in the year 1816, at which meeting I presided, and at which those resolutions and that petition were adopted, and signed by 20,000 names, which was the cause of Lord Camden resigning his sinecure place of Teller to the Exchequer; when he shall have reflected upon all these things, the reader will, perhaps, discover the reason why the corrupt tools of the Boroughmongers sent me to be imprisoned in the Bastile of this county. There had never been a public meeting of the inhabitants at Bath in the memory of the oldest person residing in that city; and it is possible there never would have been a public meeting held in it, if it had not been for my exertions. There had never been a public county meeting in Somersetshire before, at least not any thing worthy to be called a county meeting, till I procured one; and my readers may be well assured that these things were the cause of the Government selecting this Gaol for the place of my incarceration. Another thing was, that the Judges knew it to be one of the worst, the most confined, and most unwholesome Gaols in the kingdom. At these public meetings that spirit was engendered, which blazed forth with so much splendour at the late county election for Coroner, at which the little freeholders spurned the arbitrary dictation of the Magistracy of the county, and elected a Coroner of their own choice, in spite of the overbearing threats held out by those who had so long been in the habit of ruling them with a rod of iron.

I have before mentioned that I was a member of, or rather an annual subscriber to, what is called the Bath and West of England Agricultural Society; and, as a farmer, possessing, perhaps, the very best and largest stock of Southdown sheep, having my extensive farms cultivated under my own eye in such a manner, as to be more like a garden than like a large arable farm, that farm, of course, producing its produce in the market at all times of a superior quality; I had been often asked, why I did not exhibit some of my stock, and claim some of the numerous prizes for good husbandry, which were annually given by the society? My answer was this, "I pay my guinea a year, that I may have an opportunity to watch the motions of those gentry who have the management of the concern, and to see how the pegs and wires work." When I first became a member, my father warned me against being made the dupe of the artful and designing knaves, who were the leading parties concerned in it; and he always declared that the society was composed of three classes of persons, namely, "RAPACIOUS LANDLORDS; CUNNING, GRASPING, LONG-HEADED PARSONS; AND SHALLOW, VAIN, JOLTER-HEADED FARMERS;" the object of the two former being to suck the brains of the latter, for the purpose of ascertaining the utmost value of their lands and tithes, that they might screw up the rents of both to the highest possible pitch: in fact, he always set them down for a set of unprincipled gamblers and swindlers, whose sole design was to benefit themselves at the expense of a starving community, by increasing the price of the necessaries of life, through the means of every possible chicanery, trick, and delusion. He used to say, that one half of them ought to be sent to Botany Bay for swindling, and the other half of them deserved to be whipped at the cart's tail for their folly end vanity. "But," said he to me, in the most solemn and impressive manner, "whatever you do, never, on any account, become a candidate for any of their premiums or prizes, because there, 'kissing goes entirely by favour,' and, therefore, unless you will submit to become one of their unprincipled gang, by assisting them to dupe and plunder others, be you assured that they will dupe and plunder you; and, let your merit be what it will, take my word for it, you will never obtain a prize." I always followed my father's advice; and, by the most strict and impartial observation, I have satisfied myself beyond the possibility of doubt that he was correct in his conclusions. They are, however, not only eminent in knavery, but that their folly keeps full pace with their ignorance and stupidity; the following are splendid proofs. One of their members, Mr. Thomas Crook, of Futherington, actually exhibited a fat sheep, as a pig. He made a bet with a friend, that he would prove the members of the Bath Agricultural Society to be such a set of contemptible pretenders and impostors, that they did not know a sheep from a pig. There was to be a premium, as usual, for the best fat pig, with the greatest quantity of fat with the least bone. Mr. Crook ordered a very fat sheep to be killed; the wool was then burnt off with straw, the inside taken out, and the carcase dressed after the manner of a bacon hog, and as it was a horned sheep, he had the head cut off, as well as the legs. Mr. Crook was so confident of their want of knowledge, that he actually had his PIG hung up at the entrance of the sapient society's room; so that every one who passed must of necessity see it as they went in or out. Mr. Crook's pig was the admiration of the whole society, and it was declared by the judges far to surpass all the others that were exhibited. Unbounded encomiums were passed upon Mr. Crook, and his most excellent breed of pigs, every one being anxious to possess some of this valuable sort of swine. The prize was, of course, awarded to Mr. Crook; but, as he was a plain, honest, strong-headed farmer, who had always held this society in the highest contempt, he, after dinner, treated them with a suitable lecture upon their profound ignorance, and a well-merited satire upon their false pretensions; and then openly declared, that the PIG which they had, one and all (several hundreds of them), so much admired, was nothing more nor less than a SHEEP! How the jolterheaded ideots could ever look each other in the face again, and have the audacity to prate about their proficiency in agriculture, must surprise all those who are unacquainted with their brazen-faced, hardened impudence.

Another of these worthies, a few years afterwards, played off a similar trick upon these sapient agricultural asses. He exhibited an ox for the prize. When it was killed, he and the butcher placed the fat of two oxen in the inside of it. The beast was wonderfully admired by all who saw it, and the judges awarded the prize and the premium to Mr. Kemp, who was the owner of the ox, thus crammed with the fat of another ox in addition to its own. Mr. Kemp was, it seems, very well satisfied with playing off this trick upon these tricksters; and it never would have been known, if the butcher had not, some time afterwards, divulged the secret. Mr. Kemp knew that the whole thing was trick and imposition from beginning to end; and, therefore, he thought them fair game. While collectively the gang constantly imposes upon the public, its members constantly dupe and impose upon each other; and yet this is the most respectable society of agricultural asses in the kingdom! As a body they may be described as a set of the greatest impostors I ever met with in my life. There are, of course, many honourable exceptions, but they are, for the most part, the dupes of their more designing associates. A great number of them never paid up their subscriptions, and even Vice-presidents were eight or ten years in arrears. When they were seven years in arrear, there was a mark of degradation placed against their names, which were annually published, and many bore this disgrace with surprising fortitude, though some of them were Members of Parliament, with upwards of ten thousand a year income.

One year, while I resided at Bath, the society were by some means deprived of their show-yard; the place in which they used to exhibit their live stock, &c. &c. The late secretary, Mr. Mathews, a very worthy man, applied to me for the loan of my premises in Walcot-street, which, being very roomy and spacious, were deemed peculiarly eligible, particularly as at that time the society could not procure any other place, and consequently Mr. Mathews offered me any price that I chose to name for the use of them. As some part of these premises was unoccupied at the time, I felt great pleasure in having it in my power to oblige this worthy man; and I told him the society should be very welcome to the use of my premises upon that emergency, but that I should not think of making any charge for the use of them. The premises were, therefore, occupied with the cattle that were brought from all parts of the country to be shown, and, as this very liberal society always made those persons who wished to see their show-cattle pay for peeping, each person who entered was obliged to pay a shilling, and when I passed in at my own gate-way, their keeper actually demanded my shilling, which I readily paid, although my stables and garden led through the same. This was allowed by all persons to be much the best place the society ever had wherein to exhibit their cattle, &c. and the secretary offered me, I think it was, thirty pounds a year, to continue the show there. This I declined to accept, as it would have been a bar to the letting of the whole premises, which were worth nearer two hundred a year than thirty. The next season the society hired some very confined and inconvenient premises, at a rental of twenty-five or thirty-five pounds a year, I forget which; and the secretary informed me that the committee had come to a determination that, as I would not accept any thing for the use of my premises, they would write my subscriptions paid in their books for a number of years, equivalent to the value which they had been saved thereby. Of course, I expected that they would, at the very least, have written paid for twenty-five years, the amount of what they annually paid for premises which were not one-fifth so convenient as those which they had occupied of mine. However, I received a formal intimation that the committee had ordered the secretary to write me off five years subscription, which was five guineas. When the secretary, Mathews, informed me of this, the society had left Bath, or I really believe that I should have thrown the five guineas at the head of the chairman, so indignant did I feel at their meanness. But Mr. Mathews was a Quaker, and a peace-maker, and to oblige him I took no notice of it; although he admitted that it was very shabby conduct of the committee, as they had offered forty pounds for a place very inferior to that with which they had been accommodated by me. I should not have mentioned this circumstance here, had it not been for the disgraceful and dastardly conduct of the society to me a few years afterwards; when, without giving me any previous notice, they came to a vote to exclude me from among them, because my subscriptions were THREE YEARS in arrear, while at the time scores of their members were upwards of SEVEN YEARS in arrear; and the only rule about the subject was, that "no member should be eligible to vote in the society who was three years in arrear." Be it remembered, too, that when they HONOURED me by this vote, the society was fairly indebted to me fifteen or twenty pounds, out of which they have, as I consider it, actually swindled me. But the very last time I attended their meeting they were guilty of a transaction still more mean and more dastardly than the one I have above described, and which I shall record in its proper place, when that period of my history arrives. I think, however, that what I have stated above will give my readers a pretty fair specimen of the character of that society, and it will be a warning to the public how they place any reliance upon their proceedings.

In the early part of the spring of 1811, I went to reside with my family at Rowfant House, in the county of Sussex, near East Grinstead, about thirty miles from London. This gave me an opportunity of frequently visiting my friend Mr. Cobbett, in Newgate. While he was in the King's Bench, and before he was called up for judgment, he expected that he should be sentenced to some distant county gaol, and in case it had been so, I had promised him that, wherever it was, I would come and take lodgings in the town, and visit him for a week or a fortnight at a time, several times during his imprisonment. This, however, was rendered unnecessary, by his imprisonment being in London. Nothing could have been more convenient for his business, as a public writer, than his being in London; and I have no hesitation in saying, that the punishment of six months' imprisonment in this Bastile is a much greater punishment than that of two years in Newgate. In fact, it was not more than it would have been to have sentenced him to be imprisoned in any house in Ludgate-hill. All persons had free access to him, from eight o'clock in the morning till ten at night, and he had as good apartments as he could have had in any house in London, and quite as good accommodation as he could have had at any private lodgings. Still it was imprisonment; but, when compared with my situation, it was no imprisonment at all. He had his family staying with him night and day, the very same as he would have had at a private lodging. Indeed, I have paid five guineas a week for lodgings in London which were worse in every respect. There was nothing about his residence that had the appearance of a prison but the name. Mr. Newman was a worthy and a benevolent man, quite the reverse of what prison keepers are in general, and every thing was done for Mr. Cobbett's accommodation and for that of his family and friends.

In February, Mr. Peter Finnerty received the judgment of the Court of King's Bench, for a libel upon Lord Castlereagh. There never was a man who stood upon the floor of the Court for judgment who made a more able or a more brave defence than he did; he did not retract one sentence, one syllable of the original publication, but, on the contrary, he produced affidavits to prove the truth of every word that he had published about Lord Castlereagh's cruelty to the people of Ireland, when he was in power, at the Castle of Dublin. The Attorney-General, Sir Vicary Gibbs, as well as Lord Ellenborough, were almost frantic with rage at the boldness and the perseverance with which he proclaimed the truth of his statements, as to the conduct of Lord Castlereagh. He was sentenced, by old Judge Grose, to be imprisoned in his Majesty's gaol of Lincoln for eighteen calendar months, and to give security for his keeping the peace far five years from that time. When he first went to Lincoln he was treated very harshly; upon which he caused a petition to be presented to the House of Commons, complaining of the treatment which he received from the Gaoler and some of the Visiting Magistrates. This brought the High Sheriff to the gaol, and Mr. Finnerty was partially relieved from the privations of which he had complained. He, however, afterwards caused a petition of one of the debtors to be presented to the House, by Sir Samuel Romilly, which ultimately led to a COMMISSION being sent down, to inquire into the truth of the matters contained in these petitions. As these proceedings were very similar to those which have recently taken place in this gaol, I will, at the proper time, give a more ample detail of them; particularly as Mr. Drakard, the editor of the Stamford News, was at this time also a prisoner in Lincoln Castle. He was confined thereby a sentence of the Court of King's Bench, for a libel upon the army, he having been tried and found guilty at the Spring Assizes at Lincoln, in consequence of an article on the fogging of soldiers, which article appeared in his excellent paper. On the 25th of May, he was brought up to receive judgment, and was sentenced to be imprisoned in his Majesty's gaol of Lincoln, and to pay a fine of 200l. As there were two such men of talent as Mr. Finnerty and Mr. Drakard confined in Lincoln Castle at the time that a commission was sent down to inquire into its abuses, and the misconduct of the Gaoler Merewether, and the Parson Justice Doctor Illingworth, the public of course expected that some important exposures would be made, and that very important benefits would result from the inquiry; but we shall see, by and by, that, from some cause or other, although Mr. Finnerty and Mr. Drakard were much better treated, yet that the commission and the inquiry ended together in mere smoke.

On the nineteenth of March, dollars were made current at five shillings and sixpence each; and on the twentieth of March in this year, 1811, the Empress Maria Louisa of France was brought to bed of a son, who was immediately created King of Rome. On the ninth of May, the first stone of Vauxhall Bridge was laid; and on the eleventh of October, the first stone of the Strand bridge was laid: this last is the bridge which is now foolishly called by some silly people, Waterloo bridge. A similar circumstance occurred when Blackfriars bridge was built; some foolish people wished to change its name to Chatham bridge, as a compliment to Lord Chatham; and it was so called by many silly people for some time: but at length good sense overcame vanity, and it reverted back to its original and proper name of Blackfriars bridge, in spite of Chatham-place, &c. &c. So, I have no doubt, the good sense of the people will ultimately overcome their folly, and that it will be again universally denominated by its original and proper name, the STRAND BRIDGE.

On the fourth of June, the King's birth-day, the usual public rejoicings were suspended, in consequence of his severe illness, although our most gracious Regent, soon after he attained that dignity, had given a fete in February, at Carlton-House, where at least two thousand persons were present. On the ninth of June, Christophe, a man of colour, was proclaimed and crowned King of St. Domingo, or Hayti. At the time, it was supposed to bring the kingly office into some degree of ridicule, to have a black man solemnly going through the mockery of a coronation; although it is a fact, that it was a very splendid, as well as a very popular coronation.

It was in this year, that Mr. now Sir Charles Wolseley, first publicly declared his sentiments as to political matters; at least, it was the first time I ever noticed them. In a letter which he addressed to the Freeholders of the county of Stafford, he makes this honest, open, and manly declaration: "The principles upon which a person ought to be sent to serve in Parliament, are, to keep the prerogatives of the crown unimpaired; to secure the liberties of the people; to oppose in every shape the system of Pitt's administration; and to obtain a RADICAL REFORM in the representation of the people in Parliament. These are my principles." These principles has Sir Charles Wolseley honestly acted up to ever since; and to this may be attributed the reason that we have never had the benefit of the worthy Baronet's patriotic and able exertions in the senate as a Member of Parliament. He has always been a staunch Radical Reformer, and he never disguised his sentiments; therefore it is, that he has never been taken by the hand and placed in the House by any of the great Borough Lords of either of the two factions of Whigs and Tories; and from principle he has alike declined to become a slave and a tool to the Boroughmongers, or to purchase one of their seats.

In consequence of the failure of a Bank at Salisbury, of the firm of _Bowles, Ogden, and _Wyndham_, immense distress was caused throughout the county of Wilts; almost all the country people having a great portion of their property in the notes of this Bank. It was on this occasion that Mr. Cobbett wrote those famous letters, which he called "Paper against Gold," addressed to the tradesmen and farmers in and near Salisbury, being an examination of the report of the Bullion Committee. These celebrated letters formed a clear and comprehensive exposition of the Paper System; they developed the whole juggle of Stock Jobbing, the Sinking Fund, and the National Debt, and the operation of taxes upon the industry and happiness of the people. These letters, which are now published in a small volume, prove, beyond all doubt, the clear and comprehensive mind of this inimitable writer, and the work will live in after-ages as a monument of his superior talent and knowledge in these heretofore intricate and mysterious matters, which were rendered still more intricate and incomprehensible by the very means which such men as Mr. Horner, the chairman of the Bullion Committee, used to elucidate them. Had Mr. Cobbett never written another line but what is contained in this work, his name, as an author, in matters of English finance, would have gone down to posterity hand-in-hand with that of our immortal countryman, Mr. Paine. Perhaps Mr. Cobbett would never have written this valuable work, if he had not been imprisoned in Newgate by the tyrannical proceedings of the Boroughmongers, assisted by a packed special jury, always the best ally of tyranny and tyrants, because it enables them to carry on a most nefarious despotism, and inflict death, loss of liberty, and torture upon its victims, under the assumed forms of law and justice; the very worst species of tyranny, and the most horrible of all despotisms.

Sir Samuel Romilly brought some Bills into the House of Commons, which were passed, respecting the criminal laws. Lord Holland, in the House of Lords, and Lord Folkestone, in the House of Commons, made motions to restrain ex-officio informations, which were at this time extended to a most alarming pitch by Attorney-General Vicary Gibbs; but ministerial influence prevailed, and the laudable endeavours of the two peers were rendered of no avail, as the motions were lost in both Houses. These proceedings excited universal interest, and the constant ex-officio informations filed by Sir Vicary Gibbs against almost every liberal writer of the day, drew down upon him almost universal execration. A Bill was now passed to allow the Ministers to make an interchange of the militia between England and Ireland. The Prince Regent also restored the Duke of York to the office of Commander in Chief. This excited general dissatisfaction, and a debate upon the subject arose in the House of Commons; but upon a division the Ministers carried it with a very high hand, and an overwhelming majority, there being only forty-seven of the faithful and disinterested Representatives of the people who voted against the measure. Motions were likewise made in both Houses, to discountenance the doctrine of assassination which had been lately preached up by various righteous Ministerial Members, aiming at the life of Napoleon; but these motions also were lost, as Ministers declined to give them their support. Lord Stanhope about this time brought in a Bill to make Bank-notes be received as equal in value with coin, under a penalty; and after a long debate in both Houses, this profound Bill passed.

The Catholics in Ireland manifested symptoms of great discontent and dissatisfaction at their claims being so long neglected. The fact was, that the wretched peasantry of Ireland were in the most abject state of want, and as they had been kept in the most complete ignorance, and deprived of all the common forms of law and justice, they were gradually sinking into a state of barbarism; the consequence of which was, that we frequently heard of instances of aggravated ferocity, such as seldom disgrace any people but the most uncultivated savages. Deprive civilized man of the protection of the law—only once suffer a body of people to be convinced that there is neither law nor justice within their reach, and you drive them to desperation; in which state they throw off all controul over their passions, and they become remorseless, cruel, and vindictive. I am quite sure that it is this state of feeling amongst the lower Irish that has created White Boys, Peep-of-day Boys, Ribbon Men, and all the various classes of incendiaries and desperadoes of which we hear so much from Ireland. I do not believe, nor did I ever believe, that Catholic emancipation would restore the people of Ireland either to happiness or prosperity: no, the same malady that reigns in England reigns in a two-fold degree in Ireland—they are overwhelmed with taxation, oppression, and injustice; these dreadful evils have goaded them into madness, and till they are removed and the people are treated with kindness and humanity, and above all, till justice is fairly administered amongst them, the Government of England will in vain endeavour to subdue the spirit of insubordination either by the bayonet or the halter. The only remedy there as well as in England consists in giving the people free and equal means of choosing their own representatives, to make wise, just, and liberal laws for them in Parliament.

I lament to find that the poor of England are fast approaching to the same frightful state as the natives of unhappy Ireland. The poor and the oppressed come to me here from all quarters, within a circle of twenty miles, and when they have told me their pitiable tales, and I advise them to go and repeat it to a "Magistrate," alas! almost without an exception, they exclaim, "there is no justice for the poor!" If they could have obtained any redress from a Magistrate, I should not have been consulted. In fact, most of their complaints arise from their inability to get any justice done them by the Magistrates. I would hold out a friendly warning to these Magistrates, to beware how they strain that cord too tight; for, if it should once break, if the people should in general, or any great portion of them, should come to the conclusion, that there is not justice for the poor, that they exist at the arbitrary will of their task-masters, that, in short, they are not under the protection of the laws, melancholy would be the consequences; such indeed as cannot be contemplated without horror. Who is there that can say what an awful retribution might be exacted! When once such a spirit breaks forth, no one can calculate upon the time at which it will be appeased. I frequently shudder at the terrific consequences which must and would ensue. It was this absence of justice which drove the French to a revolution. It was a similar contempt of justice that caused the Americans to revolt, and most happily rescued that fine country from the worst of despotism. The taxing of the industry, the skill, and the talent of a people, without allowing them to have any share in the election of those who impose those taxes—in a word, taxation without representation is the very acme of tyranny and despotism. It was this species of tyranny that produced the glorious revolutions of South America, of Spain, and of Portugal, and which has emancipated the inhabitants of those beautiful countries from slavery both of body and mind.

At Lady-day I quitted my residence at Bath, and went with my family to reside at Rowfant House, in Sussex, which, as I have before said, is situated thirty miles from London, half way between the two roads leading from the metropolis to Lewes and Brighton, and about the same distance from those two places. It is at the eastern extremity of what is called the Weald of Sussex. Nothing can be more delightful than this country is in the spring, summer, and autumn; it is then luxuriant and picturesque in the extreme; nothing can then surpass the beauty of the surrounding scenery, and the richness of the foliage which clothe the majestic oak and beech-trees; of the latter there are many, very many, of the largest and finest in the kingdom. The mansion is situated in the centre of a park, or park-like pastures, and has two fronts, one to the south and the other to the west, each looking over the most beautiful, picturesque, and romantic country that I ever saw, alternately presenting to the eye wood, water, and pasture fields, interspersed with the majestic oak, the lofty beech, the trembling birch, the lime, the ash, and every other species of beautiful forest tree. There were nearly five hundred acres of woodland upon this estate, and it was well stocked with game and fish of every description; but the whole country was congenial for the breed of pheasants. On some parts of the manor there was black game, and in the season woodcocks, snipes, and other wild fowl; in fact, all these frequently breed in that part of the country.

This part of Sussex, although it is only thirty miles from London, is as completely out of the world as the most remote mountains of Wales, or the Highlands of Scotland, and the inhabitants were quite as uninformed and in as perfect a state of nature as the natives in the wilds of America. I had no idea that any portion of the people of England could be so completely buried in ignorance, and display such a total absence of all knowledge, with the exception of hedging, ditching, cutting wood, converting it into charcoal, making and eating hard dumplings, and smuggling brandy, Hollands, tea, tobacco, French manufactures of all sorts and descriptions.

This estate had for ages been in the possession of the family of the Bethunes, and the farmers had also been so long in the occupation of their farms, for little or no rent, that they very justly considered themselves as having a much greater interest in the soil than the proprietor had. This place had been put up to the hammer, and sold to the trustees of a lunatic. I had taken it on a lease; the manor, mansion, farms, lands, and the manorial rights. Mr. James, the land-agent, in Old Boswell-court, bad the letting of it, under the direction of John Foster, Esq. the head of the firm of Foster, Cooke, and Frere, of Lincoln's Inn, who was the acting trustee for the lunatic. On application to Mr. James, I soon found that he must have a certain price for the estate, which, if I would consent to give, I might make my own terms. Of course, I took care to insert such clauses in the lease, as would convey the property entirely to my custody, upon the payment of a certain rent. I introduced one clause which I was ashamed to carry into execution, when I found that it would injure the property to an enormous extent, without affording to myself a corresponding benefit. I stipulated to be at liberty to grub up and to cultivate all the hedge-rows, and about three hundred acres of wood and coppice land. This the parties readily covenanted to allow me to do; but when I came to examine these woods, I found that, in availing myself of my right, I should destroy not less than sixty thousand beautiful and thriving oak trees and saplings. As the whole of the land on which these trees grew was a light sandy loom on the top, and a deep strata of yellow clay under, which was a soil by no means advantageous to cultivate, but peculiarly congenial to the growth of oak timber, I made my calculations of what I might gain, and what would be the loss to the proprietors of the estate, by grubbing up the woods, and destroying sixty thousand thriving oak trees and saplings. My gains would have been but small, but the injury to the estate would have been incalculable. This I candidly laid before the trustees of the property, and at once proposed to forego any advantage that I might have derived, and to suffer the woods to remain, with the timber growing thereon, for the benefit of the proprietor, provided the parties would make me a corresponding deduction in the rent. My proposition was so reasonable, that I had not the slightest doubt but it would be eagerly accepted. Mr. Foster, who was a very keen, sensible, clever, intelligent man, I saw at once, perceived the destruction that it would be to the estate; but yet it was evident that the object in granting one such a lease was to make up a certain annual rent, equivalent to the interest of the money which had been expended in the purchase of the estates. He saw the dilemma in which they were placed, and I plainly perceived that the idea of reducing the rent upon which they had calculated was out of the question, that it was not to be entertained by the trustees for a moment.

This being the case, I returned from London, and proceeded in the cultivation of the farm. I very early made up my mind not hastily to do such a serious and irretrievable injury as I was authorized to do to the estate, and I therefore directed my attention to other objects. I had sent off a servant to meet half way the little drove of sheep which I had purchased of Mr. Dean; the whole distance being one hundred and fifty miles. He had been gone ten days, and I impatiently waited his arrival, but I had as yet heard no tidings of him, although he ought to have been back several days before. At length, when twelve days had elapsed, information was brought me that he had arrived with the sheep upon Copthorn Common, but that he could not get them any further, in consequence of their being all very lame and unable to walk. I took my horse and rode to the spot, about the distance of two miles from my house. When I came there, I found every sheep of them dead lame, with the most confirmed and inveterate FOOT ROT. The poor fellow, ADAMS, who had been so long delayed upon the road, was completely exhausted with the labour, fatigue, and harassing exertion which he had endured in accomplishing his task. I think he had actually left three or four of them thirty or forty miles behind, and many of the others he declared that he had carried, one at a time, more than half the way upon his shoulders. Upon my expostulating with him, as to his having consented to receive them in such a state; he replied, that the drover, who brought them from Mr. Dean, declared that he would not drive them back to have them; that he left them in the care of my servant the moment that they met, and then, without the least ceremony, took French leave, apparently delighted to get quit of his troublesome charge. When I saw the deplorable state in which they were (for upon closer examination I found that many of their hoofs were rotted off their feet), I demanded with some warmth of my servant, why he had not left them with some farmer upon the road, till they could have been recovered or cured. "Lord bless you, Sir," replied the man, "I tried at more than fifty places, but nobody would take them in at any price, as they all said they would not have them at a gift, and that they should not tread a hoof upon any of their lands on any account, as the foot rot was highly infectious."

This was another serious evil, for I had purchased two hundred more sheep, and if they went upon the same land, I was sure of infecting my whole flock. However, on the next day when they could be got home, I placed them in some of my best meadows, and set about attempting a cure. In the meantime, I wrote to Mr. Dean, to inform him of the deplorable state in which they had arrived. In his reply he candidly acknowledged that they had suffered from this disease, but he declared he thought they had been quite free from it before he sent them off; adding that, if he had had the slightest idea of the state in which they were at the time his servant left them, they should not, on any account, have been forwarded to me. He begged that I would not return them, but that I would employ some one to endeavour to cure them; and, if that could not be accomplished, I must, he said, kill them, and give them to the dogs, or do any thing with them I pleased. In fact, I did employ a person, who pretended he could cure them, to come and dress them, which he did once a week for nearly a twelve-month, and at length he gave them up as incurable.

Instead of my ever making one halfpenny of these sheep, the plague, the trouble, and the loss that I sustained by them was not so little as sixty pounds; besides, their having given the disease to my flock of two hundred, the remainder of which, after losing sixty of them, I sold at seven shillings per head less than I gave for them. So that by this untoward affair I was, on the whole, at least one hundred pounds out of pocket, to say nothing of all my trouble and anxiety. If I had been served so by any one but a friend, such as Mr. Dean; I should certainly have commenced an action against him for serious damages. Far from Mr. Dean ever applying to me to pay him any thing for the sheep, he frequently expressed his sorrow that I should have been so harassed and perplexed with them as I had been. I had devoted one of my best fields to their use, and at the end of two years, when I left the farm, there were seven of them remaining still in the same state, as they never were or ever could be cured. At length, some time after the decease of Mr. Dean, I received, from the executors of Mr. Dean, an application for the payment of these sheep. I replied, that Mr. Dean had long since cancelled that debt, but, on the other hand, there was a very considerable balance due to me, if I chose to persist in it, from the circumstances above stated.

I heard no more of this affair from them; but, after a considerable lapse of time, a statement was made in the Taunton Courier, that, when I had gone round the country to collect names for a requisition to call a county meeting, Mr. Dean had taken me in and treated me with the greatest hospitality, and that I had rewarded him by swindling him out of a flock of fine sheep, for which I had never paid him. When the reader reflects upon this wanton and atrocious slander, which was malignantly propagated by the venal and corrupt editor of a country paper, I am sure, although the vehicle through which the slander was conveyed, was in itself obscure and contemptible, I shall be excused for giving the particulars of this transaction; however tedious and uninteresting it may appear to those at a distance, where the venom was never propagated, it is, in truth, due to myself and to my friends in this county, who read the calumny, to have the matter clearly explained; although, to every man of common sense, it must have been very evident, when the scandal was first promulgated, that it was a gross and palpable falsehood; because, if I had owed Mr. Dean's executors, or any other person, a sum of money amounting to forty or fifty pounds, it was the most easy thing upon earth to have compelled me to pay it. O, it was a wicked, a mean and a malignant falsehood, which would never have been put afloat, or believed by any body, against any other man but myself, who at that time was the universal topic of abuse in the whole of the venal ministerial and opposition press of the country, in consequence of my having resisted oppression and tyranny, and roused the spirit of liberal feeling and patriotic exertion among some of the electors of Bristol, where I had maintained, single-handed, two contested elections for that city, in opposition to all the contending factions. The newspaper editors of each faction had disseminated the vilest calumnies against me, in revenge for those struggles which I had made to oppose the rotten borough system in that city; and this venal, dirty, contemptible, hireling knave of the Taunton Courier, selected this as a proper time to add his lie to the million of lies that were then circulated against me.

But I shall now speak more fully of the circumstances which led to my being a candidate for Bristol, in June, 1812. Ever since the previous general election, when the electors had been humbugged by Sir John Jervis, and had attempted to wreak their vengeance upon Mr. Bragge Bathurst, I had, at various times, publicly declared my intention to offer myself as a candidate for that city. On that occasion, Mr. Bathurst experienced such an unfavourable reception, that it was generally understood he did not mean to offer himself as a candidate for the city, at the approaching general election; and as Colonel Baillie, the Whig Member, did not relish the idea of standing such a contest as it was generally expected I should create, he also intimated his intention to resign; Mr. Edward Protheroe, therefore, offered himself as a Whig Member, in his place. The Whigs were very well satisfied with the pretensions of Mr. Protheroe, as being a citizen of Bristol; and he, as the Whig Member, and Mr. Richard Hart Davis, as the Tory Member, would have been returned, without any opposition whatever, by the two factions, had it not been for the threatened interference of myself, who was avowedly a candidate that would excite a great popular feeling.

This consideration induced some of what is called the liberal or Foxite Whigs to think of looking out for a more popular Whig Candidate than Mr. Protheroe, for the purpose of taking away the votes from me. After several meetings had been held upon the subject, it was determined upon, by a little faction, to invite Sir Samuel Romilly to become a candidate. I am quite confident, in my own mind, that if it had not been for the opposition which it was certain would be made by me, there would not have been any opposition at all. Mr. Bragge Bathurst and Colonel Baillie, or Mr. Protheroe, would have been returned without the slightest effort to prevent it. My avowed intention of being a candidate, however, first made the White Lion Cock, Bragge Bathurst, turn tail and declare off, and next induced Colonel Baillie to decline. The one of these was the Tory and the other the Whig candidate for the representation of the city of Bristol, which, in consequence of a compromise entered into by the two factions, had always been divided between them; and therefore one Whig and one Tory Member had always been returned; and so it would have continued without any change, had it not been for me. Mr. Davis and Mr. Protheroe would have been returned as quiet as mice, without a word being said by any body against it. But, as I had become a candidate, a little gang of intriguers at length made up their minds to put Sir Samuel Romilly forward; not, I believe, with the slightest expectation that they could carry his election, but under the firm conviction that he would very largely divide the popularity with me.

Thus it was that Sir Samuel Romilly was made the cat's-paw of this faction, for the purpose of destroying all chances of my becoming the Representative of Bristol. As soon as they had announced their intention to support Sir Samuel Romilly, they, the Whigs, took the greatest pains to circulate the report and create the impression that I was offering myself as a candidate for Bristol merely to oppose the "amiable Sir Samuel Romilly;" these corrupt, factious knaves, always taking care to keep out of view, that this gentleman was already a Member of Parliament for the Duke of Norfolk's rotten-borough of Arundel, which seat he was sure to retain as long as he lived, if he chose to do so. But it was necessary, for their sinister purposes, to bring upon the scene this gentleman, who bore an excellent character, and who, amongst the Whigs, was considered as a prodigy of perfection.

Notwithstanding that Sir Samuel Romilly was set up against me, instead of my being set up against him, I having constantly, for four years before Sir Samuel's name was ever mentioned, avowed my intention of becoming a candidate, yet, as soon as a meeting had been called at the Crown and Anchor, in London, and a sum of eight thousand pounds had been subscribed by the Whigs to support him, I publicly offered to resign my pretensions, and to give my whole support to the knight of the gown and wig, if he would only pledge himself to espouse the cause of Reform in the House of Commons. This offer was, however, declined, or at least treated with silent neglect; but the venal press did not cease railing against me for opposing Sir Samuel Romilly.

A day was appointed for Sir Samuel to make his public entry into Bristol, and a public dinner was got up on the occasion, to which he was invited. The day fixed on was the second of April, 1812, which was considered to be a period immediately preceding the expected general election. Great preparations were made to receive the lawyer in grand stile, and every thing was attempted to create effect. A number of persons went out to meet him on horseback, and I made a point of being present, to see how the thing went off, and to hear what would be said by Mr. Tierney, who, it was reported, was to introduce Sir Samuel to the citizens of Bristol. It was given out that he would alight at the Bush Tavern, opposite the Exchange, and that he would address the people from the window of his committee-room, facing which window I placed myself, to see and to hear all that could be heard or seen. At length, after he had been waited for, for about an hour (which, by-the-bye, is considered genteel), the worthy lawyer arrived, seated in an open barouche, with Mr. Michael Castle on one side, and Alderman Noble on the other! It was but a sorry cavalcade; and although there was some cheering amongst his partizans, yet he met altogether with a very cold reception. But when Sir Samuel was led up to the window, and it was discovered that it was Alderman Noble who accompanied him, there was one general burst of disapprobation—groans, hissing, and hooting, and cries of "No Noble! no six and eightpence! no bloody bridge! no murderers!" &c. &c. Poor Sir Samuel was astonished; he had been made to believe that he would be received with the greatest applause and indeed enthusiasm; but these discordant sounds quite disconcerted him, and when he began to speak, instead of his being listened to, the cries and the groans were redoubled. Alderman Noble put forth his hand to command silence; this was received with the most violent and indignant execrations and hootings, mingled with cries of "No Noble! no six and eightpence! no bloody bridge!" Nothing could have been so unfortunate for Sir Samuel Romilly, as to be accompanied by Alderman Noble, who, a few years before, had rendered himself deservedly detested, by his having ordered the military, the Herefordshire Militia, with Lord Bateman as their Colonel, to fire upon the people, at a riot which took place relative to the tolls of Bristol Bridge; upon which occasion eleven or twelve persons were killed. So obnoxious was this man, that he had been obliged to quit Bristol for some years, and he took this opportunity to return under the wing of Sir Samuel Romilly; but his appearance roused the most angry feeling amongst the people, and this feeling was so preponderating, that Sir Samuel attempted to address the multitude for about twenty minutes, without one word being distinguishable.

I have already mentioned the report that Sir Samuel would be introduced by Mr. Tierney, the late popular Member for the borough of Southwark, but, subsequently to his holding a place under the Whigs, the Member for the rotten-boroughs of Appleby, in Westmoreland, and Bandon-bridge, in Ireland. Even this would have done Sir Samuel no service. Before the Whigs had been in place, and Mr. Tierney, like the rest of them, had been tried and found wanting, it might have answered very well for him to have introduced a popular candidate to the city of Bristol; for at that period he professed himself to be not only the champion, but the child of Liberty. At the time when he branded with so much spirit and eloquence the income-tax of Pitt, and declared in his place in Parliament that this income-tax was such an odious and such an unconstitutional measure "that the people of England would be justified in taking up arms to resist the collection of it;" at that time, when Mr. Tierney so strenuously and brilliantly opposed all the ruinous measures of Pitt; at that time, if he had proposed to go to Bristol, he might have been received with approbation by the people, and his name might have added to the popularity of any man. But, since Mr. Tierney had been in office with the Whigs, since he had become a splendid pensioned apostate from his former opinions, since he had been kicked out of the borough of Southwark for his apostacy, since he had, while in the Whig Administration, advocated and supported an additional income-tax, and voted for almost all those measures, when in place, which he had opposed when out of place; since these things had occurred, the name of Mr. Tierney was calculated to injure the popularity of any man to whom he linked himself. This of itself, this announcement that Mr. Tierney was to attend Sir Samuel Romilly, was enough to damn his popularity with every real friend of Liberty in that city. But, when he appeared side by side with Alderman Noble, all hopes of his ever being popular in Bristol were at an end! I never in my life, on any public occasion, saw a man received worse by the populace than Sir Samuel Romilly was.