Memoirs of Henry Hunt, Esq. — Volume 2

by Henry Hunt

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.