Hunt, Henry, 1773-1835; Social reformers -- Great Britain -- Biography
the British Navy, and would never have joined to assist, by his talents
and his consummate naval skill, to emancipate the South Americans from
the slavery of Old Spain, the mother country, as it is foolishly called.
There were great emigrations to America, this year, 1815, both from
England and Ireland, in consequence of the distressed state of the
farmers, who gave up their leases, owing to the decreased prices of all
sorts of agricultural productions. The average price of wheat, during
the year, was sixty-four shillings and fourpence a quarter, about eight
shillings a bushel; the quartern loaf was sevenpence. The supplies voted
this year were EIGHTY-NINE MILLIONS eight hundred and ninety-three
thousand nine hundred pounds, for England, and NINE MILLIONS Seven
hundred and fifty thousand pounds for Ireland, making 99,643,900_l_.
This, together with the expenses of collection, (say five millions) and
ten millions paid for poor rates, makes the round sum of 114,643,900_l_.
collected in direct taxes this year from the pockets of JOHN GULL,
besides tithes and other _et ceteras_. O, brave John! thou art at any
rate a hard-headed and empty-pated fellow; and all in good time thy
pockets will be as empty as thy hard pate now is!
As might have been expected, France and Spain were ruled with a rod
of superstition, wielded by the flinty hearts and iron hands of the
Bourbons, Louis the Eighteenth of France, and Ferdinand of Spain, a
precious pair of English _proteges_. In spite of all the pledges
and securities which had been given, executions, banishments, and
proscriptions were the order of the day, both in France and Spain. In
France, Labedoyere and Marshal Ney fell the victims of Bourbon revenge
and cowardice. A law of pretended amnesty was indeed afterwards passed,
but all the relatives of Napoleon were excluded from residing in the
French territory. In the unhappy kingdom of Spain the execrable and
impotent Ferdinand, impotent in all but cruelty, exercised the most
unlimited powers of tyranny and oppression; a sad contrast to the
comparatively mild and liberal Government of Joseph Buonaparte. In
Spain, almost every man who had assisted Wellington to drive out the
French, in fact, every avowed friend of civil and religious Liberty,
were either executed, banished, or imprisoned by the execrable and
despicable bigoted tyrant Ferdinand, the beloved Ferdinand! May the
vengeance of Heaven pursue him! The Parliament of England met on the
first of February, when Castlereagh moved that a national monument
should be erected, to commemorate the late victories; which proposition
was unanimously agreed to by the "collective wisdom" of the nation. Mr.
Brougham moved for a copy of the treaty signed at Paris, by the allied
despots, commonly called the HOLY ALLIANCE. This was negatived by the
"collective wisdom," who also refused a copy of the treaty of Vienna.
John Gull had to pay for all, but John was not worthy of being trusted
with such mighty secrets.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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