Hunt, Henry, 1773-1835; Social reformers -- Great Britain -- Biography
Netherlands were to be incorporated and governed by the Stadtholder;
Germany was to form a federal Government; and Switzerland to be
independent.
While these things were going on in France, the Ministers were not
inactive in England. They caused Lord Cochrane, and Colonel Cochrane
Johnson, his uncle, to be expelled the House of Commons, for what was
called a conspiracy to defraud the Stock Exchange. To punish men for
defrauding, or rather playing off a hoax upon a set of swindlers and
gamblers in the stocks, was curious enough! The Emperor of Russia and
King of Prussia arrived in London on the 7th of June, and the town was
illuminated. The Emperor of Russia took up his residence at the Imperial
Hotel, in Piccadilly, and the King of Prussia in St. James's Palace.
They were received in state at Court, which was held at Carlton House,
and the Emperor of Russia and King of Prussia were invested with the
Order of the Garter. All the Tom and Molly fools in the country were
flocking to London, to see these mighty Sovereigns; they spent their
money, and most of them returned disappointed, the fools having expected
to see something more than man in a King and an Emperor, and something
more than a brute in the dirty old animal Blucher. Nothing else but our
new visitors was talked of in town or country. Whatever company you went
into, the first question was, "Well, what do you think of the Emperor
Alexander? what do you think of Blucher? What! not seen the Emperor, and
not seen Marshal Blucher's whiskers?" To hear the females of England, my
fair countrywomen, talk of shaking hands with this filthy old beast, and
some of them even boasted of his having kissed them, not only disgusted
but quite sickened me; and I must own that the scenes I have heard
described, which took place at Portsmouth, when they were all there at
the great naval fete, made such an unfavourable impression upon my
mind, that I have always thought with the utmost contempt of those who
participated in these disgusting, revolting orgies. It was all very
natural that the time-serving, corrupt, vain, purse-proud Aldermen of
London should act as they did; it was very natural that they and their
wives and daughters should disgrace themselves as they did; but that my
good, handsome, wholesome country-women, should have suffered such
a disgusting monster as old Blucher to have slobbered them over and
mouselled them with his dirty, stinking whiskers and mustachios, is
something so extraordinary and so abhorrent to the character of English
women, or, in fact, of any modest woman, that I, as an Englishman, was
horror-struck every time I heard the filthy accounts of it. Thank God,
none of my family or connections ever disgraced themselves, even by
going to see any of these German, Russian, Prussian, or Cossack animals.
I had business in London, but I put it off, nay neglected it, because
I would not make one of the throng of fools who flocked to grace the
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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