My efforts on this occasion were, however, in vain, I had no one to second my exertions and inquiries, and the independent electors of Wiltshire proceeded to the business of the day, and once more returned the above two worthy, capable, and efficient representatives, to watch over their rights and liberties, to be the guardians and trustees of their property, and to assist in making those laws which have brought the country to its present state. I warned them, I began to warn them, thus early; and I continued to warn them against such apathy, such dereliction of principle, as long as I remained amongst them in that county. My having dared to ask a question and to expose the two venerable representatives of the county in such a public manner was an offence not to be forgiven; and accordingly I was set down as a jacobin and leveller, and was looked upon with an evil eye by the cunning supporters of the system, the parsons, lawyers, and attorneys. I received the thanks of many of the freeholders privately; but the poor sycophants did not dare to shew their, approbation publicly. How many of them are there who, when they read this, will recollect the circumstance with shame, and feel a pang of remorse that they did not stand forward at the time to obey the dictates of their conscience.
We will now return to the dissolution of the Parliament in 1806. On that occasion I made one more effort to rouse my brother freeholders of the county into a sense of their political rights. In order to stimulate them to the exercise of those rights, I called upon them in a public address, which I sent to be inserted in the Salisbury and Winchester Journal; and, taking care that there should be no pretence for refusing it, I sent the money to pay for it as an advertisement; but the time-serving proprietors of that paper refused to insert it in the columns of their Journal; I therefore had it printed and published in numerous handbills, which I caused to be pretty generally circulated. It also obtained admission into one of the Bath newspapers, and Mr. Cobbett, to whom I sent one of the bills, gave it a place in his Political Register. It will be impossible for me, in these Memoirs, to give all the public documents of this sort which I have sent forth to warn my fellow-countrymen of their danger, and to exhort them to stand up to maintain and defend their rights and liberties; but I will insert this, my first printed address, as I find it in the tenth volume of Cobbett's Political Register, published in November, 1806; and it will shew that I have always been consistent in my public conduct, and always maintained the same independent principles from that time to this.
"Mr. Hunt's Address to the independent Freeholders of the County of Wilts.
"GENTLEMEN, I flatter myself that a few lines addressed to you by a brother freeholder, (one who has ever lived among you, and has ever been most sincerely devoted to the liberty and independence of the county,) will not, at this critical period, be deemed obtrusive, nor wholly unworthy of your serious consideration.
"Considering, with many of the best disposed characters in the kingdom, that the fate of this country will be in a great measure decided by the approaching election, I think it highly important, that every freeholder should be exhorted to think and act for himself on this occasion. Let every man remember, that by bartering his liberty at this awful period, he may speedily endanger the very existence of his country. If you duly reflect on the present situation of the Prussians, and every other power on the Continent that are opposed to our powerful enemy, I think you will agree with me that this moment is the most awful in the history of Europe. Old England, our country, is not yet subdued; let us hope that she never will; but, it is by every thinking man confessed to be in a very perilous situation—in such a situation that it cannot possibly much longer support its independence, without the extraordinary sacrifices and exertions of the people. Therefore, it behoves you, my brother freeholders of this county, at this moment in particular, and let me conjure you, as the greatest boon you can bestow on your country 'diligently and impartially to inquire whether all the evils we endure, and all the dangers that threaten us, are not to be ascribed to the folly and the baseness of those who have so shamefully abused their privilege of choosing Members of Parliament.' The dangers I allude to will (I fear) be increased by every post we receive from the Continent; the evils are a system of taxation, which must be felt by us all (to say the least of it) to have trebled the paupers of this county, within the last twenty years. No country is willing to attribute its ruin to its own baseness, but if you tamely submit to have a man thrust down your throats, to be a representative for this county, by the Beckhampton or the Deptford Club, or any other party of men whatever, without your considering whether he be a proper independent character, and capable of executing such an important trust, at this eventful period; if you basely and tamely submit to this worst of degradation—whether it be from indolence, or whether it be from the worst of all human dependence, the fear of offending Mr. Long or Mr. Short—you will be a disgrace to your country, and be curst by your posterity for your pusillanimous surrender of those liberties and just rights that were so gloriously secured to you by your forefathers. I beseech you, let no man deceive himself; if he act in this manner, I am persuaded that he may live to be convinced that he has, by losing this opportunity, been in a great degree instrumental in his country's ruin.—Is there a man among you so insensible as not to feel the weight of the present taxes, and yet so hardened as to go to the hustings and give his vote to a mere cypher:—to a man from whom he has not the least reason to expect any thing but a tame acquiescence in the measures of any one who happens to be the minister of the day! The man who is now looked out to be our new representative, his very best friends do not speak of any qualification that he possesses, to make him worthy of that honourable situation; they only tell us of his uncle's long purse! therefore, in good truth, we may as well be repre- sented by his uncle's old three-corner'd hat. And as for the other member, even in his youthful days he was no better in the House of Commons than an old woman. Is there no honourable and independent man to be found in the county of Wilts, capable of sustaining such a charge? I, myself, have no doubt but there are many; but it is that cursed long purse, and an idea that the freeholders of this county will never exert themselves for their independence, that deter many from stepping forward that would do honour to the trust reposed in them. There are a number of freeholders in this county that are independent, if they would for one moment think themselves so. Then let us say we will have a man of our own choosing, as free of expense to himself as we would wish him to be honest and true to the confidence reposed in him. But if you let this present opportunity slip, I, for one, will never despair; I shall look on you with feelings of contempt and indignation; I shall wait patiently for the day when we shall be enabled to exert ourselves effectually for the preservation of those just rights and liberties that are the bulwarks of our glorious and blessed Constitution.
I am, Gentlemen, with great respect,
Your obedient humble servant,
"H. HUNT."
"Chisenbury House,
Oct. 30th., 1806."
This appeal to the freeholders of Wilts gave great umbrage to the numerous friends of Mr. LONG, or rather to the whole of the friends of the Pitt system, which evidently included Whigs as well as Tories; but it produced no beneficial effect upon the senseless and inanimate freeholders of the county of Wilts. I was considered a very impudent fellow for my pains, though the almost universal whisper amongst the freeholders was, "what Mr. Hunt says is true enough, but what use is it?" The election took place, and Mr. Wyndham and Mr. Long were chosen without any opposition. The Whig ministry, or, ironically speaking, "All the Talents," were discarded in the Spring of 1807. Lord Eldon took the seals of office, and, to the astonisbment of the whole nation, Mr. Perceval was appointed Chancellor of the Exchequer, and the whole gang of Pitt's underlings came into place; and the Ministry was consequently composed of Castlereagh, Canning, Liverpool, the Roses and Longs; while, to crown the whole, Sir Vicary Gibbs was appointed Attorney General. As soon as the new Ministers were firmly seated in the saddle and settled in their places, they caused the Parliament to be once more dissolved.
During the last election, the people of Westminster, in consequence of the exertions of Mr. Paull and the able friends by whom he was surrounded, had made such a rapid progress in political knowledge, that they were quite prepared to break the trammels in which they had hitherto been bound by the two political factions of Ins and Outs, nicknamed Whigs and Tories. This change was brought about by the strenuous personal efforts of Mr. Cobbett, and by the excellent, clear, patriotic, and convincing addresses which he weekly published in his Political Register, seconded by the assistance of some very intelligent, public spirited men, amongst which number was a very worthy young friend of Liberty, Mr. ABRAHAM HEWLINGS, and the famous Mr. POWELL, the attorney, who lately cut such a conspicuous figure in the character of attorney for the prosecution of the Bill of Pains and Penalties against the Queen. By these persons the spirit of the electors of Westminster appeared to be roused to a proper sense of the power which they possessed, to return their own members in spite of the intrigues of the two factions.
Mr. Paull had become very popular by the exertions which he had-' made to bring the Marquis Wellesley's conduct in India before the public, by an impeachment; and it was pretty generally believed that he would come in for Westminster at the head of the poll. The moment that the Parliament was dissolved, he and his friends in Westminster were upon the alert, and a meeting was called at the Crown and Anchor, to consult upon the best means of securing his return, which was doubted by no one; however, the cursed bane of all political liberty, jealousy interposed. Sir F. Burdett and Mr. Paull had been upon the most intimate terms, and the Baronet had strained every nerve to promote and secure the return of Mr. Paull for Westminster; and if he could have secured the return of that gentleman by his own interest and popularity, Mr. Paull would have been returned; but the misfortune was, that Mr. Paull had himself become very popular, deservedly popular, sufficiently so, indeed, to have secured his seat by his own exertions, if Sir Francis Burdett had stood neuter. But Mr. Paull had no wish of this sort; he by no means desired to push himself above Sir Francis Burdett in the scale of political popularity; neither, on the other hand, was he quite prepared to act as the tool and puppet of Sir Francis Burdett.