On the following day there was no improvement. The sailors assembled on the bowling green, on an eminence above the town. They had been joined by practically all the Packetsmen who were in Falmouth at the time; and Mr. Saverland, visiting each Packet in succession, found only the officers and a few boys on board. The mutineers had now added to their demand for the release of the pressed men, a claim for additional pay. The next day the public crier went round the streets of Flushing calling on all Packetsmen, lumpers, and riggers, to assemble that evening at the “Seven Stars” Tavern. The object of the meeting was to select two delegates who were to proceed to London, and lay the complaints of the men before the Postmaster General. Accordingly two men, Richard Pascoe and John Parker, were chosen; and started by the mail coach for London on the morning of the 28th.
The naval officers, who were acting in concert with Mr. Saverland, were strongly of opinion that the mutiny was the work of a few men, and would collapse if the ringleaders could be secured. They determined, therefore, to surround the “Seven Stars” while the meeting was in progress, and with this view a boat’s crew entered Mylor Creek, and was marched over the hill down into the town of Flushing. The mutineers kept good watch however, if, indeed, the suspicion entertained by the naval officers, that there was bad faith on the part of some of the magistrates acquainted with the scheme, was groundless, and the attacking party found the tavern empty.
By this time a certain friction was manifest between the mayor (Mr. Angove) and magistrates of Falmouth, and the naval officers with whom the agent acted. Mr. Saverland complained that the magistrates had shown no proper anxiety to secure the ringleaders; and there is little room for doubting that not only the magistrates, but the whole town of Falmouth, sympathized with the seamen; and, if they did not openly help them, were yet unwilling to take side against them. On the morning of the 28th Captain Slade urged the mayor to call in military aid, and to forcibly enter the houses of the ringleaders to secure their persons. At noon he left the mayor in the belief that both his proposals had been accepted; but the suggestion of search warrants was quietly dropped; and though a body of the West Essex Militia, then quartered in the neighbourhood, were summoned, they did not enter the town till six o’clock, while at four o’clock the sailors had marched in large parties, quite unmolested, into the open country.
In the meantime two cutters sent by Sir Robert Calder had arrived in the harbour, and were placed under the command of Captain Slade. The West Essex Militia were quartered in the town, and a sergeant’s guard was located in Flushing.
It is now necessary to return to the delegates chosen by the seamen to represent their grievances at the General Post-Office. Mr. Saverland had been careful to acquaint his chiefs with the fact of their departure; and had despatched an express for this purpose, which, out-stripping the coach, reached London on the morning of October 29th. A consultation was at once held as to how Pascoe and Parker should be received. It seemed to the strict disciplinarians of that day impossible to countenance an act of mutiny by parleying with these men. Whatever foundations of justice there might be in their complaints, it was essential that the sailors should return to their duty before any discussion could take place. It was therefore suggested to the Admiralty that Pascoe and Parker should be impressed as soon as they arrived; and having obtained the necessary instructions to the Regulating Officer at the Tower, and had the warrant backed by the Lord Mayor, whose authority was required before the men could be pressed within the limits of the city, the chiefs of the General Post-Office awaited the coming of the delegates with confidence. The men arrived late on the afternoon of the 29th, and were ushered into the room where the Secretary sat expecting them in company with the City Marshal. Their explanations were cut short; they were told that they had no claim to be heard; and they were handed over without more ado to the City Marshall, who forthwith lodged them in the Poultry Compter.
It must be remembered, if this proceeding seems harsh, that Pascoe and Parker came to London as representatives of men who were in open and riotous mutiny, and whose conduct, by impeding the mails, was inflicting serious loss on the mercantile community, and possibly even hampering the movements of the commanders of our troops and fleets then engaged in active operations. Had these men come to London to present a memorial temperately urged by persons who were at the same time performing their duty, they would have been very differently received.
It appears, moreover, that the delegates had not been discreetly chosen. Pascoe, who was known in Falmouth by the nickname of “Sir Francis Burdett,” had served as steward of the “Prince William Henry” Packet, and had afterwards been in the Excise, whence he was discharged for “seditious and treasonable expressions.” Parker was an American. There is no doubt that both men were noisy demagogues.
It had been the intention to bring the men up for examination at the Mansion House on October 30th, but on the morning of that day it was discovered that the Lord Mayor had doubts about his powers of impressing, within the city, men whose offence, if any, had been committed at Falmouth. A remand was accordingly granted in order that the matter might be reconsidered.
By this time the situation at Falmouth had materially changed. That firmness and zeal against the seamen which no entreaties or arguments used by the naval officers could arouse in the mayor and magistrates, was inspired in a moment by a happy thought of Mr. Saverland’s. He commenced to throw out hints of an important decision which would be taken very shortly if the mutiny did not subside, and which would be regretted by the town for many a day. The seed thus sown sprang up in a few hours into a very promising crop of rumours and reports. People went about with an uncomfortable suspicion that something was about to happen, and Mr. Saverland’s office was besieged by persons anxiously inquiring whether it was true that the Government had decided to remove the Packets to Plymouth. Mr. Saverland had received no hint of any such intention, but, seeing how great an effect the mere suggestion had produced, he dilated on the extreme probability of such a step, and protested that the conduct of the Falmouth seamen, and the almost avowed sympathy shown them by the constituted authorities of the town, had brought him, and his chiefs also, to the extreme limit of their patience.
The situation thus created was, as the mayor immediately felt, too serious to be ignored. The loss of the Packets would bring ruin on the town; and on October 30th, a meeting of the citizens was hastily convened, and the whole situation was fully discussed.