End of Free Thoughts on Public Affairs

POLITICAL ESSAYS,
WITH
SKETCHES OF PUBLIC CHARACTERS

BIBLIOGRAPHICAL NOTE

This work was published in 1819 with the following title-page:—‘Political Essays, with Sketches of Public Characters. By William Hazlitt. “Come, draw the curtain, shew the picture.” London: Printed for William Hone, 45, Ludgate Hill. 1819.’ A ‘Second edition,’ with the same title and motto, ‘published by John Templeman, 39, Tottenham-Court-Road; and Simpkin and Marshall, Stationers’-court,’ appeared in 1822, but was probably a mere re-issue. The text of the 1819 edition is here reprinted.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

PAGE
Dedication[29]
Preface[31]
The Marquis Wellesley[47]
Mr. Southey, Poet Laureat[48]
Mr. Southey’s New Year’s Ode[49]
Dottrel-catching[51]
The Bourbons and Buonaparte[52]
Vetus[57]
On the Courier and Times Newspapers[58]
Illustrations of Vetus[63]
On the late War[96]
Prince Maurice’s Parrot[101]
Whether the Friends of Freedom can entertain any sanguine hopes of the Favorable Results of the ensuing Congress[103]
The Lay of the Laureate[109]
Mr. Owen’s ‘New View of Society,’ &c.[121]
Speeches of Charles C. Western, Esq. M.P. and Henry Brougham, Esq. M.P.[127]
Mr. Coleridge’s Lay Sermon[138]
—— —— Statesman’s Manual[143]
—— —— Lay Sermon[152]
Buonaparte and Muller[154]
Illustrations of the Times Newspaper[155]
Mr. Macirone’s ‘Interesting Facts relating to the Fall and Death of Joachim Murat, King of Naples’[177]
Wat Tyler and the Quarterly Review[192]
The Courier and Wat Tyler[200]
Mr. Southey’s Letter to William Smith, Esq.[210]
On the Spy-System[232]
On the same subject[234]
On the Treatment of the State Prisoners[238]
The Opposition and the Courier[240]
England in 1798, by S. T. Coleridge[241]
On the Effects of War and Taxes[243]
Character of Mr. Burke[250]
On Court Influence[254]
On the Clerical Character[266]
What is the People?[283]
On the Regal Character[305]
‘The Fudge Family in Paris’[311]
Character of Lord Chatham[321]
—— of Mr. Burke[325]
—— of Mr. Fox[337]
—— of Mr. Pitt[346]
‘Pitt and Buonaparte’[350]
An Examination of Mr. Malthus’s Doctrines[356]
On the Originality of Mr. Malthus’s Essay[361]
On the Principles of Population as affecting the Schemes of Utopian Improvement[367]
On the Application of Mr. Malthus’s Principle to the Poor Laws[374]
Queries relating to the Essay on Population[381]

To JOHN HUNT, Esq.

The tried, steady, zealous, and conscientious advocate of the liberty of his country, and the rights of mankind;—

One of those few persons who are what they would be thought to be; sincere without offence, firm but temperate; uniting private worth to public principle; a friend in need, a patriot without an eye to himself; who never betrayed an individual or a cause he pretended to serve—in short, that rare character, a man of common sense and common honesty,

This volume is respectfully and gratefully inscribed by