Memoirs of Henry Hunt, Esq. — Volume 2

by Henry Hunt

I mention this circumstance, not as any thing against the Baronet, because it was my business not to have taken any one's word, not to have bought a "pig in a poke;" but I mention it, merely to show the reader that, although I was, for many years, intimately and closely connected with Sir Francis Burdett, this is the only money transaction we ever had, with the exception of his having given me cash for a country banker's draft on his banker in London, made payable to my order, at seven or fourteen days, I forget which it was. Although I was comparatively a poor man, and he a most wealthy one, I was never indebted to him a guinea in my life, nor ever solicited the loan of a guinea from him.

I have said that I will never publish any of his private letters, but I hereby authorize him to publish any one or every letter he ever received from me in his life; and if he does not choose to do this, yet wishes it to be done, and will send them to me, I will publish verbatim, in the Memoirs, any or every letter I ever wrote to him. During the history of the next ten years of my life, I shall have frequently to record circumstances that have occurred between the Baronet and myself; it is, therefore, but justice to myself, as well as to the reader, to make the above declaration, as a prelude to that part of my Memoirs, as it may save the Rump the trouble of circulating a great number of falsehoods, of which they will ultimately, with many other base transactions, stand convicted. When I say I was never indebted to or solicited any loan from the Baronet, I mean to include all his family and connections, Rump and all.

I have before mentioned, that I was invited to, and attended, a public dinner, held at the Crown and Anchor, Mr. Jennings in the chair. At this dinner I was introduced to the worthy, the venerable and patriotic Major Cartwright, who invited me to his lodgings, to take some coffee after the meeting was over, whither I accompanied him, either with Clifford, or some other friend. There the worthy old Major produced for my inspection, the pike which he had invented, and recommended in his "England's Aegis," to be used for the national defence. It was of a very curious and ingenious construction, with a sort of double shaft, to protect the hands of him who used it from the blows of a sabre, &c. The Major was in high spirits, and exhibited to us all the various purposes of attack and defence for which it was calculated. I was highly delighted with the old Major, at this first introduction and interview, and this exhibition added very much to the gratification which I felt in being known to a man of whom I had so often heard and read, as the steady and inflexible friend of reform, and public freedom. I returned home to my inn exceedingly gratified, the old Major having created a very favourable opinion in my breast of his patriotism and public virtue.

During this year, a considerable sensation was created, by the military inquiry which was going forward. Many nefarious peculations, and many scandalous abuses, were detected and exposed; but, as is generally the case in these parliamentary inquiries, the expenses of the commissions are ministerial jobs, that cost the country more than the sums which are saved by these detections.

The bill for the abolition of the slave trade was brought into the House of Lords, by Lord Grenville, and after warm debates passed both Houses; this, to the immortal honour of the Whigs, was effected by them, and must be recorded as one good act passed during their administration. The old saying is, that "Charity covereth a multitude of sins;" so, the passing of this act by the Whigs has, with many, covered a multitude of their sins.

In July, General Whitelock was sent to attack Buenos Ayres; but he was disgracefully repulsed, with great loss. His conduct and defeat became the subject of public investigation, and the General was disgraced in the eyes of the whole world. The Americans issued a proclamation prohibiting British armed vessels from entering the ports of the United States, which was followed by the English laying an embargo on their ports in return. In the month of August, of this year, the first introduction of gas lights into the streets took place, in Golden-lane, in the city of London; and in October, the King of France, Louis the Eighteenth, landed at Yarmouth, and, under the title of the Count de Lille, took up his residence at Gosfield Hall, in Essex. It was also in this month that the philanthropic Sir Richard Phillips, the new Sheriff of London, made a strict inquiry into the prison abuses of the metropolis. He and his colleague, Mr. Smith, employed themselves with incessant application in visiting and inspecting every part of every prison in the metropolis. I always admired Sir Richard Phillips, for his humane and persevering endeavours to correct the innumerable abuses that were found to exist in these sinks of filth, misery, and immorality; but I never fully knew the value of his praiseworthy endeavours, till I began to employ myself in a similar undertaking, in this infamous Bastile. I now know how to appreciate the value of his labours for the benefit of the prisoners and the country. He rectified innumerable abuses, and caused the whole of the gaols to be cleansed and improved; he also made it his business to investigate the extortions practised in those receptacles of misery and misfortune, the lock-up houses; which places he put under the strictest regulations, to protect the unfortunate persons who are placed in them from the infamous rapacity of those who keep them. These things come immediately under the cognizance of the Sheriffs, whose peculiar duty it is to protect from extortion and torture those unfortunate persons whom the law has placed in their custody, either as criminals or as debtors. Sir Richard Phillips performed the duty of Sheriff of London with great honour to himself, and to the great advantage of the whole community. I have no hesitation in saying, that he performed more good acts, while he held the office of Sheriff of London and Middlesex, than have been performed by all the Sheriffs that have held it ever since. In fact, his whole life has been devoted to acts of benevolence and kindness towards his fellow-creatures; but the great services which he rendered to the cause of humanity and justice, while he had the power, while he filled the office of Sheriff of London and Middlesex, entitle him to the gratitude of this country; and, at some future day, his merits will be, I trust, recorded on a monument, by the side of the benevolent Howard, in St. Paul's. Sir Richard Phillips is a modest, unostentatious man; he makes but little skew and parade; but the hand of oppression seldom bears heavily upon a fellow-citizen, that Sir Richard is not found, in some way or other, endeavoring to alleviate his distress. I speak feelingly, for my persecutions brought me acquainted with the real character of this worthy citizen of London. To speak of Sir Richard Phillips, so as to do him justice, requires a more able pen than mine, and it is absolutely necessary to read a very interesting and valuable work, written by him, and printed by T. Gillet, Crown Court, in 1805. It is a letter, which he addressed to his constituents, the Livery of London, relative to his views in executing the office of Sheriff of London and Middlesex; and, as I know of no better method to delineate his character for humanity and public spirit, I will give an extract from this work in his own words. "I am now," says he, "about to treat of that subject which is not only of the greatest importance in connection with the office of Sheriff, but which is that department of the Sheriff's duty about which the feelings of my own heart were the most deeply interested when I entered into the office. I had long viewed these places, particularly the crowded prisons of the metropolis, as mansions of misery, in which were often united in the same person the whole dismal catalogue of human woes. The deprivation of liberty alone is a heart-rending punishment to every human being, however luxuriously he might be provided for in his prison, and however little may be the effect of that imprisonment upon his dearest connections. But in the prisons of the metropolis, there are superadded to the overwhelming idea of personal restraint, the loathsomeness of the place, the immediate contact of kindred miseries; want of food and every other necessary; loss of character; dread of future consequences; wives, children, and frequently aged parents involved in one common ruin, and plunged in shame and wretchedness; the prisoner suffering at the same instant the complicated tortures of despair, remorse, and unavailing repentance! How inglorious and how cowardly, to add to such a load of misery, by unnecessary privations and reproaches! How interesting the task of lightening it, by attentions, by charities, by administering pity, and by infusing hope!

"Such were the impressions and the feelings under which I entered into the office of Sheriff, and by which I am still influenced, after twelve months intercourse with the prisons, notwithstanding the cabals and misrepresentations of which I have found myself the object."

The reader will perceive by this, that, in the performance of these praiseworthy, honourable, and humane duties, the worthy Sheriff had to contend against cabals and misrepresentations; in fact, every obstruction was thrown in his way by those whose duty it was to have assisted him, and to have rewarded him for his labours; he was opposed and misrepresented by the whole gang of miscreants, who had heretofore made a market of the misfortunes of their fellow creatures, and swelled their infamous hoards by plundering and robbing all those who came within the vortex of their rapacity. He was also sneered at and thwarted, by those creatures in office, those caitiffs "dressed in a little brief authority," who luxuriate in the misery of the captive, and whose greatest bliss appears to be derived from persecuting and inflicting torture upon those whose misfortune it is to be placed in their power. But his reward is the approbation of the wise, the virtuous and humane; and, what is still more valuable, the delightful sensations of an approving conscience.

Sir Richard Phillips likewise made many excellent regulations as to the choosing and summoning of Juries, and pointed out those defects, and that unconstitutional management in packing of Juries, that have led to the recent inquiries and alterations in the Jury lists of the city of London, which render it possible that a fair and honest unpacked Jury may now be obtained in that city, in spite of the arts and tricks of those who have made it their business to convert them into every thing that is corrupt and partial. Without having read the address of Sir Richard Phillips to the Livery of London, which address he published as soon as he was out of office, it is absolutely impossible for any person to be aware of the good done, and the still greater good attempted to be accomplished by Sir Richard during his sheriffalty. This work should be read by all future Sheriffs, as offering to them an example highly worthy their best attention. In fact, the office of Sheriff of the city of London and Middlesex is a most important office, it gives a man the power of doing an infinity of good, of rendering the most essential service to the cause of liberty, justice, and humanity, as was clearly demonstrated by Sir Richard Phillips.

Before I have done with this subject of Sheriffs, I will relate an anecdote of one of the late Sheriffs. I believe I have mentioned, in this work, that the Sheriff of London and Middlesex, Robert Albion Cox, Esq., was committed to Newgate, by the House of Commons, for partiality to Sir Francis Burdett at the Middlesex election, in 1802. This was the present Alderman Cox, who was at that time a zealous friend of reform, and whose great zeal and anxiety to promote that cause was supposed to have made him overstep the bounds of prudence, so far as to prevent him, in his capacity of Sheriff, from being able to conceal his ardent desire to serve his friend, Sir Francis Burdett. He was accused, by the House of Commons, of having, in the warmth of his friendship, been guilty of partiality to his friend, in the admission of votes at the hustings. For this the House committed him to Newgate. I recollect that, at the time, the friends of reform in the country, although they could not justify the proceeding on the part of the worthy Sheriff, yet they felt a great sympathy towards him, and were much more disposed to condemn a corrupt majority of the House of Commons, for dealing harshly with him, than they were to censure the Sheriff; who, if he had committed an error, had done so from the best of intentions—the desire to serve the cause of reform. I well remember, that we all in the country said, that the worthy Sheriff's imprisonment would be a mere nominal punishment; that he would be surrounded by his friends; and we had no doubt but Sir Francis Burdett and his party would take care that his time should pass lightly away, by their gratefully attending to his every wish, while he remained in prison.