"Mr. Preston and the Watsons appear to have been followers of Mr. Spence; and the 'plan' of which Mr. Preston is said to have 'confessed' the existence, is, as you will see, 'Spence's Plan,' and nothing more; and nothing more, no, not a hair more, will Corruption's sons, with all their torturing and twisting, with all their falsehoods and affected alarms, be able to make of it! Thus, you will clearly perceive, that the 'confessions,' as they are called, of your correspondent, Mr. Preston, are no confessions at all. You will clearly see, that Corruption's Press has foisted in the words insurrection and plot; for, unless you see this, what sense is there in the words good and constitutional? What absurdity to believe, that a man, and a guilty man, too, would talk about a good insurrection and about a plot that was constitutional, and which plot had been going on for eight years, and had been communicated to Mr. Perceval as the only means of saving the nation! But, strip these lying accounts of the words insurrection and plot, and leave the word plan, and then the whole, however wild in itself, becomes perfectly consistent; and such, you may depend on it, and no other, has been the 'confession' of Mr. Preston.
"The Courier of Monday last, in pursuance of its endeavours to keep the scent of a plot from cooling, has these remarks: 'Whether the plan of the rioters was to commence in the morning or at night, is not ascertained; but from the declaration of Preston, who charges young Watson with precipitancy, it appears that the operations were not to commence till dark. Preston still maintains a high and indignant tone; he talks more enthusiastically than before of the extent of the plot, and adds, that not less than three hundred thousand persons were enrolled in the cause. Hooper, who states Preston to be the instigator and great mechanist of the conspiracy, has declared that the two Watsons, himself, and Preston, were in concert together in Spa-fields on the morning of Monday.'—Now, I dare say, that it will finally turn out, that Hooper has said no such thing as is here stated. But here again you see, that the words plot and conspiracy are used instead of the word plan, and this is manifestly for the base and diabolical purpose of causing the people to believe, that there has been a conspiracy against the government, and that all the Reformers are enrolled in this conspiracy! But be you well assured, that these eager efforts to excite alarm will fail of their purpose, and that the workers in them and their abettors will come out of the attempt covered with infamy, though nothing can produce in them any feeling of shame.
"In the meanwhile the Spenceonians are posting up, all about, the prospectus of this plan, and as if for the express purpose of preparing the way for their own everlasting disgrace, the owners of the Corrupt Press are publishing this very document, which I insert here as taken from the Courier of Monday.
"'The following hand-bill, it is stated, was circulated through the
Metropolis yesterday, and excited much apprehension:—
'SPENCE'S PLAN
For Parochial Partnerships in the Land,
Is the only effectual Remedy for the Distresses and Oppressions of
the People.
The Landholders are not Proprietors in Chief; they are but the
Stewards of the Public;
For the LAND is the PEOPLE'S FARM.
The Expenses of the Government do not cause the Misery that
surrounds us, but the enormous exactions of these
'Unjust Stewards.'
Landed Monopoly is indeed equally contrary to the benign Spirit of
Christianity, and destructive of
The Independence and Morality of all Mankind.
'The Profit of the Earth is for all;'
Yet how deplorably destitute are the great Mass of the People?
Nor is it possible for their situations to be radically amended, but by
the establishment of a system,
Founded on the immutable basis of Nature and Justice.
Experience demonstrates its necessity; and the rights of mankind
require it for their preservation.
To obtain this important object, by extending the knowledge of the above system, the Society of Spencean Philanthropists has been instituted. Further information of its principles may be obtained by attending any of its Sectional Meetings, where subjects are discussed calculated to enlighten the human understanding, and where also the regulations of the Society may be procured, containing a complete developement of the Spencean system.—Every individual is admitted, free of expense, who will conduct himself with decorum.
The Meetings of this Society begin at a quarter past eight in the
evening, as under:
First Section, every Wednesday, at the Cock, Grafton-street, Soho.
Second ………… Thursday, Mulberry Tree, Mulberry-court,
Wilson-street,Moorfields.
Third …………. Monday, Nag's Head, Carnaby-market.
Fourth ………… Tuesday, No. 8, Lumber-street, Mint, Borough.'
"This is the Plan! This is the plan, the plot, the conspiracy, and the insurrection scheme! And, what an impudent, what an incorrigible, what a hardened impostor, must this writer be, who can tell the public, that this hand-bill excited much apprehension! Apprehension, I believe, indeed, in him and his associates and encouragers; for it furnishes the clue to unravel all their falsehoods and to expose them to scorn and to detestation; but, it is calculated to excite 'apprehension' in nobody else. The public indignation is fast collecting and winding up to a high pitch; and it only waits the result of the present examinations to pour down upon the heads of these corrupt instigators to fury and bloodshed. A gang of spies and informers, in one of Beaumont and Fletcher's plays, who, after long and wearisome contrivances to discover a plot and to get the reward, just at the moment when they are expecting to see their victim swing and to pocket the blood-money, are sent away abashed and confounded by the discovery that it was a Cod's Head and not that of the Sovereign, against which he had been plotting. Not less complete would be the confusion of these corrupt writers, if it were not that they are destitute of every feeling that can lead to shame or remorse.
"Monstrous, however, as are the baseness and malice and cruelty of these men, they are, I think, still exceeded by their folly. The main object of all their endeavours, is, very clearly, to render you odious and to put you down; and, if they had been created for the express purpose of exalting you, it would have been impossible for them to labour to that end with more zeal or more effect. Your manner of conducting the second meeting, the way in which you carried on your communications with the government, the punctuality and decorum of your proceedings, the language and matter of your Resolutions and Petition, and the effect of these, very justly entitled you to a large share of public applause; but, the blows which these ferocious writers have aimed at your life have excited an interest in your favour such as no human being could have thought possible, and in the tide of which are completely drowned all your momentary errors and indiscretions, which, besides, having arisen from an excess of zeal, were not calculated to be long held in remembrance. Some very good, but very weak and timid people talked of your violence, while they seemed to overlook the violent thing which you attacked; but in the minds of all good men there is an inherent abhorrence of baseness like that which has aimed its murderous sting against your life, and, in the present case, this abhorrence has overpowered all the alarms of the good and timid people in whose breasts what is called your violence had excited such alarms. "The vipers have the mortification to perceive this, and their rage is increased accordingly. They see your portrait, from three different hands, setting them at defiance in the print-shop windows. They hear your speech and resolutions cried through the streets, and sold out of shops in several separate editions. They hear the taverns and public-houses filled with talk about you. They have contrived by their endeavours to implicate you in a 'treasonable conspiracy,' to excite a strong feeling of some sort or other respecting you in every human breast. And this is their way of putting a man down! They have, even by the use of their own columns, made your name familiar to the very water's edge of these islands. They have made you the only one of your kind; there is now but one Mr. Hunt in the world. Your ambition must be a cormorant indeed, if this does not satisfy it. No longer ago than Monday, they very seriously announced, that 'Hunt was SEEN, in his Tandem, going towards his home on Thursday last!' They seem to think that the public is much more interested in your movements than in those of the Prince Regent or of the Queen. I should not wonder if they were to have a 'Court News Writer' to give an account of all the movements of your body; and, after what I have seen within these ten days, I do not despair of seeing them announce, that 'on Monday, Mr. Hunt took the diversion of shooting till three o'clock. On Tuesday, Mr. Hunt went to inspect his barns, and was graciously pleased to express his high approbation of the ingenious mode of laying the crab-stick on upon the sheaves of wheat. On Wednesday, Mr. Hunt gave audience to several tax-gatherers, to whose importunities he did not listen with an overstock of complacency.' And so on, day after day. Why should I despair of this, after what I have seen? Your Tandem is become far more renowned than the Bulletproof coach, and your horse Bob, is far more famous already than the charger of old Blucher.