Hunt, Henry, 1773-1835; Social reformers -- Great Britain -- Biography
legislator, by declaring in Parliament, when this shameful measure
was brought before the House, "that the law of nations justified the
detention of Napoleon at St. Helena." Mr. Brougham did not condescend to
tell us what law of nations; but of course he meant to say that the law
of nations would justify any thing that a Government had the power to
effect; this is the only standard by which modern statesmen estimate the
law of nations. On the same principle, or, more correctly speaking, want
of principle, an Act was passed, to restrict the Bank of England once
more from paying their notes in cash; or, in other words, to protect
them from the just demands of their creditors. The Act, however,
explicitly declared that this protection should cease on the 5th of
April 1818, when the Bank should positively pay their debts which they
owed, and which they had so repeatedly promised to pay to the public.
The Parliament was, in this case, like the shepherd boy, who so often
cried "wolf," for fun to alarm the people, that when the wolf really
came and attacked his flock, nobody either believed or heeded his cries.
Thus it was with the Parliament; they had so repeatedly promised the
people that they would make the Bank of England pay their notes, and
they had so frequently broken this promise, that the people firmly
believed that payments in cash would never be made. All those, too, who
read the writings of Mr. Cobbett were persuaded that it was impossible
for it even to be attempted, and therefore those who had any faith in
his predictions were of course totally unprepared for it, on the time
arriving for its being carried into effect.
On the 24th of April, 1816, Major-General Sir Robert Wilson, Michael
Bruce, Esq. and Captain J. H. Hutchinson, were convicted, in Paris, of
assisting the escape of the Count de Lavalette, who was condemned for
high treason, and they were sentenced to three months' imprisonment. A
well-written article has appeared in the _Times_ newspaper, contrasting
the mild sentence inflicted upon these gentlemen, with that which has
been inflicted upon me, of two years and six months' incarceration in
this Bastile.
Some time in the spring of this year, a public meeting was called of the
freeholders of the county of Somerset, and it was advertised to be held
at Bridgwater, John Goodford, Esq. of Yeovil, High Sheriff. I forget now
what was the precise object of the signers of the requisition, but I
believe that it was to congratulate the Regent upon the marriage, or the
intended marriage, of the Princess Charlotte of Wales, to the Prince of
Saxe Cobourg. This I know, however, that the meeting was called by that
faction in the county, at the head of which stood the Rev. Sir Abraham
Elton, Bart. By accident I saw, in a London paper, the advertisement for
this meeting, and though I was then residing in town, I made up my mind
to attend it.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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