Memoirs of Henry Hunt, Esq. — Volume 2

by Henry Hunt

The first time, however, that I came to London after this, I was introduced to Mr. Jennings, and all the Westminster heroes, by my worthy friend Henry Clifford. They all received me very cordially, and I was invited to a public meeting at the Crown and Anchor, that was held about that time, I forget upon what occasion, Mr. Jennings in the chair, myself having a seat appropriated for me by the Committee next to him, on his left hand, Clifford being seated at his right. My health was drank with great applause, and I returned thanks in a manner that met the approbation of the whole meeting.

Thus was I, in the year 1807, fairly drawn into the vortex of politics. My worthy friend Clifford publicly claimed me as his disciple, and ventured to predict that I would some day become one of the most able champions of the cause of Liberty. Sir Francis Burdett was not in town, therefore I was not introduced to him, which both Jennings and Clifford were anxious to do.

I do not recollect that Lord Cochrane's name was ever mentioned at either of these meetings. His health was not even drank at the great meeting for Westminster, on the 29th of June, to celebrate the purity of election, although he was one of the Members for Westminster, was returned as the colleague of Sir Francis Burdett, and polled above a thousand votes more than Mr. Sheridan. Nay, I do not think that he even attended this dinner of his constituents. Indeed, had he attended, his health would have been drank of course, as one of the Members. Lord Cochrane was a bold, enterprising, and successful officer; but, as to politics, I believe the real state of the case to be, that he was suspected, at that period, not to have made up his mind upon them.

This fact is worthy to be recorded, that, when the electors of Westminster held their great public dinner to celebrate the triumph and purity of election in their city, though Lord Cochrane had been elected one of their representatives, yet so little faith had Sir F. Burdett or his friends in the sincerity of Lord Cochrane's principles, that they never drank his health, or even mentioned his name. Let this be marked down as a curious fact. Lord Cochrane had not been kicked into a thorough patriot by the Government, which, at this time, looked upon him as still being one of their regiment, and they rather rejoiced than otherwise at his being elected for Westminster; it being very clear that, during the election, he received considerable support from the friends of the ministers.

Now I call the circumstance to my recollection, I believe that, immediately after the election, Lord Cochrane went to sea as the commander of the Imperieuse. At all events it is certain that his health was not drank. The fact is indisputable, that at a dinner-meeting of the electors of Westminster, one of the Member's health not drank, and that Member LORD COCHRANE, who had been in the House before, as a Member for Honiton; and let it be recollected, to his honour, that when he was elected for Honiton, he gave a pledge in the face of the nation, that he never would, as long as he lived, accept of any sinecure or emolument, either for himself or any relation or dependent; and that he never would touch the public money in any way, but that of his profession as a naval officer. He had also made a motion in the House, respecting places, pensions, and emoluments, held or received by Members of the House of Commons, or by his relations. This motion was of the greatest public importance, and of much more real service to the cause of public liberty, and the purity of the Members of the House of Commons, than any motion that Sir Francis Burdett had ever made in the House; and one would have thought that this alone would have been a sufficient earnest of his future honesty, at any rate would have entitled him to have had his health drank at a public dinner-meeting of his constituents, the electors of Westminster! —It is a very curious and remarkable fact that my health was drank at this meeting, and that Lord Cochrane's health was not; and what makes it the more extraordinary was, that I was a perfect stranger to the electors of Westminster, and Lord Cochrane was one of their representatives.

As for poor Paull, although he was laying wounded, on a bed of sickness, his name was never mentioned. I always thought, and I always said, though I did not know Mr. Paull, that Sir Francis Burdett would have appeared more amiable in my eyes if he had condescended to notice with marks of kindness his vanquished adversary, or at least his antagonist, who had been defeated upon the hustings, although not in the field. But, alas! poor Mr. Paull, who had contributed, largely contributed to rouse a proper spirit of independence amongst the electors of Westminster, and who was a very Idol amongst them at a former election, was now so deserted, neglected, and despised, as at this meeting never to have been noticed in any way whatever, merely because he had quarrelled with Sir Francis Burdett, or rather because Sir Francis had quarrelled with him. But Sir Francis Burdett was now become the great political Idol, a political God; and I was one of his most enthusiastic worshippers, one who would have risked my life at any moment to have saved his, although I was at the time personally unknown to him. On the 10th of July, a numerous and respectable meeting of the freemen, freeholders, and inhabitants of the city of Bristol, was held in the large room at the Lamb and Lark, in Thomas Street, for the express purpose of inquiring into the state of the elective franchise, Henry Hunt, Esq. in the chair. It was unanimously resolved, "1st. That the elective franchise is an object of the highest importance, as it is the basis of our laws and liberties. That in the free and unbiassed exercise of this great and yet undisputed privilege, depends our best interests and dearest rights as free- born Englishmen. 2nd. That if any club or party of men whatever, arrogate to themselves the power of returning a representative for this city, whether designated by the title of the White Lion Club, or the Loyal and Constitutional Club; if they threaten, persecute, and oppress a voter, for the free exercise of his judgment in the disposal of his suffrage, they are enemies to their country, by acting in direct opposition to the sound principles of the British Constitution. 3rd. That we view with painful anxiety the contracted and enthraled state of the elective rights of this city, and we are fully convinced of the existence of such unconstitutional clubs as are mentioned in the foregoing resolution; that their evil effects have reduced this great city to a level with the rottenest of rotten boroughs; therefore we are determined, by every legal exertion in our power, to interpose, and adopt such constitutional and effective measures as may appear most conducive to the recovery and firm establishment of the freedom of election in this city. 4th. That the following declarations of the Westminster Committee, contain the great constitutional principles on which we ought to act, namely,—'That as to our principles, they are those of the constitution of England, and none other; that, it is declared by the Bill of Rights, that one of the crimes of the tyrant James, was that of interfering, by his Ministers, in the election of Members of Parliament; that, by the same great standard of our liberties, it is declared that the election of Members of Parliament ought to be free! That by the act which transferred the crown of this kingdom from the heads of the House of Stuart, to the heads of the House of Brunswick, it is provided, that, for the better securing of the liberties of the subject, no person holding a place or pension under the Crown, shall be a Member of the House of Commons; that these are constitutional principles; and as we are convinced that all the notorious peculations, that all the prodigal waste of public money, that all the intolerable burdens and vexations therefrom arising; that all the oppression from within, and all the danger from without, proceed from a total abandonment of these great constitutional principles; we hold it to be our bounden duty, to use all the legal means in our power to restore those principles to practice. That though we are fully convinced, that, as the natural consequences of the measures pursued for the last sixteen years, our country is threatened with imminent danger from the foe which Englishmen once despised, and, though we trust there is not a man of us who would not freely lay down his life, to preserve the independence of his country, and to protect it from a sanguinary and merciless invader; yet we hesitate not to declare, that the danger we should consider of the next importance, the scourge next to be dreaded, would be a packed and corrupt House of Commons, whose votes, not less merciless, and more insulting, than a conqueror's edicts, would bereave us of all that renders country dear, and life worth preserving, and that too, under the names and forms of Law and Justice; under those very names and those very forms which yielded security to the persons and, property of our forefathers.' 5th. That, in following the glorious example of the citizens of Westminster, by choosing men of corresponding sentiments and undeviating public virtue, we shall, as far as rests with us, restore the blessings of our Constitution, and the just rights and liberties of the people. 6th. That the freeholders, freemen, and entitled freemen and inhabitants of this city, who have united themselves, for the laudable purpose of supporting each other in the free and unbiassed exercise of their judgment in the choice of their representatives, merit the approbation and applause of all their fellow-citizens; and that we do now form ourselves into a body, to be called the "Bristol Patriotic and Constitutional Association," to co-operate with them, in counteracting that unwarrantable influence, manoeuvre, and deception, which have reduced the electors of this city to mere political cyphers, to passive spectators of the general wreck, freemen with no other appendage of freedom but the empty name; we therefore pledge ourselves, individually and collectively, to assist and protect them in the recovery of our just and constitutional liberties. 7th. That a public subscription be immediately opened, to raise a fund for the purpose above mentioned, for defraying the expenses of a room for the association, printing, &c. and that a list of the subscribers and subscriptions be regularly kept, and that proper books be provided for that purpose. 8th. That these resolutions be signed by the chairman, and that they be published. Signed HENRY HUNT, Chairman."

These resolutions were published in the Bristol and London newspapers; and also, in Cobbett's Political Register, the 8th of August, 1807, (page 211, vol. 11th.) The reader will see the political ground which I took, and the stand which I made, almost single-handed, in the city of Bristol, against the corrupt and barefaced influence exercised by both the contending factions of Whigs and Tories, over the freemen of Bristol. I have inserted these resolutions for a twofold purpose; first, that of shewing that I have never shifted my ground, that I have never deviated from the straight path of publicly and boldly advocating the rights and liberties of the people against the corrupt influence of all factions; and second, to prove that Mr. Cobbett was so well pleased with my exertions, and so well satisfied that those exertions were calculated to serve the cause of public liberty, that he voluntarily gave them a place in his Register, and thus early held me up to notice, as worthy of public confidence and public support; and this he did, recollect, although I was not personally known to him, and had never seen him, with the exception of the slight call which I made on him in Duke Street, which I have before mentioned.

Mr. Cobbett had already published in his Register my address, of the 18th of October, 1806, to the freeholders of Wiltshire; he had published an account of my health being drank, at the largest public dinner ever held in England, on the 29th June, 1807; and on the 8th of August, in the same year, he published the foregoing resolutions, with my name to them, as the chairman, and which resolutions he knew were drawn up by me; therefore, I must seriously ask the reader how I am to account for the scurrilous letter being written by Mr. Cobbett to Wright, cautioning the committee of the electors of Westminster to beware of me? If this letter be not a forgery, Mr. Cobbett was openly recommending me to the notice of the public, in his Political Register, while he was privately vilifying me by letter, and recommending the Westminster committee to beware of me, as I was a sad fellow. For the honour of human nature I should yet hope that this letter was a forgery, either of Wright's or Cleary's.

Let it, however, be whichever it may, it had not the desired effect. These exertions of mine in the city of Bristol, and my boldly avowing the principles acted upon by the Westminster committee, and professed by Sir Francis Burdett, met with the approbation and sanction of both, and a correspondence was kept up between us. The baronet professed to be greatly delighted with what I had done, and urged me to persevere in so laudable an undertaking as that of putting myself at the head of the independent electors of Bristol, to prepare them for following the example so nobly set by the electors of Westminster. I have preserved all the Honourable Baronet's letters, with the exception of three or four, that he ever wrote to me during our political connection, which may now be said to have commenced. Though as yet we had never had a personal interview, he, nevertheless, corresponded with me with great frankness and confidence; which confidence, I beg him to make himself perfectly satisfied, shall never be basely betrayed by me, even if he should behave to me worse than he already has done; even if he should employ his hopeful paid agent Cleary to read upon the hustings a private letter a day, for the remainder of his life. I will, at a proper period, state my reason for destroying two or three of his letters, in the spring of 1817. But he may rest assured that I will not betray any of his private communications to me; I will not follow his example by basely exposing a private letter; even should he again hire James Mills to propagate a report, which he, Burdett, as well as his agent, knew to be a falsehood totally without foundation; namely, that I had a government protection in my pocket when I attended the great public meeting at Manchester, on the 16th of August, 1819. Even if the baronet should hire a fellow to propagate another such a cowardly and infamous fabrication as that, yet I will not publish any of his private letters to me about ——.

But I beg the reader not to misunderstand me; most of the baronet's letters to me were of a public nature, and those that were private, were not about my business, but his own. Thank God! he has no letters from me, about any money transactions; for I hereby most distinctly state, that the only money transaction we ever had, the only money that ever passed between us, was, that I, at his request, once purchased for him a galloway, for twenty-five pounds, which money he paid me; and I bought of him a horse for forty-five guineas, which I paid him for at the time. The horse turned out not worth forty-five shillings. I believe the Baronet knew that he was good for nothing when he favoured me with him; but he never offered to make me any allowance, neither did I ever expect it, or apply for it. I never blamed him for this—it was not his fault, it was my own; he had the horse to sell, and I purchased it and paid for it, and when I found him out, I disposed of him as well as I could to a horse-dealer; I certainly did not oblige a friend with him. After all the Baronet may have thought him a very good horse; he may have been deceived, or may have been a bad judge of a horse. I was the fool for believing that he wished to part with a very good horse.